Friday Odds and Ends

By: Martha | August 10th, 2007

Drea B. Alright, folks, I’m sick as a dog (How do people who get regularly sinus infections keep from killing themselves?), so this is likely to be it for the day. If Luciano Moggi suddenly puts his hands up and confesses that he was, in fact, behind every bit of the Calciopoli scandal, I will try to drag myself to the computer to type it up. Otherwise, I’ll see you at the weekend.

•Since the Saint-Etienne things has blown up, Francesco Coco is reportedly considering a move to MLS. Needless to say, this is completely ridiculous. Unless, that is, he comes to New York, in which case I’ll endorse it wholeheartedly, if only for entertainment value.

•Thanks to new contract extensions, Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo will both be at Palermo through 2012. Nice.

•After weeks of rumors that he was headed for Inter, the Italian papers now have Emerson on the verge of joining Milan. Apparently Patrick Vieira’s work in the Birra Moretti Trophy this week — his first action this summer — was strong enough to assure the nerazzurri that they no long need to pursue the Brazilian, while Milan have decided they need midfield cover. The details still need to be worked out (Milan want a loan, while Real favor a sale), but a deal could reportedly be announced by next week.

•Inter continue to be a giant, blue and black monkey wrench in Fiorentina’s efforts to buy Victor Obinna from Chievo.

•Despite the alleged interest of the insatiable Sven Goran Eriksson in England, Antonio Cassano still wants a move to Italy, and Sampdoria’s negotiations with Real Mardid continue to drag on. As always, the issue remains salary: The striker earns upwards of €4 million/season, only a small percentage of which can Samp afford to pay. If things do work out, though, there’s good news for Cassano: Because of Francesco Flacchi’s cocaine suspension, the #10 shirt is available. Woo hoo!

•As Rose suggested they might in the comments yesterday, UEFA have announced plans to punish Raymond Domenech for his rant against Italian football yesterday if he is unable to provide proof of his match-fixing accusations. Nice work there, Raymond. I’m sure the FFF is just thrilled with you right now.

•Palermo are reportedly interest in Manchester City’s England striker Darius Vassell; the hope is that those talks could help sort out things on the Mark Bresciano front. Which is good, since the Aussie has pretty much burned his Palermo bridges to the ground.