Further statements emerged from the Real Madrid camp today in reference to their hope of signing Ronaldo this summer. FIFA turned away United’s complaint about the Spanish club, meaning it’s business as usual at Real Madrid, with them commenting about our player in the media on a daily basis.
“We’re waiting for Cristiano to make a statement. Whenever he says he wants to play for Real Madrid, there would be conversations between the two clubs,” said Real Madrid general director, Miguel Angel Arroyo. “We would be delighted to reach an agreement with Manchester if the possibility exists, that is, if they want to sell and the price were reasonable.”
The Glazers have confirmed they have no intention of selling Ronaldo, however there is little doubt that Fergie will be fuming about the situation. So he probably won’t welcome the criticism that has come today from Roma’s director, Bruno Conti.
United signed 16-year-old Davide Petrucci last week which has left Roma devastated. The lad has been hailed as the best youngster the country have produced in years, and has been labelled ‘the new Totti’.
In Italy, no professional contract can be signed until the player is 17-years-old, meaning United could swoop in and land his signature before Roma could. Today, Roma have likened this to Real Madrid courting Ronaldo.
“They complain about Ronaldo and then did the same thing with David,” Conti said. “His father Stefano has disappointed me. I will not be told any more lies. As for the boy, I wish him all the best in the world.”
Now, whilst I completely understand Roma’s frustration to have lost a bright, young talent, I can’t see how they are making the connection between this and the Ronaldo situation. Had United made their desire to sign Petrucci well known, speaking to the press on a daily basis, then the two situations are comparable.
As it is, Roma have just been let down by their own footballing association who make it an option for clubs from abroad to sign their homegrown players before they reach 17-years-old.
It’s not the first time this has happened though, with Vincenzo Camilleri, Fabio Zamblera, Giuseppe Rossi and Arturo Lupoli all making moves to Premiership clubs from Italy in the past few years, leading the clubs in our league to be branded as “pirates”.
However, before Roma start throwing their weight around, they should take a minute to listen to the reasons the young player has given for leaving the club.
“Going to play for the strongest club in the world is a great opportunity for me,” he said. “It was hard to say no, even though I am a Roma fan and would have gladly stayed with them throughout my career.”
Clearly Petrucci had intentions of staying with the club, however it was their behaviour which pushed him in to the arms of United.
“A month ago Roma offered me a contract on the minimum wage and they did not say how long it was for,” he continued. “I asked for a bit of time to consider it, as United’s offer had already been made, but they gave me just three days. Roma closed the door on me while United opened another. They could have valued me more highly.”
Clearly Roma just need to let off a bit of steam, but they can kindly leave our manager out of it in future…
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Hope he doesn’t end up like Gerard and Giuseppe.
I think they are just letting off steam. Especially if they want Saha on loan, bit pathetic, Scott are you sure you got Conti’s spelling right, is it an o or a u in his name.
How did they offer him a min. wage contract if they’re not allowed to offer contracts to 16-year olds? Something smells a bit fishy here, but I hope this kid does well for us.
A bit of chest-thumping on their part, it seems. How can you compare signing an uncontracted youth player to encouraging a senior player with a long-term contract to leave against his club’s wishes?
oh no, who watched Brasil VS Argentina last night? a drab game by their standards and i lost interest after a certain incident.
Anderson got what looked like a nasty injury and was stretchered off and he was in tears!!!!
To be quite honest, its painful the way we bought off petrucci from Roma; i would liken it to Real Madrid buying david beckham,giggs or Scholesy when they were just 16 years. lets at least understand and appreciate their pain. and understand that they never had anything (verbal insults) serious against us, even after the series of on – field lashing we gave them the past two seasons. I know that financial reasons are solely the reason we bought this young lad. Thats if the truth is to b told. The major difference we wld say is the respect we accorded Roma buy not embarrasingly poaching the lad on pages of newspapers. not even after we had bought him.
I don’t condone snatching kids from their local clubs but what United did was offer a more enticing alternative, as Scott rightly points out, without making their interest public. United never tried to pressure Roma into selling Petrucci, never called on Marca to publish complete lies about pre-signed contracts and Barca being interested in him, and told every one of their players to say the same “Petrucci would do well for us.”
Yeah, this case is totally different to the Ronaldo one. The Owen Hargreaves case was more similar. I have gone beyond worrying about this. I wouldn’t want Ronaldo to leave, after giving us so much but can anyone seriously imagine him playing for United again?
It has left a dirty taste in the mouth that won’t go either way.
Spot on Tom, its has taken the gloss somewhat off that great night in Moscow for me.
dont want him back , that portuguese cunt
Alright Anant you daft racist.
PETRUCCI’S DAD HA GOT A JOB AS A GARDENER MOWING OUR PRITINE OT LAWN. HOW COULD THE BIOY SAY NO. SHOULD HAVE OFFERED AARON RAMSAYS DAD A JOB IN THE CAFE. MAYBE WE WOULD HAVE GOT HIM TOO.
PS .RON PISS OFF SOON PLEASE
Tom F, try watching a tape of Terry’s slip and Van der Sar’s save. It cheers me up every time.
While what United did was legal, perhaps unethical — but part of the blame must lie with the English academy system which forces teams to look abroad.
Comparing it to Ronaldo of course, is chalk and cheese.
Tom F- you are the man! Very well put across both posts- Cris Ron is a ‘so&so’ but not on the grounds of his race. Also, the Davide Petrucci situation has nothing to share with this Cris Ron episode.
Joe from Nigeria- I understand you’re a decent well meaning individual but it really isn’t as black and white as you think it is, Petrucci was fair game, we offered him stability and appreciation where Roma did not. Also, we broke no laws or trod on anyones’ toes.
Please ROnalado. Gooooooo!
YOu Dog.
How the hell is Davide Petrucci the most promising Italian youngster produced in years? More Roma hype… if he’d grown up in the Lazio system, I doubt anyone would be making those comparisons.
Besides, Italians searching for the next Baggio or the next Totti have gotten nearly as bad as Argentines with 2 dozen or so new “Maradonas” every year.
Rossi was a bigger loss for Italy, although they didn’t really know it at the time.