Ljajic linked to Fiorentina

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Firenzeviola.it reports that AS Roma is shopping attacker Adem Ljajic around in an attempt to raise funds for Edin Dzeko. While it's all media speculation at this point, enough different outlets have reported the connection that it bears mentioning. For the record, Roma is also apparently trying to shuffle off Ashley Cole, Gervinho, and Seydou Doumbia

As many (okay, pretty much all) of you know, Adem Ljajic is a former Fiorentina player. Although he suffered some initial growing pains, he blossomed into a fearsomely direct dribbler and playmaker from the left wing or the middle in Montella's final year. Although he's had some good moments for Roma, the giallorossi have decided he's an ideal fundraiser for Dzeko. It's unknown whether or not the player would be open to a return, but given how well he fit into Roma's quick-hitting attack, he'd probably flourish for Sousa's Fiorentina in a similar way. Whether or not his agent Ramadani agrees, of course, is another matter, and keeping that remora away from the club may be as good a reason as any to turn down the player.

Ljajic himself is still only 23, which is hard to believe. He was a Corvino kid, bought from Partizan Belrade at the age of 18 for an eyebrow-raising 6.8 million euros. Although he was uneven at first, he seemed to adapt to life as Stevan Jovetic's sidekick, although he was well-known for a certain amount of truculence: Siniša Mihajlović, then the Viola coach, questioned his conditioning (Playstation and Nutella); the player was banned from the Serbian national team for refusing to sing the anthem based on his religious beliefs. But these paled in comparison to the events of May 2nd, 2012. Trailing 19th-placed Novara, Delio Rossi yanked Ljajic in the 32nd minute, then responded to the player's sarcastic applause with a physical assault.

A year later, Ljajic deputized his agent to force a move to Roma for 11 million euros, which, according Transfermarkt, was below market value. It seems only fair for Prade, with the money from Mario Gomez's looming sale to Besiktas burning a hole in his pocket, to return the favor.