An Overwhelming Number of Little Odds and Ends

By: Martha | June 21st, 2007

Ooooooh! •It would take weeks to cut and paste all of the co-ownership deals that were extended or resolved yesterday, but most of the big clubs are displaying the info on their websites: Crank up Google translate and see what you can find out about all the players you never knew your team owned. (To give you a start, here are Milan’s, Roma’s and Inter’s lists.)

•Despite the demands of their fans (who are threatening to boycott season ticket sales if he’s sold) Atalanta are reportedly ready to let old man Cristiano Doni go. The midfielder’s contact runs through the end of the next season but he’s already agitating for an extension and a raise, behavior that has Atalanta chief Ivan Ruggeri so angry he’s reportedly ready to stand aside and let Doni follow through on his threats to quit the club. (Oh Zampa, are you listening?)

•If Inter want to buy Robinho from Real, it’s going to cost them a cool €40 million.

•The Suazo situation is just as murky as it was yesterday, and league officials are now launching an investigation into whether the striker ever actually signed for Inter or not. If he did, fines and a suspension could follow. Interestingly, his agent was abroad (in Hong Kong and Tokyo, to be precise) when all this went down, and only got back to Italy today. I don’t know about you, but it strikes me as seriously strange that Suazo would take this sort of extreme action without the guy who’s supposed to represent him around. Curiouser and curiouser.

•If Roberto Mancini spontaneously combusts or otherwise leaves Inter Milan in an unexpected manner, the club “may” hire Fabio Capello in his stead. Ok, then. Good to know.

•Even though the envelopes containing their Secret!Bids won’t be opened for another couple of hours, all the rumormongers seem to agree that Udinese have outbid Sampdoria for the services of the suddenly great Fabio Quagliarella, supposedly by about €7 million to €6.3 million. What they don’t agree on, however, is what this victory means. According to Tuttomercato, Udine will hold onto the striker, using him to replace the production they lost with the sale of Vincenzo Iaquinta. If you ask other sources, however, the win by Udine means Quagliarella will soon be on his way to Juve, who will have made out like bandits in the off-season market, even before it officially opens.

•Liverpool apparently really want Alessandro Faiolhe Amantino (Well, that explains his variable names in the Italian media.) Mancini. He was mentioned as past of the rumored Bellamy deal, and now has been the subject of a stand-alone offer by the English club, supposedly to the tune of about £13 million. Roma, however, want Mancini more than they want the money, and have told Liverpool to shut up and leave them alone.

•Reggina’s Ronaldo Bianchi (that’s “bee-ANN-key,” for as Midwesterners), summer target of many, is apparently on his way to Napoli, of all places. The €10 million buy is still awaiting the sorting out of personal terms, but word on the street is that they won’t cause any problems, and Bianchi will be in Naples sooner than later. Pretty impressive pickup for a small, newly promoted club, no?

•Alberto Gilardino doesn’t care how many people are ahead of him in the striker queue at Milan, he’s fully committed to the club. Hey, quit laughing back there — he’s serious!

•Speaking of Milan, they apparently felt so threatened by the photo accompanying yesterday’s Kaka story in AS they they issued a stern rebuke, pointing out the age of the phone and accusing the paper of deceptive “photomontage.” (Jeez, if the club itself is reacting this way, maybe there is reason for panic among the fans.) In response, the Spanish paper immediately issued a statement of its own, repeatedly describing Milan as “nervous” about “the possibility that Kaká can be transferred to Real Madrid.” Hee.