Palermo just put out an odd press release saying their market is developing with the slew of new acquisitions, but that that has nothing to do with a potential sale. Seems like a bit of a a pointless press release. Optimistically, its because Liverpool is trying to get more money out of them and they are trying to convince them there isnt any more to give. But today was supposed to be the deadline for a Balotelli move before they looked elsewhere. And the day isnt much longer....
Yeah it appears so, its unfortunate, but it was always going to be a real reach for Palermo to get him. Supposedly Palermo are still pushing hard to get him, but my guess is Liverpool aren't going to be willing to accept so much of the salary responsibility. I saw Diego Falcinelli's name mentioned as the backup. Thats a long way down...
Never say never, but Palermo's DS has said the move is dead now. One story I saw said Nice will be paying all of Balotelli's salary. Thats 2m more than Palermo were offering...
Struna loaned to Carpi for the second time in the last three seasons. If Carpi are premoted this season, they'll be forced to buy him. Meanwhile, Balotelli still hasn't been officially announced at Nice.... #irrationalhope
Well, gonna be a lot of work for this attacking squad to keep the team up. The team was able to hold on to Gonzalez, which is a boost for defense, assuming he still wants to be in Palermo. He hasn't featured at all so far, interesting to see what happens going forward. Also, I apparently completely missed Djurdevic being released. Bunch of last minute loans going through as well for the kids, several to Siracusa in Lega Pro. The attacking midfielders/attackers are incredibly hard to categorize, partially because of the system Palermo uses, partially because I have no idea who half of them are. I tried to put the ones who would play in the middle 4 or 5 first, and the ones who would play in the front 2 or 3 after that. The Palermo website has everyone except Hiljemark and Quaison listed as an Attacker, but even Quaison has played in those advanced positions. They can all basically rotate through those spots, so I've tried to list a depth chart by first position, but there's no guarantee that (for example) any of the left or right wingers will be on the field at any point. They could just as easily be filled by players from the ST or AM depth charts. Diamanti is probably a starter, but I don't know who he will displace, either one of the wingers or the attacking player in the midfield 3. Bruno Henrique will probably take over in midfield next to Gazzi. Final Roster Transfers IN: OrderNameAgePositionFROM 1Ilija Nestorovski 26 FW Inter Zapresic 2Slobodan Rajkovic 27 CB SV Darmstadt 3Alessandro Gazzi 33 DM Torino 4Haitam Aleesami 25 LB Göteborg 5Alessandro Diamanti 33 FW GZ Evergrande 6Bruno Henrique 26 DM Corinthians Loan IN: OrderNameAgePositionFROM 1Roland Sallai 19 AM Puskas AFC (Hungary) (Option to Buy) 2Ouasim Bouy 23 CM Juventus Transfers OUT: OrderNameAgePositionTO 1Emiliano Viviano 30 GK Sampdoria (Forced Buy) 2Stefano Sorrentino 37 GK Chievo (Free) 3Milan Milanovic 25 CB None (Out of Contract) 4Bryan Cristante 21 CM Benfica (End of Loan) 5Gaston Brugman 23 CM Pescara (End of Loan) 6Enzo Maresca 36 CM Out of Contract 7Alberto Gilardino 34 ST Empoli (Free) 8Ahmad Benali 24 CM Pescara (Forced Buy) 9Gabriele Zerbo 22 CF Out of Contract 10Franco Fazquez 27 ST Sevilla 11Granddi N'Goyi 28 DM Mutual Termination 12Achraf Lazaar 24 LB Newcastle 13 Uros Djurdjevic 22 CF Partizan (Free) Loan Out Order Name Age Positon Club 1Julian Velazquez 25 CB Cruz Azul 2Simon Makienok 25 CF Preston North End (Option to Buy) 3Andrea Accardi 20 CB Modena 4Fabrizio Alastra 18 GK Matera 5Davide Petermann 21 CM Teramo 6Antonio La Gumina 20 CF Ternana 7Manuel Arteaga 22 ST The Strongest (Bolivia) 8Luca Fiodilino 19 CM Lecce 9Roberto Pirrello 20 RB Livorno 10Marco Toscano 19 DM Siracusa 11Aljaz Struna 26 RB Carpi (forced buy if promoted) 12Matheus Cassini 20 FW Siracusa 13Davide Monteleone 20 CB Padova 14Abdlehamid El Kaoutari 26 CB SC Bastia (pretty sure there's an option to or forced buy here) 15Dario Giacomarro 21 DM AS Gubbio 16Cephas malele 22 FW Leixões FULL SQUAD: OrderNameAgePosition 1Josip Posavec 20 GK 2Leonardo Marson 18 GK^ 3Andrea Fulignati 21 GK 4Giancarlo González 27 CB 5Slabodan Rajkovic 27 CB 6Edoardo Goldaniga 21 CB 7Roberto Vitiello 32 CB 8Siniša Anđelković 30 CB 9Thiago Cionek 30 CB 10Andrea Punzi 19 CB 11Haitam Aleesami 25 LB 12Giuseppe Pezzella 18 LB 13Simone Giuliano 19 LB 14Andrea Rispoli 27 RB 15Michel Morganella 27 RB 16Alessandro Gazzi 33 DM/CM 17Bruno Henrique 26 DM/CM 18Ivaylo Chochev 23 DM/CM 19Mato Jajalo 28 DM/CM 20Ousim Bouy 23 DM/CM 21Oscar Hiljemark 25 CM 22Robin Quaison 21 CM 23Alessandro Diamanti 33 SS/AM 24Roland Sallai 19SS/AM 25Carlos Embalo 21 LW 26Aleksander Trajkovski 24 LW 27Accursio Bentivegna 21 RW 28 Simone Lo Faso 18 RW 29Ilija Nestorovski 26 ST 30Norbert Balogh 20 ST
Here is the wage bill for Palermo. €20m total, Henrique the highest paid at 700k. By comparison, Higuain is the higest paid player in the league at 7.5m All numbers are after taxes, which makes it hard to compare with salaries elsewhere, since they are usually reported pre-tax
Rajkovic, in a continuing string of injuries, had surgery yesterday for a knee (bone) issue. He'll be out for a month or more
Either Zamparini is pessimistic, or Rajkovic's surgery was more significant than outlets seem to think. Zamparini said today that his season was over. Thats a far cry from the month to two I thought I had seen being quoted.
January window should be interesting when it opens. Zampa was pretty heavy on claims that a) the club would be sold by now and b) that he would need funds for Palermo to survive. On top of that, there was recently some sort of hold placed on their bank funds due to an on-going argument over whether Zampa owns a third party 15m euro for the Dybala transfer (one of the downsides of Palermo dealing in unknown South Americans, they often have some shady third parties circling for their cut of later transfers). Zampa claims that won't affect their ability to buy and sell when the window opens, but we shall see. Palermo desperately needs a goalscorer, and probably a defender of some sort to shore that up, especially with Rajkovic done for the year.
Here's a round up of some of the rumors going around. Nothing seems overly concrete yet. Cassano is supposedly considering a move to Palermo. At 34, and not a lot of goals in recent years, I don't see that as a very attractive solution to the problems up front. Hiljemark is apparently being targeted by Atalanta. I'd be surprised if he leaves. Some of the rumors say it will involve Carlos Carmona (or possibly somebody else) coming to Palermo in exchange. Some other clubs are supposedly also interested in Hiljemark as well. Ranocchia has apparently been considered as a solution at centerback. That would be a very strong purchase in my opinion, but we shall see. Embalo's agent, as he has already several times, is speaking out about finding a solution for his client. I don't see why Palermo would let him go, but he's clearly irked about playing time. Maybe a short loan is in order? Stefan Silva is a 26 yr old Swedish attacker apparently being pursued. Not much info on him, but he had 30 goals in 60 appearances in the 2nd division of Sweden over the last 3 years, finally earning the team promotion for the first time in almost 50 years. He then moved clubs, to a different Swedish top flight team at the start of this season. Palermo has supposedly also been trying to lure Cesare Bovo back, but it seems unlikely Handful of other minor names as well, but as I said, none of this seems all that concrete. Of the bunch, only Ranocchia seems like a great target, although Silva is at least intriguing.
Silva is officially in. But I fear its too little too late. The loss on Saturday made safety extremely unlikely. Palermo will have to pull off a real miracle to survive despite just 10 points from the first half of the season. Meanwhile rumors of De Zerbi returning are growing.
Screwed, yes; poorly run, not really. Zamparini has always been clear that his primary goal is to keep Palermo financially solvent. He has no intention of bankrupting the club in a misguided attempt to finish higher up the table. And he has done that well. The club will never be flashy under his ownership, but there is never any worry that it will fold either. The endless coaching cycle doesn't help, but quite frankly, this year's squad is barely above a relegation fight no matter who is in charge. Some years, the no name prospects are great, and you get Pastores and Cavanis and Dybalas, some years, they turn out like this. Thats the risk of being a team at this level. He's also been pretty public about being ready to sell this year, which might account for there appearing to be even less investment than usual. Unfortunately, the chances of a sale actually occurring seem to be getting more and more remote.
So I guess I should update this after the winter window. It saw several players leave and nobody enter. As posted earlier, Stefan Silva did arrive from Sweden, and Toni Sunjic, a centerback, also came over from Stuttgart on loan. But those are the only new arrivals. Meanwhile, Quaison and Hiljemark were both shipped out. Quaison was sold, Hiljemark loaned with an option. Cassini (once hailed as the new Pastore/Cavani/probably Zlatan was released on a free transfer back to Brazil, while Arteaga, Malele, Alastra, and Petermann were all sent out on new loans. Bentivegna was also loaned out after being with the club this fall, and Ouasim Bouy's loan ended. As you can see the disparity between incomings and outgrowings has only grown... And keep an eye out for the summer, Zamp's already talking up Nestorovski's 15-20m price tag... Final Roster. Transfers IN: OrderNameAgePositionFROM 1Ilija Nestorovski 26 FW Inter Zapresic 2Slobodan Rajkovic 27 CB SV Darmstadt 3Alessandro Gazzi 33 DM Torino 4Haitam Aleesami 25 LB Göteborg 5Alessandro Diamanti 33 FW GZ Evergrande 6Bruno Henrique 26 DM Corinthians 7Stevan Silva 26 LW GIF Sundsvall Loan IN: OrderNameAgePositionFROM 1Roland Sallai 19 AM Puskas AFC (Hungary) (Option to Buy) 2Ouasim Bouy 23 CM Juventus Loan ended 3Toni Sunjic 28 CB VfB Stuttgart (Option to Buy) Transfers OUT: OrderNameAgePositionTO 1Emiliano Viviano 30 GK Sampdoria (Forced Buy) 2Stefano Sorrentino 37 GK Chievo (Free) 3Milan Milanovic 25 CB None (Out of Contract) 4Bryan Cristante 21 CM Benfica (End of Loan) 5Gaston Brugman 23 CM Pescara (End of Loan) 6Enzo Maresca 36 CM Out of Contract 7Alberto Gilardino 34 ST Empoli (Free) 8Ahmad Benali 24 CM Pescara (Forced Buy) 9Gabriele Zerbo 22 CF Out of Contract 10Franco Fazquez 27 ST Sevilla 11Granddi N'Goyi 28 DM Mutual Termination 12Achraf Lazaar 24 LB Newcastle 13Uros Djurdjevic 22 CF Partizan (Free) 14Robin Quiason 23 AM FSV Mainz 15Matheus Cassini 20 CF Ponte Preta (Brazil, Free Transfer) Loan Out Order Name Age Positon Club 1Julian Velazquez 25 CB Cruz Azul 2Simon Makienok 25 CF Preston North End (Option to Buy) 3Andrea Accardi 20 CB Modena 4Fabrizio Alastra 18 GK Matera Benevento 5Davide Petermann 21 CM Teramo Carrarese 6Antonio La Gumina 20 CF Ternana 7Manuel Arteaga 22 ST The Strongest (Bolivia) Seraing United (Belgium) 8Luca Fiodilino 19 CM Lecce 9Roberto Pirrello 20 RB Livorno 10Marco Toscano 19 DM Siracusa 11Aljaz Struna 26 RB Carpi (forced buy if promoted) 12Matheus Cassini 20 FW Siracusa 13Davide Monteleone 20 CB Padova 14Abdlehamid El Kaoutari 26 CB SC Bastia (pretty sure there's an option to or forced buy here) 15Dario Giacomarro 21 DM AS Gubbio 16Cephas Malele 23 FW Leixões Varzim (Portugal) 17Accursio Bentivegna 22 RW Ascoli FULL SQUAD: OrderNameAgePosition 1Josip Posavec 20 GK 2Leonardo Marson 18 GK 3Andrea Fulignati 21 GK 4Giancarlo González 27 CB 5Slabodan Rajkovic 27 CB 6Edoardo Goldaniga 21 CB 7Toni Sunjic 28 CB 8Roberto Vitiello 32 CB 9Siniša Anđelković 30 CB 10Thiago Cionek 30 CB 11Andrea Punzi 19 CB 12Haitam Aleesami 25 LB 13Giuseppe Pezzella 18 LB 14Simone Giuliano 19 LB 15Andrea Rispoli 27 RB 16Michel Morganella 27 RB 17Alessandro Gazzi 33 DM/CM 18Bruno Henrique 26 DM/CM 19Ivaylo Chochev 23 DM/CM 20Mato Jajalo 28 DM/CM 21Alessandro Diamanti 33 SS/AM 22Roland Sallai 19SS/AM 23Aleksander Trajkovski 24 LW 24Stefan Silva 26 LW 25Carlos Embalo 21 LW 26 Simone Lo Faso 18 RW 27Ilija Nestorovski 26 ST 28Norbert Balogh 20 ST