News in Brief: Giuly to Roma, Ezquerro to Athletic, and the comedy of Galliani

By: Isaiah | July 17th, 2007

Ludovic Giuly has signed with Roma, passed his medical, and is gone from Barcelona for €3m, plus up to €1.5m more due if Roma qualifies for next year’s Champions League. It isn’t a surprise that he’s on his way out, but going to Italy seems strange when he could have gone home to France. I suppose neither Monaco nor Olympique Lyonnais really wanted him for the price tag Barcelona put on him. While he’s always been sort of a pain in the ass, Giuly was a fun player to watch and an integral part of the side that won the Champions League, so it’s sad to see him go. Well, somewhat sad. I think this is the fifteenth time I’ve written this, but if Bojan and Gio Dos Santos live up to their hype, we won’t even notice Giuly’s absence. If we do indeed garner an extra €1.5m from this deal, then both sides will have achieved their goals (Barcelona’s was to get €5m for the player and Giuly’s was to get out of town). This brings Barcelona’s total spending for the summer down just a bit, to €62m. Woohoo for fiscal responsibility.

Santiago Ezquerro looks set to move to Athletic Bilbao. That’s a pretty good deal for everyone because Ezquerro wasn’t going anywhere in the Barcelona squad, especially not with a certain “TH14″ popping up. I don’t really have much to say about Santi (21 appearances, 3 goals), but I suppose he was a nice enough guy. I wish him nothing but the best of luck back in Bilbao, where he played between 1999 and 2005, before joining FCB. And best of luck to Giuly as well.

Now to the comedic news: According to Sport, Adriano Galliani has declared in Gazzetta dello Sport that this offseason Milan will sign one of the following superstars: Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Sheva, Drogba, or Alexandre Pato. Wait, what? Pato? How does someone so unproven even enter into the same conversation as those other megastars? I think I laughed out loud when I got to the end of that list and that Sport goes ahead and declares, “Galliani lives in a fairytale” as the opening of the article. Obviously Milan want to sign Pato, which I guess is the underlying point of such obnoxious grandstanding. Sigh…Internacional is not going to let Pato go without a fight, no doubt, if he’s worthy of being compared with Ronnie, Sammie, Shevie, and Drogbies. [The Sport article calls Pato an Argentine, which I just love.] I bet Milan can sign all 5 of those guys! And supposedly they want a piece of Fabio Quagliarella too, cause what the hell, right?