Weekend Roundup of Odds and Ends
By: Martha | July 22nd, 2007
•Livorno have found themselves another aging striker to replace the dearly departed Cristiano Lucarelli: 31-year-old Diego Tristán, who was released in January by Mallorca for lack of fitness and form. Tristán had some spectacular years with Deportivo and has spent time in the Spanish national team; he’s theoretically been working on his fitness, and Livorno are desperately hoping he’ll be worth the £470,000 per season they’re paying him.
•Emerson still wants to go to Milan (despite the fact that his agent told us just a few weeks ago that everything was peachy at Real), but Inter are the ones who have supposedly made an offer for him, to the tune of €7 million.
•Speaking of Real and Milan, Spanish papers are claiming the Rossoneri are planning to prop up their aging defense with the addition of Fabio Cannavaro. Who is 33 years old. Good thinking, Milan!
•Though it’s yet to rise to a level above unofficial homepages of both teams, the rumor about Palermo and Fiorentina swapping Edison Cavani and Valeri Bojinov just won’t go away. I know the Viola are trying to get rid of the Bulgarian kid, but why on earth would Palermo let Cavani go so soon after he dominated the U20 World Cup in Canada? This has to be wishful Viola thinking.
•In the first competitive match of the year for a Serie A team, Sampdoria beat Bulgarian side Cherno More 1-0 in the Intertoto Cup. Woo hoo! If they can come through this punishing (because of the heat and the fact that the other teams are usually way further along in their preparation, not because everyone is so good) tournament, Samp will earn a spot in the UEFA Cup.
•About two days after declaring there would be no giant, blockbuster buy, Milan are now — for about the third time — supposedly going to pay Barcelona the €125 million it will take to trigger Ronaldinho’s buyout clause, in which case the club would be forced to let him leave. MADNESS. At this point, Milan sound more like Real Madrid than themselves, talking about making an insane buy to reassure supporters they remain a Big! Club!, rather than because it’s financially practical or a useful expenditure of the money.
•A study of Serie A officials has found that, were it not for refereeing errors, Chievo would still be in Serie A. Ouch ouch ouch.
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To say that Cavani “dominated” at the U-20 WC is a stretch (he was instrumental in Uruguay’s qualification - that’s why Palermo signed him). He scored 2 goals in 4 games (one against a talented Spanish team, and one against Jordan). I watched the Uruguay - US match and he looked dangerous but couldn’t finish on a couple half-chances he created. Plus his team displayed some tremendously poor sportsmanship and lack of maturity (one of his teammates sucker punched Bradley in the face while the US was celebrating its win).
In terms of how Cavani compares with Bojinov, it is interesting. It may be a fair switch, as I’d assume both have a similar value in terms of a transfer fee. Both are the same height, although Cavani strikes me as better in the air than Bojinov, which would make sense for Fiorentina as they are depending on the smaller, quicker Pazzini and Mutu this year for their strike force (with some relief from old man Bobo). I’ve long advocated the acquisition of a bigger forward, someone to act as a target man and scrap it up a little bit, you know, get on the end of crosses from Montolivo and Semioli.
I’m just surprised Palermo is willing to do business with Fiorentina, especially this transfer. Cavani made an excellent impression in his half season with Palermo, while Bojinov was impressive with Lecce, but it has been awhile. Plus, Palermo is still salty about the Toni transfer, and they didn’t want to sell Barzagli earlier this summer. If they decided to do this, it would have to be because they thought they were pulling one over on the Viola, I’d guess. I just can’t see that they are.
Posted from
United States
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I knew someone would call me on the “dominated” thing, you’re totally right (I sort of intentionally overstated it, I must confess).
Thanks for your analysis, it’s interesting to look at the two of them with regard to their specific attributes. While I agree that it would be a useful deal for Fiorentina, I can’t see why Palermo would make it, Toni transfer or not. It seems like a deal for the sake of deal for them, which would just be silly. IMHO.
What do you think Lupoli’s role will be this year, tmc? If everyone stays healthy, how many appearances will he get? In my head he’s very much a backup, but if someone gets hurt he could be under a lot of pressure very quickly.
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Yeah, I know very little about Lupoli. He didn’t have a very good scoring record on loan this year from Arsenal at Derby County, but he is pretty young and that was really his first chance playing in a first team. He’s another little dude, but he’s very excited to be at Fiorentina and wants to prove himself, which is awesome.
Clearly, right now he’s 4th choice. Mutu, Pazzini, and Vieri are in front of him. The idea that Corvino and Prandelli are still pursuing strikers does not necessarily bode well for the young man (I’m guessing they’d like to add 1 more). Plus, I’m not sure at this point exactly how Prandelli will align his team on the field, which could impact how many of these guys Fiorentina put out there at once.
I’m intrigued with the Rossi situation, though I worry that Pazzini and Rossi are redundant (though Italy’s best performance at the U-21 Euro tournament came with both on the field at the same time). If given the choice between Cavani and Rossi, I’d like to see Fiorentina sell Bojinov and use the money to out-bid Parma for Rossi.
But I still think the main thing Fiorentina needs to do before the end of the transfer period is get a bad-ass holding midfielder. I really don’t want to seem them start the season relying on Liverani for that.
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Im surprised there’s no rumors about Juve.
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United States -
Martha, you are awesome..!! keep it goin..
Come on Milan, admit it if you dont want to make any transfers..!!Posted from
France -
We have had enough reading again about the planned bid that is going to happen anytime now..!! Ha!!
As martha rightly put it, its the nth time the rumours are surfacing about Milan making a dash for ‘dinho..
I am an out and out Milan fan and (no sour grapes here!!) am happy witht he current line up we have. But another ‘Champion striker’ as Galliani puts it would do much good for the rossoneri, its a wait-wait game this transfer process i tell you..!Posted from
France -
Thanks a lot, hrishi! (But do you really want Ronaldinho at that price? It seems like insanity to me — surely you could get two fantastic strikers for the same payout.)
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Portugal -
I worry about Pazzani and Rossi being redundant, too, tmc, though I think Pazzani could adjust and make the it work with time. (It could be unfair, but I see no signs in Rossi’s style that suggest he’s willing to adjust for anyone around him — he is what he is.)
And you know I love the tough midfielders; I’m still not over my stupid fantasy of the Viola signing Corini for a year while they shop but that ship has sailed, obviously.
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Portugal -
no sane person would want dinho at that price… unfortunately for us milan fans, berlusconi is not sane… and we could get more than 2 fantastic strikers for that price, we could set up an all new awesome strikeforce with that much cash, pato, rossi and villa could come for a combined total of less than that
Posted from
United Arab Emirates -
[...] all pointing to January as the arrival date, at a price of about €60 million, way down from the insane numbers that were flying around over the [...]
Posted from
United States
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