On the hips tweet regarding Bastoni, from an Italian speaker at SC:
"Regarding the Guarro tweet, 'Lavorare ai fianchi' is a boxing term. Basically, it's means to 'work the sides', that is to throw some punches into the body. In other words, we're softening up the opponent (Inter) and we're doing this, I guess, by having Conte speak to Bastoni to sell the project, having Paratici discuss a fee that Inter's board can accept, doing what we can to help the Bremer deal (perhaps by agreeing payment terms that help Inter secure him), sweetening the deal with Bastoni's agent and family etc. Whatever it takes basically.
As per the metaphor, all this isn't done for the sake of it. It's done so that the opponent's defences are weakened and you can apply the knockout blow i.e. sign him from Inter."
"Regarding the Guarro tweet, 'Lavorare ai fianchi' is a boxing term. Basically, it's means to 'work the sides', that is to throw some punches into the body. In other words, we're softening up the opponent (Inter) and we're doing this, I guess, by having Conte speak to Bastoni to sell the project, having Paratici discuss a fee that Inter's board can accept, doing what we can to help the Bremer deal (perhaps by agreeing payment terms that help Inter secure him), sweetening the deal with Bastoni's agent and family etc. Whatever it takes basically.
As per the metaphor, all this isn't done for the sake of it. It's done so that the opponent's defences are weakened and you can apply the knockout blow i.e. sign him from Inter."