Wednesday brought the news that Cristian Fabbiani will be staying with Newell’s Old Boys after his attempted signing by River Plate finally fell through, and a late equaliser ensured they could only draw with San Lorenzo in their final Torneo de Verano match (Boca having claimed the summer title by beating Racing 2-0 on Tuesday – a result I missed due to my local train company being a bunch of incompetents), and are still looking for their first on-pitch win of 2009. But they might be about to win one contest – if they beat Estudiantes to the signature of Marcelo Gallardo…
The first half in Salta was a dull affair, and at the break neither side had found a breakthrough, but the second was just a bit better. Ten minutes after the break Jonathan Bottinelli put San Lorenzo into the lead, but just two minutes later Radamel Falcao García, from the penalty spot, did what he might have done more than once in the first half, and scored. River then took the lead through Martín Galamarini, but were pegged back right at the death, in stoppage time of the second half, when goalkeeper Juan Ojeda pushed a low cross inside his near post.
Better news in the transfer market, though, in spite of losing out on Fabbiani. After Falcao and various team-mates lamented, in the aftermath of the 2-1 defeat to Boca on Saturday, the team’s lack of a ‘reference point’, River’s directors are now in advanced negotiations to bring Marcelo Gallardo home from DC United – just days after the player was linked with his former River boss Leonardo Astrada, who’s now at Estudiantes de La Plata.
River are going to make one final attempt to land Fabbiani, but all that’s now required of Gallardo, apparently, is that El Muñeco pass his medical (not a given by any means since he underwent surgery last month, but River presumably won’t be too hard on him there) for him to complete the move back to Núñez. Watch this space…
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Gallardo back to River ?! One more good reason for a Bostero to dislike River.
Apparently it is official and Jesus Datolo has been sold to Napoli. My guess is that Nico Gaitan will be the replacement in Datolo’s customary position on the left side. I used to cringe when Datolo was on the pitch 2-3 years ago. He had poor vision of the field and frequently lost possession. How times change.
Very risky move. When healthy he showed his capabilities at DC United, but for much of the season he was injured and overweight.
That’s right Johnny, Dátolo is going. I’d have reported that too, if my internet connection hadn’t crashed just as I was about to publish this article last night…
Regarding Cristian Fabbiani, yes, the deal between River and Newell’s looks to be dead, but by no means does this indicate that he’s staying with La Lepra. He doesn’t want to stay, and we don’t want his ungrateful a**.
Latest news is that Velez has put in an offer for El Ogro.