Transfer Tuesday: Just not that into you

Staff

We’ve written separately about the Stefano Pioli rumors here, but suffice it to say that he looks like the next man up if Paulo Sousa leaves.

Former Viola DG Daniele Prade looks like he’s about to step into the same role with Sampdoria. Good luck with Massimo Ferrero, dude.

Defenders

Sebastian de Maio has already become something of a forgotten man for Fiorentina, as he’s already been passed up by the younger, more athletic Carlos Salcedo. However, the big Frenchman doesn’t seem to upset, as he recently told Nazione that his goal is to stay in Florence.

Midfielders

AS Roma are pretending to think about making an offer for Borja Valero, who’s refuted any possible move yet again. Ugh. Just stop.

Inter Milan won’t stop making noises about buying Federico Bernardeschi, but now he’s the fallback option if they can’t pry Domenico Berardi away from Sassuolo. Whatever. It’s still not happening.

The Milan Badelj exit shouts keep getting louder. AC Milan remain his most ardent and public pursuers, but now Chelsea have also joined the hunt. Selling him to the London giants would certainly be preferable, as they’ve proven more than willing to shell out shockingly large amounts of money (cough Marcos Alonso cough). There have also been rumors of a swap deal, with Cesc Fabregas (seriously) or John Obi Mikel going the other way.

New Dinamo Bucharest DG Adrian Mutu (still feels weird to write that) has denied all claims that he’s interested in bringing Ianis Hagi back to Romania. So I guess that’s the end of that rumor. Whew.

Remember Felipe Melo? Brazilian fella, bald, last seen getting sent off for Brazil in the 2010 World Cup? The one Fiorentina sold to Juventus for €32 million? Yeah, that one. He’s on the books for Inter, and they want to get rid of him. They’re trying to offload him back to Florence. His contract is up at the end of the season, so it’d be a January move. We’ll just go ahead and add this to our “lol Inter” file.

Franck Kessie put in a good performance for Atalanta against Fiorentina, and now we’ve heard that the Viola are making inquiries about him. Not surprisingly, Gasperini has pledged to keep him, so it’ll probably take a pretty good offer. Might be worth it, though, just to make sure nobody does that to Carlos Salcedo in a match again.

Novara star Paolo Farago has spoken about the interest from Fiorentina, saying he’s not used to hearing the voices from the market and that he’s just trying to focus on training with his club.

Forwards

Feel like having a good cry? Pantaleo Corvino claims that he turned down “multiple” €25 million offers for Nikola Kalinic. I think it was supposed to reinforce the Croatian striker’s importance to the club, but the effect is really just to make the Viola look clueless.

The Stevan Jovetic reunion remains unlikely, according to multiple sources, as the amount of financial wrangling the Montenegrin and Inter would have to do makes the chance for a return to Florence vanishingly small indeed. But then again,

Former Palermo man Abel Hernandez has turned down a contract renewal from Hull City, signalling his intent to get the heck out. Fiorentina have previously expressed interest in the Uruguayan speed demon and are thought to be renewing said interest now. At worst, he’d be a good option off the bench.

More concrete, though, is the interest in Tal Ben Haim of Maccabi Haifa. Scouts for both Fiorentina and West Ham were spotted at the Israeli international’s Europa League match against AZ Alkmaar this week, which could signal a January swoop.