Today in Chivu, Or: The Transfer Market Isn’t Even Open, and Already This is Totally Out of Control

By: Martha | June 20th, 2007

He's a thinker he is. As RomaChris and various frantic Big Soccer posters reported last night, there was a brief on Tuesday during which Il Romanista (I’d sarcastically say they’re published by the same people who bring us Tuttosport if I didn’t think that was actually true, based on their webapages. If nothing else, the two papers employ the same team of eager, rumor-monger monkeys to create their stories.) were announcing Inter’s successful purchase of Roma defender Crisitian Chivu. After giving all Roma fans a heart attack, the paper rescinded the story, though a deal for the Romanian may not be far off.

If this morning’s La Gazzetta dello Sport is to be believed, any agreement will no longer formally involve the rights to midfielder David Pizarro, over whose value there has been significant disagreement. That said, supposedly everything was worked out by phone yesterday (With Inter personnel, clearly in a panic after the Suazo disaster, suddenly becoming remarkably easy to contact via cell phone.) and, depending on who you believe, Pizarro could be 100% owned by Roma within just a few hours for about €6 million.

The Chivu deal, meanwhile, though it’s connected in the minds of pretty much everyone to Pizarro’s, is being handled “separately” due to the whimsical wishes of Roma Supremess Rosella Sensi; once the Chilean’s situation is sorted, the two teams will turn to the issue of the Romanian, which Google translate leaves a bit murky. As far as I can tell, the Spanish interest in the player Roma had anticipated using to drive his domestic price up hasn’t panned out as they’d hoped and, despite the €20 million-ish they had in mind, they will likely sell Chivu to Inter for a “mere” €12 million, mostly out of fear of losing him on a free in the near future if they don’t cash in now. According to the papers, about half the cash will immediately be reinvested in Bayern Leverkusen’s Brazilian defender Juan, so that hole in the back should last only a matter of minutes. (And, if that doesn’t make Roma fans feel any better, they also apparently have the Holy Grail, which has to count for something.)

*Because I know you’re curious, this is my favorite picture of Chivu ever. No need for nipple-shields, sadly, but nice nevertheless.