Unable to get a game at Juventus and spending his weekend’s shopping, Amauri is a mix of silk and steel who can add quality to the Tottenham Hotspur attack…
He may possess an ungainly frame and an unruly hairstyle but if you are looking for a frontman to help your side stave off the spectre of relegation then Amauri or Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira as he is known to just about no one, is your man.
Having dropped out of sight completely at Juventus this season, the 31-year-old will go anywhere to get a game as long as there is a battle against the odds to be waged.
Last season, he scored seven goals in eleven outings for Parma which helped keep the Tardini outfit in Serie A for another year but the fact that he could not hit the preverbal barn door at Juventus for over a year the Brazilian-born frontman has no future in Turin where he cannot even find a place in the stands on match-days so he usually heads off to Milan for a bit of shopping with signora Amauri.
Just in case he couldn’t take a hint that he is no longer wanted his number eleven shirt was handed over to a full-back Paolo De Ceglie and in the club’s financial statement his name may not have been spelt out but there is no doubt that he is indeed the “player” to be released in January even if his contract does not expire until the summer.
Juve would love to wring around 7million Euro of a transfer fee out of someone but there is no way in these times of financial constraints that an Italian could find anything approaching that amount. Plus there is the 4m Euro net salary which in truth he will have to kiss good-bye to and start getting used to living on a bit less, to consider.
He has always demonstrated a willingness to throw his body into the line of fire and quite a few goals have come from that immense forehead.
So having spent almost three years attempting and finally succeeding in become an Italian citizen to earn a single Azzurri cap it looks like the long-limbed frontman will have to leave his adopted homeland – but would it be worth a punt by Tottenham Hotspur?
Juve are so desperate to get him out the door that they would probably jump at a loan deal or even just giving him away towards the end of the January sales.
A marauding Amauri, mane billowing like an out-of-control stallion, used to be sight to behold during his spells at Chievo, Palermo and for a short time at Juventus but the danger is that now after so many months of inactivity he may have turned into a cart-horse.
His fruitful spell at Parma suggested that there are still goals to be had but then his 6ft plus build has always caused defenders problems even if at times it was only a matter of bundling into them. However, he has always demonstrated a willingness to throw his body into the line of fire and quite a few goals have come from that immense forehead.
Although few can remember it now, he is also not such a donkey when the ball is played up his feet and given a bit of confidence in his sails he can shimmy away from his marker or if the mood takes him brush off a challenge or two to bring those arriving from midfield into play.
The question is whether there is still that desire to put in the donkey-work and make something out of a career that has never really reached the heights he probably once expected.
