20th June

So much for the Thuram to Real Madrid story (which I believed!) - off Lilian has trotted to Juventus. Well, good luck to him - but I hope that his silly statement that the reason he joined them was because "they were the best team", will stick in his throat to choke him a few times. Thanks for all you did for us, Lilian!

So the end to the season, thank goodness. Sorry, I know that we have the CL spot - and I know that we finished runners-up in the Coppa (which I have not mentioned or reported on because I was SO disappointed - we actually deserved to win that!), but I still reckon it was a dismal season. Hopefully we will spend Thuram's money wisely and also dispense with so many misfits that are currently in our squad. The rumour which I am most excited about is the one which might bring Nuno Gomez to us. How we need some power up front. Not saying that Gomez promises to excel - but he would be an awfully big improvement on the "strikeforce" we have right now.

The boys will be back in training on 9th July!!

29th May

Thuram to leave Parma for Real Madrid in £27 million transfer
First Published: May 28, 2001

Real Madrid have agreed the £27 million purchase of French defender Lilian Thuram from Parma AC.

The Spanish champions have beaten Juventus and Manchester United to sign Thuram who is regarded as one of the best defenders in the world.

Recent interest in Thuram from SS Lazio has failed to prevent the French international star from leaving Italy for Spain and Real expect to confirm the Onda Cero radio station reports tomorrow.

Parma are also expected to make a statement about Thuram as well and they have sold the World Cup winner for a world record fee for a defender.
worldsoccernews.com

Well, good luck to Lilian!! I cannot begrudge him wishing to move there; who wouldn't?

On Sunday, we beat Lecce 1-2; goals from Milosevic and Mboma. At the same time, Milan could only manage to draw with Roma, so we have clinched that 4th Champions League place. End of our season really ..... Erm, although it would be a nice idea to lose to Roma ........

26th May

Latest Serie A player to be tested positively for nandrolone is our own Stefano Torrisi. See HERE.

24th May

We lost the 1st leg Coppa Italia final, 0-1, at home. Dear Paolo Vanoli scoring for them this time around! See match commentary here

17th May

(later - the following week! :))

We beat Inter solidly, 3-1 (Junior, Di Vaio, Junior; Vieri) - and, at the same time, Milan lost 1-2 to Fiorentina. GOOD results! One more win and perhaps that 4th spot is ours! Looking at the table though, it's hardly meritous, is it? Good job that the rest of the league were even worse than us!

First leg of the Coppa final is on Thursday.

On Saturday, we were beaten 2-0 at lowly Reggina, making a huge hole in our CL hopes. (Milan creep up behind ever so slealthily). Tonight we play Inter - so let's hope for a GOOD RESULT!! Fabio will be playing (if he plays) with a mask over his broken nose to protect it prior to having to have an operation at the end of the season (or earlier). Rumours go on and on about Buffon going to Barca. Meantime, GOOD NEWS for ULIVIERA, as Parma give him a one-year extension to his contract.

6th May

Thumped Napoli 4-0. Goals from Micoud, Milosevic and Di Viao (2). No other details, sorry.

Hector Cuper to Parma? Thuram to Man Utd???

28th April

That 4th spot is looking safer with an away win at Vicenza this afternoon. Team statistics were as follows:

Vicenza 0 Parma 1 (Di Vaio 80')

Buffon, Thuram, Sensini (booked), F Cannavaro, Fuser (Benarrivo 85'), Lamouchi, Almeyda (booked), Junior, Micoud, Di Vaio, Amoroso (Mboma 57')

Hmm, Amoroso obviously impressed then!! Bolano has (according to the official site) "broken meniscus". That means that he has a torn ligament in his knee. Not the cruciates; the other ones.

22nd April

Parma 0 Juventus 0. How dull!! Seems from the team stats from the teletext though, that it was a pretty flavoursome game - lots of bookings. Torrisi was subbed on 12 minutes, which seems to indicate an injury - Amoroso lasted 80 whole minutes - Mattias is back - we still can't score. Both Pips and DP subbed for them too - missed sitters perhaps?? Look at the table! All those creeping up behind on 41 points. Can't afford one little slip. (Can't see us making it). Seems we did more of a favour to Roma tonight than to ourselves - and that's not a bad thing.

GOOD NEWS (or I think so) after these team line-ups!

Teams and things

Parma: Buffon, Thuram, Torrisi (Sensini 13'), F Cannavaro, Conceicao (booked), Lamouchi (booked), Almeyda (booked), Junior, Micoud (Appiah 53'), Di Vaio, Amoroso (Fuser 80')

Juventus: Van der Sar, Tudor (booked), Iuliano, Montero (Ferravara 46' booked), Pessotto, Zambrotta, Tacchinardi (booked), Davids (WHY is he being allowed to play?), Zidane, Del Piero (Fonseca 74'), Inzaghi (Trezeguet 69')

OK, the "good news"! During the televised match this afternoon (Udinese v Roma), they showed a close up of Fiore and I heard the words "returning" and "Parma" and "end of season". Or I thought I did. "What did he say", I asked the hub. He repeated what I thought I'd just heard. He found it amusing. I found it terrific!!! Wow! Fiore coming back?!?! That's great!! (Was he just on loan? Can't remember). Who can we dump on Udinese next? Junior? Bolano? Micoud? Lamouchi? All of those PLUS Amoroso?? Wishes . . . wishes . . . wishes . . .

19th April

Parma lost the rearranged game with Lazio, 1-0 last night, courtesy of an own goal by our Lilian on 12 minutes. Don't know any more than that, I'm afraid. Bit of a bummer that though.

14th April

I honestly didn't think we had a game today!! I thought that (it being Easter) no games were being played in Italy this weekend! Oops! And it was an enormous 6-pointer against Atalanta too! Could've cost us that 4th spot - but no, we won it 1-0. Savo on 28 minutes. I don't know anything else - and I only know that because my son told me!! :) Heck though, Milan are creeping up very, very fast. Don't like the look of that.

8th April

Parma's game against Lazio was abandoned last evening. They played 6 minutes, then the heavens opened and the ref took them off. 20 minutes later, he abandoned the game completely. Lazio want the fixture to be replayed on 18th April.

Our team line-up was/would've been:

Buffon, Thuram, Torrisi, Cannavaro, Conceicao, Appiah, Lamouchi, Bolano, Boghossian, Mboma, Di Viao.

On the bench: Guardalben, Cardillo, Stirpe, Saccani, Bangoura, Micoud, Milosevic

Key: in bold: who ARE these guys???

Apologies for leaving this site to decay for so long. No excuses! Mainly, lack of interest. There is no point in attempting to put match reports up for the games I have missed. And, in future, I will only do game reports for games I actually see - otherwise, I'll just put brief comments on this page - makes more sense - and I don't really have time for anything other than things that make sense.

4th March

A more than creditable draw at the San Siro - especially as we were down to 10 men for most of the match. Report here

How did Channel 4 dream up that we'd slipped to 5th. Where'd they get Atalanta's points from? I told somebody an untruth because of them!! We are still in 4th spot - still in that last CL position. Let's just hope we stay there!

26th February

What's this? 5-0! And we boom up to 4th! Just how bad a coach WAS Malesani?? Due to time restraints; not having seen any of the match or having a clue about it; ftp problems (still relying on others to update my stuff - thanks Stuart!), only the bare essentials on here. Just team lineups basically - but that's more than I did for the Brescia game!! What happened?? I completely ignored it!! Sorry about that - times have been "bothersome" as far as computers are concerned!! Did we win???

25th February Apologies for not being able to update these pages for a while, but I cannot access my files to upload. Even the guys at 34SP.com (where I host the site) can't work it out. They have, however, agreed to upload my files themselves - which is SPLENDID of them. But I cannot be asking them to do that all the time - so I will be kinda somewhat out of date until this is sorted. Shouldn't be long! :) Meanwhile, thanks to Stuart Melling for uploading this for me! Hopefully, I can get this more up to date tomorrow. Great win today!

22nd February

Parma beat PSV at the Tardini. Trouble is PSV got 2 away goals, so Parma are out of the UEFA Cup. But isn't Renzo a sweetie?!? :) Mutterings on here.

Phew! I made it to the new address! Glad to see that you did too! There are bound to be a few problems to start with - but anything MAJOR that you find - please email me

15th February

Parma lost 2-1 in the first leg of the 4th Round Uefa Cup in Eindhoven. Team lineups and things on here

10th February

A win at last! Added to the coppa semi win over Udinese on Thursday, it's been a good week for Parma fans. Or has it really? VERY brief Fiorentina v Parma on here

4th February

Not a very good start! Roma do us in at the Tardini! Comments here.

1st February

**** FURTHER TO THAT! ****

It is official now - Parma have confirmed. (See here). And Ulivieri is to take over. I don't like the look of him! He'll probably put the fear of God into Marcio *snigger*

What's going on?

Parma lose 1st leg of coppa italia semi (rearranged) at Udinese (remarks), amid massive rumours that SACCHI HAS RESIGNED, due to ill-health.

www.worldsoccernews.com quotes:

"Arrigo Sacchi is to leave new club Parma AC after just three weeks due to health problems. Parma AC refused to confirm reports that new coach Arrigo Sacchi is to resign but the former AC Milan boss is expected to quit his job with Parma tonight after sources at the club's backers Parmalat told the press that Sacchi was to leave the club. Sacchi has been suffering ill health and a return to top level and high pressure coaching has not helped his condition which relates to a heart ailment. Parma have already revived an earlier plan to bring in former Udinese coach Renzo Ulivieri on a six month contract until the end of this season. President Stefano Tanzi talked to Ulivieri twice as he was preparing to sack Alberto Malesanni but then made a last minute decision to ask Frank Rijkaard and Sacchi to take over. Parma AC have targeted Atalanta coach Giovanni Vavassori as the man they want to coach their first team next season. Sacchi was to be offered a place in the management structure of the club but his new job has only lasted three games and concerns about his health mean it is unlikely he will continue in football although he could work again in the media. Vavassori's Atalanta won promotion to Serie A last season and the Bergamo club are in fourth position in the first division. Atalanta's success this season has made Vavassori a hot property to coach at a richer club and Parma know they have to make a move soon as many Serie A clubs are lining up new coaching staff for next season. Parma are now set to appoint their third coach of this season. "

Personally, I think this would be good news in the long run and I wish Sacchi well, if this is true - but, what I want to know is, was he aware of health problems when he took the job??? I don't know about Ulivieri or Vavassori. What's with everybody falling over their feet to sign somebody who's in good form *now*. Who knows what the future might bring. (Look at Amoroso). A coach can only work with what he's got. That's not to say that he wouldn't have a lot - such is the calibre of the players at Parma. But their temperaments leave a lot to be desired. Why not give the job to somebody like Benarrivo??? Keenness personified; loves the club; would engender some spirit - all that. Oh yeah - no darned coaching certificate - forgot. What bunk!

Well, again, we have to wait and see what is to happen.

28th January

We won a game!! Woo! See here

24th January

Parma's Coppa Italia 1st Leg semi final at Udinese was called off tonight, due to a floody pitch. They never started the game. Rai showed 30 minutes of ref and Lilian trying to kick balls in puddles; Fabio under an umbrella etc etc. Yet they still had it scrambled.

23rd January

Scusi for being tardivo and seemingly pigro - but it's pretty difficile to update these pages when I have no pc! OK, so I can borrow a pc - but I still have no files.

Anyway, what is there to say?? Brief mention of our latest tragedy on here.

15th January

A draw in the San Siro against Inter last night, still leaves us languishing down with the rubbish boys. No magic rub-off from Sacchi then, although an away draw is quite acceptable, I suppose. A few match mutters on here.

9th January

We have our new man then. A shock to most, I should think.

Sacchi back in Italian football as new Parma AC coach

Parma AC have made Ariggo Sacchi their new coach.


Parma sacked Alberto Malesani last night after three years at the club and president Stefano Tanzi has backed out of plans to hire Renzo Ulivieri to appoint the controversial former Milan and Italy coach.

Sacchi had no experience as a top level player but the former shoe salesman created the first great Milan side for two decades and guided them to two champions and two European Cups with two World Club Cups thrown in.

Ironically Sacchi returns to management at an Italian club after his former Milan midfielder Frank Rijkaard turned down the chance to coach Parma yesterday.

That refusal by the ex-Holland coach allowed Tanzi to dump his original plan for a short term coach and turn to Sacchi.

Sacchi led Italy to the 19944 World Cup final but his tenure of the national team and harsh treatment of Juventus hero Roberto Baggio left many Italian fans mystified and angered by his selections.

He used more than 80 players and was in a constant war with the Italian media over his leadership of the azzuri.

In another piece of irony Sacchi has been making a living for the past two seasons as a media pundit commenting on the Italian game and has maintained his close links with Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi despite a disastrous second spell back in charge at Milan in 1997 after he quit the Italy job.

After the second turn at Milan ended in horrible failure Sacchi agreed to work at Atletico Madrid for Jesus Gil but lasted less than five months. When he quit Atletico in February 1999 he claimed that he was retiring for good from coaching and cried in front of the assembled media.

At Parma he will work again with centre back star Fabio Cannavaro who he introduced to the Italian national team in one of his more successful selections but with the appointment of Sacchi, president Tanzi has sanctioned a mass clear out of the players brought in by Malesani who have failed to mount a serious title challenge despite the £200 million backing the club have had from dairy produce giants Parmalat.

(from thebeautifulgame.co.uk)

That makes sour reading. I am not happy. He was a disaster at Atletico. The last thing Parma needs is a darned TV pundit. We need somebody who can kick the egos out of some of the players. I fear Arrigo might only succeed in enlarging and encouraging them. Hope not; we'll see. Gotta give the guy a chance. Personally, I would've preferred Vialli, with or without licence. Or even the ex Bologna man who was much rumoured to be getting the job. He sounded like he was a tough enough character. Sacchi? Dunno. Too much Milan in his blood, I fear.

8th January

Later today. Parma's terse statement:

AC Parma announces that from today, Monday, Mr Alberto Malesani has been relieved of his duties as manager of Parma. The club would like to thank the manager for all the hard work and time he has dedicated to the club in these years and for the victories obtained domestically and internationally.

Yes, thank you Alberto.

Our UEFA Cup win against Marseilles in the final, 1999

and my favourite evening of all - the win over Fiorentina in the 2nd leg of the final, 1999. Great stuff.

Happy New Year to all gialloblu fans!!

It finally happened then? (If it doesn't there will be a lot of questions asked!). Alberto is to go. Some fellah I don't know - is to come in until the end of the season (supposedly). Lippi perhaps to follow? (Hope so). Everybody has had enough now. (Even the Official Site can't make up anything good this time!). IMHO though, Alberto should've gone long ago - the middle of last season at the latest. Along with Alberto, should (also imho) go a lot of the so-called players. They are a disgrace. (Especially Torrisi for his one-fingered gesture.)

Well, there's not a lot else to say - we just have to wait and see what happens. I have done a "page" on the Reggina game - but there are no comments - what can you say? Just the team line-ups and a poor-quality video of the "highlights". You can find it here.

23rd December

A draw with Napoli is NOT GOOD ENOUGH! How much more do we have to suffer?!?!?

18th December

After last week's dismal performance against Juve - and yesterday's disgraceful loss to Vicenza, there is little to say except that lo scudetto will not be coming to Verdi's fair city this season. We fall to 8th - eleven points behind Roma - and only nine points away from the relegation zone. The current Parma side flatter to deceive and I foresee a huge outpouring of our best players - who can blame them? Bye-bye Fabio and Diego and Lilian and Gigi? Could well be. Buck up your ideas boys - at least look as if you want to succeed - or how are fans meant to stay loyal to you?! (Harsh words, I know - am angry!)

Teams and player points can be found by clicking here.

13th December

We draw PSV Eindhoven in the 4th round of the UEFA Cup. Full draw here.

PSV Eindhoven Official Page. All in Dutch, but they have a picture of our squad on their front page!! Perhaps more palatable and certainly more understandable, however, is psv.netwerk.to which is good news in ENGLISH!

5th December

Since I last wrote, we have beaten Inter 6-1 in the 1st leg of the Coppa Italia quarter (yippee!), beaten Atalanta 2-0 (and soar to 4th place) and tonight, we go through to the next round of the UEFA Cup, having disposed of 1860 Munich 2-0 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate. Not bad going!!

Congratulations to our Patrick Mboma for his "African Player of the Year Award".

26th November

We beat Lazio!!! But I'm not getting excited. Report can be found HERE.

25th November

On the eve of the Parma v Lazio game, I have time to reflect on our midweek performance in Europe (brief comment here) and to comment on the rumours that Malesani is after Marco Simone to swell the ranks of our absent strikers. I have read (somewhere, not saying!) some really very odd comments about this possibility. Too old? I don't think so. No better than the players we have now? Perhaps - but the strikers we have playing now are not playing now, are they? I doubt, for instance, that Amoroso will ever be fit!!! :) Therefore, it is prudent of Alberto to be looking around. More than prudent in fact - essential. Simone is a fantastic player - and a different type of player to our present strikers. He could really contribute nicely, imho - and I for one hope that he is under consideration. Not Martin Palermo - PLEASE - now he is like all of our other strikers. We don't want him. I saw an interview with Patrick Mboma this morning, btw. What a really nice down-to-earth man he is. Wears glasses and looks just like our Lilian! Speaks (only) 5 languages! Always dreamt of piloting a 747 - now he dreams of winning the championship! Nice thought, Patrick - but there's no way you can do that on your own.

22nd November

Sorry - awfully late - could hardly bear to talk about it! (Not really!). OK, so we lost to Bologna on Sunday, as we all know. Not the end of the world. Roll on tomorrow and 1860. (I am, quite frankly, worried - what with no strikers and that . . . . )

12th November

We won again!! We beat high-flying Udinese 2-0! See here for match report(ish). I don't know whether Malesani was there, after his car accident (see here and here if you don't already know about it), but this is good-oh!! 6th! And only 6th on goal-difference behind Lazio and Juve! Looking even better!

10th November

How many times have I told people that I spent the night with the entire 1860 Munich team once?!? :) Hmm, now Parma have to play them in the UEFA Cup 3rd round. I think that's a bad draw for Parma. Remember Werder Bremen last year?? 1860 are no pushovers - and we will have to pay special attention to their magic little Austrian winger, Harald Cerny. Will that be Falsini's job?? They have the poisoned dwarf (Thomas Hassler) and Erik Mykland too. Plus a very useless striker, called Max. I'm pleased it's a German team though - because at least I get to see the games on the German TV! :)

TSV 1860 Munchen website (German only).

9th November

We lose away at Zagreb, but *just* squeeze through to tomorrow's draw. Details here.

5th November

Two wins in a row!! Mboma, 3 goals in 2 games!! We're SEVENTH!!! Report of Bari v Parma.

3rd November

WE BEAT THE SCUMBAGS MILAN!! Two days ago!! Apologies for lateness (again!) - but it was worth waiting for! Report here.

30th October

Belatedly (it happened Friday), welcome back to Nestor Sensini!! It is also quite sad to see Dino depart (hardly even noticed). He spent 7 good years at Parma - but he apparently was of no more use to the club. Thanks to him for everything he did for Parma - and good luck.

26th October

A decent 2-0 win in our home leg of the UEFA Cup tie against Dinamo Zagreb ends (perhaps) our disastrous run. Team and things on here.

24th October

Fabio Asks For Forgiveness "I simply want to say sorry to all of them. Because at the start of the season they heard us speaking of the Scudetto and being in the leading pack in the League, while they find themselves supporting a team that is having to come from behind. I'm sure they're disappointed, and they have every right to be."

Read the whole press conference thingie on here. Story and picture from the Official website.

Some interesting pictures of the fans of Thursday's opponents Dinamo Zagreb can be found on here. Nice!

22nd October

My goodness. We lost disastrously at Perugia. Where will it all end?? Report

15th October

I don't know why, but I rather expected a win today. Another draw is disappointing - a bad start to the season, for sure. Match facts, Brescia v Parma, here.

13th October

Before the very welcomed return to the league on Sunday (Brescia), the club has been busy offloading players. Bonazzoli has gone to Verona on loan - and Maini to Venezia. Paolo Cannavaro is expected to follow Bonazzoli to Verona.

There has been much publication of Dino Baggio's desire to leave Parma (he feels useless, hmm). Unfortunately, the attempted swap deal which would've had him going off to Lazio and Nestor Sensini returning to the Tardini, appears to have hit snags - Sensini not being happy with the wages offered to him by Parma. I would love to see Sensini return to Parma - and really, we could very much do with him right now - but you can't blame him for stalling. Parma offloaded him without a minute's thought last year - perhaps they should've thought longer and harder; he might well have made a difference to their season.

Today (9th October) I moved this site from www.stas.net to www.frances.plus.com. I apologise for any missing links or images. Any really bad errors, please email me. Thanks

1st October

The new Serie A season kicks off with a 2-2 draw against Fiorentina at the Tardini. Brief comments here.

30th September

Congratulations to Patrick Mboma!!! A gold medal at the Olympics!! (Would've preferred Spain to have won though :( )

29th September

We drew Dinamo Zagreb in in the 2nd round. Games to be played 26th October and 9th November.

28th September 2000

We beat Pobeda 4-0 at home, so go through 6-0 on aggregate. Sorry, have not had chance to do a "report" for this, although I listened to it on the radio. Best get the report from the official site. Goals, though, were scored by Montano, Bonazzoli (2) and Di Vaio.

17th September 2000

We drew 1-1 at Venezia in the Coppa Italia. Brief report here. (Also report on the 2nd leg on 24th September, when we thrashed Venezia 5-1!)

14th September 2000

Parma beat Pobeda 2-0 in the first leg of their UEFA Cup tie. Click for report.

6th September 2000

We lost 3-1 to a totally unrecognisable Valencia at the Tardini last night. Yish!! The players were presented to the crowd and each had a little to say (see here) about their hopes for the season to come. We also have a new badge, as you will tell from above - and a new kit. I haven't seen it (having found out 24 hours too late that the Parma/Valencia game was live on RaiTre last night) - but according to others, it is not good. The arrangement of stripes etc is the same - but the blue too dark - and the yellow too fluorescent. We have dark blue shorts too. Pictures later, no doubt. Meanwhile, I am worried about the state of the squad, to be honest. I fear we could do really badly. But I hope that I am wrong.

COPPA ITALIA

Parma have drawn Venezia in the first round proper. Ties to be played 17th and 24th September (away leg first).

25th August 2000

UEFA CUP DRAW

Parma have drawn Macedonian side, Pobeda in the 1st round proper. Should be too much of a problem?!?

FULL DRAW HERE

16th August 2000

I don't know how much truth there is in the rumours that we have had a £12m bid for Steve McManaman accepted by Real Madrid, but I rather hope it's not true. Where would he play? Although I have noticed that Fuser doesn't look too happy these days, I would rather he stayed with us. What am I talking about??? WE NEED ANOTHER STRIKER - not another midfielder.

The big news for me at present is the trip to Anfield to watch Liverpool play PARMA on 13th August in a pre-season friendly!! :)) Below, my ticket. I will report on it, of course!!

So we lost!!! Check out the story by clicking on the ticket! 9th August 2000

We finally get rid of Ortega as he is cast off to River Plate for a year's loan. Ciao Ariel!!

1st August 2000

I had a funny (and embarrassing) turn today. I thought "our" Conceicao had signed for Real Madrid! Nope, I had the wrong one! Flavio has - Sergio hasn't! The squad was officially presented today - although some players were still absent. Catch the squad here.

26th July 2000

Parma sign Savo Milosevic for £16million. I have to admit that I am somewhat relieved. Better Savo than Salas, I think. Savo could be a good purchase - I hope so! (You see, I already have his autograph!! :) If anybody calls him "Missalotovic" from now on in, I shall scream! :))

21st July 2000

(nothing's sorted yet! Report courtesy of Sportska Centrala, should you wish to read it in Serbo-Croat too!!

An offer has finally been made for Savo Milosevic by Parma. An emissary flew to Saragosa to meet club president Alfonso Solans and made an offer for 50 million DM for the Yugoslav striker. Barcelona and Real Madrid have their own problems with presidential elections, so Savo might as well continue his career in Italy. This is not to his taste, as he mentioned several times he would prefer to remain in Spain. However, he will have time to think about this offer as he's spending the weekend with his parents in the Republic of Srpska.

Parma is also keen on having Marcelo Salas in their ranks. An emissary from Lazio flew to Chile in order to meet Salas and convince him to move to Parma, but the Chilean now seems to prefer a move to Inter. The Milan club still has an offer open for Salas, in return for 40 million DM and Vladimir Jugovic.

15th July 2000

Confusion over Fabio's future at Parma. It's been reported on PlanetFootball that Lazio have made a deal with Parma, whereby he will join the club in 2001, provided he is not injured. How true this is, nobody seems to know. It sucks if true though.

(If you would like to enter 365's Caption Competition, btw, click here!)

13th July 2000

I am so confused! He was lauded as the most expensive player in the world the day before yesterday. Finalised. Done. (Crespo, that is). And yet no deal is done even of today! We were meant to get £xm + Almeyda + Conceicaio. But Crespo hasn't signed for Lazio yet (wanting twice his wages, which would make a right mess of Lazio's wages structure) and Conceicaio is reported not to want to go to Parma - preferring instead to go to Juventus. Could somebody please just wake me when this is all over and tell me the outcome. Thank you. FURTHER, there are so many names linked to replace Crespo (should he go) that I have had to change the names on the poll below. I can hardly believe that ANY of them ('cepting perhaps Savo) can ever been seen to wear the gialloblu ('cepting R Baggio too - but preferable 5 years ago). JANCKER!!! Pleeeeeeze! NOOOOOOO!

And are we getting Overmars for D Baggio or something?