THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

I don't understand how any manager, or anyone who's involved in or watches football, could consider permanently playing Daniele De Rossi at centre-back. Not that he's not capable of playing there (even if he has his faults), is just that when you have the greatest defensive-midfielder and reader of the game in world football you play him in that position, especially when such a position is the most vital on the pitch for the system which LE prefers. End of fuckin story, simple fuckin as, bob's your fucking uncle, lets move on.

Heinze can still fuck off.

[AS Collie]

[RomaShield27]

Bit gay but yay. Vid from AsRoma on reaching one million FB users. It would be one million and one but I still refuse to have a FB account.

[AS Collie]

The FB campaign grates on me. They advertise constantly before and during the games, and it's so pointless and childish. If half as much effort went into getting people to come to the games as went into getting as many fucking FB likes as possible, the stadium would be full.

This is exactly the kind of vacuous, marketing-led bullshit that I hate about modern football. I mean, who, other than some PR dickhead, could possibly care less about a million facefuck likes?

[maro]

Isn't the greatest defensive midfielder and reader of the game in world football currently playing CB at Barcelona?

[maro]

Unfortunately, Collie, there is much more money to be generated from the fans who don't go to the games. And they're less hassle because they don't throw flares and start fights. It's the Chievo vs Hellas Verona story.

[RomaShield27]

Unless Sabatini has pulled a swifty and loaned DDR out to Barca in the last week, then no.

Yeh I don't give a feck about the FB shit either, but they are putting a lot of effort into the social media scene and all that jazz, and FB is slowly beginning to take over the internet, or so I've been told. It alls the kids these days do when they go online. There's nothing wrong with promoting Roma on FB, of course, but yeh they could do more to try get more bums on seats.

What is the Chievo vs Hellas Verona story, Frodo?

[AS Collie]

[DCGweez]

Zero chance that DDR makes a perma move to CB. Don't care who says what.

[AS Collie]

[AS Collie]

If I may elaborate before Maro (he might know far more than I), For anyone who's never been to Verona (it's charming, and worth a visit), Chievo is actually just a suburb of the main city, but thanks to a decent run it now props itself up with TV money. The basic problem for Chievo is that because they're a suburban team, with fewer match attendees than Hellas, who are in Serie B (in fact, Verona had more at their Serie C1 games than Chievo did in A a few seasons ago), they don't have a what would be traditionally called a large fan base. Only Lecce have fewer people at the games on average.

[ASR1927]

[maro]

Tim Parks has some interesting things to say on this in 'A Season with Verona'.

[maro]

"This" being Chievo vs Hellas rather than facebok and twu'er.

[AS Collie]

[RomaShield27]

Yeh I read A Season with Verona years ago, very good book. I knew Verona were the main team in the city so to speak but didn't realise Chievo was just a suburb outside of the main city. Their attendance figures are paltry alright, but its not for a lack of not getting the fans into the stadio, they just don't have the fans and thats it. Do they manage to survive on just TV money alone, do you think? Its mad to think.

[maro]

I read it ten years ago, Collie, and I certainly enjoyed it at the time. Formally it's more diary than something fully discursive so it tends to observe rather than try to justify. I'd say it's very much worth a read, especially for you - given how much, on the face of it, at least, you have in common with Parks (football, journalism, outsider-living-in-Italy). You might find parts of it too sympathetic to the Hellas ultras, but my memory of it is that it's pretty persuasively balanced.

[ASR1927]

[AS Collie]