Francesco Pio Esposito

[Nero Indigo]

Another goal in a crazy match against Palermo. Spezia were losing 2-0 till 90' and then they scored 2 goals in injury time

It was a really superb glancing header. He was tightly marked , like shirt grabbing tight, and bopped it into goal, and away from the keeper. Timing was perfect, precision was excellent. I really hope he lives up to the hype!!!

 

[PHM1605]

I am sorry for feeling sceptical when almost every Atalanta player flops when he leaves the system.

I need to see him perform for Italy at a similar level to be convinced.

That's not Retegui fault. Did you dare to say "Icardi is nothing special" during his period here? You must be triggering a fif-war...

 

[wera]

That's not Retegui fault. Did you dare to say "Icardi is nothing special" during his period here? You must be triggering a fif-war...

There were a few of us that said that except for finishing chances Icardi wasn't good enough to warrant the hype and that he was a lot worse than what we used to have. Also he only had a few games where he really played out of his mind (1-1 home game against Barcelona for example)

After one full season of Lautaro here, I already rated Lautaro a lot more for his overall contributions.

Also, the first real FIF war was saying Kane >>> Icardi.

 

[Il Drago]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1890831362061385875

 

[.h.]

if taremi goes out and we bring a 4th striker, im ok with pio #3. We need a goalscoring backup, and I think he could do the job.

Not against both Espositos, but I'd want a 5th to have a bit more depth.

 

[RickyMaravilla'sRightFoot]

I’m less for the idea that a youngster needs to go on loan until they are a bonefide superstar before they can be called back to their senior team. “Having proven it” in serie B vs serie A is only chatter— Football is football.

If sending him on loan next season would hurt us from any sort of sporting perspective, we would be dumb to let him go on loan just so that he could potentially get more starts in a tougher competition than he would at inter. Ultimately he’s a player on our payroll and should be considered for his sporting merit and not just age and experience.

Readiness is on a case by case basis. For a teenager to be absolutely demolishing serie B is pretty damn impressive. There will be big offers coming and I would surprised if Spalletti doesn’t take a look at him soon. Let’s give our players a proper chance before we start throwing around money that we don’t really have.

 

[Kova10]

Give me Lautaro, Thuram, David, Esposito next season. David as the guy to rotate for the starts, Esposito as the guy to get subbed in every game.

I think that that setup would allow David to really consider us btw as he would almost be guaranteed a ton of playing time.

 

[CafeCordoba]

He should be coming to Club World Cup, based on all the rumors. And then probably to our preseason later in July. These two opportunities will dictate will he actually stay with us. If he can show he can keep up, gets our way of playing fast and basically proves he belongs, there's no reason not to keep him. I guess a lot also depends on how we manage our mercato.

 

[Nothing]

Give me Lautaro, Thuram, David, Esposito next season. David as the guy to rotate for the starts, Esposito as the guy to get subbed in every game.

I think that that setup would allow David to really consider us btw as he would almost be guaranteed a ton of playing time.

I disagree. That's another way to limit a young talent's development. Get someone like Giovanni Simeone for the 4th striker or Raspadori.

 

[.h.]

I disagree. That's another way to limit a young talent's development. Get someone like Giovanni Simeone for the 4th striker or Raspadori.

We either need to make the ballsy play and decide Esposito is the first goal scoring backup striker so he gets good game time, or put him out on a Serie A loan.

Backup player who gets 1000-1500 min won't help him as much.

 

[#NotForMe]

Give me Lautaro, Thuram, David, Esposito next season. David as the guy to rotate for the starts, Esposito as the guy to get subbed in every game.

I think that that setup would allow David to really consider us btw as he would almost be guaranteed a ton of playing time.

I rather have Kean (totally random, also don't think we can afford that) than David, but I love David cause he is a Canadian.

 

[Kova10]

We either need to make the ballsy play and decide Esposito is the first goal scoring backup striker so he gets good game time, or put him out on a Serie A loan.

Backup player who gets 1000-1500 min won't help him as much.

I disagree, and I agree. I agree that it would probably be around 1500 minutes of playing taking everything into account, but I disagree that it wouldn’t help him.

Having played 1500 minutes at the age of 20-21 in one of the best European teams is quite a milestone to reach.
Looking at some examples Kane has collected the same amount of minutes at the same age in a far worse team, same goes for Thuram, who has collected a bit more, but also at worse team, and even Lautaro had almost the same path having played roughly 1500 minutes just a year earlier, but in Argentina. He would be set up many chances to score goals here, as we are far more dominant than any other team he would go to.

I oppose the idea of loaning him to a Serie A club, because it would be a mid table one, which could even get into relegation struggles, thus could bring him into a very uncomfortable situation regarding his progress as a player.

What in my opinion makes it far more invaluable is the training level he will be exposed to on a daily basis, as even in training matches he will be pushed far harder at our team, having to play against the defenders we have. This is why I would like him far more to develop here even if it means less than 2000 minutes, but this is nothing that can’t change for the season after if he outperforms the others.

 

[.h.]

Id prefer ge gets 3500 at a Serie A club than 1500 on our bench

 

[.h.]

ok sorry, i was trying to put my daughter to bed when i wrote the reply above

so i think the examples of Thuram and Kane - they're both late bloomers is many ways. It took them a while still to really, consistently, break into their first teams and be bigger names.

Pio, on account of his Serie B season, COULD (potentially) have a pretty solid season in Serie A next year, but only if he gets the chances to do it. He's demonstrated he's probably one of the better players in Serie B, so we could 'waste' him on our bench, and chances are not bad that he'd still have a pretty reasonable season for us, maybe 5-8 goals frmo the subs bench which is better than any of our current strikers, but I'd personally rather he got a full season at, say, someone like Empoli, put in 15 goals, and show that he's really ready to take on a bigger role at Inter.


As I said, if he's our 'first substitute' goalscoring striker, then its a little bit of a different story, because both Thuram and Lautaro are streaky, and there he'd start to rack up decent game time, if he can translate his goalscoring form frmo B to A, then that would be quite an exciting role for him to fulfill. But I wouldnt want him to be 4th/5th choice striker at Inter, its a waste of talent for time being.

The U23 question is an interesting one, though I'd much prefer to give him development time at Serie A level, but it will depend on how the squad shapes up - if we have 3 strikers then maybe the U23 role is an interesting one, but if we have 4 or 5 then I'd rather not

 

[Kova10]

I guess that both alternatives are fair, but as far as his talent is concerned I want us exclusively to be controlling it. The thing with those loans to smaller Serie A teams is that they often go through coach changes midst of the season and generally are not stable in case of fighting in the relegation spots.

Spezia going into Serie A would make me consider a loan to them, because this would be playing time guaranteed.

 

[.h.]

definitely agree making the *right* loan choice is important, like, dont pick a club with 5 strikers already. But, tbh, if he's talented enough to make it, he'll break through under different coaches/etc. At the end of the day, clubs like the ones he's likely to get loaned to, will need to score goals. And if he can bang them in, he'll play, and he'll get noticed at Inter.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Scored again.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Made a little exercise with ChatGPT over good Serie B scorers, whose teams have been promoted to Serie A the next season and how the goal scoring have continued in A.

In the past 10 years, over all the top scorers of the 3 promoted teams each season, who have continued to then play in Serie A the next season, the ratio of goals in A vs B on average is 0.26.

For 26-year-olds and younger, the ratio is 0.20. I included arbitrary number 26 becuase Gyasi was 26 when he was at Spezia and got 0.44 ratio when they got promoted. So that number, if used with 25-year-olds, would have been even worse.

I don't know can we make anything out of this, maybe something, maybe nothing, but the fact is goal tally in A the next season is usually not even half of Serie B goals. And even worse if veterans are filtered out of the result.

 

[.h.]

Made a little exercise with ChatGPT over good Serie B scorers, whose teams have been promoted to Serie A the next season and how the goal scoring have continued in A.

In the past 10 years, over all the top scorers of the 3 promoted teams each season, who have continued to then play in Serie A the next season, the ration of goals in A vs B on average is 0.26.

For 26-year-olds and younger, the ratio is 0.20. I included arbitrary number 26 becuase Gyasi was 26 when he was at Spezia and got 0.44 ratio when they got promoted. So that number, if used with 25-year-olds, would have been even worse.

I don't know can we make anything out of this, maybe something, maybe nothing, but the fact is goal tally in A the next season is usually not even half of Serie B goals. And even worse if veterans are filtered out of the result.

Yeah, this is where I'm really keen to give him a season of A and see how he lands. There have been a lot of great guys at B who don't make it up a level at the same extent/take a lot of time. Let's hope Pop has the benefit of age on his side, eg being SO young compared to your sample

 

[CafeCordoba]

Also we don't have much data for cases when player scoring well in Serie B lands to a better Serie A side, apart from Lapadula and Milan. 27 Serie B goals, 8 in Milan in the subsequent season.