Filed under: Champions League, Italian League, Premier League, Spanish League, Transfer Market
Since I have not been able to post new stuff on the blog, here’s a quick overview of what has been happening around:
* Fiorentina and Lazio are back into Serie A, after both clubs appealed against the original ruling. They also had their points deduction reduced. Same goes to Juventus and AC Milan, as both had point deduction reduced as well, but Juventus are still dropping to Seria B, though they have a bettech chance on returning to Seria A next season. While AC Milan are now given back their spot in the Champions League (official declarion awaited). Inter Milan were also handed over last season’s 2005/2006 league title.
* Ruud Van Nistelrooy switched to Real Madrid afterall, after I had initially reported it two weeks ago.
* Valencia striker Mista has signed for Atletico Madrid, while Fernando Torres has declared that he will be staying at Atletico.
* Manchester United have signed Tottenham and English international midfielder Michael Carrick for 18m pounts.
* Chealse sold both Del Horno (to Valencia) and Duff (to Newcastle), while Liverpool gave up on Daniel Alves and signed Jermaine Pennant.
FC Barcelona has reached an agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta. Thuram has signed a two-year contract while Zambrotta has committed himself for the next four years.
Thuram and Zambrotta, together with the rest of the Barca squad who took part in the World Cup, will join up with the team for the tour of Mexico and the United States.
Real Madrid have completed the signing of Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro and Brazilian Emerson. The Spanish club paid £13.7m for Juventus, a bargain in today’s prices.
New Real Madrid president Calderon has also promised to bring in Robben, Kaka and Fabregas. The club is also on the verge of officialy completing the signing of Nistelrooy.
According to latest reports, Real Madrid’s new manager, Fabio Capello, has signed Manchester United’s Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, after having secured a transfer for a fee in the region of €12-14 million.
UPDATE: so far everything shows that Nistelrooy did not sign for Real Madrid yet, and is also currently in talks with Bayern Munchen.
Todays reports are claiming that a decision has already been made with both Juventus AND Milan relegated. An official decision is yet to be announced, but is expected today as announced previously.
Relegation of Milan will mean Kaka might be available to move to Real Madrid, as it’s new president Calderon planned. On the other hand, Juventus seem to be preparing for relegation by the sale of 27 year old Romanian striker Mutu for £5.5m to Fiorentina, while 20-year old Bulgarian international Valeri Bojinov is moving to other way as part of the deal.
UPDATE: News just came in that Juventus has signed Didier Deschamps as their new manager, the club had announced. The Frenchman aslo signed a two-year deal, supporting the claims of the inevitable drop of the club to a lower league, and perhaps even to Serie C.
Filed under: European Football, Premier League, Spanish League, Transfer Market
Liverpool have confirmed today that they have signed Brazilian Fabio Aurelio. The left full back moved on the bossman ruling from Valencia. Aurelio signed a four year deal.
More good news came to Liverpool’s way, as highly rated Chilean winger, Mark Gonzalez was granted a work permit. Gonzalez was initially denied a permit last season and had to be sent on loan to Real Sociadad where he set the club a light with his pace, trick and memorable longs shots against Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Liverpool are still in talks with Marseille regarding a loan move for Cisse to the French club. Liverpool are also still looking for a right winger, and negotiations with Sevilla to bring Daniel Alves to Anfield seem to have stalled. So Benitez is looking at other options, with Pennant being the most possible solution. A rumour also suggested that Liverpool may try to bid for Joaquin, with a players plus cash deal. Zenden, Barragan and Dudek, all might be included in the deal.
Another player leaving the club is Hamann, who looks likely to move to Manchester City. Hamann was set to move to Bolton earlier.
Tottenham have completed the signing of Ivory Coast midfielder Didier Zokora. The 25-year-old, who looked impressive for his country in their debut World Cup appearance, joins from French club St Etienne.
Zokora is regarded as one of the best holding midfielders in the world, and his arrival could raise question marks about Michael Carrick’s future at White Hart Lane, with Tottenham having turned down a bid from Manchester United for the England midfielder, and Arsenal also said to be trying to buy the player.
Zokora was wanted by Manchester and Arsenal as well, and a number of other top European clubs.
Spurs later revealed Zokora had signed a five-year contract.
Liverpool have completed the signing of Blackburn Rovers forward Craig Bellamy for 6m pounds. The welshman signed a four year contract believed to be worth 40,000 a week.
On the move, Bellamy commented: "It's a dream come true to sign for the club I supported as a boy and to actually play for Liverpool will be an enormous honour. I'm a very proud person at the moment. The fact that it was Liverpool made it impossible for me to turn down the move. As I'm a fan, it doesn't matter what club I was at – I could never turn Liverpool down. You get the chance to play for Liverpool and it's a lifelong dream come true".
As I mentioned, the failure of selling Cisse meant Liverpool will be short on money to sign one of their prime targets, who were thought to be David Villa and Fernando Torres.
Therefore, Benitez have made the logical approach and went for a cheaper and proven option by tabling an official bid of £6.5m, which is also Bellamy's release clause
Both the player and the club have opened talks, with reports saying that Bellamy is ready to snub Arsenal and take a wage cut, just to secure a move to his boy-hood club Liverpool.
In response, Blackburn are to offer Craig Bellamy £65,000-a-week in the hope that he will take the cash rather than agree a summer move to Anfield. But Bellamy's insistence of the insertion of a specific clause in his contract suggested he viewed Rovers as a stepping stone to bigger things.
Despite the official bid, Liverpool are still in talks with Feyenoord about Dirk Kuyt. Benitez will only pay up to £10m, but the dutch club are trying to raise that number to £14m.
Another option for Liverpool is Michael Owen, who is reported to have a £12m clause in his contract, but Benitez is said to be not keen on paying that amount for Owen, but wouldn't mind if the Liverpool board finance it themselves, instead of using up Benitez's transfer budget.
The signing of Craig Bellamy now looks very likely, but it's yet to be seen if Benitez will settle with Bellamy, Fowler and Crouch as his attacking force, not to mention that Sinama Pongolle is still at the club.
Barcelona have reached an agreement with Chelsea to sign Eidur for £8m. The player has already done a medical, and is expected to sign a four-year deal. The Icelandic striker struggled to retain his striker position, and was played out of position in most of last season's games. Throw in Shevchenko's arrival, and a move to Barcelona was only logical.
Barcelona captain Carles Puyol expressed his delight about the new signing. "He is strong, fast and scores goals. I have played against him and is a great player". said Puyol.
In other news, FC Barcelona have loaned young Argentinean striker, Maxi Lopez, to Real Mallorca for one season. Maxi and Barcelona lately agreed that a year of regular first team football experience would develope his chances at Barca in the future.
Chelsea seem to be keen on signing German star Phillip Lahm and Portuguese Deco. But the latter mentioned that he does not desire to reunite with his old manager, and he's very happy at Barcelona with his family.
Footy In A Week 