Roma Frozen: Chivu To Play Out Contract

By: chris | July 11th, 2007

No Inter. No Real. No Barcelona. One more year of Roma.

Daniele Prade: “Chivu ha fatto un danno incalcolabile alla Roma. Comunque rimarrà con noi e domenica partirà in ritiro con la Roma. Resterà in giallorosso fino al termine del contratto, nel 2008. L’Inter si è tirata indietro. Il rumeno rimarrà alla Roma, partirà domenica per il ritiro. Non andrà nè in Spagna nè a Milano”.

(Paraphrasing: Chivu has done massive harm to the club. He’ll start camp with the club on Sunday. He’ll play out his contract which runs out at the end of next season. Inter and Spain are no longer options.)

I wonder what Trigoria will be like. He’s obviously well-liked amongst his teammates, but Totti IS Roma and Chivu has done irreparable harm to the club and team by forcing them to lose out on his sale. Prade noted this in that first sentence. Obviously much of the blame will go to the Becali brothers, but Chivu is a big boy and it’s his signature that goes on the contract, not his agent’s. I also wonder how much of his refusal to answer his teammate’s calls at the beginning of the summer will factor into his treatment. He obviously thought he would be sent away. Seems like those are his true colors.

Personally, I hope Totti freezes him out of the locker room and Spalletti forces him to train alone. If he must play, use him sparingly on the left in Coppa matches unless there is an injury. The basis behind Spalletti’s team ideologies has always been more of a team concept, irregardless of individual talent (outside Il Capitano). This team revolves around We, not I. Spalletti wants nothing to do with selfish players, he’s made that clear on many occasions. Chivu obviously does not have Roma at heart, he has money at heart. If Spalletti holds true to his claims of the selfish players having no place at Roma, then Chivu has seen his last minute on the senior squad.

If he does play, he might as well walk onto the pitch with a Biancocelesti uniform on. As far as I’m concerned, he’s worse than Laziale now. I hope the Romanisti make life in la citta eterna a living hell for him. I hope the fans boo every time he touches the ball. I hope Roma buys up Fred for training “accidents.” I hope somebody hangs an Inter jersey in his locker on August 18th. I hope nobody talks to him in the locker room. I hope he completely loses form as a result of the controversy and loses out on his big Inter contract. I won’t go as far as to wish serious injury on the man (I use that term loosely), but if it should happen, I wouldn’t shed a single tear.

I also hope that Roma now reports Massimo Moratti to FIFA, in unison with Massimo Cellini and anyone else who might have been slighted at the hand of Inter. His conversations with the Becali brothers have obviously set the bar for Chivu’s demands, and without those, he likely would be in Madrid right now, getting ready for La Liga. Something has to be done about this, it’s not an option, it’s a necessity. It’s one thing to lose out on a few million (Suazo, Emerson), but it’s an entirely different matter when the club loses out on 18m to the benefit of their direct rival. A Mexes-like embargo is a bit far-fetched, but some sort of sanctions absolutely have to be imposed on Moratti. The Calciopoli scandal hurt Serie A’s image vastly, they need to start repairing that image by cracking down on any infractions. Then again, this is Lega Calcio, this may be a daydream.

Obviously, this could change – but I believe this is what Moratti wanted. He didn’t want to throw away big money on a transfer fee, he’d rather use the same defense as he did last year and wait until next summer to sign Chivu. The options in Spain are gone. Nobody else wanted him for various reasons, and Inter has withdrawn. The only remaining option, barring another team of Chivu’s liking coming in with any type of bid (at this point, half the asking price would probably do it), is if he starts having second thoughts and decides to sign an extension. Possible? Anything is. Plausible? Absolutely not.

The tears, the celebrations, the passionate musings of life as Romanista, they were all a lie. Chivu has obviously forgotten the most important thing here: It’s not a right to put on the Giallorossi uniform, it is a privilege and honor.

Forza Roma