I thought Lecce deserved its own thread because there are currently several "storylines" I've been following - - new head coach? reportedly, Zdenek Zeman is said to be the top candidate for the job, but it hasn't happened yet. - InterToto Cup? Still no announcement as to whether Lecce will be Italy's sole representative in this summer's competition or not. - player movement - Chevanton appears almost certainly to be on his way out, although where is not known yet. Ledesma, who played with Milan in their Asia tour, has been bought, ironically, by Inter. But he will play (on loan) with Lecce for one more year. Lecce will reportedly get Giovanni Pasquale in return. - Lecce's primavera team has reached the quarterfinals of the league championship where they will face Milan tomorrow (Friday) at 3 pm EDT. The game will be shown live here: http://www.fastweb.it/streaming/raisport.asx - Defender Cesare Bovo is currently with the U-21s playing for the European championship and Olympic qualification. He started and played all 90 minutes in the crucial last group game vs Croatia. - Forward Valeri Bojinov is training with the Bulgarian national team in preparation for Euro2004. He's the youngest player on any of the teams' rosters. Bulgaria is one of Italy's group opponents. Here'a nice article about him: http://www.euro2004.com/Features/Kind=256/newsId=185860.html
I think that the new head coach will probably be Zeman or Silvio Baldini. I also saw Attilio Tesser's name mentioned somewhere. It could be that the reason they have not made many moves official is that they want the new coach to be (or seem to be) involved. I agree with you, Chevanton is certainly gone. That was made even more obvious by some of his comments near the end of the season; thanking Lecce's supporters for the good times, and such. If they could get Miccoli I would be very pleased. His goals are not necessarily the most awe-inspiring but he is opportunistic and always seems to be in the right place at the right time. The fact that he is a local boy can't help but improve attendance, I would think. Miccoli is also a good passer (could Chevanton pass? Ummm... Dunno...) and I could see him and Bojinov becoming a very good duo. Bojinov has shown flashes of brilliance and I am pleased that they have brought him along slowly. I think that his time is now, though, and he will need to start living up to all of the hype this season. I wish they still had Tonetto... Oh well... As I mentioned earlier I would like to see them play in InterToto. Nick
I thought of mentioning Tonetto, but I couldn't remember for certain where he went. To Sampdoria, I think? Was that move already known during the season? Always hard to lose your captain.
Yes, to Sampdoria a couple of weeks ago. If it was known during the season then I was left out of the loop ;-)... Nick
But you know what I meant, right? Sometimes, players are known to be moving to another club months ahead of the actual move. Like Ledesma, for next year, etc. This always seemed very strange to me. I remember a few years ago when Juventus was playing off vs Udinese for a UEFA Cup spot, and there was a guy for Udinese who was set to move to Juve for the next year. Another time was when Lazio was playing Reggina to try to clinch the Scudetto, and Reggina had a guy who was moving to Lazio after the season. There just seems to be a great potential for conflict of interest. But, I digress .... we all know that sort of thing would never happen in Italian soccer ...
This last season was a little different. More stripes... I'm trying to attach a photo of it but I suffer from hypercomptersupersubcompetence so I doubt that it will work... Nick
I know what you mean. Isn't Adriano "partially" owned by Parma, or am I wrong about that? If he IS partially-owned by Parma then how do Parma fans feel about him scoring the two goals against Empoli to keep Parma from claiming 4th position? Nick
I thought that Adriano's move to Inter during the winter break occured because Inter was buying Parma's rights to 1/2 of him. Anyway, it looking more and more like Juve is buying Vierri. If that happens, does Juve still buy Chevanton?
I have a feeling no Italian team will be participating in the Intertoto Cup this summer. I've been watching the field take shape at this link - http://www.eurotopfoot.com/uic.php3 and until the last few days, there was a slot for "Italie" in match 4 of the 3rd round, but that slot has now been replaced with Hamburger SV. Oh, well.
Congratulations to Lecce's Primavera team, which has won the Primavera Scudetto today, defeating Inter on penalties after the final finished 1-1. It is the second straight Primavera championship for Lecce. They also beat Inter in the final last season.
Yes indeedy. Good job, though I hate (no... I HATE) to see any game end on penalty kicks. It's shameful. Anyway, Drissa Diarra (an 18-year-old from Mali) scored Lecce's goal in the 31st minute before Inter's Federico Piovaccari, a second half substitute, equalized in the 70th minute. I'm not a huge Zeman fan but we'll see how things go. BTW, Chevanton has not looked very good at all, as of late, for the Uruguayan NT. I wish he would score a few goals and pump up his value a bit. Nick
U-21 hero Cesare Bovo is on his way to Roma. Not sure if he was on loan or co-owned by the two teams, but he's gone from Lecce. Too bad.
Yes, it is too bad. He was on loan and Roma may be looking to loan him to Parma now to sweeten the pot for acquiring Gilardino. Nick
Any new rumors on this one? I haven't heard anything on Chevanton moving lately. And I'm not convinved that Juve is going to buy him.
I keep hearing Cheva is going to Palermo. I saw somewhere that he WANTS to go to Palermo. Palermo will definitely get either Cheva or Di Natale (from Empoli). Nick
Seems like Lecce and Palermo just can't agree on a price for Chevanton: http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/jun25e.html
Now, Palermo claims they've given up on reaching an agreement with Lecce for Chevanton and will look elsewhere. http://sport.libero.it/calcio/primo_piano.jsp?id=news&idNews=139833&agency=MPEsperia
Well, I think that Dalla Bona and (especially) Eremenko are very good pickups for Lecce. We still have Ledesma this season so I think we could have a very creative midfield. Question is, though... If Cheva leaves, who will they be creating for? Bojinov? I dunno either. I would hate to see them put Eremenko up front because he can do much more good as an AM, in my opinion. Nick
Surprise! Chevanton off to Monaco http://www.gazzetta.it/primi_piani/calcio/2004/pp_1.0.439577914.shtml I guess the good news is he won't come back to haunt Lecce next season.