Eduardo To Miss First Two Months Of Season?

Arsenal’s Croatia striker Eduardo da Silva has suffered a setback in his recovery from the horrific double leg-break that curtailed his season last February.



Eduardo could be ruled out of the first two months of Arsenal’s season after reportedly encountering a problem in his recovery and rehabilitation from the career-threatening leg injury he sustained at Birmingham in February.

The Brazil-born striker had been making good progress from the traumatic double break, and had even hoped to be able to take part in Arsenal’s pre-season programme.

However, reports now claim that the 25-year-old will not be ready to return to full training until October.

Arsenal have not moved to sign a new striker since Eduardo’s injury, and with Emmanuel Adebayor's future still uncertain, they could be short of fire-power up front early on.

Eduardo had targeted playing again in August, so manager Arsene Wenger‘s talks with Adebayor about a new pay deal this week may have taken on new significance.

If the Togo striker does leave, Wenger would have Robin Van Persie, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela to choose from. However, neither Walcott nor Van Persie is an out-and-out centre-forward, while Vela has yet to make his Arsenal first-team debut.

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Mafia Fail In Bid To Buy Lazio

It has been revealed in Italy that a notorious mafia organisation failed in an attempt to take over Lazio.



Lazio have endured a fall from grace in recent years, having almost gone bankrupt under former patron Sergio Cragnotti.

Claudio Lotito took over the club in 2004, stabilizing the finances and moving the club into the green. Despite this, Lotito is hugely unpopular with the Lazio tifosi, many of whom are desperate for him to relinquish control of the club.

It has now been revealed that a notorious Italian organised crime gang attempted to buy Lazio from Lotito, through third parties.

The Casalesi clan of the Camorra, who are the Naples version of the Mafia, were hoping to finance the deal with funds gained from violence and intimidation.

The plan came to light during a series of 10 arrests made by police in Rome in an operation known as ‘Broken Wings’.

Lazio had a desperately disappointing 2007/08 season finishing 12th in Serie A, being eliminated from the Champions League in the group stages, and failing to make it back into Europe for the coming campaign.

However, things look brighter for the new season, following the arrivals of South Americans Mauro Zarate, Juan Carrizo and Matuzalem, as well as the return of Pasquale Foggia.

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Fornaroli: I Am Samp’s Inzaghi

New Sampdoria signing Bruno Fornaroli has promised that he will be to the Blucerchiati what Pippo Inzaghi is to AC Milan, and that means lots of goals.



Fornaroli, who is regarded as one of South America’s most promising forwards at present, completed his transfer from Nacional Montevideo to Sampdoria yesterday.

The 20-year-old is known as something of a prolific goalscorer in his homeland, having hit 15 goals last season for Nacional.

"I am happy to be at Sampdoria,” Fornaroli told Tuttosport.

“Who are my idols? As is the case for almost all young Uruguayans, Daniel Fonseca and Enzo Francescoli.

“But even Pippo Inzaghi is an idol, a player whose characteristics I share.”

The South American, like Inzaghi, is not blessed physically, as he is 1.75m tall and weighs just 63kg. However, he is renowned for his excellent movement and predatory skills inside the box, and if he is even half as successful in Serie A as the legendary Inzaghi, then Sampdoria will certainly have signed themselves one hell of a player.

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Striker Crisis Looming For Man City

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is facing a potential shortage of strikers ahead of the club’s Premier League opener against Aston Villa on August 17th.




With record signing Jo due to be on Olympic duty with Brazil when the domestic League campaign gets underway, Hughes may now have lost the services of Zimbabwe international Benjani Mwaruwari.

Benjani is thought to have ruptured a thigh muscle during training, which given that City also have Uefa Cup qualifying round commitments, poses a major problem for manager Mark Hughes.

He could be short of experienced options in attack without £19million new-boy Jo and 29-year-old Benjani, who joined City from Portsmouth as the transfer window was closing last January. The Zimbabwean will be sidelined for the rest of pre-season and probably beyond.

City have sold Georgios Samaras to Celtic and released both Emile Mpenza and Paul Dickov. That leaves Darius Vassell, plus Ched Evans and Daniel Sturridge, who has been away with the England Under-19 squad at the European Championships, as definitely available striking options.

The Italian pair, Bernardo Corradi and Rolando Bianchi, are currently available but both likely to leave before the season starts.

Hughes was expected to meet City’s executive chairman, Garry Cook, at the weekend to discuss transfer plans following Ronaldinho’s decision to join AC Milan rather than move to Eastlands, and no doubt the need for new strikers will be one of the talking-points.

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Ewerthon Set To Join Málaga

Ewerthon is on the verge of joining newly-promoted Málaga having been told that he could go out on loan once again by Real Zaragoza following their relegation to la Segunda A.



The Brazilian striker joined Los Maños in 2005 and after 65 appearances found himself surplus to requirements and is now set to join his third club on a temporary basis.

At 27, Ewerthon is at his peak but according to reports his attitude has affected his performances and meant that clubs have not been keen to make a move permanent.

In 2007 he spent the second half of the year on loan at VfB Stuttgart, but failed to gain a regular first team place and agreed to return to Spain to join Espanyol.

It was coincidence, but his arrival at Montjuïc did not help the Blanc i Blau as the club plummeted down the table after a glorious openig half to the campaign.

Now Ewerthon is set for yet another loan move after Zaragoza decided not to sell him and talks with Málaga are at a very advanced stage, according to AS.

"His desire is to play for Málaga," the player's agent, Rodri, confirmed, and he could be joined up front at the Andalucian club by Deportivo's Adrián who is also on the verge of a move.

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Roma Close In On Malouda

Roma have edged closer to signing Chelsea winger Florent Malouda, according to the Corriere dello Sport.



Malouda has only been at Chelsea for 12 months, having signed for them last summer from Lyon for €20m.

However, he failed to live up to his price tag in his first season at Stamford Bridge, and it is believed that he does not figure in new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari’s plans for the new campaign.

Roma are on the lookout for a new left sided offensive player following the sale of Amantino Mancini to Inter, and it was reported at the weekend that they were eyeing up Malouda as a replacement.

The Corriere today claims that Roma yesterday sounded out Chelsea about the possibility of signing the Frenchman, and the response they received was positive. Malouda is said to be desperate to quit Stamford Bridge, and would jump at the chance at moving to the Italian capital.

Roma would prefer to sign Malouda on an initial loan deal, so that they could then spend their available transfer funds on a centre forward such as Julio Baptista.

However, if this is not possible then they are ready to pay between 13 and 15 million euros for the 28-year-old World Cup finalist.

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Guardiola Puts Fitness First

Pep Guardiola's new ideas at Barcelona continued when he called his squad in for an early-morning training session before they flew to Scotland and then scheduled another soon after their arrival.

The new Blaugrana coach is intent on his players stepping up a level in their fitness after Frank Rijkaard was accused of not pushing his players hard enough.

On the day that they flew to Scotland for their short training camp, the Barça players first had to report to Camp Nou at 7.30am and were on the training pitch within 30 minutes.

A light stretching session and ball work was done before the squad departed and headed for the airport for their trip to St Andrews.

That brief spell was the first time that Dani Alves, Seydou Keita and Samuel Eto'o had trained this summer and gave them a chance to meet the rest of the team-mates.

Upon arriving in Scotland, the team headed to their hotel at the city made famous by golf rather than football, and then headed straight out for more training.

Guardiola recognised that fitness levels in the squad had not been as high as he would have liked in previous seasons with Rijkaard preferring ball work to physical circuits.

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