http://fiorentina.theoffside.com News from Fiorentina Italian football team Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:05:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Since this latest Adrian Mutu-to-Roma fuss kicked up yesterday, I have been waiting to post my thoughts, hoping that it would reach some resolution before I chimed in. It now looks like this may go on for a few more days, so I wanted to get something out to ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/the-mutu-situation-%e2%80%93-where-we-stand.html The English-language magazine World Soccer is a staple for many football fans here in the States and in the U.K. It combines solid reporting with a few thoughtful columnists, but most importantly it is essentially the only magazine that tries to cover the whole world game. It often ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/fiorentina-and-great-derbies.html Today the Viola played their second friendly of the pre-season, against Hellas Verona, and drew the match at one goal apiece. The match had promised to be something of a homecoming of sorts, as the Great Man had been a former gaffer at Hellas, and Gila, Mutu and Jorgenson ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/fiorentina-1-%e2%80%93-hellas-verona-1-and-some-stupid-bullshit.html For frivolous people such as myself, today marked the end of my heartbreak for the summer, for the mighty Viola were back on the pitch. Fiorentina played amateur club side Sciliar in a pre-season friendly today, winning 12-0. Giampaolo Pazzini had a hat-trick, and there were braces for ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/for-some-the-end-of-heartbreak-for-others-there-is-only-pause.html Okay, the title of this brief little post is a bit of a joke. My lovely and good-humored wife occasionally refers to me as the President of the ‘Toyota Enthusiasts Society’ not because of any fondness for that particular automobile (I don’t even own a Toyota) but because seemingly ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/toyota-enthusiasts-society-annual-meeting.html God, I hate the off-season. I miss watching my club every week. I thought this summer wouldn’t be that bad, since we had the Euros, which turned out to be really fun. But now that’s over and I’m left surfing the ‘net every day for rumors of ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/fiorentina-news-notes-and-nonsense.html Viola coach Cesare Prandelli (regular readers know I always refer to him as the “The Great Man,” but it’s the off-season so I want to explain myself) gave a wide-ranging interview this week where he spoke of his hopes for next year, saying that he thought the team could do ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/the-great-man-speaks.html In recent weeks we’ve heard a lot of stories regarding Fiorentina and their summer signings, especially since the team is expected to reload for next season’s Champions League campaign. Well, the transfer window officially opened yesterday, and so we are now able to start separating the fact from the ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/transfer-window-opens-for-viola.html First of all, my apologies again to all of the loyal readers who turn to this blog for their much-needed fix of Fiorentina news. I understand that throwing up a paragraph or two every other week just doesn’t cut it. For those of you who don’t know, my ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/fiorentina-striker-news-and-random-thoughts.html One thing I wanted to do during the Euros was to track the performance of current and recent Viola stars as they played for their national teams. That plan has gone bust as I am spending 95% of my time with my squirming 10-day-old son who is currently fussing ... http://fiorentina.theoffside.com/team-news/bring-on-bassy-frey.html