Why not?

It does sounds like a fairy tale, but it sounds possible. If Roma (IN ROME) beats Inter, why could it not happen?

If Roma beat Inter, and Juve beat Inter, maybe. It's possible, not plausible.

Just an fyi on team news (from mediaset): sneijder is injured and milito left training early. Not sure whether either will be available for the weekend game. Roma may get Francesco Totti back.

Bah..they'll shut shop and leave it to Eto'o to squeeze something out. Except this time they're playing Ranieri..so...he's pretty wily...

I am a fish in shock.

There's an article on bbc that speaks in positive terms about an Italian footballer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philminshull/20..._the_ashes.html

It's a nice read.

So, someone decided to have a little mercy on the poor gobbi. They apparently get Manninger back for the midweek game....but Iaquinta pulled up in training with a hamstring injury.

Someone put a major malocchio on them.

To be fair to the BBC they're probably the fairest of any of the UK sites when talking about overseas football. Good read though, thanks for posting.

I read somehwere on another forum that Juve might be interesting in getting Rafa Benitez? I really hope that doesn't happen, he's doing a great job of destroying that club.

Here's the clip for anyone who hasn't seen it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeVMVDifZDU

Forza Super Mario

The Rafa Juve link has been doing the rounds for the past month.

I read somewhere Liverpool would have fired him ages ago but for the compensation package such an act would invoke.

I'd take Balotelli. If he could sort out his attitude he'd be a fine striker indeed.

The Benitez rumor's sort of quieted down the past couple of weeks in Italy. But I agree - the club needs someone better than that.

THere's a big article in Gazzetta today listing who should stay and who should go from management to players. Interesting reading.

£16m if they sack him apparently.

If they fail to get 4th this season they are going to be in desperate trouble. No way Torres stays and all Gerrard needs to complete his trophy cabinet is a league title so I reckon he may be gone as well.


Do you have a link or is it in Italian? I'd be interested to look at that.

Here's the link: clicky

I'll poke my person to translate it when she gets home from work.

He did a grand job winning La Liga twice with Valencia, and the Uefa Cup with them then the CL with Liverpool - the guy is not a rotten manager.

But something has gone wrong somewhere this season at Anfield, and instead of looking like a team who can challenge for the league, they're struggling to compete for a Europa spot.

I just think it's nothing more complicated than him losing the dressing room. For Riera to say what he did indicates all is anything but well behind the scenes, and it may be a cliche but there is no smoke without fire.

They invested an unreal amount of faith in him with that contract extension - initially he said Liverpool was a 5 year job, and he's in his 6th season now is it and the 5th season was his peak. His Liverpool just aren't strong enough to overcome Chelsea or Man Utd - and this year he's lost the dressing room imo so they're barely strong enough to compete for 6th spot.



Torres will stay unless Liverpool get a bid of more than 50M for him. He's regarded as one of the top 5 strikers on earth, so he will not go cheap.

As for Gerrard, I think he'll stay for life - where would he go?

I don't think he's terrible, but he's not great either. Nobody can deny the success he hd at Valencia to be a great acheivment. But he's already managed to finish outside the top 4 in the EPL once already, to do it twice in the space of 5 or 6 years is quite embarassing given the money he's spent.

He just seems very limited to me. Obviously all managers rely on their players to get results, but 1 or 2 bad individual performances don't usually matter to a team, even if it's their key players. Ashley Young had a horrible start to the season and Carew has only been fit half the season but it doesn't stop Villa winning games. Arteta, Jagielka and Yakubu missed most of Evertons season but they're flying. Rafa really does rely too heavily on few players and that's a problem. Torres has been injured and Gerrard has been very off form and look at them, it's only recently that the 2 have picked up and they're is a (somewhat) respectable position again. He has no Plan B and (most of) his signings are very poor.

So, from the Gazzetta article referenced on the last page, here's who among the gobbi they think should stay and go (abridged version):

COACH: Zaccheroni out. Favorites are Prandelli, Benitez
DEFENSE: out - Cannavaro & Grosso probably, Buffon if a major offer comes, Zebina, and Grygera (Chiellini, Legerottaglie, Cacares, and De Ceglie remain)
MIDFIELD: out - Melo, Camoranesi, Salihamidzic, maybe also Poulsen and Sissoko (Candreva and Marchisio remain)
ATTACK: out - probably Trezeguet, maybe Amauri and Diego, Giovinco on loan (Iaquinta and Del Piero remain)
MANAGEMENT: Blanc and Secco probably out (Bettega to remain)

Wow, and I thought we were going to be making alot of moves.

Problem with Rafa is:

1. He started believing in his own legend.
2. The fans are delusional, so even his sh!t smells like cologne.
3. He makes the lousiest transfers after Secco.

Talking of Rafa fans I saw this on a Liverpool forum the other day. "You don't have to walk through the storm, Rafa, we'll carry you"

Even Newcastle fans aren't that fucking stupid and deluded.

No on any given day, we have an 80% higher brain activity than anyone in the rest of England. Sod off!

I love you, but I don't like you all the time!

Random question here: Does anyone know if it's the last two games of the Serie A season that are all played at the same time or if it's the last three?

Man, that's just pathetic. I think "delusional" is the right word indeed, seeing as Rafa's been coasting on Istanbul for five years now. If we had won (sob), he'd be long gone.


Agree totally.

BAHAHAH 2-1 napoli

BUUUUVVVEEE

Juve's pathetic form makes me forget how bad we are ourselves. I think they'll fail to reach the CL and I'm not sure if it's a good thing for the Italian football (unless Viola somehow manage to take the last CL spot).

Make it 3-1. Painfully bad defense. Nobody was marking Lavezzi in the box.

3-1 Napoli!

POOR Del Piero

Why? it's not his last season. there's still time for one last hurrah.

Poor Ciro ... zach isnt much better lol

I may be a naughty fish in thinking this but I'd gladly take Chiellini and Marchisio off the gobbi -- then again, they're practically the only two players on the squad who've played well this season.

Well he is my favorite player and his last years are passing him by in a negative way, and from the looks of Juve this season, I can't help but think what would happen next year.

You ARE a naughty fish for thinking that! don't you think they're pitiable enough already?

Ah didn't know that. I think -unlike us- they need a great coach more than new faces. with the squad they had at the beginning of the season everyone thought they'd be a favorite for the Scudetto but Ciro ****ed it up so badly that even Zac couldn't do anything about it. I think they'll be back to the top sooner than we think IF they hire a top coach. can't say the same about us, however. our squad is the biggest problem IMO and knowing the management, it can't be solved over the course of one or two transfer windows...

What about Giovinco?

Sure, I'd take him too.

I think their squad was a problem too. Moggi might be a lot of things but he's on the spot with his assessment.

The only thing that couldn't be foretold was how much Diego would flop. Especially after his superb debut! Grosso's never played for his club like he has for Italy.

It's a shame that Grosso has been so poor, I really like him. I was even thinking about getting Grosso on my Italy shirt.. I went with Toni.

Why do you always prefer the weird ones?

I dunno, I just like certain players. I think my shirts are a curse though. I got Yorke, Angel, Baros, Davis, Mellberg and Laursen on my Villa shirts, only for them to leave the next summer. Same goes for Gila and Sheva.

Do me a favour and don't get a Pato shirt

All these years I've been waiting for Kaladze to leave... and a certain Englishman preferred to torture me instead of just buying a shirt!!

Hee. On a related note, anyone know when Giovinco's contract is running out? Same with Zlatan? Are they all till 2013?

EDIT: Zlatan till 2014 and Gio till 2013.

I could not care less about Giovinco. I'd only take Buffon and Chiellini from Juve. The latter won't happen, I'm hoping for the former.

Zlatan to Milan sounds funny... and possible!

I'd be interested in Giovinco to eventually out Seedorf. In which case, we wouldn't even need to look at Di Maria or Krasic or whoever. But of course it's impossible.

Well..the Zlatan thing got into my head after the meeting with Raiola. He said it wasn't about Balotelli since he represented other clients. And Zlatan's the most famous one I know.

Also, there's the thing about him not being happy at Barca, since he's no longer the star there and not scoring.

I think the lone striker in our 4-3-3 would suit him brilliantly.

i made the same mistake for euro 2008.

my reasoning was if italy won it, it would be because he would have the biggest impact LOLL

Roma winning 1-0,great

Roma are playing very well as well while the others are just fouling then complaining when they get carded

And an offside conveniently not called (three guys were offside) on the bad team's equalizer.

Don't think Moratti wants to talk about conspiracies at this point. Morganti must've gotten the check.

EDIT: But even that can't help when the bad team's defenders aren't marking people in the box and Julio Cesar is taking a nap.

goal Luca Toni

Roma 2-1 that other team

A team as 'clean' as them wouldn't do a thing like that, surely...

Roma 2-1 merda

Edit: How the f*ck did we lose both games to the merda? They don't look anything special at all.