Last Minute Mercato Madness

By: Francesco | August 31st, 2009

The Weekend Round-up will be up tomorrow since today was the last day of the summer transfer market and teams made last minute deals. Many clubs were scrambling until the very last minute to get contracts deposited into the league offices and some transfers had to be canceled because they weren’t completed in time. So I’ll try to highlight the more important transfers of the day after the jump.

-Juventus have brought Fabio Grosso back to Italy. After 2 seasons at Lyon, the World Cup winning left-back returns to the peninsula. Juventus now have Buffon plus 3 out of the 4 (Grosso, Cannavaro, Chiellini) Italian national team defenders. Maybe they should’ve brought back Zambrotta too?

-Chievo, who have probably one of if not the weakest attack in all of Serie A, brought in Torino striker Elvis Abbruscato on loan for the season.

-Napoli have parted ways with Francesco Montervino, who was one of their symbol players after going bankrupt. Montervino joined the club in Serie C in 2003 and was captain during the promotions to Serie B and then Serie A. Montervino has joined local rivals Salernitana.

-Manuele Blasi has been signed on loan from Napoli with the option to buy by Palermo to add some muscle to their midfield.

-Roma have tried to settle their goalkeeping troubles by signing Romanian Bogdan Lobont on loan from Dinamo Bucharest with the option to buy. Lobont played for Fiorentina in the 2005-2006 season. The capital club have also brought in 19 year old striker Fabio Zamblera on loan from Newcastle. Zamblera, a big target man type player, was on loan with Sampdoria last season and played for their Primavera side.

-Fiorentina underwent a swap with West Ham. The Viola sent defender Manuel Da Costa to England and in return got 20 year old winger Savio Nsereko, who impressed at Brescia before making the move to the EPL last January.

-Parma and Torino made a loan swap. Torino got striker Daniele Vantaggiato on loan, while Parma got Swiss midfielder Blerim Dzemaili.

-Sampdoria found a good back-up for Pazzini in Empoli’s former U-21 striker Nicola Pozzi. Pozzi arrives on loan for the season.

-Cagliari strengthened their midfield with the arrival of former U-21 midfielder Daniele Dessena from Sampdoria. The details of the transfer weren’t unveiled.

-Bari got the central defender they wanted (not Andreolli though) in Malian defender Souleymane Diamoutene, who was on loan at Roma last season. Diamoutene arrives from rivals Lecce on loan.

-Kaka may have left Italy, but his brother didn’t. Milan have sent his brother Digao on loan to Lecce for the season.

THE TRANSFERS THAT WEREN’T

-Genoa wanted to sign Atletico Madrid and Greece fullback Georgios Seitaridis, but apparently didn’t have enough time to close the deal.

-Bologna wanted to strengthen their attack with former Lecce striker and current Sevilla striker Javier Chevanton, but after agreeing to terms with the player they couldn’t agree with Sevilla in time.

-According to various sources, Roma were very close to signing Real Madrid striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy but they ran out of time to close the deal.

-Juventus defender Lorenzo Ariaudo had agreed to terms with Cagliari, but the Sardinian club didn’t deposit the contract in time and therefore the young defender didn’t make the move.

-Lazio were apparently all set to sign Cagliari and former U21 defender Michele Canini, but because they could not work out a deal with Reggina to buy their defender Carlos Valdez and send him to Cagliari in exchange for Canini the deal didn’t work out.

-Amantino Mancini looked to be on his way to either Genoa or Roma, but Jose Mourinho blocked the transfer, stating that Mancini was in his plans for this season.

-Goran Pandev and Cristian Ledesma wound up staying at Lazio despite wanting out. Ledesma looks as if he is ready to reconcile his differences with the club, but Pandev looks to be still in disagreement with Claudio Lotito. He now risks sitting on the bench until January.