Mutu + Friendlies + More Transfer Rumors
•Last week in New York, Mutu used Steve Nash's Showdown in Chinatown [There are pictures all over the interwebs of the event, including here and here.] to test out his surgically repaired knee and elbow. Because he's a good boy, he wore his elbow brace, but there was nothing on his knee and he scored two goals, talked to his old Inter homies, and came through it all just fine. Woo hoo! He also would like everyone to know that, while he may not be "very famous," he is very good. Isn't that somehow exactly what you'd expect him to say?
•The club have officially announced their slate of friendlies for this summer, highlights of which include a match against PSG at home, and a visit to Aston Villa.
•Fiorentina went to the envelopes on three co-owned players, and they lost on all three of them: Carcuro goes to Treviso, Zappacosta to Pescara and Danilo D'Ambrosio to Juve Stabia. Whether La Viola actually wanted any of them and bid anything is anyone's guess. They didn't go to the envelopes on Papa Waigo, instead agreeing to continue their co-ownership deal with Genoa.
•One of the fan sites did a nice breakdown of the current squad, examining their odds of staying and leaving with actual, useful words rather than just percentages.
•La Viola's profits from last year's Champions League run, such as it was, come to almost €17 million. There's a more detailed breakdown of how much each team made here (warning: click launched PDF download), if anyone is interested.
•To sum up the Melo situation, everyone wants him, his agent says he's staying. Lather, throw in periodic Melo statements that are translated into three different meanings, rinse, repeat.
•The Acosty Boadu Maxwell deal, discussed in detail here, is officially done. Also official now are Mazuch's loan to Anderlecht and the exchange with Ascoli of Lupoli for half of Francesco Di Tacchio.
•For what it's worth, the Taddei rumor is back. What he'd do at Fiorentina, I really don't know, but he'd probably be cheap, since he could go on a free next summer, and Roma would want to get something for him before that.
•Things continue to look good for Drenthe, with Corvino admitting they've agreed on a loan with Real and that Drenthe has no objections, but that they're still working on getting the price for purchase down, should they want to keep him. Most of the fan sites are saying something should be sorted out by Tuesday, but that could be just wishful scheduling on their parts.
•There's also optimism for the arrival of Cesare's boy Marchionni, for whom there's reportedly already an agreement in principle with Juve; the rumored fee is about €2.8 million, and he's expected to make €1.4 million/season. If both he and Drenthe show up, the fan sites consider it a signal of a permanent move to the 4-2-3-1 system, with Melo and Monty in front of the defense, and Drenthe, Mutu and Marchionni behind Gila.
•The Dutch media have gotten very loud with their claims that Fiorentina are following Marcus Berg -- priced at €10 million -- as a possible vice-Gila, but Corvino denies it. He does, however, admit to continued interest in Julio Cruz, if not to the extent that's being reported. Cruzi's agent, meanwhile, says he's not heard from Fiorentina, but that his client would be totally into going there (if, one assumes, they'll pay him a lot). Another vice-Gila rumor, the one about Pozzi, has been torpedoed by Empoli's president, who says Pozzi's going to a smaller team, where he'll be able to player regularly. And, finally, a couple new additions to the vice-Gila sweepstakes are Juve's Michele Paolucci, whose agent says there's nothing concrete going on with Fiorentina, and, at least according to the English media, Everton's South African strike, Steven Pienaar.
•There are new stories this weekend about Fenerbahce tabling a large offer for Vargas -- the rumored amounts range from €13-15 million. If one believes quotes from Corvino that seem to have originated in the Turkish press -- goal.com erroneously attributes them to a Viola fan site -- Fiorentina could sell him for the €15 million. (Assuming Vargas hasn't asked to leave, though, it's hard to take those quotes at face value, since they'd contradict everything Corvino has said to this point.)
•In addition to Drenthe and Marchionni, Corvino also specifically mentioned Abate as a target, though his agent claims he's not yet heard from Fiorentina. Last Thursday, Milan bought Torino's half of Abate back from them, so if Corvino wants him, he's going to have to go to Milan now, rather than to his buddy Foschi at Torino.
•Defensively, the rumored targets are pretty much the usual suspects -- still including both LDS and Italy-killer Andreas Beck -- with the rumored addition of Oguchi Onyewu, who's had a good Confederations Cup for the US. There's particular focus right now on Santacroce, because Napoli supposedly still want Pasqual (whether he's agreed in principle to an extension or not), and there's talk of a Pasqual-for-Santacroce swap. Esposito, too, is still being mentioned a lot, particularly since his agent says he's spoken to Fiorentina.
•Apart from Pasqual, there's also reported interest in Dainelli from Parma and Lazio, acknowledged interest from Parma in Santana, and alleged interest from Juve in Donadel (though his agent says he's not heard from a single club) and in Gobbi from Cagliari and Samp.
•The club have officially announced their slate of friendlies for this summer, highlights of which include a match against PSG at home, and a visit to Aston Villa.
•Fiorentina went to the envelopes on three co-owned players, and they lost on all three of them: Carcuro goes to Treviso, Zappacosta to Pescara and Danilo D'Ambrosio to Juve Stabia. Whether La Viola actually wanted any of them and bid anything is anyone's guess. They didn't go to the envelopes on Papa Waigo, instead agreeing to continue their co-ownership deal with Genoa.
•One of the fan sites did a nice breakdown of the current squad, examining their odds of staying and leaving with actual, useful words rather than just percentages.
•La Viola's profits from last year's Champions League run, such as it was, come to almost €17 million. There's a more detailed breakdown of how much each team made here (warning: click launched PDF download), if anyone is interested.
•To sum up the Melo situation, everyone wants him, his agent says he's staying. Lather, throw in periodic Melo statements that are translated into three different meanings, rinse, repeat.
•The Acosty Boadu Maxwell deal, discussed in detail here, is officially done. Also official now are Mazuch's loan to Anderlecht and the exchange with Ascoli of Lupoli for half of Francesco Di Tacchio.
•For what it's worth, the Taddei rumor is back. What he'd do at Fiorentina, I really don't know, but he'd probably be cheap, since he could go on a free next summer, and Roma would want to get something for him before that.
•Things continue to look good for Drenthe, with Corvino admitting they've agreed on a loan with Real and that Drenthe has no objections, but that they're still working on getting the price for purchase down, should they want to keep him. Most of the fan sites are saying something should be sorted out by Tuesday, but that could be just wishful scheduling on their parts.
•There's also optimism for the arrival of Cesare's boy Marchionni, for whom there's reportedly already an agreement in principle with Juve; the rumored fee is about €2.8 million, and he's expected to make €1.4 million/season. If both he and Drenthe show up, the fan sites consider it a signal of a permanent move to the 4-2-3-1 system, with Melo and Monty in front of the defense, and Drenthe, Mutu and Marchionni behind Gila.
•The Dutch media have gotten very loud with their claims that Fiorentina are following Marcus Berg -- priced at €10 million -- as a possible vice-Gila, but Corvino denies it. He does, however, admit to continued interest in Julio Cruz, if not to the extent that's being reported. Cruzi's agent, meanwhile, says he's not heard from Fiorentina, but that his client would be totally into going there (if, one assumes, they'll pay him a lot). Another vice-Gila rumor, the one about Pozzi, has been torpedoed by Empoli's president, who says Pozzi's going to a smaller team, where he'll be able to player regularly. And, finally, a couple new additions to the vice-Gila sweepstakes are Juve's Michele Paolucci, whose agent says there's nothing concrete going on with Fiorentina, and, at least according to the English media, Everton's South African strike, Steven Pienaar.
•There are new stories this weekend about Fenerbahce tabling a large offer for Vargas -- the rumored amounts range from €13-15 million. If one believes quotes from Corvino that seem to have originated in the Turkish press -- goal.com erroneously attributes them to a Viola fan site -- Fiorentina could sell him for the €15 million. (Assuming Vargas hasn't asked to leave, though, it's hard to take those quotes at face value, since they'd contradict everything Corvino has said to this point.)
•In addition to Drenthe and Marchionni, Corvino also specifically mentioned Abate as a target, though his agent claims he's not yet heard from Fiorentina. Last Thursday, Milan bought Torino's half of Abate back from them, so if Corvino wants him, he's going to have to go to Milan now, rather than to his buddy Foschi at Torino.
•Defensively, the rumored targets are pretty much the usual suspects -- still including both LDS and Italy-killer Andreas Beck -- with the rumored addition of Oguchi Onyewu, who's had a good Confederations Cup for the US. There's particular focus right now on Santacroce, because Napoli supposedly still want Pasqual (whether he's agreed in principle to an extension or not), and there's talk of a Pasqual-for-Santacroce swap. Esposito, too, is still being mentioned a lot, particularly since his agent says he's spoken to Fiorentina.
•Apart from Pasqual, there's also reported interest in Dainelli from Parma and Lazio, acknowledged interest from Parma in Santana, and alleged interest from Juve in Donadel (though his agent says he's not heard from a single club) and in Gobbi from Cagliari and Samp.