Hello, Delicious Adriano Rumors

By: Martha | November 6th, 2007

Bad hair, rejected love. Guess what, kids! Adriano didn’t turn up for training yesterday, which instantly send the rumor mill into a frenzy. He apparently called in to tell the club he was “feeling unwell,” but got a bit elusive when asked for details and, given that it’s Adriano, the obvious assumption is that “feeling unwell” actually means “so hung over I might die.” That said, the man actually might, you know, have the flu, or something. Or, maybe, he went to the hospital to lend his support to Figo during his surgery — he’s nothing if not a team player, that Adriano. Ahem.

The combination of the Brazilian’s blowup when he was taken off Reggina, his refusal to stay and watch the Genoa match when he was left out of the team, and his decision not even to make the trip to Turin for the Derby d’Italia has led the media to conclude Adriano’s time with Inter is final over, and the silence of Massimo Moratti — usually his biggest supporter — is doing little to change minds. His possible destination are myriad, ranging from West Ham in the Premiership (as mentioned yesterday), to Fenerbahce in Turkey; from AC Milan just across town, to Atletico Madrid in La Liga.

The offer being quoted from Fenerbahce is about a quarter of the size of the €20 million (ish) West Ham are supposed to be offering, so that seems very unlikely, even assuming there’s any truth to the story. The Atletico Madrid rumor comes from the Spanish press, who say Inter have offered Adriano for the small fee of €18 million and Sergio Aguero (also a possible Juve target). Yeah, that’s gonna happen. Milan, meanwhile, can logically be tied to any once-productive striker, but unless they make a completely obscene offer, it’s unlikely Inter will send Adriano their direction — the Nerazzurri are worried about sending the striker anywhere in Italy for fear he’ll come back to bite them in the ass, and having him do that in a red and black shirt would be almost too much to take. Of course, the seemingly random report in Tuttosport that this deal would somehow include the arrival at Inter of Karim Benzema from Lyon makes it a whole lot more appealing, risky or not.

Whether there’s any truth in these stories or not, it’s becoming less and less likely that Adriano will be around after the winter break, and he and his agent are due to meet with Inter suits later this week. He’s an awfully expensive paperweight to keep around just out of fear he’ll make Inter pay for dumping him, and you’d think a desire to get some value out of him would override that trepidation at some point.