Newsie Odds and Ends for Monday

By: Martha | December 11th, 2006

Gila in happier days. •Before that whole Calciopoli thing, Fiorentina were sitting pretty: After being dead and buried as a club just a few year before, they capped a series of promotions by finishing fourth in Serie A, and were headed into the Champions League. Then, of course, they lost a bunch of points and had that CL berth taken away as punishment, and are now focusing on getting out from under that point-deduction rock. Despite all that, though, Cesare Prandelli was just voted the best top-flight coach of least season, so their 2005-2006 record clearly is legit in the minds of whoever votes on such things. (Speaking of Fiorentina, I really wish they were on TV more often. They’re playing well, and Mutu is having a fantastic season. Why do we not get to see this?)

•Oh boy, more blackmail! Well, this is only an update, really, but still — blackmail! Shady doings! It comes as no surprise to anyone that Gila has denied both paying anyone for sordid pictures and asking his chairman to do so. And, if you even think about publishing anything embarrassing or mean, he’ll sue your ass. (No word yet on if his missed the penalty yesterday because there were visions of photos with the dreaded “argument gay” dancing before his eyes.)

•Hey, does anyone know what was up with the red scarves on everyone yesterday? I assume they were in support of some cause, but what the heck was the cause?

•Today’s rumors out of Milan are fairly tame, with both teams gunning for players already in Italy: Milan are reportedly after Udine’s Sulley Muntari, while Inter want Cagliari’s David Suazo. Though Spartak Moscow have apparently offered a mint for Muntari, he quite wisely isn’t jazzed about moving to Moscow, so Milan are in with a shout there. Supposedly. The Suazo deal, meanwhile, is sort of complicated but — unlike a lot of these rumors — actually sounds plausible. It’s unclear when it might happen (Inter want him now, but Suazo is planning to end his season with Cagliari), but Mancini is reportedly pushing for a partial loan deal, with Marco Andreolli possibly going the other way.

•I know all you readers in Malta have been sitting around thinking “Life is good right now, but MAN would it be perfect if my kid could train with some Atalanta coaches!” (You know where this is going, don’t you?) Well, friends, today is your lucky day! Every damn kid between six and eight who wants to attend training sessions with the magicians from Atalanta’s academy will be able to do so later this month when, in exchange for a small fee, each kid will get not only footballing smarts, but also an evaluation of their skillz and cool Atalanta stuff to boot. Woo hoo! Now if only they would come here and offer to train old, inept women like myself, this would be a really fantastic program.

•And, finally, the weekend’s award for the best translated headline goes to La Gazetta Dello Sport, for this gem: Ibra: “I am well, therefore I render.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.