Category: Section 2 Around the Net

Following the disingenuous affair that was Fiorentina owner Diego Della Valle’s “change of heart” press conference with star striker Luca Toni yesterday, Inter owner Massimo Moratti issued an apology to Toni, whom he had been pursuing for several weeks until the deal finally broke apart yesterday. Moratti blamed his poor relations with Della Valle as […]

It’s been nearly two years since we’ve seen the best from Italian striker Antonio Cassano, who emerged as a crucial player for Roma in the 2003-04 Serie A season under then-coach Fabio Capello. After Capello chose to leave the debt-ridden club at the end of that season, Cassano’s considerable talents fell by the wayside as […]

Jose Antonio Reyes is desperate to return to Spain with Real Madrid, and the Arsenal winger is having a hard time figuring out what exactly he should say to the press about the matter. The player has given several conflicting accounts about the speculation. Reyes most recently said he wants to sort things out “as […]

It’s a seller’s market out there in transfer world, writes Kevin McCarra of The Guardian. That translates to a glut of money and a shortage of talent, which means clubs with talented players know they can hold out for the right price. How else can you explain Michael Carrick’s $35 million transfer from Tottenham to […]

Fiorentina boss Diego Della Valle confirmed that Luca Toni will not be leaving the Florence club before the start of next season. Della Valle appeared at a press conference with the striker himself and sporting director Pantaleo Corvino, effectively putting the issue of his departure to bed. Inter Milan had been pursuing 29-year-old World Cup […]

Marcos Senna will shortly become a Manchester United player if the club can come up with the right price, the player’s club Villarreal said Tuesday. “If the offer is good for everyone, the club would allow Marcos to leave,” Villarreal’s general manager Jose Manuel Llaneza told Spanish paper Mundo Deportivo. United boss Sir Alex Ferguson […]

Juventus shot down an offer from Inter Milan for Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday. “It would annoy me to let him go for the wrong price because Juve has to be able to look after its interests,” said Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, who has had to watch his […]

French World Cup star Franck Ribery could be an Arsenal player by the end of the week according to British paper The Guardian, which learned that Arsenal handed in a formal bid to Olympique Marseille chairman Pape Diouf. The transfer offer was revealed in France Football, a publication said to be close to Arsenal coach […]

Three of South Africa’s new World Cup stadiums can be completed in three years, a timetable German architect Hubert Nienhoff says would have been unthinkable in Germany. Nienhoff helped design new stadiums in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. “The decision to begin construction now is actually too late for us Germans,” Nienhoff said, referencing […]

Hernan Crespo signed with Inter Milan after Chelsea allowed the unhappy Argentine striker move on a free transfer. Inter announced via its Web site that Crespo signed a two-year deal, although Chelsea still has the option to take him back next year. Officially, it’s a loan deal that will effectively see Crespo to the end […]

It was a good weekend for underdogs. After the MLS All-Stars beat Chelsea, Chivas of Guadalajara held Barcelona to a 1-1 tie in front of 92,650 at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. The highly anticipated match between Copa Libertadores semifinalists and the European champions set two records: it was the largest crowd ever to watch […]

One of the perks of the being a world-dominating coach like Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho is that when you do falter, and choose to make excuses, the rest of the world will believe youfor a time. So when we hear Mourinho tell ESPN2’s Brandi Chastain that his team’s lackluster performance is down to the heat and […]

It used to be that Jose Mourinho and Chelsea Football Club could enjoy certain degree of anonymity when coming to the States, but that would appear to be no longer, Mourinho laments. “This is the third season we have been here and things are changing,” he said. “One of the arguments — that you feel […]

There’s less than a month left in the summer transfer period and the fates of Ashley Cole, Cristiano Ronaldo, Hernan Crespo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic still hang in the balance. As we head into the weekend, rumor has it that Valencia is ready to offer Manchester United $20 million plus Argentine World Cup defender Roberto Ayala […]

Jose Antonio Reyes talked openly with Reuters of his desire to move to Real Madrid before Arsenal plays its third round Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday. If Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger chooses to play Reyes in the series with Zagreb, he would be unable to compete in the Champions League with Real […]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is ready to take Juventus to court if the club refuses to release him for a reasonable fee. After coach Didier Deschamps informed the remaining squad members that no one else would be allowed to leave, Ibrahimovic’s agent Mino Raiola asserted, “We are looking for an agreed way out but if that isn’t […]

Instead of an East-West All-Star game, this year the best from MLS will take on English Premier League Champions Chelsea, a team you could mistake for the World All-Stars if you didn’t know they share the same Russian employer. This is the third time MLS has chosen a foreign competitor as the opposition for the […]

Who says you have to live in America to act out the American dream? Jay DeMerit wanted to play in the English Premier League. He realized that playing at the University of Illinois at Chicago wasn’t going to help him realize his dream, so, two years ago, he packed up his things and moved to […]

Silvio Berlusconi, the outspoken former Italian Prime Minister and owner of AC Milan, expressed his outrage at UEFA’s condemnation of his club for its involvement in the Italian match-fixing scandal. Before reluctantly clearing the way for Milan to compete in next season’s Champions League, UEFA’s emergency panel issued a harsh statement accusing the club of […]

Italy and Fiorentina striker Luca Toni, hungry for more success after hoisting the World Cup in July, wants to leave the Florence club for Inter Milan, ANSA reports. However, Fiorentina owner Diego Della Valle isn’t inclined to honor the striker’s request, after Toni bagged 31 goals to lead Italy’s Serie A in scoring last year. […]

In England, it is a rite of passage for players who become global stars to pen their autobiography. Often, they sign on to do so with huge cash advances from book publishers, as a major player’s autobiography is an almost guaranteed success. The Guardian’s Marina Hyde calls attention to the fact that no less than […]

There’s no question that an in-form Ruud Van Nistelrooy is still one of the best strikers in the world, which makes his abrupt fall from grace at Manchester United and the Netherlands all the more remarkable. The record-breaking center forward had a very public falling out with former boss Sir Alex Ferguson in February that […]

Nobody at Chelsea is happy with the William Gallas situation, not Gallas, not his agent, not the club’s directors, and certainly not manager Jose Mourinho. After the Chelsea defender failed to turn up for preseason training in the U.S., Mourinho gave his number 13 to new-recruit Michael Ballack. Gallas had been told to join the […]

For not the first time, Chelsea has been accused of “tapping up” another team’s players, which means its scouts have been making illegal contact with them. Chelsea signed Leeds United youngsters Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo in March, after making what Chairman Ken Bates describes as an illegal approach. “This is a straightforward dispute over […]

Despite assurances from Juve executives that no one else would be leaving the relegated club, Mino Raiola, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s agent, confirmed that the striker intends to play elsewhere next season. New coach Didier Deschamps has been trying hard to convince the Swedish striker to stay to no avail. “Ibra will very probably leave Turin,” Raiola […]