I don't want even to imagine playing with this team all year - what a nightmare.

Before you guys start writing off this year, lets first look why we did bad last season and if it will persist to next season.

Lost 1-4 ACM, 1-3 Bologna, 0-2 Atal, 1-4 Cagl, 1-3 Samp, 0-3 ACM,  0-3 Chievo, 0-1 Catania, 0-2 Siena.
Tied Lecce and Torino 1-1

These are SOME of our losses and the ties from last season. I pick for you guys to recall these loses because we are better than these results shown. I am a true believer that Delio Rossi just had no grip over this club and had no solution to the problem and he said so himself during his campaign with Lazio. We now have a new coach with new ways of running things with fresh tactics. Seeing how much we underachieved(50 points 38 games) and got poor results, i think that this coaching change will do the biggest difference. We already have a great squad CB's aside which Lotito is going to improve on and he made that no secret.

Now you might be saying ya what about Pandev and Ledesma and De Silvestri? Lets first look at the easy one, De Silvestri contributed next to nothing as Lichsteiner is a healthy hard working consistent defender, Not needed though it would be nice to keep him. Ledesma did not live up to expectations and was an average player at best, he wasted many chances from the top of the box and his long range chip passes were awful all season. Pandev was injured roughly about 9 games out and played injured almost 1/3 of the season injured, which he even said he didnt tell the media he was playing injured until after the injury was serious. Pandev may even be injury prone this season, he didn't even have surgery to correct the problem if i recall correctly. Not to mention he played very poorly and was diving when he was playing injured. Also, we got another attacking option Eliseu who played very well for Malaga and an international call up was rewarded for him. Pandev in our attack would mean Rocchi or Foggia or Eliseu would be seated, which is not what i would like to see.

So before we throw in the towel over the Supercoppa and the upcoming season, lets remember we underachieved and these three transfer targets will not make or break Lazio's season. This is my opinon, some will share it some will think otherwise. Let's look forward to our new CB, the Suppercoppa and the new season with our heads held high and ready to prove we are better than 10th place and an European competitive team.

Agreed. The leagues got a lot better and is recovering, maybe recovered now, from Calciopoli. In the season after Calciopoli we finished 3rd, and yet last year we had a better squad and could only manage 10th. Genoa, Palermo and Napoli have worked miracles on the market this summer and now have added depth and quality depth as well. Even Bologna are looking to be ambitous now due to their buyout midweek. The middle teams are getting better, and lets be honest Juve, with Diego & Melo, and Inter, Eto, Milito, Motta, have too. I guess in essence then we can't afford to loose players like Pandev without replacing them and look to European competition. At some points in the middle of last season, our form was on par with teams in the relegation zone. Unless we improve the D then we will experience similar beatings, they occured too often last year to be considered unusual.

I was really looking forward to the supercoppa and had so much faith that we would see some exciting talent come to the team that might give us a competative edge. Missing 3 players who would be either first string players or great alternatives .. we have 10 days to make some drastic changes .. but at this point i expect nothing. I agree, After tying triestina that should have gave a hint and it looks more like this team is heading for disaster again than moving forward. Hopefully we can get Lugano and figure out pandevs situation soon.

I don't like Ledesma personally and don't care if he doesn't play against Inter. But the sheer fact that a known starter has to sit on the bench because Lazio pulled its usual 'lets wait til the end of the mercato to do something' attitude. I'm more pissed we're sitting out pandev who's arguably our best player and desilvestri who's probably one of our better defenders despite sharing the spot with lichsteiner. We got smoked by Inter's B team last time we played .. what dillusion does ballardini and lotito have with this team having a chance ?

The art of balancing squad is no easy one, many factors are involved, including factors that are not dependent on the club.
I think it is unfair to say we do not stand a chance against inter, this is football and all teams are still trying to find shape.
I desire all three players to stay, pandev, silvestri and ledesma...in that order.........but we cant force them and sure they have replacement even though we cant get them yet.
Silvestri is more annoying because he is young and has lazio blood in him,Lich is more better by a big margin and silvestri will get his chance, he didnt do badly last term as per game appearance.What is the guarantee that he will get more games in other clubs?!?!?!
Ledesma, there is something about him that many coaches see and like, balla has shown his likeness for him and if he stays and balla can finally mould him to be consistent and a champion then lazio will gain.

I look forward to victory against inter and a very bright season ahead.

Yes man.
I believe the coaching/managing of the team and squad will be key.
Ledesma is a good player but not fantastic, but i always ask, what is it in him that many coaches like and want to have?
For me, if he stays and Balla can bring out that thing in him it will be great, maybe 20-25 "flashy" games not 3 like rossi did.