In other news, Alberto Gilardino was unveiled as a Fiorentina player today. It is rumored that the deal cost La Viola around 14 million euro, and Gilardino took a big pay cut to play in Firenze next season. Gila will reunite with his old mentor Cesare Prandelli, and his old Parma teammate Adrian Mutu. In his interview he said the usual things: that he’s happy to be at Fiorentina, he’s sad he didn’t get to go to Euro 2008, his time at Milan wasn’t bad, there’s no rivalry with Pazzini, etc.

Sampdoria look to have sealed the deal with Real Madrid for Antonio Cassano. Yesterday Samp director Beppe Marotta said that Cassano was “99.9% a Sampdoria player”. Today the news is that the documents are being signed and Cassano will receive 2.8 million euro a year until 2013. He also has a rescission fee of 18-20 million euro, and if he is eventually sold before 2013 some of the money will go back to Real Madrid.

In other news, Cagliari made two deals today. First, they named Massimiliano Allegri their new boss after failing to come to a deal with Davide Ballardini. Allegri led little club Sassuolo to Serie B for the first time in their history and is considered one of the top young managers in Italy. Allegri is also a former Calgiari player. The other deal is that Cagliari bought the other half of striker Alessandro Matri from Milan, however no one knows the fee yet.

Palermo finally found a director for their midfield in Fabio Liverani. The Rome born midfielder signed a two year deal with the Sicilian side. Also with the Rosanero, Andrea Barzagli basically confirmed his transfer to Wolfsburg yesterday, saying “I’m happy with the transfer to Wolfsburg”. Palermo also signed another bald guy, this time it’s 23 year old Andrea Raggi, who was signed from Empoli. Raggi is a very promising right back, but now the announcers will have even more trouble identifying him, Guana, and Migliaccio.

Genoa also signed Reggina fullback Francesco Modesto, who was rumored to be a target for Roma for so long. No details have been revealed about the deal yet.

And Parma is starting on the right foot in Serie B, naming former Empoli boss Gigi Cagni the new manager. Cagni will look to get the Gialloblu right back into Serie A, and has signed a 2 year contract.

The Coppa Italia will undergo a change next year. After years and years of format changing, the Lega Calcio has finally decided to do it English and French and every other European country style, including clubs from the lower leagues. Next year the Coppa Italia will include Serie A, B, C1, C2, and Serie D. Also, the games will be one-off until the semi-finals, which means we may see some of those cinderella stories that we see in other European nation’s cups. Who knows, the final next year could be Pizzighettone-Inter.
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Lastest news from Italy training: Donadoni is trying out a Del Piero-Toni-Cassano trident. Cassano is impressing the most and yesterday scored 4 goals in a practice match. Tomorrow is the friendly with Belgium in Florence at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. The game will be broadcast on RAI International at 2:30 PM EST, and I think GolTV may be showing it as well. 

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