THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Carlo Romano]

You won't give 'em up, Maldini! The most successful Italian club side in European competition?

I don't think so!

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btw, not that it's a great big deal but the Roma v France game at the Olimpico kicks off 21:00 CET tonite and is live on Sky Sports(Italia) 1.

I'm gonna record it as I'm working.

I don't know any details at all except that Candela will play...since it's billed as Roma 2001 v France 1998, I'm wondering if Batigol will have a few minutes along with some other greats of the past.

[Jamoldo]

[maro]

[p_maldini_3]

[Deini]

Kanye West great? haha.

No Batigol tho tonight.

Roma: Lupatelli; Cafù, Candela; Aldair, Zago; Zanetti, Tommasi, De Rossi; Totti (cap.), Montella, Delvecchio Amelia, Balbo, Bovo, Conti, Di Francesco, Mangone, Nakata, Pepe, Tempestilli. Allenatori: Bruno Conti e Abel Balbo

Francia: Barthez; Candela; Thuram, Desailly, Blanc; Deschamps, Dacourt, The Bald Algerian (cap.), Dugarry, Djorkaeff, Diomede, Giuly, Jacquet, Karembeu, Keller, Laigle, Lama, Lamouchi, Leboeuf, Pirès. Allenatore: Aime Jacquet

[Carlo Romano]

Deini, Damiano Tommasi is playing? One of our unsung heroes...never always got the credit he deserved!

Tom, yes, I see what you mean by a good selection! If only we had those guys in their prime now! Think what we could achieve...

I wonder what la curva sud will have to say to our ex atomic goblin, Giuly after his caustic remarks when he left us?

Let's also hope Christophe Dugarry still fires blanks! It won't do at all, losing to those French!

[RomaShield27]

I don't think that anyone is asking for the club to become exclusively Roman and barricade the outskirts of the city with 200-feet high wall (well, perhaps, Giovanni). I mean, what is a soul when it comes to a football club? I'm surprised Maro hasn't lamented about football as a sport lost its soul a long time ago, that as a professional sport was never capable of having such a thing. Yes, if we added a host of players like Rooney, Ronaldo, or Ferdinand; or Terry, Drogba, and Mikel, for example, than obviously it would improve the quality of the club, but arguing whether that would compromise the soul and essence of the club is irrelevant, as buying foreign players or stranieiri has never been an issue, all clubs have to do it and always have, it is the manner in which the club manages itself and the process of building its profile and wealth which is the real issue and which really defines its 'soul'. The club prides itself on its Roman background and takes great pride in its youth system in bringing the likes of Totti and De Rossi and Aquilani through, adding a few expensive 'outsiders' to compliment them is no problem. I have no problem with us going out and splashing millions on Bati and The Wall and Emerdason etc, because the Sensi's did so of their own accord and free will, wanting to build a side capable of winning major trophies, which they achieved, even if it cause us dearly in the end. Thats is comprehensively different to what lots of Prem teams do today, because we didn't do it with American or Asian or Russian money and didn't lose sight of remaining true to the history of the club, and we don't comprismise our youth structure simpley because we can go abroad and buy better talent. We don't have foreign owners and foreign majority stake-holders and foreign managers and a team made up almost entirely of stranieri – like most of the big Prem teams do, and that is the major difference.

And here we have one of those foreign-owned clubs club facing financial ruin. True, it couldn't happen to a nicer club (ha), but this is exactly the type of risk we face if we sell out, and this is risk all of those clubs face:

Liverfekkin'wankscum facing ruin
www.thesun.co.uk –Published: Today

Liverfekkin'wankscum were facing financial meltdown last night. The club's accountants issued a chilling statement admitting there is 'significant doubt' whether the company which runs the Merseysiders can 'continue as a going concern'.

Liverfekkin'wankscum's parent company Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd, run by American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks, made a £42.6million loss last year. Around £36.5m of that is interest payments on the whopping £350m loan they took out to refinance the club.

A top City analyst said: "Unless the owners find more money, the club is facing financial meltdown. Not only are the figures bleak, the future is gloomy too. The more you read through the accounts, the more transparent it is that the owners don't have the resources to meet the targets they've set for next year either.

"Everyone associated with Liverfekkin'wankscum should be deeply concerned by this set of figures." The devastating news will intensify calls from fans for the US pair to sell up.

As things stand, any profits being made on the pitch are being swallowed up by the crippling repayments on the loan.

The disastrous figures not only place the club's future in jeopardy, they also have serious side-effects for boss Rafa Benitez. The scale of the financial woes casts a huge question-mark over whether Benitez will have any significant money to spend this summer.

He has already been 'blown out of the water' by Manchester City in the race for long-term target Gareth Barry this week. Other big-money targets, like David Silva, Glen Johnson and even Carlos Tevez, look unlikely to materialise this summer. The club's accountants, KPMG, outlined their concerns by saying: "The group has credit facilities amounting to £350m, which expire on 24 July 2009.

"The directors have initiated negotiations to secure the replacement finance required by the group and these negotiations are ongoing. These conditions... indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the group's and parent company's ability to continue as a going concern."

Sources close to Gillett and Hicks last night said they re- mained confident of securing the refinancing deal and are also still in talks with possible investors. But only in April the Hicks Sports Group defaulted on repaying loans totalling £354m for his other sports ventures in the States.

Before the Americans' £219m takeover in 2007, Liverfekkin'wankscum were close to a deal with Arab investors Dubai International Capital. Then, in January this year, Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser Al-Kharafi offered £425m for overall control. But the Americans only want to sell 50 per cent and hopes of a deal collapsed.


Please, sweet Lord, make them burn.

[RomaShield27]

[Jamoldo]

[edge_xeno]

[RomaShield27]

Jammy Doughnut, yes, you guessed it, all those years of a' schoolin are payin off, because your right, I hate foreign ownership and don't want Roma in foreign hands. I guess you can put it as simple as that, if you like. Has that not be evident from the start, back when Soras's name was first mentioned in the same sentence with Roma? I guess it has. I hate what foreign ownership has done to football, and what it has done to the Premiershit (not that I was a fan of it before, you understand), turning it into a global entertainment circus when the only thing 'english' about it is the fans, excluding the prawn-cocktail tourist brigade who travel from Shanghai and Bangkok to see the Wed Wevils. I hate how a bored billionaire or greedy businessman can come along and shell out millions for a club he has no connection or affection for whatsoever, and I hate how it has completed unbalance the axis of European football and competition. How can clubs from around Europe compete with such reckless foreign money? I hate Chelsea, I hate ManU, I hate Man Citeh; I hate Robinho, Ashly Cole, Berbatov and a 100 others; I hate the suspect and dodgy owners behind it all, from ambiguous Russian oil baron oligarchs to phoney Prince pharaoh's to crooked exiled Asians to consumer-obessed power-hungry yanks, I hate the entire concept of it all. And where will it end...? How much is enough? The 39th game being played in Tokyo or Hong Kong? Transfer fee's of €50m+ for a Darren Fletcher or Phil Neville? Half-a-mil-a-week in wages? A league where its only the foreign owned who can compete while the other poor donkeys fight each other at the bottom half of the table? And if it spreads to around the rest of Europe, if we ever 'catch up', and we see the same thing in leagues like Serie A where a third of the teams are American and a third are Asian, well then why not just scrap this silly notion of domestic leagues altogether and create a European super league where only the rich and famous can play, while small pitiful insignificant clubs like Chievo or Atalanta or Getafe or Osasuna (not to mention lower league teams) fall into the abyss and financial ruin. I could go on and on.

Oh, and I hate Liverfekkin'wankscum because they are the absolute scum of the earth and every last thing and person to do with the club should be incinerated to have the earth cleansed of its repugnant filth. That is obvious.

[Italiamia]

What will be after Candela day? Lets see. We already had Aldair day. In 2010 we can have Giannini day. Wait, we had that too right? Well, we have a bright future ahead of us. Panucci day, Perrotta day, Chivu day, Capello day, Samuel day, Bati-day..........and of course Taddei day.

Of course there will be no celebration of past champions because we just don't have enough of them from the past and we won't be seeing any in the distant future.

We won't need to have Rosella day because we will all be dead and her kids will be running the club and going on about building Stadio Franco Sensi.

Fuck this shit. Why don't we have a loser day for all of the fucking losers who contributed to the losing over the last several decades. For all of the lost opportunites. A Lexapro day for the fans because they need something to deal with decades of loserdom. It will be a grand celebration of defeat. We will commemorate those 13 draws back in 2002 that cost us the scudetto. Also, those 2 draws to Serie B Livorno last year. Those wonderful performances over the years against those powerhouses Empoli and Siena. And lets not forget those stellar home performances against juventus and Inter. We could have Giuly's hand cast in bronze in solemn remembrance of one of the great handballs in Roma history. That's the idea. It will be great. We can all eat, get drunk, and jump in the fucking Tiber. Or better yet, gas the fans to put them out of their misery in prototypical Fascist style.

I can't wait.

[maro]

One of the all-time great posts. Non-pareil.

[marco]

[SPqR]

[Pauly W. Nuts]

I will like to ask the administrators, to please save that post from Gio, and all similar posts, and have a hall-of-fame thread for them. Have all in-coming members read them as a 'new-member requirement.'

[Pauly W. Nuts]

[RomaShield27]

[Carlo Romano]

[Carlo Romano]

Just caught up on some of my reading...

today tells us that our management in their infinite wisdom intend to sell one, possibly two of our big names. Mexes and Brighi are the ones mentioned!

As I'm always saying, Rai are a more solid information source, but Mediaset nonetheless is still better than the usual internet stuff...Ch4, Goal.com etc.

If it happens, it doesn't really surprise me that we will sell either or both of these guys...they are both "bankable" stars as of now, a situation that could change after another negative season for Roma! The obvious worry is, what will be done with the money after the transfer(s)?