Transfer Tidbits and Squad Numbers!

By: bingitz2002 | August 22nd, 2008

When I read anything about this summer mercato, my initial reaction is often to punch a hole in the wall (luckily for my fist and the wall, I have refrained so far), so when I read (mostly) good news about our mercato today, I was pleasantly surprised. Reports in Italy suggest that Bianchi has agreed to personal terms with Toro and all that remains is for the club to reach an agreement with Man City for a fee. It seems as if Toro is ready to bring Bianchi to Turin permanently from the Eastlands. It looks like Cairo has gotten his act together! Maybe this will impress the Gazzetta dello Sport, who rated our market a 7 throughout July – Lord knows why – before shifting it to a more appropriate 5.5 in the past few weeks.

What is not likely to impress the fans/La Gazzetta is that Vincenzo Grella is having trouble agreeing to personal terms with Blackburn after the two clubs agreed on a €5 million free thus prolonging an already agonizing saga. Don’t get me wrong, I like Grella, he’s a solid player, but ultimately if we sell him we can have a more balanced, financially sound, and ultimately more rewarding mercato. Nevertheless, he’s been given a squad number and was called for the Brescia game tomorrow. Lastly in transfer rumors, rumors have been flying around about a Brighi-Di Michele swap with Roma. I would welcome Brighi into the squad, he is a good player who would certainly improve our midfield. Furthermore, if we’re getting Bianchi then we have even less reason to keep Di Michele and should cash in on him before he manages to miss even more sitters.

Squad Numbers

Squad numbers have been assigned for the forthcoming season and looking at them gives one some interesting insight into what GDB is thinking for this season:

1. Sereni Matteo
3. Pisano Marco Giovanni
5. Corini Eugenio
6. Ogbonna Obinze Angelo
7. Ventola Nicola
8. Barone Simone
9. Abbruscato Elvis
10. Rosina Alessandro
11. Amoruso Nicola
13. Grella Vincenzo
14. Natali Cesare
17. Di Michele David
18. Malonga Dominique
19. Diana Aimo Stefano
21. Franceschini Ivan
22. Di Loreto Marco
23. Abate Ignazio
24. Saumel Jurgen
27. Zanetti Paolo
28. Vailatti Tommaso
30. Stellone Roberto
31. Fontana Alberto Maria
32. Colombo Riccardo
33. Rubin Matteo
40. Moro Marco
50. Pratali Francesco
99. Calderoni Alex

Obviously a lower number (closer to 1 being lower) doesn’t guarantee alot of playing time, though I was certainly surprised about Angelo Ogbonna receiving number six. For those of you who don’t know much about Ogbonna, he is a 20 year-old Italian of Nigerian heritage who came up through Toro’s youth system and played last season on loan at Crotone in Serie C1. He has impressed in preseason, but both the media and I expected him to be loaned out to Serie B. Instead, he is wearing the number six for Toro and hopefully he will do well with it. Interestingly enough, Grella has a squad number. A potential indicator of him staying? Possibly. No two or four given out, so perhaps we will see a right-back and center-back arrivein the coming week, though right now we need to focus on getting a striker.