Alberto Aquilani

The sporting director of Bayern Munich, Matthias Sammer, has said that Mario Gomez wants to make a move to Fiorentina this summer. However, Sammer has also made it clear that Munich will not let Gomez go at a lesser transfer fee.

According to the reports, Munich wants a transfer fee of 20 million Euros for Gomez, but, Fiorentina is not ready to pay them that much amount at this point of time.
Gomez hadn’t got that many playing opportunities in the last season. Mario Mandzukic was preferred ahead of him and the 27 years old German international wasn’t too happy with that. He wants to join Fiorentina in search of more playing chances.

It is set to be an odd season for Chelsea (do they have any other kind?) with the return of Jose Mourinho to the club, and there would seem to be a lot on the line for club and manager.

Mourinho is investing his reputation in restoring the club’s fortunes, while if reappointing their most successful manager doesn’t work, it is hard to see where Roman Abramovich goes next. All this means that a lot of those interested in football betting will be gambling on what will happen to Chelsea this season, but what would be a good bet to place on them?

The manager of Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, has praised his side for showing great fighting spirit in the recently played Serie A match against AC Milan.

Fiorentina was down by 2-0 and there were only 20 odd minutes to go in the match. Also, La Viola were playing with only 10 guys because Nenad Tomovic was shown the red card in the 40th minute of the match.

Fiorentina earned a couple of penalties in a space of 7 minutes in the later part of the second half and managed to convert both those penalties.

On the first occasion, Adem Ljajic took the shot and he smashed it straight into the net. The Milan goalie anticipated the ball to come towards his right and he dived in that direction. But, his anticipation was wrong. Ljajic played a straight shot and gave his team a lifeline with that terrific goal.

On the second penalty which was earned by Milan in the 73rd minute, David Pizarro was asked to take the shot and he didn’t miss the target either. With a tremendous shot, he made up for the mistakes that he had committed earlier in the match.

The scores remained equalized till the referee blew the final whistle and Fiorentina got one point.

In the post match press conference, Montella said, “We showed great mental toughness and fought back from a very difficult stage. This shows that the boys have got self belief and they are quite prepared to fight their way out of any situation.”

“With one player short, it was not easy. But, if you are determined and composed, you can do anything and that’s what we showed in the match today.”

Fiorentina is currently at no. 4 in the Serie A points table with 52 points in 31 matches. They have just 6 points less than AC Milan.

Since his disappointing spell with Liverpool a few years ago, the Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani has matured in recent years. The loan spells with AC Milan have once again demonstrated the ability within the midfielder, who suffered a number of injury problems after his move to Liverpool from Roma.

The midfielder recently secured a permanent move to Fiorentina, and he has been one of the main players in the resurgence of Fiorentina under the management of Vincenzo Montella. Even though Vincenzo Montella does not have a lot of experience, he has managed to get Fiorentina closer to the likes of Inter Milan and Lazio in the table.

The club still have an outside chance of qualifying for the European positions. They are currently sixth in the Italian Serie A table with only two points separating them from Inter Milan and Lazio. Aquilani has been one of the star players for the team this season. He has played 18 matches for the club in all competitions and has scored four goals. The 28-year-old has said that he is confident that he can strike a great partnership with Sissoko as well. Fiorentina managed to secure the signing of Sissoko from Juventus in the January transfer window. Aquilani knows Sissoko extremely well due to his loan spell with Juventus a few years back.

“We have to react after last Saturday's loss to Juventus. We have to absorb the criticism and start again – nothing is impossible at this stage of the season. Sissoko is a massive plus for us. We've already started a good relationship [in training],” said Aquilani after the 2-0 defeat at the hands of the table leaders Juventus. The club had recently brought an end to a poor run of form with the 2-0 win over Parma, and they will be keen to return to winning ways.

The Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri has assured fans that the club will be back despite the problems faced by them in recent weeks. It was only a few weeks ago that Napoli were challenging for the title along with Juventus at the top of the table.

However, many incidents have happened since then including points penalty for the team. A couple of the Napoli players were found guilty of being involved in match fixing back in the 2009 season, which has led to the club being penalised two points now. This coupled with a poor run of form has meant that they have fallen 10 points behind leaders and are currently in the fifth position.

Despite this, the manager is confident that the club will be back to winning ways once again and will be at least able to finish in the Champions league positions come the end of the season. Mazzarri has questioned the decision taken by the Italian football Association to penalise Napoli by two points for the mistake done by two players more than three years ago. The case will now be going to the tribunal and a decision is set to be announced later in the season. For now, Napoli have the content with the fifth position in the table.

“It’s a difficult moment, but I’m certain that the team will get back on the right path. We’ve identified the reasons behind our dip. We’ll see against Siena if the things we have discussed are applied. I don’t have a magic wand, but I can guarantee that the squad will give everything that it has. Despite the points penalty, we have more points now than at the same stage last season,” said the Napoli manager, whose team has had just two victories in the last five matches.

The Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Montella has refused to reveal whether the former Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani will be part of the starting line-up when Fiorentina take on Genoa in Italian Serie A in the midweek action.

Fiorentina have made a great start to the new season under the new manager Vincenzo Montella. However, it has also meant that the summer signing Albert Aquilani has seen very little first-team action so far. He has started just two matches for the Italian club since completing his move from Liverpool in the summer. The 28-year-old, though, made his return from a long-term injury problem in the 1-0 win over Lazio recently.

In the pre-match press conference, Vincenzo Montella was asked the question whether Albert Aquilani would start the match or not. However, he refused to reveal the status of the midfielder and give an advantage to the rivals. Fiorentina are currently fourth in the Italian Serie A table after having won the last four matches without exception. They have 24 points from the 12 matches played, and they could easily overtake Inter Milan if results go their way in the coming weekends. This is a far cry from the relegation threatening season they had last season.

"I won't tell you whether he will play or not. I don't want to give them any kind of advantage. We are just all happy that a player of his calibre is at our disposal," said the Fiorentina manager ahead of the Genoa match. The next few weeks will be extremely tough for Fiorentina because they will be featuring the likes of Milan and Atalanta in the league. However, because they can only focus on the league without any distractions from European competitions, Montella has said that he does not see a reason why they cannot challenge for Champions league positions.

The Fiorentina midfielder, Alberto Aquilani, has been ruled out of the team for two weeks due to his Achilles injury. Aquilani has been struggling with this injury since the start of the season, since joining the club for a reported £6m (according to Liverpool news).

He hasn’t started any match for Fiorentina in the current season so far and he came to play as substitute only in two matches. He was supposed to be included in Fiorentina’s first XI for the match against Catania which is going to be played on 16th of September. But, the manager of Fiorentina, Vincenzo Montella, has made it clear that Aquilani would not play in the match against Catania. There hasn’t been any improvement in his injury and he needs to rest for a few days.

As per Montella, The doctors have suggested Aquilani to rest for at least two weeks, otherwise, the injury could get worse. The team management wants him to play in more and more matches, but, he can’t be included in the first XI unless he is 100% fit. He is a terrific player. That’s why the club has invested in him. But, unfortunately, he has had some fitness issues due to which he hasn’t been able to serve the club as much as he would have wanted to do. Hopefully, the rest for a couple of weeks would help him in regaining 100% fitness.

Aquilani himself said that he is gutted after being ruled out for a fortnight. As per Aquilani, when you join a new club, you don’t want to miss too many matches. You want to feature in more and more matches and make a mark. But, unfortunately, he has struggled with injury during his 1 month tenure at Fiorentina so far. Hopefully, it would not take him too long to make a comeback.

Following Liverpool's horrendous start to the Premier League campaign at the weekend, there have been concerns that Brendan Rodgers' men could continue their struggles in Europe. However, Liverpool legend Graeme Souness disagrees with such views, claiming that the Reds will be far too strong for their opponents Hearts on Thursday night.

It would be fair to say that Liverpool struggled in their first leg tie in the previous qualification round of the Europa Cup, after only managing to scrape a 1-0 victory against FC Gomel. However, they did manage to perform much more successfully in the second leg and after recording a 3-0 win, expectations for the new campaign were high. Still, following the defeat to West Brom at the weekend, some supporters have doubted just how seriously Rodgers will take Europe with the club's league form clearly needing extra attention.

However, according to Souness, there shouldn't be any worries. Speaking to the media, the former Reds captain said, “I just feel Liverpool will have too much quality in too many areas and I think that will decide the tie. Hearts would need more than half the Liverpool team to have two off nights to have a chance. There is a gulf between the Premier League in England and the SPL in Scotland right now. Although Liverpool aren’t the force they were, they’re still arguably the second biggest club in England.”

It is already being reported that Rodgers will rest several players for the tie, with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Glen Johnson and Martin Skrtel supposedly not even traveling to Scotland. With Jose Enrique also still injured, Rodgers is likely to turn to some of the club's younger players, while Andy Carroll could also be called upon as the club try and take the advantage to the second leg at Anfield.

AC Milan has said that they have still not given up hope on the signing of Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani, who spent one season on loan with the Italian club, according to the Liverpool news website. It was initially thought that AC Milan would not be interested in making the loan move permanent due to the presence of a number of midfielders at the club.

However, the exit of players like Gattuso and Clarence Seedorf has made them rethink their decision over the Italian. Alberto Aquilani has been a major disappointment at Liverpool ever since arriving at the club many seasons ago for around £ 20 million to play alongside Steven Gerrard.

It is thought that Liverpool were interested in cutting their losses by selling the midfielder for around £ 12 million, while AC Milan were preferred to pay only around £ 6 million. AC Milan were looking at the possibility of replacing the players like Clarence Seedorf and Gattuso with Mathieu Flamini.

However, the decision made by the former Arsenal midfielder to leave the club as well has put them in a tight situation. As a result, they have returned with the statement that they will not rule out a move for Alberto Aquilani. Liverpool's new manager Brendan Rodgers recently confirmed that he is prepared to give Aquilani a chance at Liverpool.

"Before August 31, another midfielder will arrive, it could be Aquilani or somebody else. We haven't spoken yet to Aquilani. He is a Liverpool player. The time has expired for Flamini and we have already told his lawyer that we will not wait any longer," said Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani. Mathieu Flamini came to AC Milan on a free transfer from Arsenal back in 2008, but has failed to establish himself as one of the regular first team players. As a result, he has decided to leave the club.

Aquilani has more than failed to match up to his £17million price tag that brought the midfielder to Anfield.

The Italian was signed with a string of injuries that kept him out of the Liverpool side for some time before being able to make his debut having to wait over 4 months for his first premiership start.

After a slow and disappointing start Liverpool were fast to ship the central Midfielder on loan in hope he would recapture his form. After loans to Juventus and then AC Milan this season Aquilani is set to return to troubled Liverpool alongside returning Joe Cole both who are out of favour at the Merseyside club.

Aquilani who has only made 28 appearances for Liverpool may now return needed more than ever. On arrival the central midfield at Liverpool was flush with talent, such as Xabi Alono, Gerrard and Mascherano, now however, substandard Shelvey and Spearing seem to play and transfer flops Henderson and Adams have also failed to live up to their promise.

It is of no surprise that Kenny Dalglish has been quick to announce that he would welcome the Italian back with open arms should he wish to stay at Liverpool. Milan do have the option to purchase the player for £6million as was part of the Loan agreement, it is likely that ‘The Reds’ will be hoping that the Italians don’t take advantage of this clause.

With some interest from a number of Italian clubs, Liverpool should use this opportunity to introduce the International back into the squad and give him one last chance to prove he is the quality player that he is. If Aquilani is still unable to perform next season then Dalglish should have little problem selling him in January.