Honesty in the Transfer News World? Finally!

By: Greg | July 6th, 2007

dolla Fabrizio Miccoli completed his summer transfer saga by signing with Italian side Palermo today. He had previously stated that he would be delighted to stay with Benfica and that he had set aside a special place in his heart for the Portuguese side. However, he was only there on loan from Juventus and after a protracted ping pong game involving his status for the upcoming year, he made the move to Italian side Palermo final today.

In the end, Miccoli’s agent stated that Benfica were always in the running but that Palermo offered more money, so away he went. Thank you! Finally someone doesn’t come with some convoluted rhetoric about how their new team is the dream job and that while they love where they’re leaving that their heart was in a transfer elsewhere. If your heart is somewhere and your feelings mean more to you than money, then you’ll stay. Clearly, no matter how much he had endeared himself to Benfica, Miccoli was in it for the money.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. I find fault with the hollow claims of players who end up switching teams to the tune of massive pay increases and talk about how fantastic the new club is and how they can’t wait to get on the pitch. The truth of the matter is that they can’t wait to get that first paycheck. Miccoli did what was best for him, and fair play to that. He had a fantastic run into the final weeks for Benfica and it has yielded him a nice windfall and, in the end, the paycheck will make him plenty happy at Palermo.

In other quick notes, Simão is apparently going to be Atletico Madrid’s #2 option should the deal for Quaresma fall through. Simão’s actually a better fit there given his professionalism, versatility, and the fact that he won’t cost as much as Quaresma.

In a semi-related development, Liverpool may be opting away from Simão and going towards… Ricardo Quaresma. Seeing that the Simao deal may have stalled for the last time, and given Atletico Madrid’s apparent refusal to bid any higher for Quaresma, Liverpool are testing the waters with a bid of 13.5 million pounds for the Porto winger. Liverpool’s probably a better fit for Quaresma, but if I were him I’d stick around Porto for a little while what with Anderson gone and Lucho Gonzalez potentially on the way out, Quaresma could see a bonanza of goal scoring opportunities headed his way this season and really make his value skyrocket.

Enjoy the weekend, wherever you may be, and let’s keep the recent good discussions and comments going, I’m having a blast with everyone’s insight on the league.