I really enjoyed and cheered for Lazio in the nineties, mainly because of Bokšić, but also because they were insanely attacking minded under mad Zdenek Zeman. Beppe Signori was also one of my favorites. Always playing three forwards, usually Bokšić, Signori and Casiraghi( sometimes Rambaudi, remember that guy?), then Di Matteo, Winter in Midfield, Negro and Favalli were already there, Chamot was still great… ah those were the days. Bokšić then went to Juve because he had enough of Zemans training, and came back next year when he was fired. That season (97/98 was his best) he had a great streak in the second part of the season leading Lazio from win to win which should have resulted in the championship. Unfortunately he injured himself at Parma, Lazio lost the title and he also missed the wc. Maybe, just maybe we could have won it with him. He never fully recovered from that injury, but Midlesbrough still decided to give him that insane contact for some reason.
ahh good memories, sure Signori was the reason I became a lazio fan in the mid 90s (plus I liked Gazza also)...Beppe was great, I wish he could have come back instead of Di Canio. when they were going to sell Signori and thousands protests and halted it, thats when I became to realize the power of lazio's fans (tho often of course its not for the good of the team)... the wide-open offensive teams were fun, perhaps moreso than the scudetto team of 99-2000. I dont recall Raumbaudi much, I used to like Lombardo as a winger and that-striker-who-became-our-coach-and-jilted-us.. I always felt Boksic could do more, like later Nedved and Veron who always delievered. In his prime during Lazio's best days, I felt Veron could do anything on the pitch, whatever was needed in whatever role...
I also enjoyed the scudetto team but would have preferred if it happened while Alen was still at his peak. Stealing it from Juve on the last day was particularly sweat. Those things are just not suppose to happen, especially in Italy. Bokšić was just always injury prone, that stopped him from achieving more, but when fully fit he was awesome. Cragnotti seemed to have a perfect timing for the transfer market. It seemed like he was always able to sell a player for more than he paid for him. Even when he spent really big money(Vieri, Veron, Crespo) he was able to sell them for even more absurd prices. His luck left him with signings of Mendieta and Lopez who didn’t work out on the pitch and lost all transfer value. Two events came at the same time to start of Lazio’s slide: the collapse of the transfer market and the offer to Errikson from England. Hopefully Lazio can now rebuild and be more realistic regarding finances.
I was a big Alen Boksic fan the year he was with Juve even though he didn't score as many goals as he probably should have. I thought he was the perfect complement to Vieri and Del Piero - he could hold the ball with his back to goal and make the good passes. To me, that 1996-97 Juve team - which also had Zidane in his first Serie A season - was even better than the side which won Europe the year before. Unfortunately, Juve weren't able to beat Dortmund in the CL final, and Boksic's year with the team was somehow considered a failure. But this is the Lazio forum ... sorry for the digression.
I always liked Croatian players, especially from that generation...for some reason Robert Jarni was a favorite... I also recall Boksic having pretty good speed until the injuries, happens to a lot of top talents...He was one player Lazio was not burned on, that was Boro's big mistake....tried to dig up Boksic's career stats, anyone know of a site with that info??...