Is Gilardino the right one for Evergrande

When the World Cup was in full swing, Chinese Super League giants Guangzhou Evergrande made a surprising transfer on Friday by signing Italian -striker Alberto Gilardino at a cost of 5 million euros ($6.8 million).

Later on Sunday, Evergrande's star striker Muriqui, top scorer of the Asian Champions League last season, switched to Al Sadd of Qatar.

Previously, Evergrande stuck to a transfer policy of only signing foreign players who were under 28, but signing 32-year-old Gilardino, which followed on from the signing of his 30-year-old compatriot Alessandro Diamanti earlier this year, obviously violated it.

A good thing for fans is that the duo played for Italy's minor club Bologna in the 2012-13 season, when Bologna finished in 13th place in Italy's top flight, which indicates it won't take long for the pair to get into their stride and play -cooperatively.

After Gilardino ended his loan to -Bologna, followed by then captain -Diamanti's departure to Guangzhou, the team were relegated.

It seems chasing Antonio di -Natale, who is at the end of his career but still ranked second in the Serie A's all-time top scorer list, is not incentive enough to keep Gilardino on the Mediterranean peninsula.

Gilardino delivered 15 goals for Genoa last season, and should have played in the World Cup in Brazil, but former Italy coach -Cesare Prandelli did not see fit to pick the -striker.

He played under his mentor coach Prandelli for four years separately at Parma and Fiorentina, and was also involved in Prandelli's squad for the Confederations Cup last year, so it's strange that Prandelli dropped Gilardino.

Argentine attacking midfielder Dario Conca's departure at the end of his contract has made Evergrande stutter in -attack, as Diamanti is yet to invigorate the team. Lack of solid playmaking has seen Evergrande stunned from time to time on the way to defend their titles.

Thanks to Elkeson and Muriqui's pacey works, Evergrande were still productive in counterattacks.

As Muriqui left and Gilardino doesn't seem to be a speedy forward, Marcello Lippi needs to figure out the right way to maintain Evergrande's scoring supremacy, which is expected to be based on his Italian compatriots.

Lippi said it would take more than 20 days for Gilardino to be fit for competitive games, so let's see how often Gilardino, in his trademark goal scoring celebration, will fall to his bended knee and mime playing the violin.