THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[pocari_fenrir]

[maro]

thredzo drinks too much, pocari - he can't be expected to remember something he said more than six seconds ago.

[pocari_fenrir]

touche Maro, im up for a drink

[Italiamia]

[RomaShield27]

I was only joking about Falcao being our Brazilian scout, Pocari, and just mocking our supposed 'dream team' of staff/board members. I may drink too much, Tom, but at least I have the common courtesy to answer peoples questions.

[maro]

I was courteously waiting to see if others had any responses, thredzzo.

[pocari_fenrir]

[RomaShield27]

Do you really believe that, Pocari? Flamengo's president comes out and says "he told me that he wants to come back", and so it must be true? Juan may want to return home to Flamengo, but not yet. He's still only 32 and has lots to offer. He'll probably end his career there. Also, as if its not bad enough to potentially lose one half of our best centre-back partnership, to lose both would require a lot of rebuilding.

I'm sick of all this mercato bullshit now. Its all you see now on all the Roma sites and its all a load of bollocks. Pure speculation. Nothing will be decided until the league is over. I don't even want us to spend all that much and bring in a load of new faces, one or two or three good players will do it.

So Chel$£i out of the Champions League (and 10 points behind ManPoo). I wonder how Abramovich will react to that latest defeat. Hopefully in typical fashion.

[maro]

[pocari_fenrir]

our takeover hasnt even fully gone through, so im not sure what you're stressing about. we'd probably blow half the transfer season getting that out of the way. i only hope that they're still working on this behind the scenes so that we could line-up a coach the week before transfer season opens. if Chelsea do sack Ancelotti, you could expect him to sign for us. i just hope he doesnt bring Torres along in some fucked up way.

even if Mexes leaves, Juan and Burdisso have largely been our main partnership. but i hope that you understand i still want to cycle out the cancer, starting with the poor displays from Juan. chances are, we keep him as a 3rd option until his contract runs out and have Burdisso forge a new partnership possibly with... Diego Lugano?? otherwise, if we land Luisao, my worst fear is that Juan would play alongside him and we'll be jaded by a few good performances against minnows but bow out horrendously in CL again.

im hearing whispers that we may bring back Bovo if Sabatini is on board. regardless of our defensive shufflings, PLEASE GET RID OF LORIA FFS

[Lupa]

There was some discussion in the SB earlier that I saw a bit of, but I was on my way out so I didn't have time to read it all and comment. I gathered there was discussion about Ancelotti vs Montella for manager next year.

I think if Ancelotti is let go at the end of this season, he'll be Roma's next manager. He's always said he'd like to manage Roma at some point, and he's been saying he'd like to stay at Chel$ki, but it's not entirely up to him. Abramovic isn't patient with managers who don't achieve what he wants. Also, the timing would seem convenient if he happens to be out of a job just when Roma need a manager. Those two events won't always coincide. I'm not sure it's a good idea, but it seems inevitable. When was the last time he managed a team that didn't have a few big stars. Even if di Benedetto invests money in the team, he's mentioned the need to align with the fair play rules, and I don't think he's going to splash cash around insanely.

As for Montella, it's an interesting situation. If Roma finish fourth, I think it's been said he'll be considered, but should it really depend on that? I can't recall where we were in the standings when he started, but certainly he has had to make up for lost time and points. He'll basically have had about 1/3 of the season I think, and a bit of an uphill battle. As far as next year goes, though, I'm uncertain. Montella's management time has coincided with Totti's resurgence. This is, of course, in no small part to Montella restoring the system that Totti has thrived in in the recent past, and the benching of Borriello, and kudos to Montella for recognizing what would work. We have been, however, in this same time span completely dependent on Totti's goals for our points. (Totti's overall play has contributed as well, of course, as he's in great form lately). However, it's inevitable that Totti will miss games through suspension or injury, or be out of form at some point. Does Montella have the tactical knowledge to find something else that will work for Roma? What if we keep Montella, and Totti has a slow start next season, and Roma has a slow start? What then? We've had a slow start the last two seasons now, and it eventually cost managers their jobs. I'll watch the next Coppa game with interest, as I think Totti is still banned. It will be interesting to see how Monty sets the team up without Totti, and how well Roma plays. I'm not necessarily against Montella staying, I'll just be interested to see what else he can do as a manager.

I didn't see much of the discussion from this afternoon, but I'd be interested in seeing thoughts on the matter, since it's looking very likely Ancelotti will be out of a job this summer. I only hope that the Montella question is up for discussion, as it will mean that we finished fourth.

I'd love to see Spalletti back at Roma, but I know it won't happen. I just wonder what he could do with a chance to obtain some players that he wanted instead of the likes of the Beast.

[RomaShield27]

[vtec]

who would abramovic replace ancelotti with? benitez? leo?

[RomaShield27]

I reckon Abramovich could go for Guardiola, who is rumoured to looking for a new challenge, but i don't really care.

This says Ancelotti will leave Chelsea in June:

Ancelotti-Chelsea, addio a giugno. Nel suo futuro c'è la Roma
– Mercoledì 13 Aprile 2011 12:02

[arthurfonzarelli]

@ maro:

I forgot to answer: yes, in fact Cassetti is not suspended. It looks like it will be a toss up between him and Loria. I would prefer he play Loria and go with Rosi up top right as the mezza-ala and Menez in the middle (as you've been wishing as well).

Also, I've been thinking about this Doni vs. Julio Sergio situation. While I will agree that Doni is superior in terms of athleticism, JS is better is terms of the mental aspect. It's not tat Doni lacks confidence because I think he's got huge levels of confidence in himself and his abilities, it's just the way they approach games. I think JS will cause less heart attacks, he's more consistent. It's easier to know what to expect from JS and he's less prone to mental errors. I also think he's got better decision making so if I were to pick a particular big game to play, I would go with Doni but over the course of a season with a solid enough team in front of him, I would go with JS as I think he would get us more points (or lose us less) than Doni would.
Also, I think JS by the nature of his status at Roma makes a much better backup keeper. He's better than anyone when coming into a game or a series of games "cold" and having to stop the bleeding. So if we were to pick up Buffon in the off-season, then the guy to offload would be Doni as he commands a higher salary and is less sharp as a backup than JS.

[p_maldini_3]

based on carlo's experience with milan and chelsea, i think it's fair to say that ancelotti needs a damn good team manager looking over him. he seems to be naive to the english concept of a coach being in complete control of the management of the club. he has frequently said that he is at chelsea to coach the team, not to build a team.

the reason i bring this up is because ancelotti might not be the best person to radically change roma from a nearly-ran team to a will-go-the-distance team. he absolutely sucks at building a team. and i think what roma needs now (for next season) is somebody who can slowly start building a team around a solid backbone. carlo is a humble guy, he's content with making lemonade with whatever lemons his superiors throw at him. but as a result, this humility can sometimes bite him in the ass, a la ronaldinho, torres et al.

[RomaShield27]

Maro's gone on holidays Fonz and didn't bother to let anyone know. He's clearly taking advantage of his admin status and enjoying the high life. Most Roma sites reporting today that Montella has been trying Loria in the middle of the defense alongside Burdisso with Cassetti at right-back. I think I'd prefer to see Cassetti in the middle, as I don't know about Loria being partnered alongside Burdisso as there is a huge lack of brains between them. They both going flying into the same tackles and challengning for the same high balls instead of playing as a unit. I'd bet they even tackle each other non-stop if you told them to.

Article from The Guardian picking up on what was widely reported in the Italian media yesterday saying that Ancelotti will leave Chelsea at the end of this season. It says "the lack of an obvious and available replacement for Ancelotti will effectively see him through to the summer".

Nice article from AlCapone's on our new Director of Sports Walter Sabbatini (dodgy english translated version ).

Latest Ermes video on our 2-1 in Udine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T013TvMasN4

[Jamoldo]

[RomaShield27]

I said that a long time ago.

[RomaShield27]

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd he's gone. Haven't seen Jamoldo in ages, was hopin to catch up with him, but he didn't take the bait. I did say that though alright.

Edge hasn't been around in a few months either. I hope everything is ok with him at home, and as Maro said in another thread, I hope he's not in denile.

Deini hasn't been around in a while either – not since the Derby win, I think. Giacomo likewise. And SPqR. If thats not a true sign of synthetic fans I dunno what is.