There have been some very strange moves in the last week in the menage-a-trois between Felipe Melo’s club, Fiorentina, and the two suitors of their Brazilian star, Juventus and Arsenal.
First of all Juventus announced that they had agreed personal terms with Melo, ahead of discussing the transfer fee with Fiorentina, and despite Arsenal making their interest known.
Fiorentina and Melo then agreed on a new contract extension, with a buy-out clause of 25m euros to deflect the Juve manouevre, and the Florence club made a statement saying that Arsenal were the highest bidder.
They then threw a spanner in the works, by saying they would only accept Arsenal’s bid, if they agreed to give them Emanuel Eboue as part of the deal.
Now the rumour is that Fiorentina were using the Arsenal interest purely to squeeze as much as possible out of Juventus, and the meeting tomorrow is just to work out the fine details, as Melo always wanted to join Juventus in the first place!
This all sounds very cloak-and-dagger, but do Arsenal fans think that football has become this complicated and these rumours could be true?
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Tags: Arsenal, fiorentina, Juventus, Melo
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discraful, they surely can’t be allowedto do this hopefully the deal will fall through and melo will be stuck at fiorentina < < the was a horrible act of injustice and we should sue them
Are you serious, ‘arsenalfan’? You hope Melo gets “stuck” at Fiorentina? Gotta love the delusion of Arsenal fans thinking they are a significantly bigger club than Fiorentina. Now Juventus would be a real step up for Melo.
*waits for Arsenal fans to bring up Calciopoli*
…No skin off my nose. I never thought Melo was much better than Denilson and stand by that. Will be glad if he went to Juve; they deserve one another.
hahahaha
stupid arsenal fan….
it’s not disgraceful…this happens all the time….
Stupid brits…
whats disgraceful is how english teams poach players at 16 from italian clubs…thats an un fair advantage….trying building some youth of your own and maybe the 6+5 rule wont damage your shitty league as much as it’s expected to
(By the way i’m not italian, so dont bad mouth italians)
Enjoy your run to the semis in the next world cup, the closest you’ll ever get to a WC crown.
And you’ll have an Italian to thank for that feat.
Brits bashing italians…nothing new…Brits bashing spanish and french and germans….nothing new also….
Brits bash anything better than them to make it seem less….
Arrogant fools
juve are a small shit club in a small shit league, let melo go where he wants
If melo wants to play in half empty stadiums for the forseeable then he cant have much ambition.
Will an Italian club progress in the CL in the next few years? I doubt it!
John Hawkins (the guy who started the slave trade back in the 17th century) would be proud of todays trading in human flesh, albeit at great advantage to the slave, and many come from Africa just as they did four hundred years ago. Nevertheless we talk in terms of putting players up for sale and on the market then we parade them in front of the crowds or unveil them like a statue. The entire process sickens me.
Ah, a Sun reader.
We only want players who want to play for us and bleed for the cause, melo doesn’t appear to be one of them.
heres the deal….we want a player….his club says 25 million and we say…..how about 15 million and a luncheon voucher and this 25p off 3 tins of beans etc etc
we should simply pay the asking price and call their bluff. im sick of us doing arthur daleys all the time.
Response to EAP, i love the way you hate everything about the English but speak their language fluently.
Arsenal are now a seller’s club. A way-station on the way to a bigger club for the likes of Veiera, Flamini, Hleb and soon Fabregas and Adebayor. Anything beyond gullible, naïve eighteen-year-olds is out of your league.
Fiorentina bigger than Arsenal, you’re having a laugh big boy
people who bash arsenal make ME laugh. a club with class, dignity, the best coach in football, and a plan for the future. count us out, by all means. we’ll see who’s laughing soon enough. dare i even mention our brilliance of just a few years past? unprecedented.
Ivor, u know what, Arsenel ARE a sellers club, have been for the last few years n guess what … they still outperform any italian counterpart … roma was a close shave this year, juventus got a spanking and likewise for AC… we may sell players to meet our debts but we would still (with out 18yr olds) wipe the floor with any italian team .. your cheat & bribe driven success in the 90’s should be taken out of the history books. in summary, the italian league is a joke …
Akiller- nice point ;). Im sick of everybody who say Melo should come to Juve so he can actually win something. Tell me, what have Juve won since they were caught match FIXING? Nothing! Same as Arsenal. The only difference is that Arsenal acutally look likely to win something. Yes we came 4th in the EPL this season, but that was also mainly because of the injuries we had. I’d like to see any top club try and compete with 3 or 4 key players out at a time. We also made the semi’s the Champions League which was better than any Italian team. We also made the FA Cup semi’s with quote: ‘little boys’. It must really hurt Juve fans when they realise that maybe these ‘little boys’ are actually better than they are and that even though they have an average age of 23, they look more likely to win something. Also, can anybody tell me that little boys name who helped knock Juve and Milan out of the Champions League a few years ago? Francesc something wasn’t it?
Who cares? Lorik Cana is a much better option.
Italian football is leagues behind English, Spanish, German, and French. Clearly the English and Spanish dominance is far ahead in the European football but what all these four leagues have in common is packed stadiums. Not only are Italian stadiums empty, there is a distinct lack of families and kids going not because its expensive but because of the atmosphere and violence. That not even beginning to mention the politics and corruption involved in the Italian league. I grew up watching Italian football and therefore I am saddened at the state of the league and I cannot help falling asleep when I attempt to watch a game. Being a black player I do not know why melo would want to stay in Italy the racism in that country against black people is disgraceful. If melo rather play in a league where the football is boring, in empty stadiums in games which are fixed then be my guest. Let him stay there. Wenger knows best and will find a good player. Ps. the wheeling and dealing by Florentina is only business and them trying to get the best offer for a good player which I feel is fair enough. In the end of the day its up to the player and what he plays along with!
Juve…a step up? Are you having a laugh?
They languish at mid table, occasionally qualifying for Europe but being dumped out embarrassingly at the hands of some mediocre teams.
For all this talk of Melo has anybody actually seen him play many matches? There’s nobody at Arsenal who have even confirmed their interest yet.
The only thing I’ve seen of him was during a recent Brazil match in the ConFed cup. Where he tried a couple of shots which were in danger of going into orbit, and I saw him lost the ball a few times and I’m sure I saw him booked for a stupid tackle. For me I’m really not bothered if we “miss out” just because you’ll never know what we might have missed. I’m more keen on the Flamini rumours surfacing. Now that’s a lad I’d love to see back alongside Fab in midfield.
“Gotta love the delusion of Arsenal fans thinking they are a significantly bigger club than Fiorentina. Now Juventus would be a real step up for Melo.”
Let’s ask UEFA….
Official UEFA Ranking 2009/2010
Arsenal 5th
Juventus 23rd
Fiorentina 59th (just behind Anderlecht, Club Brugge & Rapid Bucuresti)
But what do UEFA know….
juve are the past, arsenal – the future.
Look at the expected response…
full of ignorance….
Thanks for proving my point