Daily Calcio News and Notes: 8/5/08

By: Francesco | August 5th, 2008

Here’s the calcio news that I thought was most interesting today:

-Luciano Spalletti said that: “Our club can’t just go out and buy whoever it wants, everything has to be carefully done and hopefully we’ll have some players that can benefit our roster. Malouda and Baptista are two targets that we want, but we’ll have to see how the deals evolve. Our target doesn’t chance, we will try to win the Scudetto.” He better hope they come soon. 25 days until Serie A starts and counting…

-After bringing back Antonio Chimenti, Juventus have signed another goalkeeper. Austrian goalkeeper Alex Manninger (most recently with Siena), joins the bianconeri on a 4 year deal. He will most probably be Buffon’s backup, with Chimenti relegated to third goalkeeper. Manninger is a solid keeper with excellent reflexes, and should do a good job of backing up Buffon.

-Looks like the proposed Pele-Stendardo deal between Lazio and Inter won’t happen. After thinking about it the Nerazzurri decided not to continue the deal. Now Lotito will try to shop Stendardo to Milan, and try to get Christian Brocchi in exchange. I still don’t understand the big hype surrounding Stendardo. He’s a decent defender at best, yet Juventus signed him last year, and now Inter and Milan have shown interest in him. Am I missing something?

-Looks like Matteo Ferrari has finally found a club. After weeks of wondering if Inter would pick him up, it looks like Genoa have swooped in to pick up the ex-Inter, Parma, and Roma center back. The Rossoblu aren’t refuting the deal, and most expect it to be official sometime this afternoon.

-Fiorentina have signed Juventus midfielder Sergio Almiron on a one year loan deal. The Argentine midfielder was one of the top midfielders in Italy two seasons ago at Empoli, but last year had trouble fitting in at Juventus. La Viola have decided to take a chance on Almiron and have strengthened their midfield.

-Roma defender Marco Andreolli, who was considered one of the most promising defensive prospects in Italy, looks set to join Serie B club Rimini on loan for the season. Andreolli was a U-21 regular and looked very promising but a series of injuries set him back and now he will try to show his potential once again.

-Rangers manager Walter Smith has confirmed that he’s interested in getting Torino midfielder and Campione del Mondo Simone Barone. Before the World Cup Barone was one of the top midfielders in Italy and impressed Lippi enough to be a part of the 2006 World Cup squad. After the World Cup however Barone never really got back into form and even lost his place in the national team. Maybe a move abroad is what he needs to refresh his career.

-Today was the first day of training for 21 year old Uruguayan midfielder Mathias Cardaccio, who was bought by Milan along with 19 year old midfielder Tabare Viudez. Cardaccio will be a part of Milan’s first team and former Roma and Juventus striker Daniel Fonseca, who helped Milan sign these players, says that Cardaccio will fit in well, as he is a classic “regista” (holding midfielder) that has good feet and excellent vision. But then again, Fonseca also said Lazio goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was going to be great. And we all know how that went…