Chaos in Palermo, Or: Someone, Hold Me — I’m So Confused!

By: Martha | January 30th, 2007

Bastard Di Michele Ok, so yesterday the person possibly on the verge of leaving Palermo was Andrea Caracciolo, who apparently couldn’t handle a)not being good enough, and b)being booed, and was storming off to Torino in a huff. Possibly on the horizon to replace him, though, was highly rated Uruguayan striker Edison Cavani, a 19-year-old who has been called — hopefully by someone other than his agent — “the new Zlatan Ibrahimovic.” So, let me get this straight: A whiny, unproductive striker threatens to leave and is potentially replaced by an eager youngster with an impressive pedigree? Well, alright, sure — that’ll work.

Today, though, the story got all twisted up. Things are great on the Cavani front — an agreement has been reached and he’ll reportedly sign today, which is awesome. In the same breath as they reported this good news, though, Football Italia casually mentioned that he’s being seen as a replacement not for Caracciolo, but for David Di Michele. Uh … WHAT?! Since when is he going anywhere? What the hell is going on?!

According to media reports, Di Michele skipped training yesterday and has been seen skulking around the Milan hotel where all the dirty winter transfer deeds are done; it’s being suggested that he could go to Milan in exchange for the UTTERLY USELESS Ricardo Oliveira. While Di Michele has always been a bit of a pouter, he’s an important player who, when he’s playing well, offers Palermo some much-needed creativity — losing him would be a much bigger deal than getting ride of Caracciolo, even if the little shit is actually say things like “Anything is possible … In any case, if I am here it means there are some problems with Palermo…” to reporters.

EDIT: Polish newspapers are reporting (source-free, which is always fun) that wildly productive 25-year-old striker Radosław Matusiak is leaving Polish club Bełchatów for Palermo for a fee of about €2m million. Mutusiak has his club at the top of the table in Poland and has also scored enough goals for the Polish national team to get on the radar of a lot of European clubs, but he’s apparently signed a long-term deal with Palermo and will arrive at the club shortly. If true, this news — combined with the Cavani signing — makes me feel a lot better about the possible departures of Di Michele and Caracciolo. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, fellas.