A Pair of Dubious Roma Rumors

By: Martha | December 19th, 2007

Rawr. Hot on the heels of the growing reports of the possibility of Levante Christian Riganò returning to Serie A with Roma in January, a story has suddenly emerged about Cristiano Lucarelli doing the same. Of course, since the story comes entirely from Lucarelli’s agent, Carlo Pallavicino, who admits there has been no contact whatsoever with Roma, it’s hard not to think he’s just reading the papers we are, and thought “Wait, Roma want a target striker for the second half? A big guy who has a history of piling up the goals in Serie A? I know one of those!” and contrived to throw his client’s virtual hat into the ring, hoping Rosella will take notice and give him a call. Which, really, is worth a shot.

Not only is he offering up Lucarelli for the Roma gig, but he’s also suggesting that his client would be willing to compromise on the issue of pay for the privilege of joining a club in contention: “I also don’t think that his salary would be a problem either and this could be the right time for the club and himself.” Good work, Carlo! No go sit by your phone and wait.

Far more amusingly, there’s also a rumor in La Gazzetta — who have been banging on about this for a while now — today about Inter planning a sinister swoop for Roma’s Alberto Aquiliani. This despite the fact that the boy was born and bred Roman, is already a crucial part of the team, has said he wants to stay at the club forever, and will cause the supporters will meltdown en masse if the club ever even considered selling him. According to the paper, the issue is Aquilani’s contract: He’s signed through 2010 and is currently making €750,000/season, and as part of contract talks, Roma have reportedly offered to more than double that, paying the youngster about €2 million/season. That, supposedly, is not enough, and if talks show the slightest sign of deteriorating, Massimo Moratti is poised to swoop in and do something dirty to seduce Aquilani over to the blue side of Milan.

Yeah. I’m sure Chris will have something to say about this when he feels up for a good rant, but barring some sort of spectacular disaster, Inter are going to be very disappointed.

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: Inter, Roma, Rumors & News, Serie A

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Nolan

Well, Lucarelli is already hated by Lazio fans.
Marco

LMAO at that Man U wiki entry... wonder how long that's gonna stay
Mike

next to jonny evans name, it said not a rapist

EX [-+-]Jonny Evans is not a rapist

and yes, that is supposed to be an england flag
Hrishi

I am sorry but what exactly is wrong with the wiki link that chris sent??
chris

Take plenty of time I won't use it before Thurs/Fri.

(Do you really think I know how to do a screenshot? Please.)
Martha

It took me a while to find, but that made me laugh out loud. Fantastic. Grab a screencap before it's fixed, for posterity's sake.

(You may need to wait until halftime, but I'll take it this afternoon sometime.)
chris

I've been seeing that rumor whispered as well, but nothing concrete. Next year would be tough to implement, but I could see it happening for 09-10 giving teams enough time to make a transition (mainly Inter and Arsenal).

I would love that, if it is so pretty. At your leisure.

(Speaking of pretty things, this is a riot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
Martha

Chris it is the paper version, they're withholding it from the web -- I can take a picture and email it to you, if you're desperate. It's real pretty.
Martha

Mike, they've got loads of Primavera Italians (all of whom will play today against Reggina! Granted, they're all 17 and 18, but still. (The only changes I've seen are the ones for qualifying, which I think go into effect in 2009 -- gotta link? I feel like we'd have been hearing about that one if it was true.)
chris

Aquilani has as much of a chance as going to Inter as Roma? Really?

How do these people get jobs?

(Was that on the paper version? I hope not. I clearly need a screenshot or something for the page. That's just hilarious.)
Martha

It's really hard for me to tell if Morati's even said anything, but if anything it's a "Yeah, of course, any club would love to have him" thing that La Gazzetta, who for some reason are consumed by the idea of Aquilani-to-Inter turned and spun into a story.

They've got it on the front page and everything and, inside, one of those odd-of-going-where things for him: 40% Roma, 40% Inter, 10% Valencia, 10% Arsenal -- someone there really want to convince us.
chris

Uhhhh...nowhere.

His agent said that there is nothing to the rumor, there has been no contact besides Barcelona and Chelsea and that Alberto wants to stay in Rome for life. This is a lot of wishing on the part of Moratti, if it's true. (And 20m is an insult. I can only imagine what his pricetag would be had he not spent the last 18 months mostly injured. 35m? 40m?)

Funny more than anything. Not that Moratti would be stupid enough to think that he could pry Alberto away from Rome, we already knew that, but that the media would be stupid enough to report it.
Mike

Speaking of Inter connected to Italian players like Aquilani and Maresca, I heard that starting next season each team participating in Champions League will need 6 domestic players playing at all times... is this true?

If so, where the hell are Inter going to find 6 Italian players as starters?