Meet Your New Defender, Roma. His Name is Cristian, and He Might Look a Bit Familiar.
By: Martha | July 12th, 2007
In a conclusion that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so infuriatingly pathetic, Roma announced last night (as reported first by Roma King Chris) that Cristian Chivu will see out his contract with the club and then leave on a free next summer. This despite the fact that defender has, in the words of sporting director Daniel Pradè, done “incalculable damage [to] the Roma.” Oh, snap! Tell us how you really feel, Daniel.
Roma’s fury is 100% understandable here, what with Chivu and his agent refusing the deal offered by Real after the two clubs agreed a fee and all. At the time, the Romanian maintained the £3.7 million/year pre-tax salary Real had on the table was less than he’d be paid at Inter (Secret, illegal negotiations much, Crisitian?), thus forcing Roma into talks with a club they really, really don’t want to strengthen. Inter, for their part, turned around and offered about $5.60 for Chivu, lowballing Roma to such a degree that they couldn’t possibly accept the deal. It’s been rumbling around the Roma blog for a while that Inter might have manipulated the situation from the start by offering a salary no one could match and then refusing to meet Roma’s price demands; as a result, barring a Shock!Bid from Dubai or something, they’re in pole position to sign Chivu on a free next year. Clearly everyone at Inter would dismiss such speculation as absurd, but it has made more and more sense as the situation has developed.
What’s going to happen from here is anyone’s guess (you can check out the comments here and here for wild and not-so-wild speculation), but many Roma fans are praying Chivu spends the season either sitting on his ass on the bench, or even rotting in the youth team. Me, I have a hard time understanding anger so impractically intense that it damages the club — Chivu’s no god, but he’s a solid defender who helps your team by being on the pitch, at least in Serie A. So treat him like crap if you want, don’t talk to him all season, scrawl obscenities on his face when he’s asleep, whatever. But you’re paying the guy, why not use him to win games?
Outside from the issue of what happens to Chivu himself, it’s being suggested in the Italian press that Roma will force an inquiry into the extremely suspect negotiations between Chivu’s agents and Inter. If that happens and the case arrives before the right magistrate, this could turn into an awfully uncomfortable summer for Massimo Moratti and friends.
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Comments
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I know, it’s madness! Just imagine being a Roma fan — or, hell, a Roma official — right now.
Posted from
Portugal
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psssh now i am not surprised that yesterday a roma fan put chivu up for sale on ebay ahahaha…
ohh god chivu should be thankfull im not a roma official or he would be soooooo screwed because he wouldnt even be in italy right now…like i said he would be somewhere in asia even just to piss him off….i will find a really unknown club and send him there:D
Posted from
Canada -
Five words. FUCK CHIVU MORATTI AND BECALI!!!!!
Posted from
United States -
You biyotch. I’d been waiting to use his broken nose picture and you go and steal my thunder.
Well, Im gonna use it anyway and mine’s more betterer than yours is.
Posted from
United States -
Well, yours must have Rosella’s fist flying in and doing the damage or something, right?
Posted from
Portugal -
As far as not playing him, it’s very simple:
He put Inter before Roma.
Would you let anyone like that near your team? Spalletti wants team guys, Chivu is not a team guy, obviously. Or he wouldn’t have negotiated with a rival in order to screw Roma.
But I think Totti & Spalletti will be making the decision. I’d tend to think he won’t see the field. The supporters would murder him.
Posted from
United States -
Someone needs to tear his achilles. I’m paging Carl Spackler.
Posted from
United States -
I do get what you’re saying, Chris, if the club is actually truly committed to that philosophy (the whole Mancini-Totti feud still bothers me, because there’s something fundamentally selfish about that bullshit, but we’ll never agree on that one).
Really, I’ll applaud them if they stick to their guns and make him sit; my attitude stems from the fact that it’s often very hard to apply principles to the reality of life and humans; the demands of those two things tend to force adjustments to the perfect way things were going to work on paper. (Why yes, I did used to coach high school sports and agnonize over this shit at that little tiny level. Why do you ask?)
Posted from
Portugal -
Muddia, I’ve got your back when the tear happens and The Man comes looking for responsible parties. You were never here.
Posted from
Portugal -
I’m sure Inter would love to sign Chivu on a bosman, as would other clubs. But it doesn’t mean they’ve been negotiating in bad faith. Just reading a bit too much into it (which I’m often guilty of myself), especially since Inter have rarely shown that much foresight. However, Chris’ Inter conspiracy theories are always very entertaining. Way better than an episode from that terrible ‘Dream Team’ show, not that I’ve ever watched it…
Speaking of foresight, Roma should’ve never let it come to this in the first place.
Posted from
United States -
RT, Negotiating at ALL is negotiating in bad faith and very illegal. Take off those nerazzurri tinted sunglasses :)
I think it’s fairly obvious Roma didn’t really want Chivu anymore. He’s just not as good as people make him out to be as a defender. But yes, they should’ve extended him and then sold him. Many Giallorossi fans will concede that even Ferrari was a better pure defender than him at times last year (anybody who actually understands the nuances of sport, that is).
Mancini-Totti was based on ego and pride. Both admitted it. I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people made it out to be. Even Mancini said so. He jus knows not that you don’t fuck with Totti. Ever. This is his team.
Posted from
United States -
Well, Roma first asked for Pizzaro (stating that without Pizzaro they wouldn’t even talk about Chivu) then when Pizzaro was sold, they brought Barca and RM right onto table.
Wouldn’t it be too naive to believe inter would pay the same amount of money when Roma obviously had no intention of selling chivu to inter?
Posted from
United States -
Those two aren’t related, Roma did the same thing with Barcelona & Real. They were offered Belletti and Sylvinho from Barca and didn’t want any Cicinho negotiations involved with Real, then went after all three of those players after Chivu negotiations failed/completed. Roma wanted straight cash, nobody knows why.
They would’ve sold Chivu to Inter if Moratti came up with the cash. He didn’t.
Posted from
United States -
I meant negotiating in general, be it with Roma (legal) or Chivu (illegal). And while I may not be totally convinced, perhaps Roma do have a valid complaint about the direct approach. But it’s exaggerating to suggest Inter had some secret plan to prevent Chivu from signing with anyone (until next year).
If Roma do take some legal action, it’s clear that it would be out of petty bitterness resulting from Inter withdrawing their previous (excessive) proposal. But what else did Roma expect after their auction didn’t pan out? Were the roles reversed, Roma would be foolish not to do the same as Inter has and lower their offer.
This whole ordeal put the $$$ into Roma’s eyes over a player whom (as you suggest) should never have warranted the reported amounts in the first place. Now the fantasy is over and Roma can’t come to grips with it; nor can they accept that Real’s offer was exuberant and above the norm (further evidenced by their crazy valuation of Pepe). Maybe Roma should’ve asked Real to take a few million off the fee and use it towards Chivu’s wages…
And I’ll take off my tinted shades when you remove yours ;).
Posted from
United States -
If Chivu is so intent on leaving and he knows he will, why would he try his best for Roma? What will convince him to try hard when he’s just here seeing out the year.. His loyalties lie to Inter now, and not Roma.
Posted from
United States -
“But it’s exaggerating to suggest Inter had some secret plan to prevent Chivu from signing with anyone”
Are you forgetting Moratti and Becali are in business together? Are friends? You don’t think there was some kind of collusion here at all? I don’t think it’s even remotely an exaggeration.
I don’t think Chivu’s demands are about the wages, it’s about the principle. He’s asking to be one of the top5 paid defenders in the world, when there are at least 15 better than him. If Real fucking Madrid won’t meet his demands then he’s not even in the same country in terms of value.
And reporting them wouldn’t be out of bitterness (mostly), Moratti and Franco Sensi had a great respect for one another. It was the fact that Moratti’s offer had Chivu’s mind wrapped around that 5m per offer and that prevented him from moving to Spain. Do you really think he would have even had any thought in his mind he could get 5m per without Moratti’s word?
Obviously this is Italy so it’s an entirely different matter, but what would happen if this was an American sport? There would be severe sanctions handed down yesterday.
Btw, if Inter does get in trouble, you have the Becalis to thank. Saying what they said on camera/record was probably the dumbest fucking thing possible.
Posted from
United States -
heh, well we Americans are the world’s best at sports collusion (i.e. salary cap, ‘franchise’ concept, etc.).
Anyway, I just don’t see how this particular claim (Inter hooking Chivu on the idea of 5m and therefore preventing him from going to Spain) can be upheld legally. Involves too much speculation and ignores too many variables, not least of which is an agent’s ability to ‘ballpark’ his client’s earning potential without directly contacting other clubs.
Also, don’t forget that Inter are long-term admirers of the Romanian, as is Mancini. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they (mistakenly?) rate him higher than you do. Certainly wouldn’t be the first time, as Inter haven’t always been the shrewdest transfer dealers.
And Inter don’t control whom Chivu selects as his representatives. It seems like you were always going to bring up this relationship if Inter didn’t cough up some fat transfer fee (for a player whose club has allowed him to slide into his final contract year). If Inter liked Chivu, were they supposed to not even try because of the identity of his agent? Sounds like a no-win situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as weary of the dealings of corporate bigwigs as the next guy. But I prefer to wait for the real story, rather than partake in making up our own.
All that being said, I’m hoping Chivu really is staying at Roma.
Posted from
United States -
I’m not using my own valuation of him, I typically use Real’s (which was actually the same as Roma’s). If Real Madrid won’t pay your demands then you’re not worth it. Period. They’ll typically pay anything.
As far as his representation goes, a few of my Romanian readers stated that the Becali’s have somewhat of a monopoly with the clubs in Romania (their cousin being prez of Steaua Bucharest and having massive connections in Romania - football, political and otherwise). The best players are somewhat forced to use them as agents or else they won’t be sent to big clubs. (Just FYI if you missed it)
Anyway, I’ll try to find the interview where the Becali brothers said it, but we don’t have to look at variables or conjecture - it came directly from their mouths. That’s the main issue. They said they have Moratti’s word on a contract of that value. You can throw those variables out the window. The fact is that is illegal. No matter how you swing it. Roma’s lack of extension or Inter’s lack of a fat transfer fee are moot.
It may amount to nothing, but this also isn’t the first time we’ve seen this from Moratti this summer. You can’t deny that.
Posted from
United States -
Straight from the horse’s mouth:
Q. Do you already have a deal in place with Inter?
A. I have Massimo Moratti’s word, and that is as good as a contract, in my opinion. He told me the salary he would pay Chivu, and he told me Inter needs Chivu.
That was the latest one (interview in Romania I believe), but there was one regarding the value from a few weeks ago before this got blown way out of proportion.
I’m sure Moratti was thrilled when he hear that. But I haven’t been making up the stories here, I’ve been going with direct quotes and known facts. I do the conspiracy theories for fun, but this isn’t that.
Posted from
United States -
I was reading these comments in reverse order, and I thought your quote was from Chivu, Chris. For a second I thought he’d gone all Zlatan on us, and was starting to like him a bit just for having the balls to talk about himself in the third person.
Posted from
Portugal -
That’s funny.
I fully support anyone who speaks in the third person. Except Rickey Henderson.
Posted from
United States -
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Bo knows talking in the third person.
Holy fucking shit that site has a POLL ABOUT WHERE YOU WANT HIM TO GO?! Talk about balls.
Posted from
Portugal -
yes chris, you’ve certainly established the evidence of said illegal tampering. I’m just not convinced it’s as iron-clad as you think. Perhaps you have a better notion of how well a Romanian interview (media reports always being so reliable and all) with an agent will function as evidence in legal proceedings, but I personally have no idea.
My Italian is terrible and google-translate doesn’t always help, but the only brief mention of possible formal complaints from Roma that I can find seems to involve Becali and not Inter. If Inter are dragged in (and I’m skeptical), it’ll probably just be a fine, since this ‘incident’ simply isn’t comparable to others, such as Roma-Mexes. They also won’t be able to legally tie Inter to failed Real transfer ‘damages’, leaving only Chivu and his agent at risk for that (and perhaps not even them).
In the end, hopefully Roma aren’t too distracted by all this and neglecting to lock up their players with contracts expiring in ‘09. Gotta learn this lesson eventually, right?
Posted from
United States -
First of all, it’s quite clear Roma didn’t want to wrap up Chivu. He offered last year, they refused. How could they expect he’d be such a dick about a transfer? Or than Moratti would offer such an obscene amount of money? Nobody expected that. No one could have. Flip through the interviews though, the team always says more of “he’s a friend” than “we’re losing a great defender.” Roma obviously know more than anyone how good he is, they just don’t rate him as highly as the majority of casual fans. That much has been established.
Rosella has said that she will consider making a case Inter but will think about it because her dad and Moratti were BFF. I also don’t think Roma is the main problem, Cagliari and the Suazo situation is the same deal. Moratti has obviously made a habit of this (Luis Jimenez - Lazio also). That’s the major problem. It’s not a one time deal. And anyways, tell me you’d be shocked to find every phone in Italy has been tapped up post-Calciopoli. I wouldn’t.
And for what it’s worth, I see this type of stuff around my job all the type. I’ll admit I don’t know FIFA’s rules or the European judicial system well (read: whatsoever), but I’ve seen cases fly through on much much less. Especially civil. I’m sure you’ll lose plenty of sleep over that. :)
Posted from
United States
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