I don't want to ruin the return from Christmas holidays for Manchester United supporters, but what some English press have written in these days about an imminent transfer of Felipe Anderson from Lazio is far from being true.
Igli Tare, the sports director of the Italian club, has revealed that last summer they rejected a €50m bid from the Red Devils and they haven't received any new offer.
In the meantime, the Brazilian offensive midfielder is relegated to the bench, out of the starting eleven, after his recent poor performances: it's likely that he is distracted by the rumors about his future.
An arm-wrestling match is about to start: Lazio president Claudio Lotito fixed an incredible price for his player last Spring, €80m; Manchester United want to take this very talented player. But for an amount around what Lotito asks for Anderson they could try to take James Rodriguez, the real number one target of Louis van Gaal, from Real Madrid.
This will be a long battle.
RANOCCHIA NOT MOVING TO ENGLAND
Andrea Ranocchia won't be the man to solve Liverpool's defensive problems; even if he was in the highest positions of the Jurgen Klopp shopping list.
The Reds have taken Steven Caulker on loan. The defender is coming from QPR, back from six months on loan at Southampton where he hasn't generated enthusiasm with his performances.
Even the Norwich City option is vanishing: the Inter central back will, very likely, remain in Italy, at Sampdoria or Bologna.
GARCIA DEAD MAN WALKING LAST SUMMER
Something like a badly-dramatized soap opera is taking form at Roma.
Rudi Garcia is coaching the club, in this moment, even if everyone knows that he has already been de facto fired by the president, James Pallotta. And Pallotta himself, at the same moment, is talking in Miami (around the corner from Rome, of course) with Garcia's very very likely successor, Luciano Spalletti.
But Garcia was deprived of authority not yesterday nor the day before, but, at least, in the last summer, when the president, disappointed by the results of his club, decided to choose by himself a physical trainer, Imposing him on the French coach; the disappointment of Pallotta increased after the astonishing defeat of Roma against BATE Borisov, a team from Belarus, in the Champions League.
But the sport director Walter Sabatini, on that occasion, convinced the president to give another chance to Garcia. But now the patience is exhausted, after bad scores, lots of goals conceded, and the distance from the Serie A leadership increasing.
Luciano Spalletti was the last coach capable of winning something for Roma: we hope he still remembers how to do it.
