ITALIAN club AS Roma have rejected a 30 million euro bid from Spanish and European powerhouse Real Madrid for their star striker Mirko Vucinic.
According to the respected La Gazzetta Dello Sport, Real Madrid had made an offer of 30 million euros for the Montenegran striker but Roma has turned them away.
It appears Luciano Spalletti is very much keen on keeping all his prized assets at the club for the rest of the season as the Roman side try and succeed in the UEFA Champions League and also fight for a top four finish in the Italian Serie A.
A number of other high profile clubs too seem to have asked for the services of the star player Vucinic but Roma have turned all of them away.
Also, plans by the aspiring presidential candidate of the Spanish giants who were bundled out of the lucrative UEFA Champions League by Liverpool of England, to lure their skipper, Steven Gerrard to Nou Camp have also ran into the roughs
Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has insisted that his club captain Steven Gerrard is never going to join Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid.
There have been speculations in the Spanish media suggesting that Florentino Perez, who is being tipped to become the new president of Madrid in the summer, is set to sign a number of top class players, including Steven Gerrard and Torres of Liverpool.
Speaking on this issue, the Spanish international striker Torres said.
“There isn’t a team in the world that Steven wouldn’t get into - so yes, I am sure he has his admirers.
“But there are some players who love their club so much that they won’t leave no matter what money is thrown around. We saw Kaka stay at AC Milan and that was nice to see in these times.
“Like Stevie, Kaka is one of the best players and in the same way he loves Milan, Stevie loves Liverpool. It’s not about how we would get him to stay, he would never leave. The fans love him, the manager loves him, and he is our captain. Trust me when I say he is going nowhere.”
Spanish and European giants Real Madrid are set to undergo a huge revamption in the summer of 2009 if reports in the Spanish media are to be believed.
Real Madrid was knocked out by Premier League side Liverpool in the last 16 stage of the UEFA Champions League and were hammered 4-0 at Anfield in the second leg this week.
This is the fifth successive year that the nine times European champions have been unable to get past the last 16 stage. The Blancos are also six points behind league leaders ({FC Barcelona) in the Liga title race. Madrid is going to hold presidential elections in the summer and it is widely expected that former club president Florentino Perez would take charge of the situation. Reports have it that as many as 17 players from the current squad would be booted out if and when Perez becomes the president of the world’s richest and most prestigious football club. According to the paper, the likes of Jerzy Dudek, Michel Salgado, Fabio Cannavaro, Royston Drenthe, Daniel Parejo, Christoph Metzelder, Javi Garcia, Rafael van der Vaart, Ruben de la Red.Gago, Mahamadou Diarra, Guti and Gabriel Heinze all could face the boot at the end of the season.
As a result, former Real Madrid stars Zinedine Zidane and Jorge Valdano are being tipped by the Spanish media to return to their old club as boardroom members.
The Spanish powerhouse is set to hold presidential elections in the summer of 2009 and so far only former club President Florentino Perez’s name has been thrown into the hat. It is expected that Perez would like to draft in Zidane as his advisor and Valdano as his sporting director. Catalan daily Sport speculates that both Zidane and Valdano, who ha been the club’s sporting director before, would hold top positions at the club that is slated to undergo a major revamp in the summer.
A good number of players are said to face the boot and an equal number of top draw players are supposedly on their way into the ‘White House’.