News Roundup As Everyone at Milan Gets a Day Older

By: Martha | December 28th, 2007

Cara, back in the day (a little) •Sampdoria’s world-class whiner Andrea Caracciolo could be on his way out of yet another club this winter, possibly to Atalanta. I wonder if it’s ever occurred to him that the problem is his lack of consistency, rather than every club he plays with treating him unfairly.

•The latest player being eyed by Inter to solve their midfield injury crisis is Atletico ~~Bilbao’s~~ Madrid’s Maniche. He’s had a falling out with the club after being accused of faking an injury to get out of a domestic cup match, and could reportedly be sold if the price is right; Inter’s offer will allegedly be in the area of €7-8 million.

•Rolando Bianchi has been off alcohol so long he’s gone a little loopy — he doesn’t want to leave Man City and plans on taking the team into the Champions League with him. After that, though, he’ll jet off to head off to Spain where he’ll score 15 goals for Atletico Madrid. Whether anyone’s asked Atletico about this has not yet been verified.

•Roberto Donadoni has had enough of the pretty words, and (sort of) challenged Raymond Domenech to a little game of one-on-one, where he’ll get his revenge.

•Renowned transfer consultant Tomas Ujfalusi has announced that Juve will be the club to win the Rafael Van der Vaart lottery, albeit not until summer. Ujfalusi, himself likely to find his way out of Fiorentina this winter, played with Hamberg for four years, status that apparently still gets him faxes full of boardroom secrets.

•Chelsea reportedly want Inter’s Maicon, and are prepared to spend a big pile of Roman Abramovic’s money on him.

•Speaking of Inter, they lost a breathtaking €206 million last season. Have MERCY.

•Pasquale Foggia is leaving Cagliari next month, the only question is his destination. The most recent option is Napoli, his hometown club, but it’s not clear if the team have shown any interest in his services, or if this is just Foggia’s agent talking up his options. (He’s not, however, going anywhere near Hellas Verona. Slight translation confusion, sorry.)

•Livorno president Aldo Spinelli thinks the winter break is stupid, but he loves that it forces Italians to watch the EPL and see those full grounds and well-behaved crowds — it lets everyone involved with calcio dream of a future in which the terraces are full of (unarmed) puppies and rainbows, with hardly any flares.