Serie A

Six points from six and two 1-0 wins: on the pitch, Gennaro Gattuso's Lazio are still unbeaten in the league, and the presentation of four signings on 3 September added to the optimism. Andrea Pinamonti publicly took on the club's attacking heritage by targeting double figures in goals and saying he had “pushed hard” to come. The contrast with the environment remains striking, however: the injury list has four absentees in midfield and the season-ticket campaign is not restarting. Confidence is therefore sporting rather than ambient.

The club spent the first week of September cutting its wage bill: Alessio Romagnoli sold to Al-Sadd for €3m with €5m gross of annual savings, Samuel Gigot's contract terminated, Boulaye Dia sold to Stade Rennais and Petar Ratkov loaned to Levante. The Rome press explicitly links these moves to the examination of the accounts scheduled for 30 September by the oversight commission, on which the club's freedom of action in the market depends. In return, Gattuso received Albert Gudmundsson, on loan from Fiorentina with a purchase option. The board is therefore showing financial coherence, at the price of a defence reduced to three specialist centre-backs.

The divorce between Claudio Lotito and a large part of the tifoseria is not healing: the reopening of the season-ticket campaign produced, according to Cittaceleste, not even a hundred additional subscriptions, and most of the supporters engaged in the boycott are maintaining their position despite the two opening wins. The club has not published the figures from the first closing, with definitive results expected on 11 September. Conversely, the away section at Udine's Bluenergy Stadium is sold out for matchday 3, proof that the rift is with the board and not the team. Romagnoli's departure, marked by a farewell message regretting that he could not “say goodbye differently”, further fed that feeling.

Gennaro Gattuso is walking a narrow line: perfect in the table, he is coping with a decimated midfield, Rovella out for around 40 days, Cataldi still far from match sharpness and Dele-Bashiru out for three weeks. The defence has been reduced to three specialist centre-backs after Romagnoli's departure, which limits his options before the trip to Udine. The memory of elimination from the Coppa Italia by Mantova is still fresh and forbids any complacency. His relationship with Lotito and Fabiani, publicly denied as conflictual, nonetheless remains under scrutiny.

The sporting objective the dressing room states remains European qualification, and Pinamonti has added an openly personal one, aiming for the top of the scoring charts. Institutionally, the deadline that structures everything is the examination of the accounts on 30 September by the oversight commission, which the sales of Romagnoli, Dia and Ratkov and the termination of Gigot's contract are meant to secure. The Serie A list, settled at 32 players with the four signings and without Patric or Luca Pellegrini, reflects that refocusing. In the short term, it is about taking a third win at Udine on 7 September.

The internal friction reported in August over the use of Petar Ratkov ended with the player's move to Levante. Two areas of tension remain. The first is institutional and public: the protest by season-ticket holders, who refuse to renew despite the results, and the club's silence on the actual figures. The second is sporting: leaving Patric and Luca Pellegrini off the Serie A list creates two blocked individual situations, when the defence is already reduced after Romagnoli's departure.