Odds and Ends on a Slow News Day

By: Martha | August 3rd, 2007

Azzurri Amelia There’s almost nothing significant going on in the Serie A universe today. I’m thinking it’s gotten really hot in Italy, and everyone has headed out for a long weekend at a posh, Mediterranian resort. Either that or there’s another newspaper strike and there’s TONS going on but no one to tell us about it.

•The moment Milan landed Pato, the press starting banging on Massimo Moratti’s door, asking him when he was going to land a teenage superstar. Since he’s the president of Inter and not Real Madrid, rather than promising to buy Jesus himself, Morratti told the media that Inter have all the new players they need, thank you very much. Well. That’s not very exciting.

•On the other side of town, Milan are looking to land another new player before the day is out: According to Corriere dello Sport, they’ll sit down with Real Madrid in Moscow today to sort out the Julio Baptista issue. Though Baptista is insisting in the press that he wants to stay in Madrid, if Milan offer the €20 million Real are asking, it’s understood they’ll sell the player no matter what he wants.

•Valeri Bojinov is officially a Manchester City player, marking Sven Goran Eriksson’s eighth signing in three weeks. God damn that man is busy. The final fee was €8.5 million and, assuming he can get a work permit, Bojinov will sign a four-year deal with the club.

•According the English press, Sven’s next Serie A target is Marco Amelia. Far be it for me to tell Serie A clubs what to do, but I think it’s time to start hiding the players they don’t want Man City to buy in secret underground vaults — at this rate they’re going to have taken everyone by the end of August. It’s like Eriksson’s playing a video game, or something — “I want this one, and this one, and this one, and this one.”

•Inter are blocking Francesco Coco’s move to Saint-Etienne. Fuckers.

•The draw for the Champions League third qualifying round took place this morning and, despite being ranked, Lazio have to play Dynamo Bucharest, who are not exactly a walk-over. The matches will be played August 14-15 and 28-29; if Lazio come out on top, they’ll reach the group stages for the first time since the 2003-2004 season, when they were managed by a dude named Mancini.

•In UEFA Cup qualifying, meanwhile, Sampdoria (who reached this round through Intertoto Cup success) face a tough draw against Hajduk Split, who are not only good but also apparently have fanatical supporters. The Croatian club will host the first leg on August 16; the second leg will be in Genoa on August 30.

•Napoli may have missed out on Giuseppe Rossi, but the Brazilian press are reporting they’re front-runners to sign Sao Paolo’s Josue, a defensive midfielder whose Copa America performance for Brazil caught they eyes of a lot of clubs. According to Josue’s current manager, Napoli have offered the player more than Sao Paolo are willing to spend, and he’s accepted “that we are not in a position to compete with European clubs financially.” (This is the first and only time you’ll see Napoli described as a high-rolling club.)

•Just so you know, when he retires, Christian Vieri says he’s moving to New York. Oh yes, I will find him.

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: AC Milan, Champions League, Fiorentina, Inter, Lazio, Napoli, Rumors & News, Serie A, UEFA Cup

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Julie

Bobo to the USA ???? NOT jealous ...........
Lisa

A rigged draw? In Serie A? It would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable!
Martha

Rigged draw? No effing way man. Not in Italy.

Hey tmc, the commenting problem is with the Fiorentina blog, not you -- they're going to try to have it sorted by the end of the day, so keep trying.
tmc

Chris - where are you seeing said rumblings? I would be simply stunned if the "big" clubs arranged for a favorable draw and tried to conceal it ...

And I'm pretty sure Roma wasn't in favor of getting all of the top teams going into the season in a 6-7 match murders row, which of course happens twice.
sofia

its not our fault we were seeded. we didnt ask for it. apparently moratti felt it was a good idea, i heard that the big teams like roma, inter, and milan asked for juve to be seeded. we are the only ones that are not complaining like little children about the schedule. we are just happy to be back in serie a and could not care less who we play and when
chris

It might not be so slow after all. I'm seeing rumblings of a possible scandal after that ridiculous, and what no one could deny is possibly rigged due to the unbelievable shaft some teams got, draw for the fixture lists. And guess who everybody's pointing at:

Juve.
Martha

Chris, I'm ignoring your negativity. (Needless to say, he's coming here for the museums.)

Sofia, I saw that video and that story -- must be nice to be such a big club you can sign anyone with a cool video, and not suffer when they don't pan out and you dump them when they turn 12 ....
chris

I thought Bobo was better than that
rickard

This activity never fails on a slow day; watching great Ibra videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
sofia

dear god! eriksson is trying to take marco bresciano now too!!! no im sorry thats not fair i like watching the little australian run around...dammit hes got a cool accent! ok this guy is starting to annoy me....first he wants to take chiellini from juve but luckily we stopped that in time and now he wants to take cool accent guy away too what the hell is his problem?? go find some english people....

speaking of manchester...man utd is signing a 9 year old kid from brisbane, australia because his grandpa sent a dvd to them of the kid doing tricks and stuff and they liked him so they are going to sign him. the kid was born in england and so he has a british passport so hes good but i cant belive hes only 9.
Martha

Lisa, all I can find is that he'd passed his medical and was preparing to play with Saint-Etienne this weekend, only to have Inter thell him they "couldn't reach an agreement" with the club. So, I guess it's back to training with the Primavera team.
Lisa

Why won't Inter let Coco go? (Didn't this same thing happen last summer too?)
Martha

Well, he had a great stretch at Lazio and clearly still has affection for the league. What I wonder is if he's been watching Serie A games for the past year with a pad of paper next to his chair, writing down a list of players he'd buy if he ever got another managerial job.
sofia

ok so is it just me or does sven goran eriksson have a thing for serie a players?? this is crazy, everyone is leaving serie a to play for man city!!!