Blog: Careless whispers
With the silly season almost over, Antonio Labbate picks out his favourite summer transfer rumours which were never going to happen.
I love a good transfer rumour. I love a bad one even more. And there’s been a few this summer to keep us all entertained. From the surprising to the unlikely, to the downright ridiculous, the media in the motherland and across the whole of Europe have kept the rumour mill turning at a decent speed.
Let’s start with a couple of deluded Premiership clubs. Step forward Manchester City and Hull City over their respective pursuits of Ronaldinho and Christian Vieri. Let’s be honest here, neither were really Premiership bound.
The Manchester outfit may now have the finances to compete with Milan, but it was clearly another crackpot idea from Dr Thaksin to think he could take on the Italian giants in this chase and win. Only a secret love and admiration for Francis Lee would have seen the Brazilian head for Eastlands.
As for Vieri, Hull were offering him £10,000-a-week. Although always interested in making a quick buck, even this Italian playboy draws the line somewhere. With the city being highlighted in a 2005 survey as the worst place in the UK to live – it must be bad, I’ve been to Barnsley – the veteran preferred to take his chances with the Atalanta Ultras who welcomed his arrival with insults and smoke bombs.
Another unlikely story, emanating from Portugal this time, suggested that Juventus were challenging Inter for the signature of Ricardo Quaresma. Yeah right. Can someone please tell the rest of Europe that the Bianconeri are in no financial position to shop at Waitrose on a weekly basis, Asda is more their thing these days.
It must have also been a very slow news day when whispers, the quietest of whispers, saw Clarence Seedorf linked with a move to Juventus and Roma’s Christian Panucci associated with a return to Milan. Yep, at the age of 35 he’s clearly the answer to the Rossoneri’s ageing backline problems.
Nevertheless, one of the most unlikely stories came just this week when Sunderland were being paired with a £10m bid for Giorgio Chiellini of Juventus. It’s the sort of gossip that leads one to believe that some news desks have two pots on them – one full of player names and one with club names.
And finally, we turn to the rumours suggesting that Goran Pandev would swap Lazio for Roma. While it is believable that the Giallorossi rate the Macedonian – he’d be a good fit – at what point did anyone think a move was on? He’s Lazio’s biggest asset and Roma are their biggest rivals. As if President Claudio Lotito wasn’t unpopular enough.
Football Italia
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