Odds and Ends to Quell Your Fruitless Search for Actual News
By: Martha | July 5th, 2007
•Just so you know, Big Phil has opened the door for Luis Figo to return (again) to the Portuguese national team. Seems incredibly unlikely — he’s not the sort of player who would be happy doing the mentoring thing and not playing much, and the next major tournament is a full year away — but any sort of Figo love is worth reporting. (Also, now that I’ve told you, I have an excuse to feature a picture of him with this post. See how that works?)
•Much like the Saga of Chivu, the Story of Sheva refuses to go away, and remains almost entirely impenetrable. On one hand, his agent says he’s not leaving Chelsea, and that Milan need to get over themselves and move on. On the other, Milan may be considering an offer of €25 million for the striker, an amount which is less outrageous than it seems because Sheva would accept a massive wage cut upon arrival, and could therefore be labeled a “bargain signing.” Sigh. We know nothing.
•For reasons that are unclear to me, Fiorentina’s Tomas Ujfalusi is desperate to leave Italy this summer and could be sold to Sevilla for a fee of €5.5 million. (tmc, who’s going to play right back if he goes? I assume it’s not old man Jorgensen.)
•Speaking of endless sagas, we still don’t know if Pavel Nedved is playing next year or not. He and his people reportedly met with Juve reps yesterday and came away unhappy (Nedved? Pouting? I am shocked.) — apparently the issue is not whether The Great Pavel feels he can contribute for another season, but rather how much Juve will pay him to do so. Seriously, Pavel. Just shut up for once.
•No matter how much Carol Ancelotti wants Brazlian boy genius Pato, he may be out of luck: Chelsea have bid ÂŁ10 million for the striker, and their offer may even have been accepted by Independiente Internacional. One has to image most of the major bids — from Chelsea, Milan, and Real Madrid — will be in the region of €20 million, and Pato’s destination will come down to a choice of league rather than offer. Whichever deal is accepted, he won’t go anywhere until September when he turns 18 and can legally be transferred internationally.
•Not only does Andrea Barzagli not know where he’ll be playing next season, but he also doesn’t even know who’s interested anymore. Yesterday, Genoa were desperate to sign him. Today? Not so much. Juve? Haven’t heard from them in ages, actually. At the moment, Inter are looking like a good option, what with them giving up on Chivu and everything. Heaven knows how long that interest will last, though, since they’re now maybe not quite done with Chivu.
•Speaking of Palermo, the club’s Edison Cavani is currently doing them proud at the U20 Championships in Canada where he’s been regularly saving Uruguay’s bacon.
•Oh, and: Mauro Esposito will spend next season with Roma, Samp signed (the very pretty) midfielder/back Reto Ziegler from Spurs, and Milan loaned resident caveman Marco Storari to Real Betis.
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I’m not sure what Ujfalusi is thinking, but there were rumors about him going to England in the winter transfer window, so it is fair to assume he wants out. Sevilla had a great season last year, so good luck to him if he goes there. I can’t see any particular connection as to why he wants to head there, but I’m not that familiar with La Liga.
As far as what the Viola plan to do with their back line this year, it seems a little bit up in the air. The gentleman they signed from Juve, Balzaretti is a left back, and Vanden Borre, from Anderlecht, is a right back (but only 19). I think they’d still like to get Barzagli from Palermo, but I think the Rosaneri, still bitter about Toni, won’t sell him to Fiorentina.
There are a lot of guys in the team right now that are primarily center backs - obviously the captain Danielli is going to start, but there is also Kroldrup, Gamberini and Potenza. Possibly one of these guys could move to the outside. And Jorgensen has shown that he can play right back in a pinch, or if Prandelli wants to field a more attacking team this works out well.
All in all - Ujfalusi wants to go and this seems like the perfect time to sell him. There are probably enough defenders in the team now, and I’m sure Prandelli can figure out a way to make it work. Fiorentina did give up the fewest goals in the Serie A this year, and Frey is one of the top goalies in the league, so they should be all right.
Also, if they end up selling Bojinov, I hope they can get more that Tornio is offering. Those crafty bastards are offering less than 1/2 of what Fiorentina paid for him.
Posted from
United States
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Juve’s problem with Nedved is that they gave in to Trezeguet’s pouting to the tune of either 4 or 4.5 million Euros next year, so Pavel is feeling like the poor, ignored stepchild. (He’s thinking “I never made a derogatory gesture to the Juve brass.”)
Don’t worry, Pavel. You’ll always have prettier hair.
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United States -
The Ujfalusi talk kind of alarms me because if Sevilla are buying right-backs, does that mean they’re willing to sell Dani Alves to Chelsea or Real? Not good. But Sevilla’s a great club to go to because unlike almost everybody else in Spain, their technical staff are sane and know what they’re doing, despite their crazy-ass president.
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Australia -
Pato to Chelsea is my dream, why? Because it frees up Drobga or Sheva to Milan.
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United States -
Pato in Internacional’s books :)
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United States -
Fixed, Lubaba, thanks. That’s what I get for trusting goal.com …
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Portugal -
Thanks, as usual, tmc — I’d forgotten van den Borre could slot in back there. I wonder if that sort of responsibility right away would help or hurt him, I remember a commenter saying he’s had a bit of an attitude problem in the past.
That’s a good point, Laurie, though Trez was going to leave, not retired, which somehow makes it a slightly different situation for me. Or not?
Linda, Sevilla’s got a crazy president, too? Awesome! Is he the Zamparini of Spain? That bonkers?
Gianfranco, do you really think Chelsea would be so sure a 18-year-old kid (who couldn’t even join the team until Sept 2) could step right into the side that they’d sell Sheva or Drogba right away? I sort of doubt it …
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Portugal -
Yeah, Del Nido’s probably the worst of the Primera presidents, and that’s saying something. Just one example, courtesy of Sid Lowe:
“…a director’s box argument ended with in a scuffle during which Jose MarĂa Del Nido was pushed down some stairs by [Betis president] Lopera’s nephew Javier Páez, after he had told him: ‘You’ve got the same gay face as your uncle.’”
Plus, there’s lurky allegations of corruption and all that fun stuff.
Posted from
Australia -
*boggle* Ok, well that’s awesome. I’ll add his utter madness to my (currently shortish) list of reasons to start following La Liga on a more than token basis.
Posted from
Portugal
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