THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[Lupa]

Adriano is apparently on a plane on his way to Rome. He says that an uncle of his had to be rushed to hospital, so it wasn't a particularly good trip home. We shall see how things are when he arrives.

In other news, it seems that Baptista will sign with Malaga tomorrow. I'm glad that it's not going to drag on (unlike many Roma negotiations).

[Deini]

Cicinho could join Baps there too.

[pocari_fenrir]

http://www.football-italia.net/jan03n.html

never thought i would say this, but being owned by UniCredit is a bit of a saving grace lately. hopefully they continue to put Rosella in her place and eject her after the sale is completed

[RomaShield27]

Yeh good news there alright, Pocari. What's the latest story on Adriano? I've given up paying attention to all the shite thats popped up about him the last few days, is it true that he said he will be leaving at the end of the season to return to Brazil?

Nice pic here to cheer us all up:



More waffle today about some Yanks who want to buy Roma – John Mara, Steve Tisch and Woody Johnson. I'm not 100% sure, but I think Woody Johnson is that main character fella from Toy Story.

http://www.laroma24.it/archivio/34151/t ... hnson.html
http://www.romatiamo.net/content/il-man ... ttativa-già-chiusa

[ASR1927]

Seems they all own the New York Giants... except for Woody he owns the Jets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Tisch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mara

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Johnson

[pocari_fenrir]

Latest on Adriano, after he pledges to stay with us until 2013, his mother (of all people) speaks out on how he wants to return. Seriously, a man isnt a man if he has his mother speak up for him. His mother also needs to learn to STFU and not delve into the world of footballing. Same goes for his agent, although im not sure who is his agent. I hear stories all the time about how his agents tells the press about how he wants to leave and other garbage and then his agent goes back and cleans that mess up. Someone remind me, why the hell we signed him again?? I dont think there is anything that could rid us of his batch of turmoil (possibly exaggerating here) save for a Scudetto or UEFA silverware.

As for that addition of Americans to our shortlist of potential buyers... cool. Are they buying though?? I am on the side of any new administration since it is better than our current administration (Rosella & Prade) but for all these potential buyers that have to tabulate and run some numbers through their books to see if we're worth buying, I quite frankly dont want to hear it. 90% of that garbage ends up as rumours when it boils down to Roma. I understand that it is a business, but hell being a Romanista IS a business too. If you don't got anything on the table, go home instead of scaring away our buyers. I am sure Carlo would sure my cynicism. I hope he's doing well in this new year

[RomaShield27]

Indeed, Pocari, best wishes to Carlo in the New Year. Haven't seen him online since before Christmas, so hopefully we'll see him soon.

Here's something from the denying any interest in buying Roma from those Americans. Its all just media BS and nothing can be believed at this stage really.

[ASR1927]

Stefano Okaka Chuka has joined Bari on loan from Roma...

Stefano Okaka Chuka has left Roma for Bari on loan terms until the end of the season, Goal.com can exclusively reveal.

The 21-year-old Italian played just four games all season in the capital, and with no signs of regular action, he has moved to Bari in an attempt to help them move off the bottom of the table.

Speaking to Goal.com Italia, the player's agent Giampiero Pocetta confirmed the deal.

"Okaka? It is now official: a loan deal at Bari, and at the end of season he will return to Roma," Pocetta said.

"The boiling point surrounded Okaka and yesterday was frantic with lots of meetings, but now his situation has been resolved."

[RomaShield27]

Glad its only a straight-forward loan deal for Okaka and we'll see him back at the end of the season. This season has been a mess for him with the unnecessary arrival of Adriano who pushed him down the pecking order (probably by sitting on him). Okaka could of played the role of back-up striker for us, but now at least he'll get some playing time at Bari I suppose.

Good to see De Rossi's made it for tomorrow after suffering with flu. This games at 3pm Italian time, I'll be in work so won't get to see it.

ROMA-CATANIA: i convocati. De Rossi c´è
www.romanews.eu – Mercoledì, 05 gennaio 2011

Al termine della sessione di allenamento odierna, Claudio Ranieri ha diramato la lista dei calciatori convocati per l´incontro di domani all´Olimpico con il Catania.

2 CICERO JOAO DE CESARE (CICINHO)
3 PAOLO CASTELLINI
4 JUAN SILVEIRA DOS SANTOS
5 PHILIPPE MEXES
9 MIRKO VUCINIC
10 FRANCESCO TOTTI
11 RODRIGO FERRANTE TADDEI
16 DANIELE DE ROSSI
17 JOHN ARNE RIISE
20 SIMONE PERROTTA
22 MARCO BORRIELLO
23 LEANDRO GRECO
27 JULIO SERGIO BERTAGNOLI
29 NICOLAS ANDRES BURDISSO
30 SIMPLICIO FABIO HENRIQUE
32 DONIEBER ALEXANDER MARANGON (DONI)
33 MATTEO BRIGHI
77 MARCO CASSETTI
94 JEREMY MENEZ

[maro]

You need to get your work-life balance sorted, fredzo. Just take a traditional long Irish lunch and see them back in the office on Friday morning (by which I mean early afternoon, clearly). What are the odds that Mexes, Pizza, and Vooch are all no longer at the club this time next year? I'm not sure at the moment Mexes isn't the most likely still to be around.

[RomaShield27]

We can't all go back to work until the end of January/start of February/March or whenever its is you academic types decide to return. The odds of that happening wouldn't be as high as a lot of us would like to think, I would say. What makes you say that now anyway? We all know the saga with Mexes, but I wouldn't be all that surprised to see UniCredit decide to cash in on Pizarro now, given his age and the interest from Zenit, and then the ultimate worry would be that the ownership debacle would rumble on for longer than expected and we see a nightmare scenario develop where we cash in on our most valuable player in Vucinic.

[maro]

Mexes is out of contract; Vooch has been warming the bench as has Pizarro who is still in Chile. If this is the Roma of Borriello and Menez, then it's also no longer the Roma of Pizza, Totti, and Vooch which, I have to confess, depresses me as we enter the gnu yeah.

[RomaShield27]

How has Vooch been warming the bench? On the occasions he was left on the bench it was a case of he not being fit enough to start or rotating the forward line for upcoming games. The same applies to Totti and Borriello. Vooch has started in all big games for which he was fit enough – Bayern, Juventus, Lazio – so he's certainly not been been warming the bench like you're suggesting.

[Jamoldo]

[maro]

I'm sorry. I wasn't meaning to cast aspersions on the Vooch's indispensability. I was under the mistaken impression that there were times this season that he'd been on the bench when the season before he'd have been on the pitch. I think there were even a couple of occasions when that Totti guy started ahead of him. Not to mention the various stories that emerged about his being disgruntled at having fallen down the pecking order slightly.

http://www.forzaroma.info/rassegna-stam ... detto.html

Il centravanti montenegrino e il centrocampista cileno sono stati due mattoni solidi della prima Roma «Ranierana» . La seconda metà dell’anno ha però cambiato molte cose. Vucinic è diventato un precario dell’attacco, Pizarro ha ballato tra guai fisici e una realtà assolutamente inedita per lui a Roma: la panchina. Il 2010 è finito nel peggiore dei modi, per Vucinic, che pure ha segnato in questi 365 giorni 17 gol (14 in campionato, 2 in Coppa Italia e 1 in Europa League): infermeria e qualche ombra di troppo perché è stato la maggiore vittima del turn over in attacco. Che cosa può chiedere Mirko a Babbo Natale e al 2001? Due cose:o giocare di più nella Roma, o cambiare aria. In attesa negli eventi, festeggia il primo Natale da papà, con il piccolo Aleksandr. Al caldo della sua Valparaiso Pizarro penserà ad un 2011 nuovamente da protagonista. È uno di quelli che soffre di più la panchina. La sua lettera di Natale? Giocare, oppure fare le valigie e magari tornare in quel Cile dove, un giorno, sogno più futuristico, vorrebbe diventare ministro dello sport.

http://www.forzaroma.info/rassegna-stam ... totti.html

La rivoluzione ha coinvolto anche il reparto offensivo. Intorno alla coppia Menez-Borriello Ranieri ha costruito la nuova versione della sua squadra: il francese libero di inventare e all’ex-milanista il compito di fare gol (finora 11).
A pagare dazio sono stati capitan Totti e (soprattutto) Vucinic. Il montenegrino ha giocato solo 3 volte negli ultimi due mesi e un suo addio a gennaio non è affatto da escludere.

[RomaShield27]

Right, I see. I'd like to think thats more to do with having a more complete squad with the arrival of Borriello (and to a much lessor extent Adriano) rather than playing a not quite fully fit player, however indispensable he may be. More options, more chances to rotate, that sort of thing. Totti did start ahead of him on occasion, but like I alluded too before, Totti started ahead of Borriello on occasion too, and Vooch ahead of Borriello, and so on. The various stories that emerged about his being disgruntled at having fallen down the pecking order slightly were all rather exaggerated and were added to reports of various clubs being interested in his services.

[maro]

I hope you're right, thredzo, though I can't say I share your confidence.

[RomaShield27]

Sorry I must have missed those links in your previous post – I think you edited them after I had posted? I'm still not all that convinced that Vooch himself was really that disgruntled enough that he wanted to leave. Sure, there is more competition for places now, but I don't think its enough to force him out. I wouldn't entirely rule his departure out, either, and as much as I'd hate to see it, it could happen if he were to want a new challenge for himself and in different conditions etc etc, but it'd be terribly short sited of our management to allow him to leave in light of Totti's advancing years.

[pocari_fenrir]

I think the troubling thing is that Pizarro and Vucinic havent quite found their form yet. With the induction of Menez and Borriello in our starting XI, it gives the 2 less of a time to earn that fitness back. Under Spalletti, if those 2 were ever returning from injury, they would be immediately played because we simply didnt have that quality/depth off the bench. Now that we have the much coveted squad depth, Vucinic & Pizarro could take their sweet time to recover, but they would probably loose that edge that had them play so well for us. Maro, i think i would share the same sentiments on the new year if the two were slowly factored out due to such circumstances.

As for Okaka, Shield, i think he's had a depressing past couple seasons. Even as our reserve striker, he cant be played because we're always playing catch-up in our matches or cant afford to sub him on. We've never quite had a moment where we could spare him the minutes, which absolutely blows. I also think it's degrading to have his chances squandered by the likes of Adriano. There will be a day when Okaka will come good for us

[Lupa]

I don't recall Borriello resting when he was available. Or not for a full game anyway. It has been my impression that Vooch hasn't played much, and he has looked out of form on a couple of occasions, but then, hasn't had a chance to play himself into form. It's true that now we actually have depth in the squad so that players who aren't really match fit don't get called into duty immediately. I wouldn't be surprised to see Pizarro leave. Ranieri may say he needs him, but if it's true that Spalletti's calling, I could see Pizarro taking that call.

I hope that just as Unicredit has been vetoing moves like bringing Behrami in, they will veto Vooch leaving (and re-sign Mexes). It's true that we have wealth in attack, but Totti's role is bound to diminish (much to his chagrin), and I wouldn't be sad to see Adriano to depart. Anyway, speaking of Behrami not arriving, this reminds me of Wilhemsson's finest moment on Roma http://wn.com/derby_wilhelmsson_vs_behrami. There weren't too many to choose from.

Just looked at some stats, and Borriello has appeared in 17 Serie A games (1377 mins), and we're in week 18 now. He's appeared in 6 CL games (429 mins), so it's safe to say he's not been completely benched for any game. Vooch has appeared in 9 Serie A games, (646 mins) and 3 CL (218 mins). No idea what his availability was for those matches, though, as I do recall him struggling with injuries. Totti has appeared in 13 Serie A games (1037 mins) and all 6 of the CL games (476 mins).