Player Updates: Makélélé, Thuram, Mexès, Trézéguet

A few quick updates on our players as we wait for Domenech to unveil The List on Thursday.

• Claude Makélélé isn’t happy with Chelsea at the moment and is talking about leaving at the end of the season. The reason? As I understand it, his contract expires in 2008. He wanted a two-year extension after that, but Chelsea offered only one. Claude figures after all he’s done for these guys…

This is an interesting situation. On the one hand, Makélélé just turned 34 years old. He’ll be 35 when his current contract expires, and would be 37 at the end of a two-year contract. How many non-keepers do we know of still playing at 37? But on the other… Well, this is Claude Makélélé. He’s amazing. And it’s not like a few million more would really hurt Roman Abramovich. The man could use $1000 bills as disposable napkins for the rest of his life and never feel it.

This story is a little complicated by the fact that Makélélé was subbed out at halftime in both the Carling Cup final and the most recent Champions League game and folks are mostly agreeing this was a good thing. But on the other hand, he was sick last weekend and all the reports are that the team fell apart. So Roman, would it kill you to offer the guy the extra year?

• Then we have current Barcelona guy and my favorite Bleu Lilian Thuram, whose name is popping up in conjunction with a move to Fulham a lot lately. As hard as it is to believe, Lilian turned 35 this year and is looking at where he wants to finish his career. Not surprisingly, he wants to go somewhere he’ll be appreciated, and it doesn’t look like Barcelona is that place. Let’s hope he finds a happy, soft landing somehwhere.

• And what about Lilian and the National Team? Well, I can’t find my article source right now, but I’m 99% sure I read somewhere that Lilian has said he’s ready to give up his place for France because he thinks Philippe Mexès is ready to take over. And you can put this towards the top of the list of things I never, ever though I’d say, but he may be right. Despite the fact that I adore Thuram, and Mexès has never been anywhere close to the top of my favorite player list, Roma completely shut down Lyon last week, and Mexès was an integral part of that. I expect to see Philippe called up this week and playing at least part of one or both upcoming games.

• And last but not least, we have David Trézéguet. What’s up with David? Well, first he was totally leaving Juventus after the season. And then last week I got a bunch of articles saying he was SO staying! And then this weekend he elbowed some guy in the face and got a three-game suspension for intentionally violent behavior. And suddenly it looks like possibly Juve is a little worried about their reputation and isn’t pushing quite so hard to get him to stay. I’ll see if I can’t follow up on this — I had a couple of very long French articles and my brain kind of shut off in the middle. If this is the case is doesn’t seem incredibly fair. It’s not like this is standard behavior for David, right? But who knows what all is going on. And in the meantime, the Trézéguet soap opera continues.

But at least this way he’ll be fresh if he’s called up for Lithania, right?