Mmm … Rumors (Transfer and Otherwise)

By: Martha | March 19th, 2007

Canna n Zambrotta Look at all the rumors swirling in the air today! Isn’t it great? Why, if there wasn’t snow outside, I’d swear it was summer.

•First of all, Werder Bremen midfielder Torsten Frings want his name out of all of our mouths, because the talk about him moving to Juve is a big lie. Not only is he not going to Turin, he’s not even been approached by the club. So would you all just shut up and stop asking him about it? Please?

•Our friend Luca Toni, meanwhile, is secretly thrilled we’re all talking about him (as, even more secretly, are Fiorentina, who know all the talk is just pushing his transfer fee higher). Based only on the past few days of news, he’s either going to Inter as a replacement for Crespo who will be weeping his way back to London, delaying talks with Fiorentina so he can concentrate on the season (Read: Not have to lie about wanting to stay to the president’s face), heading to Bayern, or casting aside his Champions League dreams to sign with Juve.

•Shock of shocks, Inter are officially appealing the punishments UEFA handed down on their brawlers and the club’s bank account. Good luck with that.

•Now that he’s scored his first goal for Barca, Gianluca Zambrotta is content to stay with the club at least until the end of his contract in 2010. He wants, he says, to “win everything” in Spain, and is rubbishing reports of a return to Juve over the summer. Well that’s disappointing. Personally, I’m going to assume he’s lying because I would like to see him come home, thank you very much.

•Adriano is in trouble Again. He was caught out late last night partying. Again. Typical, right? But the part that came after, when he supposedly got into a fight with an American basketball player who plies his trade in Italy (a gent by the name of Rolando Howell — for those of you unfamiliar, he was a Gamecock), is a new wrinkle in the Adriano night out. As a result of the trouble, he either missed or was told to miss a morning flight to France, where he was due to play in a benefit match tomorrow night. Oops. I don’t know about anyone else, but I always like to celebrate my escape from the doghouse by repeating the behavior that got me there in the first place. I mean, for the love of God — if we’re exasperated, imagine how poor Mancini feels.

•And, finally, the John-Terry-to-Juve rumor is back again, this time to the tune of a £20 million offer to Chelsea for the player. This story coincides with reports out of England suggesting that Roman Ambramovich is unwilling to meet Terry’s marginally insane demands (allegedly he wants a nine-year deal — he’d be 35 at the end of it — and a guarantee that he’d be the club’s top-earner for each of those years), so the timing at least makes it seem slightly little plausible. Ever so slightly.

Edit: And Inter are all over the Adriano damage control already. All together now: “It was just a simple misunderstanding.” Mmm hmm.