Weekend Roundup of Odds and Ends

By: Martha | July 22nd, 2007

Cavani = happy •Livorno have found themselves another aging striker to replace the dearly departed Cristiano Lucarelli: 31-year-old Diego Tristán, who was released in January by Mallorca for lack of fitness and form. Tristán had some spectacular years with Deportivo and has spent time in the Spanish national team; he’s theoretically been working on his fitness, and Livorno are desperately hoping he’ll be worth the £470,000 per season they’re paying him.

•Emerson still wants to go to Milan (despite the fact that his agent told us just a few weeks ago that everything was peachy at Real), but Inter are the ones who have supposedly made an offer for him, to the tune of €7 million.

•Speaking of Real and Milan, Spanish papers are claiming the Rossoneri are planning to prop up their aging defense with the addition of Fabio Cannavaro. Who is 33 years old. Good thinking, Milan!

•Though it’s yet to rise to a level above unofficial homepages of both teams, the rumor about Palermo and Fiorentina swapping Edison Cavani and Valeri Bojinov just won’t go away. I know the Viola are trying to get rid of the Bulgarian kid, but why on earth would Palermo let Cavani go so soon after he dominated the U20 World Cup in Canada? This has to be wishful Viola thinking.

•In the first competitive match of the year for a Serie A team, Sampdoria beat Bulgarian side Cherno More 1-0 in the Intertoto Cup. Woo hoo! If they can come through this punishing (because of the heat and the fact that the other teams are usually way further along in their preparation, not because everyone is so good) tournament, Samp will earn a spot in the UEFA Cup.

•About two days after declaring there would be no giant, blockbuster buy, Milan are now — for about the third time — supposedly going to pay Barcelona the €125 million it will take to trigger Ronaldinho’s buyout clause, in which case the club would be forced to let him leave. MADNESS. At this point, Milan sound more like Real Madrid than themselves, talking about making an insane buy to reassure supporters they remain a Big! Club!, rather than because it’s financially practical or a useful expenditure of the money.

•A study of Serie A officials has found that, were it not for refereeing errors, Chievo would still be in Serie A. Ouch ouch ouch.