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•The Italian lottery is over €100 million right now, and some Viola fans have decided they're going to win it and a)pay Mutu's fine, which he's condemned as "profoundly unjust," and b)give the Della Valles the remaining cash to buy players. &hearts

•In the wake of the tournament in Sicily, one of the fan sites has done an evaluation of the ( Read more... )

•There's been a reassuring lack of panic (outside of the Romanian press, I mean) about the Mutu decision. Adi had an informal meeting with ADV and Cesare the day he found out, but has been training mostly as usual, and is also called up and expected to start in the tournament today. His lawyers sound like they're planning an appeal in civil court ( Read more... )

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•The work in Cortina is all done now; the team are headed back to Florence and are off now until Tuesday, when they head to San Piero a Sieve for the second leg of their preseason work. (Here's the tentative schedule for the next three weeks.)

•There are highlights here of yesterday's 7-0 friendly win over Belluno, in which Mutu, Jojo, Santana, ( Read more... )

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•As everyone knows by now, the Marchionni situation has been settled: He ended up taking the €1.3 million/season deal that Corvino had originally offered, and it's thought he was in Florence Friday to sign his contract and have his medical. He'll be presented sometime next week.

•Melo's not official, but the clubs have signed what they need ( Read more... )

•Gila won something called the Versilia Prize, which is awarded annually to "a person in the world of sport or entertainment that has linked his name to that of Versilia," and has already been won by such luminaries as Sebastien Frey and Marcello Lippi. I'm sure he's delighted, and will be on hand to receive the award later today, while Alice is ( Read more... )