Odds and Ends as We Wonder How Adriano is Getting Along

•Man City are in the picture for Adriano again. Well, maybe anyway — this time the interest is official, with no less an authority that Thaksin Shinawatra putting his name forward.

•More on the Davide Marchini saga: His agent/mouthpiece Lorenzo Marronaro is now suggesting Cagliari president Massimo Cellino is the problem in the relationship between player and club, since Marchini is not “the first employee to have trouble with Cellino.” Oooooooh. They don’t have much in common, but Marronaro and Cellino agree on one thing: Despite the contract that says he’s at the club through 2010, Marchini is already out the door.

•A whole lot of clubs (or at least their previous identities) owe the government some serious back taxes, none of which are likely to be paid. Those in the deepest debt are Parma and Lazio, but they’re certainly not alone.

•Possibly due to his criticism of chairman Claudio Lotito, Lazio are reported to have suddenly put the still impossibly young Valon Behrami (how can he still only be 22?!) on the market, albeit only if someone is willing to pony up €12 million for the Swiss winger/defender.

•In an unusually vivid bit of news, Bobo Vieri is suffering from an attack of gastroenteritis and won’t be available for Fionretina’s visit to Palermo tomorrow. BOO.

•Since he’s apparently not got enough to do managing Manchester City, Sven Goran Eriksson is reportedly doing a bit of transfer consulting for Juventus, and he’s told them to buy long-time target Olof Mellberg. Not surprisingly, Martin O’Neill — Mellberg’s manager at Aston Villa — is none too pleased by this development. (Better not tell him the Italian press are reporting that the deal has already been agreed, and will be announced in February.)

•In case you missed it, Milan are in Japan for the Club World Cup, doing a lot of training (including, oddly, in the middle of the night on the day they arrived) and getting acclimated ahead of their first match in a tournament Adriano Galliani claims is “as important to us as the final of the Champions League.” Riiiiiiiiiight. (Oh, and Ronaldo’s still hurt, and Paolo Maldini’s retiring at the end of the season, not when he gets home from Japan.)

•And, speaking of Milan’s trip, the new dates and times for their three postponed matches were announced yesterday. The abandoned Atalanta match will be played 23 january, the visit to Reggina (schedule for this weekend), will now take place on 30 January, and the Livorno match, scheduled for Week 16, has been moved to 13 February.

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Category: AC Milan, Cagliari, Fiorentina, Juventus, Lazio, Palermo, Rumors & News, Serie A