Start Lining Up The Fullbacks

By: chris | August 6th, 2007

French Revelation:

So Roma have taken to France to try and fill up those gaping fullback slots. But guess which one. No really. Guess. Yup. That Guy (c’est magnifique). Anthony Réveillère of Lyon. The man etched in the minds of Roma fans for life for being on the short end of that one v one encounter the day Mancini channeled the football gods for one gloriously ethereal moment of individual brilliance. Which, as most people know, is not a good account of Réveillère’s talents. I for one would love to see him come to Rome, although I would rather have Francois Clerc if I was given a shopping spree throughout the Lyon fullback depth chart. However, it’s not happening, for a few reasons:

i) We’re talking about Jean-Michel Aulas and Roma here. JMA is known for his strict and firm negotiations and pricetags, which are typically far short of a bargain. Roma’s cheap. Period.

ii) While Lyon to Roma is just so not a lateral move, Roma is becoming a graveyard for international careers. Especially those of the French variety. Réveillère isn’t exactly a starting XI mainstay, but he is a valid option of Ray Dom’s, especially while he is at Lyon. Which is basically the Les Bleus farm team, no matter how good you are. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ray Ray try and call up Fabio Grosso soon. Idiot that he is.

Fact is, while Réveillère might enjoy playing for Roma and joining the legion, his international career may suffer and that’s obviously a concern for someone who is 27 years old and entering the phase of his career where it’s basically make or break.

iii) Even if JMA’s demands are reasonable, he’s still not going to cost beaucoup euros, which is just not Rosella’s style. Although the recent rumors involving Pascal Chimbonda and Asier Del Horno have been somewhat promising because they are by no means ‘cheap’ alternatives. It’s still probable Roma lands their wingbacks at a liquidation price or grabs someone closer to the level of Francesco Modesto than Réveillère, Del Horno or Chimbonda.

iv) It’s very possible Réveillère may go catatonic at the mere sight of Mancini. I can only imagine the nightmares he must’ve had after that little situation. Kind of like the nightmares The Grand Imperial Poobah had when Sam Kuffour walked through the gates of Trigoria last week.

Anyway, it’s not like this is a new rumor. He was in my summer defender preview as a potential acquisition:

Anthony Réveillère (RB) Lyon - Just so Mancini can practice his stepovers in training.

Which would probably make him the most expensive training dummy ever. Next to Alvaro Recoba, of course. Still don’t see it happening, but that whole Grosso to Lyon move earlier this summer really threw off my radar, so who knows. If he did come, I’d be more than happy with the acquisition, but I’d still rather have Cicinho or even Clerc.

Although his WAG would certainly do wonders to offset the loss of Cippen and Oksana, which I’m sure factors in greatly to Rosella’s thinking.

Your Daily Cicinho Update:

This time there’s actually numbers being thrown around, with nary a word from the omniscient Bronzy balls - who is busy trying to broker a deal for the entire Chelsea roster so he can get an insane cut. According to various reports Roma is now interested in picking up Cicinho on a loan for this year with a buy out clause at the end of the year to the tune of 8m. Which totally sounds like a Rosella move. But because it sounds so much like a Roma move, it’s possible somebody could’ve just made it up and said “yup, sounds about right.” Also being said is that Real Madrid wants to sell him off immediately without the loan aspect.

The best part is Cicinho has reportedly told Madrid’s hierarchy that he wants to be moved to Rome, which has always seemed like half the battle to me. Getting him to ask for a move will surely help facilitate a move while possibly helping Roma’s negotiating position somewhat.

And in case you missed it, Cicinho did play the first half yesterday in the Russian Railways Cup, but was substituted in favor of Pepe at halftime. Which gave me this theory:

I see a negotiation tactic here. Schuster is playing Cicinho to show Roma that they intend on keeping him, which forces Roma’s hand in terms of compensation. Real now believes they have the upper hand in what they can get for Cicinho, whereas if he benched him for both games Roma would know they intend on selling him. Playing one half allows them to play him as little as possible without having it look suspicious (i.e. taking him off after 25 mins).

I’m grasping here, but it works. And I’ve seen it before.

Like I’ve said, we’re grasping for straws, but we’ll take anything we can get.

Manic Monday, Well Maybe Not Manic, Maybe Depressive:

I) If you type in ‘Daniel Unal’ to google, the first two pages that come up are yesterday’s post. Which was followed by the grim reaper showing up at his doorstep for his career. But he couldn’t stay long, he’s got to swing over to Madrid for Antonio Cassano’s then jump on a red-eye to hit up a rehab facility in LA for Lindsay Lohan’s. A town which he should be familiar with, because he was there recently to pick up David Beckham’s. Busy guy that grim reaper.

He’s supposed to be in Rome today for a medical and possible signing, we’ll see if anything materializes. If anybody at Roma saw that my page is the first one that comes up when his name is google I’d expect the medical to take about 17 days, with an extremely thorough contagious disease checkup.

In case you spent Sunday doing something other than reading my droll, Roma’s after a 17 year old Swiss superstud.

II) Quick thought: Anybody have any idea what Ahmed Barusso’s passport situation is? Does he have Italian citizenship? From what I can tell he’s only been playing in Italia for 4 years.

III) Despite Pietro Leonardi hatred for all things Roma at the moment, I’m kind of surprised Marco Motta’s name enter the discussion. While he may not be ‘big league ready’ at the moment, he would certainly be a welcome addition to the squad, and definitely RB of the future quality. Even if he was loaned out and Marco Cassetti stuck around another year.

IV) The Stepover Guy’s agent is waiting for Rosella to get off her duff and pick up the phone so that they can get this extension thing done. Hopefully there is a handshake agreement and the hierarchy is so busy working with every fullback on every roster in Europe right now that Mancini’s extension being put off is both justified and not such a big deal. Or maybe Rosella just fell asleep in a tanning bed and she’s currently a human Baconator. Either works for me.

V) More Francesco Modesto news: Roma and Reggina will supposedly renegotiate either tomorrow or Wednesday the deal. At this point, it’s becoming one of those teen movies where there’s ‘another girl’ who is waiting for a guy to break up wiith his current girlfriend, and when they do finally break up, he realizes, “hey, I’m free. I’m @#$%in’ free!” And decides to play the market while that ‘other girl’ starts demanding boyfriend-like duties from him until one day he just snaps and turns around to say, “Hey, you’re not my girlfriend. You’re not going to be my girlfriend. So pipe the fuck down.” Then she goes off crying while he begins to take a ride on the town bicycle and subsequently gets a venereal disease.

Guy/Roma: Jared Leto, because no matter how old he is, he could still play a teenager
Other Girl/Modesto: Elisha Cuthbert
Ex-GF/Chivu: Lacey Chabert
Town Bicycle: Kristen from Laguna Beach

* - Great Hair Debate Leg 2 up shortly.