THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[RomaShield27]

From this:



...to this:

[Deini]

She will stay also? DAMN. Why? Why she do that? Or will she be supported by someone else his money?

[Frenchesco]

So Spalletti is staying. I am not too sure what to think about that.
To reach the point where players must "ask" the manager to stay is worrying. And you only see that at Roma.
As Gio. said, Totti and De Rossi are in favour of Sensi remaining at the helm. So what can we do??? Nothing at all... fans have expressed their feelings but we will still be seeing this team bringing us moments of joy a few times a year and not win anything in the near future with Rosella in charge.
We love what makes this team but the ones in charge won't create a winning team, it seems that things are too complicated in Roma , too much politics maybe.
It seems that even if there are some potential buyers interested, Rosella won't let them take what makes her so proud.
We'll see what is done in the next few weeks but what is happening now is exactly the same as last year, it is depressing...almost!!!

[RomaShield27]

I'll tell yis something for nothing though, with Roma your always guaranteed this drama. Drama over will the club be sold will the manager stay will we sell our best players who can we bring in... It makes for some interesting discussion. I mean like, who wants to be perfect? Who wants to be like Barcelona, with a perfect manager, perfect players, perfect owners (the fans) and perfect success? Thats just boring. We'd all be here talking how nice and perfect and lovely we all are, sucking each other off and getting bored outta our brains until Fonz takes things too far like he always does, and then were would we be? No posting, no discussion, no forum. I'd almost feel sorry for us if we were all Barca fans and this was a Barca thread. So there, when you think about it that way, who's the real losers, us or Barcelona? Exactly. Just another gloriously hectic day in the life of a romanista.

[RomaShield27]

Ok, i wrote this up earlier, and as I haven't really put my thoughts into words about Spalletti staying as of yet, here's a little curveball (thats an ice-hocky term I believe, by the way, right Steve?) to change the discussion a little.

I tell yis what lads, this season is barely over and I'm already sick to death of the transfer rumours, and of the money and power of the Premiershit teams (and a couple of the Spanish, wait... two Spanish team). Not only Kaka to Real, but also Ibra to Barca, Pato, Pirlo, Ribery and Villa to Chelsea, Eto and Tevez to Man City, Lavezzi and Silva to Liverfekkin'wankscum, Melo to Arsewipe, Loria to ManU, and then you have other clubs like Sunderland who reportedly now have over £200m to spend, and Portsmouth with they're new billionaire Arab owners, and no doubt the likes of Spurs and West Ham and Red and Dag with buckets-full of pounds ready to throw at anything with any sort of a foreign sounding name and a pulse.

And what have we got in Italy. The most prestigious and respected of clubs, Milan, selling their best players, their soul, and just about anything with any resemblance of value to pay for Berlusconi's personal life. We have Roma, a club who make the concept of turmoil sound like some luxurious exotic far away beachside paradise. Inter, who like to snap up as many decent-to-good players from lower teams in Serie A as they can. All round, we have clubs who have presidents and owners who essentially are scrounging for every cent they can and are unwilling to commit funds need to keep up with the rest of Europe (with the obvious exception of Inter; and i suppose it remains to be seen what Juventus will do).

Its a sad state of affairs for calcio at the moment. As much as it vexes me to say it, Galliani, when he says "the root of the problem is economic... Serie A has lost competitiveness with the rest of Europe", is right to a certain extent. Certainly the higher tax rate doesn't help. But the root of the problem is the owners of Italian clubs who are unable to compete with the foreign ownership of clubs in other leagues which is continuing to blight and crush the soul of the game. It is a bit of catch 22 situation, one where we (or I) criticise foreign investment in clubs while at the same time complain that our local owners are not investing enough in our clubs. But it seems like most club presidents are more concerned with their own personal fortune than the general well-being and competitiveness of their clubs. Yeah, sure, things may be tight at the moment with all the global recession shite, but nothing which should really effect how big Italian clubs are run and how much money goes into those clubs to make them successful. I don't know the answers, maybe we should all sell out to Americans or Arabs or Asians or Aliens with bags full of doughnuts so we can all make €50m+ bids and pay ridiculous wages for players who probably aren't worth have that, just so we can compete with the Foreign Investors League. The immediate future doesn't look to bright for Italian football, and even though the balance of power is very much in favour of the Foreign Investors League of the EPL at the moment, I feel that it is only a matter of time before that comes crumbling down and things start even themselves out (see: Platini), but the damage may well and truly be done by then.

[Pauly W. Nuts]

Ok, I need time to gather my thoughts.......

[romawi]

Honestly, I think Spalletti staying is a great bit of news. For all the uncertainty that this teams goes through we need some sort of stability. Sure he had a bad season, but no one could have foreseen all of those injuries. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. We all complained last season about how he didn't have a plan B, and he was forced to come up with one this season. So we'll see what he does next season. Also lets not forget that this same team was pretty much one point away from a Scudetto last season.

As for not getting the youth players involved, I don't really blame Spalletti. I don't think he thought it was possible for us to play the younger players, and still catch up to Inter. Maybe that will change next season, but who knows.

[edge_xeno]

I hope that doesn't mean that we'll see players like Cassetti & Taddei still playing important part off the team, most importantly ahead of the likes of Motta & Menez.

[Carlo Romano]

Ed, believe me, I'm no kiss-ass!

But if we had such a thing as "Post Of The Week" then I'd nominate your above piece on il calcio for it. You've conveyed so many of my own thoughts and though I'd have phrased my version differently, it would have meant the same thing...

Yes, let's hope Platini can impliment the prospective Uefa ruling with its foreigner limitations because it doesn't look like there's going to be any other way for all teams to compete on an even basis which is what football is always supposed to have been about!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two other brief points:

On Panucci, it would seem both Napoli and I think Fiorentina are interested in him. That'll please at least some folks in here!

Spalletti, according to Sky Sports Italia today has only agreed to remain with us for the duration of his existing contract, 2011. Leaves things open to negotiation, as they say!

[romawi]

I don't mind Panucci leaving, its just that if he leaves we'll need at least two more CBs (that's assuming we drop Loria, and we don't pick up the option on Diamoutene). And if we give up Andreolli to get Motta, we might even need three CBs. I don't like our chances of getting 1 good CB this summer let two or three.

[stefano]

[Pauly W. Nuts]

[Pauly W. Nuts]

[marco]

[aba_bab]

[ricky2882]

[Jamoldo]

[Jamoldo]

[stefano]

[p_maldini_3]

jam, we never sold a star player for money. shevchenko left on his own accord; until now, we were always loyal to our players. a romanticist such as myself would call see that loyalty as a sign of having a soul [in a football team]. compared to barca (figo, ronaldo etc.) or juventus who will sell anybody and their mom for the right price.

one of the reasons i fancied milan was because it was one of the, if not only, top european teams that had a soul; but not anymore. it started with vieri to ronaldo to ronaldinho to beckham and now losing kaka'. the devil has sold his soul.

i guess there are different ways from which you can label a team for having a soul, brooding youth players was one you mentioned, but i always held great pride in the fact that we were always loyal to our players. not so much anymore.

i understand the pragmatic[/realistic] view that selling one world class player will bring in 2-3 damn good ones; but where is the passion in that? where is the loyalty? where is the love?

would you support roma if it did not have your crazy bastards as tifosi? if you didn't have a enraged olimpico during a derby? if there was no totti? no de rossi?

some things just pull you towards your team, but when you lose those qualities, those principles, especially on such a gigantic level, you begin to question your love for your team.

for me, there is no Maldini anymore, there is no soul anymore. i'm not sure why i support milan anymore. if the club itself has no passion, where can i find mine? it fucking blows.

jumping to another ship isn't an option. i'll go down with it and let it go completely.