Parma Wiretap
Liverpool are close to signing center-back Giovanni Leoni from Parma on a $35 million transfer. Leoni, 18, has also received interest from Inter Milan.
Leoni will join Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and Joe Gomez as one of Arne Slot's center-back options. The arrival of Leoni will help offset the loss of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen.
Liverpool has also engaged with Crystal Palace on a deal for center-back Marc Guehl.
Parma has hired Arsenal assistant coach Carlos Cuesta as manager. Cuesta, 29, spent five years with Arsenal under Mikel Arteta.
Cuesta will replace Cristian Chivu as Parma head coach, who was hired to replace Simone Inzaghi at Inter Milan. Parma finished 16th in Serie A last season just above the relegation zone.
Former Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka told The Athletic in 2024: “I am sure that one day he (Cuesta) will be a manager for a big, big, big club.
“I say this because he knows what he wants, he has clear ideas, and he has clear goals that he wants to achieve. I am certain that one day we will see him on the touchline as a manager.”
Serie A training is expected to resume on May 4th, with an eye towards matches resuming in late May.
Individual training will start on May 4th, with group training resuming on May 18th.
Matches could then potentially restart as early as May 27th, with an end date of mid-July if all goes to plan.
Brescia president Massimo Cellino said that Serie A should cancel the rest of this season.
Cellino added that if Lazio wanted to win the title so badly, they should be awarded.
"If Lazio want the Scudetto, let them have it. This is the plague.
"Don't be daft, how can we resume the season? I am thinking of next term and only that. The Coppa Italia, the Scudetto... if [Lazio president] Claudio Lotito wants it, he can have it.
"He's convinced that his team is unbeatable, so let him keep that belief. How can we be sitting here talking about the Serie A title when we have a plague on our doorstep? I couldn't care less about football right now," said Cellino.
As of Sunday, there was a total of 6,557 cases of COVID-19.
Several Juventus players recently tested positive, including Paulo Dybala and Blaise Matuidi.
The Serie A season could be spread over two seasons, said the president of the Italian football federation Gabriele Gravina.
All sporting events in Italy have been put on hold until April 3rd, though it is likely that the suspension will be extended.
Other possibilities include having a playoffs to determine the champion and relegation.
"If it isn't possible to bring the leagues to a conclusion, we will opt for other decisions," Gravina told Radio 1 Rai.
"It isn't ruled out that the current season could be spread out over two different seasons.
"I understand that there is a lot of curiosity, but today nobody is in a position to say what our future holds."
There are still 12 rounds of fixtures left in the season.
Serie A matches have been suspended until April 3rd due to concerns over the coronavirus.
There are over 9,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.
UEFA announced that both legs of Roma's European clash against Sevilla will be played behind closed doors.
Other European leagues have put measures into effect, with La Liga and Ligue 1 set to play matches without supporters.
Serie A sides will meet in an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss league protocol surrounding the coronavirus.
There were calls from the players' association and sports minister to suspend the league with matches to be played behind closed doors throughout March.
The Italian prime minister also put into place a quarantine to restrict movement in the northern region of the country.
"Stopping football is the most useful action for the country at this moment. The teams we should be cheering on are playing in our hospitals and emergency centres," said players' association president Damiano Tommasi.
5,883 people in Italy have been infected with coronavirus through Sunday.
The Italian government ruled that all sporting events in the country will be played behind closed doors until April 3rd due to the coronavirus.
There are over 3,000 reported cases in Italy.
The Coppa Italia semi-finals between Juventus-Milan and Napoli-Inter were already called off.
Postponed matches from last weekend's Matchday 26 will be played this upcoming weekend, including a top-of-the-table clash between Juventus and Inter.
Matteo Darmian has moved from Manchester United to Parma for a $15.3 million fee.
The 29-year-old Darmian also signed a four-year deal with the club.
Darmian made just seven appearances for United last season.
Roger Bennett moved to the United States in 1996 and had to follow big Everton matches by telephone with his father holding the receiver up to the radio.
Bennett hosts the popular Men In Blazers soccer talk show on Grantland and SiriusXM with Michael Davies.
“It is often said that baseball blew up in America in the age of radio, and the N.F.L. rose to dominance once television took over,” Bennett said. “Soccer is the perfect sport for the Internet era. American fans can follow games and instantaneously track information from global leagues both big and small, feeling as close to their favorite teams as if they lived within a thrown beer of their stadium.”
Bennett also credits early start times for the rise in popularity of soccer in the United States.
“You should never underestimate the allure of daytime drinking,” Mr. Bennett said. “If you’re in a bar at 7 in morning with a pint of Guinness, you have a social problem. If you are in a bar at 7 in the morning with that same pint of Guinness and Chelsea is on TV, you’re a football fan.”