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Morning Ticker: Altidore loan not set in stone, Farfan moves to Schalke and

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Good morning folks. Apologies for the delay in getting the day started but a blackout in North Bergen, home of the SBI compound, last night and this morning was to blame.

Let’s get to some news:

Altidore may stay with Villarreal

As we reported last night, Jozy Altidore is set to be introduced at Villarreal today and now comes word from Spanish daily Marca that Altidore may stay with the ‘Yellow Submarine’ a while. According to the report, Villarreal is considering not loaning Altidore to another club for his first season in Spain, which was being suggested in various reports the past week. Concerns over the fact that Altidore is set to miss a majority of pre-season training to play in the Olympics coupled with a desire to assure that Altidore has a smooth transition to Spain has Villarreal officials considering keeping him.

Is that good news? I think it could be. He will have a chance to train with one of Spain’s top teams, a team that will be competing in the Champions League, and if he does well enough he could certainly see some playing time. Might we see the Altidore-Rossi forward tandem sooner than expected? All kidding aside, I see Altidore making a mid-season loan move out to a team like Recreativo Huelva once he has had a chance to settle. That’s assuming he doesn’t work his way into Villarreal’s rotation.

Schalke signs Farfan

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Peruvian forward Jefferson Farfan had his pick of European clubs to sign with, including Tottenham and Fiorentina, but Farfan chose to sign with Schalke 04, which paid a $15.5 million transfer fee to PSV Eindhoven for his services.

Schalke will be hoping Farfan can help a struggling offense that managed just 55 goals in Bundesliga play last season. Farfan, who is still suspended from the Peruvian national team after the big party fiasco during World Cup qualifying last December, joins fellow Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero (Hamburg) in the German Bundesliga.

Fenerbahce and Zico part ways

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Fenerbahce has failed to reach agreement on a new deal with Brazilian head coach Zico and are now looking for a new coach, the club announced on Tuesday. Zico helped lead Fener to the Champions League quarterfinals and a second-place finish in the Turkish league.

So where will ZIco wind up? Chelsea is a very real possibility. You might recall that it was Zico’s Fenerbahce that pushed Chelsea to the limit in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Share your thoughts on these stories, and any other stories emerging today, in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. I agree, eric. I would have loved to have seen him at Fiorentina. They’re close to signing another Peruvian–left back Juan Vargas, who’s attracted a lotta attention for his strong play at Catania. But I think I read somewhere that Farfan chose this for economic reasons. Disappointing but I’m pretty sure a lotta of us would have done the same. This is a piece of good news for Peruvian futbol, sadly since many of our supporters are considering boycotting Peru’s WCQ vs Colombia on Saturday in the midst of its 4-0 rape from Mexico this past week. Something needs to be done! We have the players but collectively we can’t produce.

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  2. I would have loved to see Farfan sign at Fiorentina, he and Mutu would have been a devastating combination.

    I loved watching Fenerbahce this past year, I think they’re going to regret not being able to work it out with Zico.

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  3. Anyone else seen the report on LA Times that the Galaxy are thinking about trying to lure Edgar Davids?

    1. How do they pay him with their current cap situation?

    2. How many announcers will butcher his last name?

    3. How many games before he takes someone’s shin off?

    4. Are we truly the international retirement league at this point?

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  4. Mats – what’s wrong with the Nat’l Enquirer? Didn’t you see their hard-hitting story on Bush’s coke fiend habits as an explanation for his presidency? Riight…

    Max – I get that sometimes when all the browser goes looking for all the ads on the side of the blog.

    Finally, what’s all this stuff about Zico? If the USMNT needs a Brazilian coach with bigtime name recognition, the Fed should go looking for Socrates. Can you imagine the confusion that would cause in the mainstream media?

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  5. Here is hoping Farfan has better success than Paolo Guerrero. Guerrero has not exactly been a fan favorite the past two or three years.

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  6. I really like your blog but using Marca as a source is somewhat akin to using The National Enquirer as a source. It’s now silly season and many newspapers in Europe get extra silly. Anyway, keep up the good reporting.

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  7. Max- i get that from time to time, it seems like its taking an eternity to load and then shoots out some error… i blame it on the crap computer at work tho….

    usually i load a different site and then return… works everytime for me

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  8. The rest of your blog is not appearing for me for some reason. All i saw was this first post. The rest is all white space down the middle with all the ads and links still appearing down each side.

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  9. Doug, I really doubt that…

    1. Bob Bradley will be fired. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be, but let’s face it. It’s going to take a another bad result (ie: World Cup) for him to see the door.

    2. Zico will be available for long. Chelsea and Blackburn are still looking for managers and there are plenty of better places to coach than the USA national team. I would LOVE to see it though.

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  10. The manager search for Chelsea has been rather amusing. I’m not quite sure how I would feel if Zico becomes the man but I agree with Mig22 that the new attacking style would be nice to see. As for Altidore, spending the first half of the season with Villareal could be nice. I doubt he will train well enough to get significant playing time (Does Spain have a Carling Cup?), but being in that environment will help him and his development.

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  11. That gang at Chelsea-in-America is rather excited (most of us) about Zico being the gaffer at Stamford Bridge. New blood, attacking style, with the grit of Turkish league experience seems to suit the Blues.

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