THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[DCGweez]

Read it all the way through.

http://maledettaprimavera.net/2013/08/2 ... -sabatini/

[AS Collie]

[forzaitalia]

Just watching the Open Day on YouTube atm, looks like an excellent turn out once again for one of these. The only downside is that the 'I Love It' song was played on repeat for most of the video, would much rather have listened to the Curva.

[AS Collie]

[maro]

I suspect Florenzi may play as much as part of the front three as as part of the midfield three under Garcia, Collie - as a runner who's prepared to get himself both sides of the ball. Like Chewna, I'm just trying to get my head around why it might make sense to a sane person to sell Lamela at this point (a month ago would have made more sense if still not enough).

Demba Ba's actually a pretty good player and a much truer leader of the line than someone like Osvaldo - again more profondita' and more willingness to play right up against the centrebacks. What madness, though, for there to be so much uncertainty and, it seems, so much movement at this point. A month ago, okay, but now?

[arthurfonzarelli]

[DCGweez]

I don't think it's fair to suggest that our owners aren't/weren't prepared to take a hit.

I think they thought in doing so they'd be supplemented with CL money by now. My issue is that, it's their ineptitude that led to the lack of progress/digression that's taken place.

[DCGweez]

Totti:"È una grande emozione ogni volta che vedo questi colori. So quello che provano i veri tifosi della Roma in questo periodo"

[maro]

Interesting, fonz. You take me back to my disappointment when guys like Cassano and Chivu and Mancini were allowed to leave. Weird motherfokkers - at best; a-holes at worst - the lot of them, but I've never quite been able to get my head around the basic premise of football fandom which is loyalty to the colours and not to the players who are wearing them. As I've said many times before, I was raised in a rugby world and an amateur rugby world at that - the guys I loved to support played for one and the same team (Auckland or the All Blacks) all their sporting lives. The simple, apposite effect was that one never had to learn to reconceive one's relation to a RIise or a Gervinho or a Ba etc. etc.. For you, Sabre would seem to have rendered the point particularly acute.

[AS Collie]

[arthurfonzarelli]

[DCGweez]

[maro]

Interesting, fonz - it chimes with my post about tifosi life-cycles. I'm with DCG on the 'hit', Collie - you're unfair on Pallotta, though not massively so.

[DCGweez]

With Totti's extension it's fair to say that they've either extended or bought every player worth a damn on the squad. The only player who comes to mind that was sold that they didn't buy was Vucigol and we all know that situation.

[romawi]

[romawi]

And personally, I would've stuck with Baldini. There's just something about his overall view of football that I like. The philosophy goes beyond results.

[AS Collie]

[maro]

For me, you're a bit naive (disingenuous?) in the way you write about Pallotta's interests and the club's, Collie. The basic principle has to be that the more successful the club is on the pitch, the better the 'brand' sells and the more cash Pallotta makes. We only care about the success, but it's not like his own interests are actually served by something other than on-field success. Which is almost as much as to say that, at this point, every mistake he makes is going to be for, as it were, the right reasons. That doesn't mean he isn't responsible for mistakes' being made; it does, though, mean that one can't quite get away with simplistic oppositions of the kind we see in posts in these parts all too often of late.

[AS Collie]

[DCGweez]

The Marcos sale was a good bit of business anyway you look at it. You can fault him for Baldini and Sabatini I suppose but i don't think it's fair to assume that he's making decisions about Lamela. I also think that if you are going to blame him for Saba's choice to sell Marcos and/or Lamela you must also accept that it was he and Baldini that brought them in, in the first place.

I do agree totally that he seems to think that the fans are children and stupid. It annoys me how he speaks with his stupid smirk as if he can't believe he has to address such issues as the utter failure on the pitch and feels his branding efforts are some sort of salve for the burn of those losses.

I will say, from my perspective the fans in Rome seem to be swept up into a frenzy regarding the guy. Not sure it's worth discussing Lamela being trotted out today. Given that we know nothing for a fact and that he may well be here another year, what are the options? Pull him out and feed the frenzy, unsettle the player?

It's worth noting that no one wanted this club. It was for sale for years and sat. Serie A is the fat older sister with warts on her. Even a club like Inter who's pedigree and financials are far better than ours can't garner love from a Sheik or Russian Oligarch, that is often dismissed but is a very important consideration. He's not prince charming but we ain't Cindarella either.