Weekend Newsie Bits in Which We Dream of Freddie
By: Martha | July 15th, 2007
•Right after Manchester City stepped in to disrupt Fiorentina’s approach for Arsenal’s Freddie Ljungberg, the Swede’s agent told the press that his client would either be staying at Arsenal or moving abroad; out of respect for his club, Ljungberg is apparently set to refuse any moves within England. As the kids would say: ORLY? Arsenal have reportedly refused Fiorentina’s initial bid of £5.5 million, but talks are continuing between the two clubs.
•Pavel Nedved says his agent hates him because he turned down a lucrative offer from Inter this summer. Pavel, he’s not the only one, but that’s not the reason why.
•Inter, always on the cutting edge, are now the first football team ever to establish a presence in Second Life. For those of you who either aren’t internet fiends or never worked for a blogging company, Second Life is a virtual world where you can go and … hang out. And fly around and stuff. I hear it’s really cool, but its sophistication clearly goes way over my head because I very much don’t get it. Anyway, major news bureaus, car companies, and everything else you can think of have presences there, so it was only a matter of time before a football team showed up. I have an email in to a Second Life-loving friend; will post screen shots if such things ever emerge. (Mmm … Virtual Figo.)
•Speaking of Inter, Ibra is calling for his ex-Ajax homie Cristian Chivu to join him in Milan; apparently if the Romanian showed up, the team would be “number one in the world.”
•According to Channel 4 and absolutely no one else, Livorno have celebrated the departure of Cristiano Lucarelli by signing Reggina’s Messina’s Christian Riganò to a two-year deal which will be made official later this weekend. Which, if it’s true, could be a great signing — given how crappy Reggina Messina were, Riganò’s 19 goals in 27 games were damn near miraculous.
•Despite the public pronouncements of his coach and club president that he’s leaving if a good offer comes in and will be replaced by a new striker (possibly Racing Santander’s pricey striker Nikola Zigic), Fiorentina’s Valeri Bojinov seems to be in camp with the club. I’m sure he’s thrilled to be there, what with angry fans reportedly shouting racial slurs at him and everything. (They’re calling him a “gypsy” — I’m sure he appreciates the excuse to bond with Mutu one last time.)
•Crisitian Chivu will be there with everyone else when Roma open their training camp today. Bravely (though perhaps not wisely), he’s not taking bodyguards.
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Reggina crappy? I don’t know, I disagree. If it weren’t for the calciopoli penalty they would have competed with Empoli, Palermo and Fiorentina for a EUFA Cup spot. Then again if it weren’t for my baldness, I’d have hair like a rock star.
Now next year they very well may be crappy as they’ve lost their two top scorers in Bianchi and Rigano. They played some really great football last season when I saw them.
And I’m just asking here but is Chivu really worth all this attention?Posted from
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Rigano played for Messina.
Reggina are also losing their two young stud fullbacks in Giandomenico Mesto and Francesco Modesto. I’ll agree that they had a quality season last year, but they haven’t exactly improved whatsoever. I don’t think they’ll battle relegation, but they won’t compete for any Euro action.
No, Chivu isn’t worth any of it. He’s quickly becoming one of the most overrated players in the world.
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I actually think Reggina are at risk next season. They have a young manager who has never coached in Serie A before in Massimo Ficcadenti, and they have lost almost every key player from last season - Mesto, Modesto, Alessandro Lucarelli, Giacomo Tedesco, Pasquale Foggia, Rolando Bianchi, and Julio Leon. They also haven’t really made any significant moves in the transfer market yet. They can’t expect Amoruso to handle all the goalscoring responsibility. But we can’t judge until August 31st.
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Dangit, sorry. I thought Messina and typed Reggina, which is why reading you comment was very confusing, Joe. I was like “Totally, man. You’re preaching to the choir here! Oh, wait.” Going to fix now, thanks Chris. And it’s hard to argue with anything you say, Francesco — it’d be interesting to know what they’ve tried to do this summer v what’s actually come off; one hopes they’re not planning to go into the season one just a wing and a proverbial prayer.
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[...] Weekend Newsie Bits in Which We Dream of Freddie - Juventus - The Inter, always on the cutting edge, are now the first football Speaking of Inter, Ibra is calling for his ex-Ajax homie Cristian Chivu Nick Geber (from World Soccer Daily) used to refer [...]
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