The Latest on a Quartet of Impending Transfers

By: Martha | July 5th, 2007

Wise diver. Just to get it out of the way: Roma and Real have agreed terms on the sale of Cristian Chivu. Hooray! Now, though, Chivu and Real have to work out personal terms, so the saga is probably a long way from over. Boooo!

I freely admit that my disinterest in talking about the Chivu saga rings a bit false when I continue to bang on about where Fabrizio Miccoli is going, but I can’t stop. Though it’s not being observed anywhere near carefully enough in the Italian press, their Portuguese counterparts are all over the Miccoli issue, and the latest is that the striker (who stayed on vacation in Italy instead of turning up at Benfica’s training camp this week) will move to Palermo for a fee of about €4.5 million, and has agreed to a three-year, €2 million/season deal with the Rosanero. Though his agent yesterday refused to confirm that the deal was done, at this point it would be a shock to see Miccoli stay in Portugal.

Ricardo Oliveira, meanwhile, finally has some possible landing spots for when he’s thrown out of Milan this summer. At the moment it looks like he’ll end up back in Spain, with Real Zaragoza and Villareal the most interested parties. Though there have not yet been any formal talks with either club, both have reportedly made offers, with Zaragoza’s deemed the most alluring, in no small part because of Milan’s possible interest in Zaragoza’s young Argie, Diego Milito.

And, finally, Lyon target Fabio Grosso — whose name, incidentally, means “large” in Italian, and “thick” in Portuguese, thus leading to hours of Google translate fun — is moving closer to France. Yay! The player himself is supposedly desperate to join the club and, if media reports can be believed (insert snort of derision here), is due in Lyon today for face-to-face talks. Lyon need to replace the recently departed Eric Abydal, and for some reason are willing to pay big money for Grosso; if Inter turn down any even slightly reasonable offer, they’re out of their damn minds.