Odds and Ends of Probably Untrue News

By: Martha | June 18th, 2007

WTF mate? •This one is true: Eugenio Corini has signed a one-year contract with Torino for which he’ll reportedly earn about €500,000. Huzzah! While it would have been sparkley and glamorous for the old man to turn up at Roma, signing with Torino means he’ll be playing regularly, which is clearly the most important thing. Plus, there are two bonuses: He’s close to his kids (Apart from the divorced thing, he’s a fine family man.) and will also get to play with Alessandro Rosina, which even the oldest hands have got to find cool.

•Fabio Grosso wants to stay at Inter. Meh.

•And today in the David Trezeguet saga: He’s either staying at Juve (thanks to the persuasive powers of Alex Del Piero and Gigi Buffon, who convinced ownership not to throw him out with the bathwater) with a rich new four-year deal, going to Valencia, or going to Arsenal in exchange for midfielder Gilberto Silva. Whew. The best Trezeguet story of the week, though, was Channel 4’s report that the reasons behind his meltdown were secret, malicious phone calls from the still-irate Didier Deschamps. As if, you know, Trezeguet hasn’t been a whiny bastard for the last year.

•Thanks to the “accidental” injury of Ruud van Nistelrooy last night, Francesco Totti collected the European Golden Boot. (That’s two in a row for Italy, bitches.)

•Though I can’t find it at the website (better searchers than I can always dig these things up, though), today’s La Gazetta dello Sport says Parma are after the Fiorentina attacker only I love, Reginaldo. It would stun me if the Viola let him go, but I suppose if the price is right (none is discussed in the article), anyone not named “Mutu” could conceivably be sold.

•During last night’s La Liga title celebrations, Fabio Cannavaro accidentally unfurled an Italian flag bearing a fascist symbol. Man do I hate when that happens.

•Though it appears the Gennaro Delvecchio deal really has stalled (whether it’s due to Palermo’s interest in the player is anyone’s guess), Milan’s Massimo Donati is headed to the UK later this week for personal talks with Celtic representatives. His agent maintains the deal is far from done — in others words, he’s still trying to drum up a bid from Italy — but a meeting in person is certainly a step in the right direction.

•Rino Gattuso and the magnificent Matrix have filmed a Nike ad campaign together in which they play for a pretend, world-beating club called Madunina Utd. This would be a lot more exciting if I could find the spots online, but I’m sure they’re hilarious and sharply-written while also being fantastic at selling shoes. [Edit: It's here. Thanks to Sofia for tracking it down. Man, people really need to stop letting Matrix sing.]

•Tuttosport, a paper that likes to cause trouble for every team not called “Juventus,” is alleging major disagreements in the Inter camp over transfer targets. According to their report, Roberto Mancini is annoyed that Suazo arrived over the summer rather than last winter (Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth, jeez.), and also is reportedly peeved that Luis Figo has been resigned. Oh dear — I smell Portuguese pouting on the horizon. What the gaffer really wants is a little Cassano and Chivu action, but Massimo Moratti (AKA the money) has his doubts about both men. Well! If nothing else, this sounds like promising fodder for a press war, right? Bring on the discontent!

•As you may have heard, Giuseppi Rossi is still sticking to his plan of going back to Man U and making the grade there. He’s totally not even thinking about Juve, Parma, or anyone else.