THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[p_maldini_3]

[maro]

[Jamoldo]

[Carlo Romano]

Santa Maria Magdalena!

When I saw the pic of Adriano that Lomba posted...


Then, after watching Ed's YouTube clip I kind of figured our latest "star" wasn't just as bad as Ronaldo had become in his days with Milan. But nonetheless, it's going to take the whole summer and a lot of self discipline for this Michelin Man to get himself into something like the shape he needs to be in...if he is serious about making a comeback!

Really, I'm not sure which I found more ridiculous. That a professional athlete would allow himself to become as out of condition as Adri clearly is, or the people in those film clips included in the link quite rightly taking the piss out of Adriano Celantano who knows he should have retired years ago!

It was bad enough when his singing voice turned into a hoarse croak. Now he just mutters into the mic!

Jam, look on the bright side. There are also rumours Doni could go to the EPL or Germany. Under those circs we'd need to be terribly unlucky to have to watch him fluke some good saves against us...

[RomaShield27]

In fairness to Fatboy, he doesn't look too bad here:



'Too bad' in the sense that he is not quite obese as we first thought but still quite fat for a professional football player with aspirations to get back to the highest level. He has some serious sweating to do before the end of the summer to be anyway ready for the new season (which is, I believe, part of his contract).

http://www.romanews.eu/news.asp?newsID=5634&pag=66

Apparently we're going to secure Burdisso full-time for about €7m, and we're going to raise that money by selling three particular players: Doni, Guberti and Curci. Burdisso himself said yesterday that "I have made my choice, I want to remain in Rome".

[maro]

10kgs for the fatty to lose. Maybe we should send dibbus over to give him a helping hand. I'm not sure Adriano drinks Strawberry Daquiris, though, dibbus.

[RomaShield27]

Or maybe he should be sent to live with Maro in the hills of the Shire for a few weeks where he can indulge in the local activities of ploughing, harvesting, cultivating the soil, bike riding to the town, and last but certainly not least, sheep chasing in the hillsides. That would have him in shape in no time.

[Lombardiamia]

[ASR1927]

[RomaShield27]

Jeff, the photo has to fit in the max avatar dimensions (170h x 130w), meaning if it is of a larger size it will need to be resized. You can post a pic in the to resize, or alternatively, just post here and I can put it in for you.











http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/1/grid?q=adriano

Holy feck, you would think the tifosi think Adriano is the second coming of Pele, the great almighty savior of Rome, the way he was presented at the Flaminio today. Over 5,000 fans showed up…??! Waddafeck. And we gave him the number 8 jersey, really? Ugh… just ugh.


Also, regarding fAtdriano, he had this to say:

[i]“The Brazilian campaign ended a month ago, so clearly I have put on a bit of weight, but I have a plan and will train regularly before the rest of the squad gets together. Everyone knows I’m a little overweight. I have always dealt with my problems and I know it will be a difficult challenge, but I am back to prove myself. I always like to tell the truth and in the past I did make mistakes, but I have matured and I’m not hiding away.â€

[stefano]

What's wrong with Adriano receiving the number 8?

[RomaShield27]

He's an out-and-out striker, a prima-punta, I don't like strikers getting a number eight jersey at all. It is a midfielders number, and it just doesn't look right. You could also argue it goes to show how we won't be bringing in any new midfielders or any exciting new players at all, considering we've given the number 8 to what is a gamble which we got for free.

La presentazione di Adriano ai tifosi della Roma:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptemckAqkKg

[RomaShield27]

From looking at that video, the sinister part of me can't help but thinking that Adriano thinks he is simply in dreamland in getting a return to a club like Roma with a welcome like that and believes this is going to be one big party. From being stuck back in the Brazilian league after flopping in Europe, after seeing him lose his place in his national side, suffering from depression, gaining lots of weight and having some rather suspect friends [see: Brazilian druglords], to then being back a major Italian club where he is paid millions and showboated in front of thousands of adoring tifosi. The world has gone mad.

But, like I said, that is just being sinister and evil, and of course I realise we have to give the man a chance and the benefit of the doubt. He is risk, a gamble, of course he is, but it could be one worth taking, but now it is entirely up to him to hit the gym and avoid those McItaly burgers and avoid Campo de' Fiori and prove himself on the big stage once again.

[p_maldini_3]

[Carlo Romano]

Ed, I don't say we should get back to the long gone days when footballers' numbers stuck rigidly between 1 and 11 depending on the position played. If that was the case we would see 8 being worn by Taddei or Ménez and Adri would have 9, with Totti wearing 10 and Vučinić 11.

I do however think the numbers between 1 & 30 as denotes squad members should be stuck to. The haphazard reasoning behind the system of the last fifteen-twenty years where we go from 1-99 depending on everything from the date of a player's first communion to his girlfriend's bustline or the amount of candles on his grandmother's birthday cake is going just too far.

Just for the hell of it I thought I'd post our all time top scorers and as we see, they were not necessarily all no.9s. Batigol isn't listed because the third of his three seasons with us was injury plagued. For the record, he made 81 appearances in all competitions, scoring 37 goals...but note his first season, 33 appearances with 25 goals. That is an incredible achievement by any standards.

Francesco Totti 245 570
Roberto Pruzzo 136 315
Vincenzo Montella 118 267
Rodolfo Volk 103 157
Amedeo Amadei 101 216
Abel Balbo 78 175
Marco Delvecchio 77 269
Pedro Manfredini 76 130
Giuseppe Giannini 75 437
Dino da Costa 71 149
Rudi Völler 69 196
Agostino Di Bartolomei 64 293
Cesare Augusto Fasanelli 56 167
Amantino Mancini 55 213
Ruggiero Rizzitelli 54 209
Mirko Vučinić 52 161
Antonio Cassano 52 161

Only Totti and Vuci are still active with us and should with luck add to those stats.

On the numbers thing, I can live comfortably enough with seeing 18-20 denoting our centroavanti when I think of past Italian heroes like Toto Schillaci, Luca Vialli and especially Paolo Rossi. I would not however like to see someone wear a Roma shirt with 32 on it. There will only ever be one Batistuta!

[ASR1927]

Carlo I know he's not an outfield player but Doni wears 32.

[Carlo Romano]

Yeh, I forgot about him, Jeff. I should have said "I wouldn't like to see another attacante wear 32 for our lupi!"

Oh well, no matter. He will probably be gone in the next few weeks anyway and let's hope not to another Italian club, just in case our buddy Jamil has tempted fate with his "he'll probably play a blinder against us with Milan" joke!

[Jamoldo]

[Deini]

[RomaShield27]