Italian football transfer hectic in this summer

By Vic Mills

LONDON, England (JP): The wheeling and dealing in the soccer transfer world this summer has arguably been most frenetic in Italy.

In a vivid example of creative destruction, Juventus has, for the second year running, dismantled its star-studded attack with the hope of producing an even more predatory one.

Two years ago, having just won the Champions' Cup, coach Marcello Lippi sold Fabrizio Ravanelli to Middlesbrough and Gianluca Viali to Chelsea. The changes have been no less swift this year, after running into the Teutonic force of Borussia Dortmund in last season's final of the same competition.

Alen Bocksic, its Croatian striker, has been sold back to Lazio after just one season, with a US$1.5 million profit, while Christian Vieri will play his football in Spain with Atletico Madrid after a $27 million transfer deal that saw his own salary quintupled.

Juventus, in turn, has bought the championship's top scorer, "Pippo" Inzaghi, from Atlanta, and Daniel Fonseca from Roma.

The new season will see two brilliant 20-year-old center forwards in Milan, each with a plethora of problems, though admittedly very different ones.

The brusque intervention of the European Union, overruling FIFA, football's world governing body, means that Internazionale has definitely prized Ronaldo away from Barcelona, but will be without the Brazilian for perhaps 15 championships games next season.

Patrick Kluivert, the Holland and Ajax center forward, signed by AC Milan, is in much deeper waters. He has been accused with companions, of rape. His lawyers insist that Kluivert played no part in the incident. A year ago Kluivert was found guilty of running down and killing a man in his car in Amsterdam, but managed to stay out of jail.

Inter, meanwhile, must come to terms with the fact that, despite paying a colossal fee, reported to be around $75 million, Ronaldo will miss a large part of the next season due to national team duty. An occurrence that will probably see the side hold on to its Italian strikers, Branca and Ganz, though Ivan Zomarano, the Chilean forward, could be joining Bologna.

Recoba, the Uruguay international, from Nacional Montevideo, is also on his way to the San Siro. Inter hopes, too, to have Nwankwo Kanu, the gifted 20-year-old Nigerian striker, back after his recovery from a heart operation.

Ince

Having spent the weekend in Liverpool undergoing a medical, the likelihood is that Paul Ince will leave Inter this week. The way is now clear for his departure following Inter's signing of Brazilian midfielder Ze Elias from Bayer Leverkusen.

AC Milan, which has Fabio Capello back as coach after his success in Spain with Real Madrid, is poised to off-load Roberto Baggio having already sold Christophe Dugarry to Barcelona and Stefano Eranio to Derby County.

In addition to acquiring Kluivert, the Milanese giant beat Arsenal for the signature of Ibrahim Ba, the Bordeaux winger who tormented Brazil in the recent Turnoi de France.

Sampdoria too, starts the season with a new manager after engaging Cesar Minotti, a former World Cup winner in Argentina.

The club has lost its icon, Roberto Manchini, to Lazio but the attack will be no less exciting with Juergen Klinsmann joining forces with Vincenzo Montella. Menotti is also expected to engage his Argentine protege, Calderon, before the season starts.

The pairing of Boksic and Mancini in attack for Lazio promises to be as entertaining as any in Serie A. The departure of Lazio's dour Czech coach, Zdnek Zeman, and the arrival at Sampdoria of Sven Goran Erriksson, means that Boksic will not now be banished to the left flank as in a previous spell with the club.

In an effort to regain its place in the top flight, Serie B side Torino has engaged the former Glasgow Rangers, Liverpool and Southampton manager, Graeme Soundness.

His first move was to sign gifted winger and Torino old boy, Gigi Lentini, from Milan.

The big spender in the Spanish league this summer has been Atletico Madrid who not only acquired the services of Juninho from Middlesbrough for $20 million, but went even higher to recruit Christian Vieri from Juventus.

With Bobby Robson reluctantly accepting the post of technical director at Barcelona, new manager, Louis van Gaal, formerly with Ajax, wasted no time in implementing his rebuilding program.

Inside 24 hours he had announced the arrival of Christophe Dugarry, the French forward, Michael Reiziger, the Dutch defender, both coaxed from Milan and D Ceriz, who was recruited from Partisan Belgradeg.

Further arrivals are imminent.