Weekend Odds and Ends

By: Martha | June 16th, 2007

Portuguese love •Spurs are supposedly interested in signing Nantes property (and RomaChris’ primary object of disdain) Christian Wilhelmsson who, to this point, has spend the off-season in discussions with Roma to extend his loan deal. Even in the face of the Spurs news, though, the winger’s agent emphasizes a stay in Italy is the most likely outcome. Sorry, Chris.

•I find this almost impossible to believe, but Fiorentina are supposedly in position to buy Ricardo Quaresma from Porto for £12 million, more than all the massive clubs tracking him are willing to spend. The Viola would allegedy give the winger £1 million/year for five years, thus doubling his current annual salary. Frankly, I’m surprised that: a)they’d get him for £12 million, and b)the Chelseas, Inters and Man Uniteds of the world would let someone with as much up-side as Quaresma get away. Evidently I’m deluded regarding his ability.

•In case you’ve missed the drips of news over the past week or so Alvaro Recoba’s time at Inter has all but ended; he’s expected to join Atletico Madrid on a free transfer shortly.

•According to Scotland’s Daily Record, Celtic are looking to pick up a little Italian action in the form of Sampdoria’s Gennaro Delvecchio and Milan’s always-on-loan winger Massimo Donati. Not so fast though, Celtic — this morning comes the news that Palermo are sticking their nose into the deal, and might just try to keep Delvecchio for themselves. According to the Record, the player’s relationship with new Palermo coach Stefano Colantuono could get the club a substantial discount (perhaps paying £2 million rather than Celtic’s reported £3 million price), thus making him affordable.

•Speaking of Colantuono, the man’s connections are leading to some interesting rumors indeed: According to StadioNews (AKA The Most Palermo-Obsessed Site on the Web), two of his former players with last year’s Atalanta team are interested in following him to Sicily. Which players, you ask? Oh, nobody important. Just Cristiano Doni and one Christian Vieri. Hey, Vieri is being paid the league minimum right now — why not take a flyer on the kid? (Thanks, Lisa.)

•Goalkeeping senior citizen Luca Bucci — who had a great season despite (Or perhaps because of!) his walker — signed an extension with Parma which will keep him at the club for another year.

•Juventus-owned Benfica striker Fabrizio Miccoli recently released “messages of love” for Palermo, a club he’s apparently desperate to join. As Lisa pointed out, though, the fact that Miccoli calls Maurizio Zamparini “a great president” suggests his knowledge of the club is not exactly extensive. Juve are saying nice things about Miccoli these days, though they seem as eager to package him into deals for others players as to keep him on the team. (As Francesco said in the comments, it doesn’t take too much of a leap to imagine him figuring into a deal for Barzagli.)

•It’s official: Adrian Mutu is The King of Serie A.

•Yesterday’s Gazzetta had an insane chart (only the article is online) in which they examined the odds of where each Azzurrini player will play next season. You will kill me if I reproduce it all here, but suffice to say that in their view, only Potenza, Pazzini and Montolivo (all Fiorentina), Criscito and Palladino (both Juve) and Torino’s little shave-headed god, Alessandro Rosina are 100% sure to be wearing the same kits in August they wore in May. For those of you curious about Giuseppi Rossi, for what it’s worth they think he’s most likely (40%) to return to Man U, with Juve, Parma and Sampdoria all in with a 20% chance at his services.

•Roma are busy little bees right now: They’ve both (supposedly) signed a co-owership deal for Ahmed Barusso from Rimini, and also are trying to sneak in and grab Chievo’s coveted Franco Semioli from under the noses of Fiorentina and Palermo.