Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

oh come one, don't be such a "bad winner" now! :TD: Roma fans cocky? why?
You should check the roma fan boards. C'mon, you defend Totti's 'thumbs down' but not me? :LOL: Roma have been our closest rival of the last decade (5 coppa finals!!!) so I'm basically just stoking the fires. And in my defence, I'm a long suffering inter fan, I've been through more ups and downs than a married hollywood couple. Then I have to deal with that "5 Maggio" crap every other day (my Milan friend likes to post the youtubes on my facebook) and the "Inter ruined Serie A" bullcrap. Just another day in the life. If anything my mini-celebration is indicative of just how well Roma have done and how worried they made us Inter fans. And all this on a shoe string budget. They deserve everyone's respect and admiration. Raineri too has managed to do wonders with the club and if there's any manager more deserving of a trophy, it's Raineri. Just not with Roma :P In all seriousness though, what Roma have achieved has been quiet remarkable, and they've played some fantastic football (Pizarro deserves the serie a player of the season if you ask me). In fact, what makes me hate Roma even more is knowing Inter could never achieve what they have this season.

first of, coz between inter and roma there is a financial gap that is wider than the gap between real madrid and villareal. inter spent 87 millions just this season, while roma spent 0.
at the end of the season moratti will pull out of his pocket a little less than 100 millions to pay inter's debts and sweep the club's overdraft (as he's already done almost every year since he bought the club), while roma will end this fiscal year with a profit.
And? There is no correlation between money spent and winning. None. Roma went through a period of spending and they ended up with nothing. In any case, a lot of our deals have been player exchanges (with Genoa and Barca for example).

Next weeks game will be interesting, but with Ledesma out of the match, and Snieper and Stankovic fresh (both will be unavailable for wednesday's UCL clash) I expect a win. Plus, what Lazio player will want to risk dealing with the Lazio ultra's for handing over the championship to Roma :P

And in case you missed it...

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What's that? No thumbs down Totti?

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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

I think the race is over personally unless Lazio decide to do their Roman brothers a big favour ;))

Inter could potentially create history here, Barcelona side from last year that won the treble was/is(no Eto'o) a great side but if this Inter acheive it I hope they get the same recognition. only great sides can acheive that.

Hopefully Sneijder makes it for the Barcelona game.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

From a neutral point of view it would be a great finish if all three (Milan, Palermo, Samp) ended up on 65 points, I'm not sure how they would settle it maybe a play-off? Don't forget finishing 3rd is a HUGE advantage over finishing 4th. You would go directly into the group stage of the CL, whereas 4th would mean a play-off against another big European 3rd/4th place.

This could see a match against Man City / Spurs, or someone from Zenit, Ajax, Celtic, Dynamo Kiev, Bremen/Leverkusen/Dortmund, Lille/Montpellier/Lyon, Mallorca/Sevilla/Villareal). People forget that since last season finishing in the last place for CL Qualification it's now harder to make the group stage since it's split into the Champions/Non-champions path.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

rfu said:
You should check the roma fan boards. C'mon, you defend Totti's 'thumbs down' but not me? Roma have been our closest rival of the last decade (5 coppa finals!!!) so I'm basically just stoking the fires. And in my defence, I'm a long suffering inter fan, I've been through more ups and downs than a married hollywood couple
i don't visit any club fans forum (not even palermo, never mind roma) precisely because i know they're not worthy. actually that's the only not work related internet forum i visit.

however i didn't realise u were just having fun at roma. i thought u were trying to actually make a point of ranieri been a loser (wich would have been just wrong).
but since the spirit of your post was the same of totti's "thumbs down", then be my guest :))
rfu said:
And? There is no correlation between money spent and winning. None. Roma went through a period of spending and they ended up with nothing. In any case, a lot of our deals have been player exchanges (with Genoa and Barca for example).
whoa, wait a minute here. the correlation between money and success couldn't be stronger than it is today. saying that during their crazy spending days, roma ended up with nothing is absolutely false. they won a scudetto and became a real scudetto contender, while today they can't be considered as a real contender... they're an amazing team, but they just don't have the depth to compete with inter. yeah this season they turned out to be a contender, but
1- they're overachieveing.
2- they didn't have to compete in champions league aswell, wich is a huge advantage.

i believe roma achieved the very best u can get, without keeping up with the european big guns spending policies.... u can't really go any further than that.

however let me repeat it; i'm not blaming moratti for this. actually moratti is definitely the most intelligent, wise and HONEST among the european top club owners. it's the way football is conceived today that inevitably pushes top clubs to throw away the 60% of their incomes in wages. the only alternative is to give up on something.... but u don't win titles with compromises.
for instance, simplicio made it very clear that he would have been happy to stay in palermo... he only wanted the same wage miccoli has (1.5 millions). but that's our top wage class and it's reserved to the leaders of the team, the captains (namely liverani and miccoli).... if we would have given those money to simplicio, then also balzaretti, and kjaer and bovo would have asked a renegotiation of their deals, and we just can't have that. so we had to say goodbye to simplicio.

it's a very simple equation. the more money u can count on, the better chances to win u have. i mean, why did milan face this downfall in your opinion? it's obvious. coz berlusconi is sick and tired of refunding the club with dozens of millions every year (wich is what he used to do, along with moratti). and since he's not a bastard (like most of the english "owners") he doesn't want milan to get in trouble with the banks just coz he doesn't wanna spend more money, so he's settling down for a more reasonable and pennywise governance. but when your competitors keep raising the stake, that means giving up on your chances to win.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Don't forget finishing 3rd is a HUGE advantage over finishing 4th. You would go directly into the group stage of the CL, whereas 4th would mean a play-off against another big European 3rd/4th place.......
......People forget that since last season finishing in the last place for CL Qualification it's now harder to make the group stage since it's split into the Champions/Non-champions path.

yeah, u're right here. the 4th place doesn't mean u're definitely gonna be in champions league. and having to deal with the qualification stages implies having to begin the season one month earlier than other teams, wich is a disaster!
this CL format is conceived really badly. u can be sure that the team that will reach the 4th place (either palermo or samp) will face a "lazio kinda season" next year...
younggun said:
Hopefully Sneijder makes it for the Barcelona game.
yeah it would be damn important for inter to have a fit snejder for the match
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Was it Pazzini or Fabio Bazzani who had a wife / girlfriend who embarrased him on Italian Big Brother? I seem to remember a few years ago his wife was on some national tv program and said something about him which was not totally complimentary...

It could have been that Isola dei Famosi program not the big brother...
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

What did she say?! :D

Pazzini probably doesn't have a wife and is really enjoying these months of his life! :P

p.s. You once said he's a 'nice' boy ala Montolivo, Ben. Though of course I remember you did also highlight some of their 'differences'. At the time I forgot to reply to you but wanted to say that I don't agree. He's not a bad guy or a cunt or unprofessional or anything. Not at all. But I wouldn't exactly call him a 'nice' boy either... he's certainly no saint.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

I'm so glad Palermo are doing well.
Three great goals, but the move i liked most of all was the 1-2 that brought Pastore 1 on 1 before the Milan Gk...that was splendid.

About the scouting system of palermo, maybe it is very good, but even i knew that Pastore was one of themost promising South American players. At the beginning of the season i predicted that he would be a very, very important player. :SMUG::SMUG::SMUG:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

yeah Merz rings a bell, PLF, from what I recall she... er... talked about his size and not in a very good way!
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

yeah leo the 7th place is valid for the europa league now aswell.
Good news for Napoli and De Laurentis's ambitions. I asked it because gazzetta.it didn't noticed it. ;)

yeah, u're right here. the 4th place doesn't mean u're definitely gonna be in champions league. and having to deal with the qualification stages implies having to begin the season one month earlier than other teams, wich is a disaster!
this CL format is conceived really badly. u can be sure that the team that will reach the 4th place (either palermo or samp) will face a "lazio kinda season" next year...
plus you need to consider that Palermo and Sampdoria don't have a good UEFA coefficient so they will be in 2nd range, and can play with a top team like Celtic or Zenit (both already qualified for play-offs) or even the 4th spanish or english club. Not an easy match...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

p.s. You once said he's a 'nice' boy ala Montolivo, Ben. Though of course I remember you did also highlight some of their 'differences'. At the time I forgot to reply to you but wanted to say that I don't agree. He's not a bad guy or a cunt or unprofessional or anything. Not at all. But I wouldn't exactly call him a 'nice' boy either... he's certainly no saint.
he's definitely not "nice" indeed. at least not in the sense u'd call nice a guy like montolivo. but he's a good boy. every summer he goes in pantelleria to help the irregular immigrants who come from the african shores. pantelleria is an italian little island, it's between italy and africa. it's the landing stage used by african criminals who smuggle poor african immigrants who try to reach italy clandestinely. those poor people reach the italian shores after days of navigation... 200 people packed in a small boat that could only board like 20 passengers... some of them die along the travel... those who manage to reach pantelleria alive are in critical conditions. the italian government provides some help with facilities and doctors who take care of theese people... but most of the job is done by private charity workers and voluteers. well this young billionaire spent his last holydays in pantelleria, helping those immigrants, rather than having fun on the sicilian beaches and little "paradise islands" around the sicilian shores (as most of his colleagues usually do).

he's young, immature, rich, stupid, confrontational but also kind-hearted..... and that's a very bad combination, as it makes him extremely easy to manipulate (by people who might have interest in taking advantage of his position and money). i just hope he won't take adriano's path (or, even worse, maradona's path). sure he's making many mistakes right now.

i remember some months ago i wrote i thought mario was much more likely to become a top class player than montolivo, because of his "gutsy" attitude (as opposed to montolivo's shy and low profile temperament).
well, so far they both proved me wrong. mario is going way too far with his "gutsiness" and that's causing him some serious problems. i remarked many times how bad inter handled this whole mario situation... but it must be said, if mario would have acted properly, there wouldn't have been a "mario situation" at all (wich means he's obviously responsible for his mistakes).
montolivo, on the other side, had a very good year, and he finally seems on his way to step up.
i guess time will tell. :))
leo said:
plus you need to consider that Palermo and Sampdoria don't have a good UEFA coefficient so they will be in 2nd range, and can play with a top team like Celtic or Zenit (both already qualified for play-offs) or even the 4th spanish or english club. Not an easy match...
to be fair, i'm not much worried about the opponent themselves. this palermo could face a 4th english or spanish team (and with good chances to win aswell). we beated pretty much every italian top club in the last 2 seasons.... we could have beaten inter just a few weeks ago... and inter is gonna play a champions league semifinal in 2 days.... we scored 3 goals in san siro against inter and confortably beated both milan and juve in both the away and the home fixture. this team shouldn't really be afraid to face any team in normal conditions.
the thing is this qualification stage is not a normal scenario. the timing is my main concern. italian teams begin their summer preparation later than any other team in europe (because of the hot italian summer)... and usually italian teams look awful until september\october.... in theese conditions even a championship team might beat an italian team. and that's my main concern.
but of course we should first worry about reaching the 4th spot :))
Gerd said:
Three great goals, but the move i liked most of all was the 1-2 that brought Pastore 1 on 1 before the Milan Gk...that was splendid.
yeah, that's why i suggested u guys to look for a replay. coz theese highlights don't really do justice to our performances ... take the milan match for instance. i can remember at least 4 of those quick one touch combinations like that one u saw in the highlights... but just one of them is shown in the highlights themselves.
as for your point about pastore, you're right, he's not the signing i would use to make the point that palermo as a good scouting network, as all the top teams in europe probably had a scouting report about him... and the same goes for hernandez and bertolo..... but kjaer was completely unknown when we signed him ;)
pastore's facial expression while hernandez was dancing was simply great btw. :D
yeah, it made laugh me aswell :D
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

In a startlingly similar situation to the Premier League, both teams in 2nd place are relying on their bitter rivals to take points of the league leaders.

Has there been any talk or speculation about Lazio "lying down" or "going easy"?

I've read somewhere that most Lazio fans want their team to throw the result. Is that true?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Stefano, Can't understand what he's saying but even like this, it looks VERY good and hilarious! :LMAO:

pastore's facial expression while hernandez was dancing was simply great btw. :D

Hahahha yeah! He was looking at him like "What the fuck is wrong with you! :LOL:

he's definitely not "nice" indeed. at least not in the sense u'd call nice a guy like montolivo. but he's a good boy. every summer he goes in pantelleria to help the irregular immigrants who come from the african shores. pantelleria is an italian little island, it's between italy and africa. it's the landing stage used by african criminals who smuggle poor african immigrants who try to reach italy clandestinely. those poor people reach the italian shores after days of navigation... 200 people packed in a small boat that could only board like 20 passengers... some of them die along the travel... those who manage to reach pantelleria alive are in critical conditions. the italian government provides some help with facilities and doctors who take care of theese people... but most of the job is done by private charity workers and voluteers. well this young billionaire spent his last holydays in pantelleria, helping those immigrants, rather than having fun on the sicilian beaches and little "paradise islands" around the sicilian shores (as most of his colleagues usually do).

he's young, immature, rich, stupid, confrontational but also kind-hearted..... and that's a very bad combination, as it makes him extremely easy to manipulate (by people who might have interest in taking advantage of his position and money). i just hope he won't take adriano's path (or, even worse, maradona's path). sure he's making many mistakes right now.

I see what you mean Ben. And thanks for the info.

i remember some months ago i wrote i thought mario was much more likely to become a top class player than montolivo, because of his "gutsy" attitude (as opposed to montolivo's shy and low profile temperament).
well, so far they both proved me wrong. mario is going way too far with his "gutsiness" and that's causing him some serious problems. i remarked many times how bad inter handled this whole mario situation... but it must be said, if mario would have acted properly, there wouldn't have been a "mario situation" at all (wich means he's obviously responsible for his mistakes).
montolivo, on the other side, had a very good year, and he finally seems on his way to step up.
i guess time will tell. :))

Well said.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

nice mourinho impression by crozza there. not crozza's best impression though... afterall it must pretty hard to make an impression of mourinho, as the real jose is already an impression of himself :P

javier and abel were interviewed yesterday by a small sicilian radio station. i couldn't find any link on the web (and that's a shame as it was fucking hilarious) so i'll just report u the bit about abel's celebration.

interviewer: so what about that celebration abel?
hernandez: (laughing)
Pastore: yeah, tell me about it. i i felt embarassed for him.
hernandez: (still laughing)... oh com'on don't exagerate now.
interviewer: yeah, u looked pretty confused aswell javier.
pastore: confused? that's an understatement. i was like "and what the hell is that! stop doing that, please! u just scored such a beauty, why u have to destroy your reputation like this! u realise u're looking like a total queer, do u? what's wrong with u!"
abel: (can barely speak as he's still laughing) hey u didn't say that!
pastore: yeah i didn't, but that's what i was thinking. besides u can't tell what i said to u....as u were just too focused in making that "weird macarena dancer" impression to notice what was happening around u
abel: (still laughing). oh no, i do remember. i remember what fabrizio said (he refers to miccoli)
pastore: oh man, that was so funny! (laughs)
interviewer: what did miccoli say to u?
abel: always laughing. oh no, that u'll have to ask fabrizio.
interviewer: to be honest i thought abel was pretty good. he actually has some nice moves!
abel: thanks
pastore: get a room!
interviewer: anyway why does it bothers u? (refers to pastore)
pastore: hey i'm the one who shares the room with him in the clubhouse. i don't wanna be associated to a weird macarena dancer who has an affair with a palermitano journalist.... i've got a reputation to take care of!
abel: for the last time, that was not the macarena dance!
interviewer: (laughs)
abel: laughs. anyhow the funniest one was mister rossi. after the match, he and sabatini showed up in the dressing room dancing the macarena aswell. i tried to capture it with my cell phone, but didn't make it. the coach is still worried i may have a video file of him dancing the macarena to put on the web.
pastore: aah! so it did was the macarena dance! u just said that! u can't hide it anymore u weirdo!!

for those who don't know what they're talking about, that's the celebration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s5yB3yOudA

the whole interview was about 30 mins long, and i have to say it was really hilarious. :))
abou said:
I've read somewhere that most Lazio fans want their team to throw the result. Is that true?
not most of em. all of em. the rivalry between lazio and roma fans is something more intense than the one between man utd and liverpool.... much more intense. there's no lazio fan who would like to see his team winning against inter. u can be sure of that. and u can also be sure they won't even celebrate that much if lazio scores.

we already found ourselves in this situation. it was 2002. inter, juve and roma were fighting for the scudetto. it's the last week of the season and inter has to play in roma against lazio. juve and roma needs lazio to win, in order to get the scudetto.(the table was like this: inter 69; juve 68; roma 67)
well for the entire week before the derby lazio fans made very clear their opinion about the match: lazio HAD to lose that match. coz if lazio would have beaten inter and juve would have lost its match, than roma would have been champion and they just couldn't stand the idea of handing the scudetto to their rivals. and infact everyone in italy was absolutely sure lazio would have lost. but lazio players had a different opinion. first inter scored... then lazio equalised.. then inter scored a second goal.... and lazio equalised again.... then in the second half, lazio simply dismantled inter. the game ended 4-2 for lazio. lazio fans didn't celebrate a single goal (it was so weird) both juve and roma won so juve got the scudetto, roma ended up second and inter dropped from 1st to third position at the very last game of the season!.
it was the 5th may 2002 (il 5 maggio). it's an historic and disgraceful date for any inter fan.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Just a week ago romanisti were kidding laziali about Derby. Now, after only two weeks, after Radu's rage, after Reja's rage, after Totti's thumbs, after FANS rage, what did we can expect?
Only Claudio Lotito wants Lazio's defeat, because Inter "stole" Pandev to them (and tried to do the same with Ledesma). Plus a huge percentage of Lazio fans want Lotito's head. If Lazio will draw or win, Lotito will surely come up with "we are matematecally safe from relegation!!" while Lazio fans will be kidded another time from Roma ones (and it's very frustrating for them) so it's absolutely normal that next sunday 99% of Stadio Olimpico will support Inter. As Lo zio said, it seems a deja-vù, I hope NOT.

You can also read in Cristian Ledesma official website (in italian) "Happy Monday everyone, this is really a GREAT Monday. Cristian", and there are italian comments like for example "you have to lose against Inter and then everyone in the Curva Nord to celebrate with the thumbs down ... do not forget certain things ... I hope you have good memory!".
It's clear what Lazio fans want. It's clear what Lotito want. And it's clear that if Inter doesn't win, Roma will 90% win Scudetto. A damn situazion.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Lazio fans will already know the result of the Roma game when the game starts right? That will make a diffrence. Parma is not an easy match for Roma.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

First Roma has to win against Parma. And Parma won't be laying down for anyone. So even if Lazio were to get a result against Inter, it doesn't necessarily mean it would change everything...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

yeah, we really shouldn't be concerned about lazio's performance at all. in 2002 we were all sure lazio wouldn't have put much of a fight... and yet they came out with an outstanding performance.
besides, as sina said, first roma has to beat parma :))

i'm surprised no english newspaper did throw shit on this match yet "those filthy italians and their rigged league did it again! the bookmakers closed the bets on the lazio inter game! therefore the match MUST be fixed!" :FAIL:

it's just a matter of time anyway. they'll write this article in less than a week for sure.
what a bunch of stupid disrespectful idiots. i'll never understand how people can buy and read this shit. never.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Well Ben, there are certainly some English "media" who have a feeling of superiority and who consequently are looking down on other cultures. There are some very good papers too in England (The Guardian, The Independent).
i wouldn't worry if i was you: there are millions of people who have a positive image of Italian football and the way Italians breathe football and after all you are still World Champions...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

i don't worry about us. not coz i think we have a good image (we haven't at all), but because i don't really care about our image in the first place. it's the whole concept of national image that i find pretty stupid (as that smart fella in my signature pointed out once).

what really pisses me off is the lack of professionalism of theese people. and i can't stand the fact that theese people get a paycheck for nothing... they don't deserve any money for their job, coz they don't know their job at all.

and it's not about chauvinism or about "feeling superior" mate. that's not what bugs me. their absolute ignorance and their absolute lack of ethics bugs me.

u mention the indipendent... but truly the indipendent football journalists aren't that better than the others. i already mentioned a few weeks ago about that article on the indipendent about the greatest coaches in the history british football. chapman wasn't there. not only he wasn't the first one.... he didn't even make the top ten! that's pretty much like reading an article about the most important events in the last 30 years that doesn't even mention the fall of berlin's wall. this can't even be described as "ignorance"; it goes beyond ignorance. and that was from the indipendent. and as for the guardian, the bullshits i heard (from that very podcast u once mentioned to me) about italian, english and french football are just ridiculous.

your job, as a football journalist, is to write about football. and your views and opinions are read by thousands of people.... u also get a paycheck for what u write. the very least u can do is to inform yourself about what u write. it's your job to write about football. at least study it. it's not like u have other occupations to take care of, that's your job. u feed your family with that job, at least put some effort in it and do what u're supposed to do. take it seriously.

and that's talking about their ignorance. don't even get me started about their lack of deontological ethics. u see, that code of conduct known as deontology is a study subject for an italian journalist. that means that u have to study that code (and u also have to pass an exam on it). and if, once you're a journalist, u don't respect that code of conduct (say, if u write an article about a fixed match without checking your sources...) u'll get disbarred (just like a lawyer who doesn't respect the lawyer's code of conduct).... that means u'll never be allowed to work as a journalist. for ever!

that's what i can't stand. i don't care about nationalism. unfortunately that's a cancer that just can't be eradicated from many cultures. italians aren't chauvinists, but that's not coz we're better than other people... it's just coz the world war II destroyed our "national pride"... wich is funny as italians are the only ones (along with polish) who actually have something to be proud of, talking about that tragedy. but that's a different topic.
so i'm ok with nationalism. u wanna be a chauvinist prick? ok then. but u must be professional. u must take your job seriously. and if your knowledge and understanding of football is the same of an average fan's knowledge and understanding, then u shouldn't be allowed to write about football.
sorry for this rant :P
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

I have a funny feeling that Inter will qualify. But that same funny feeling tells me that Bayern will beat Inter in the final.
I saw yesterday's match and i've seen quite a few matches of Bayern, well i have to say that i admire them. They never give up. Their iconic player in that aspect is Olic.Talking about a player who has four lungs, two heart and one giant genrous HEART.
I remember here somewhere that Bayern (with Thomas Muller and Olic) lacks class players upfront. Well, i have been watching Muller yesterday: IMO he was absolutely brilliant. This guy is 20 years old. In a couple of seasons he will be a player like Gerrard and Lampard: a massive box to box player. Bayern doesn't play the show football of Barcelona, but they are very effective, never give up when they face adversity and they have the best coach in the world (i know) for young players.

About the press Ben: i had a five year long realtionship with a journalist of Belgium's most prestigious "quality paper"...She did politics and in the end asked to be transferred to the sports desk because (and that was at the beginning of the 90's) according to here that was the only section where independent journalistics was possible. A couple of months ago i saw her again: she quit journalism because she was fed up with the pressure of commercial press and media tycoons.


This post is totally off-topic, i'm sorry.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Well Ben, there are certainly some English "media" who have a feeling of superiority and who consequently are looking down on other cultures. There are some very good papers too in England (The Guardian, The Independent).

I've got to agree with Ben here, it's just ignorance rather than a superiority complex - although there are numerous right-wing "news"papers that will make scapegoats out of minorities.
You don't need to be a respected journalist to get a job in the sporting columns in the UK, you don't even need to have had a career related to sport. The Daily Mail use Piers Morgan as a columnist, and the Guardian have had Russell Brand and Dara O'Briain as regular writers of sporting articles over the years (Although I don't want to bad-mouth the Guardian really, they've published some of my own submitted articles :D). Most football articles in a daily newspaper are generally carbon copies of each other and they offer nothing new, nothing substantial to expand your footballing knowledge. The only time you'll hear another league being mentioned is when a player from it is being linked to a Premier League club. But what they do then is most frustrating. They'll build up this player, they'll proclaim them to be the greatest footballing prodigy of all time, they'll portray the player as faultless. And in the event that they do the flop, they'll become their harshest critic.

In my opinion, the only respectable sporting publisher in the UK is the football magazine FourFourTwo and it stands as a gleaming beacon ahead of anything else in the current UK market.

I generally don't know about the calibre of Italian journalist but I presume that things radically improved since the 1982 World Cup and the scandalous, outrageous, sensationalised bullshit written about Paolo Rossi and Antonio Cabrini?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Although I don't want to bad-mouth the Guardian really, they've published some of my own submitted articles :D).
are u kidding me!? that's absolutely great tom! i'd love to read those articles if u could send me a link. :)) congrats!

as for the italian football journalists, talking about the deontoligical aspect, they're definitely much more serious than their spanish and english counterparts. they take their job very seriously, as football journalism is something very important (almost sacred) here.

speaking of the quality of their journalism instead, i noticed a decay over the last few years. our new "pens" are just not as good as the old ones... and since the old glories are just a few today (some of them died, others retired), the general quality of italian football journalism is not as high as it used to be. it must be said though, even today the average italian football journalist is great compared to the average english football journalist. their big advantage over their foreign counterparts lies in the fact that many italian football journalist join the coverciano school of tactics (the same u have to go through in order to get the coaching license), so they end up having basically the same knowledge of italian coaches.
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as for the cabrini incident, i got to say, that was one of the most monumental misunderstandings in the history of football journalism. an italian gossip newspaper (so it wasn't a football journalist who wrote that) enphasized the companionship of the italian squad at the spanish world cup (1982) by remarking how cabrini and rossi showed up to a press conference holding each others hands. that journalist (who, as i said was not a football journalist btw) didn't mean to imply they were gay at all. it was just supposed to be a remark of the nice chemistry in the dressing room. but the foreing press didn't get that message. foreign journalists thought the italian press said rossi and cabrini were gay and so this absolutely false rumour spread all over the world.

the thing was that, at that point, the players didn't care about the fact that no italian journalist ever implied they were gay... they didn't even care about the fact that the whole story came out from a gossip newspaper (and not a football newspaper). so the italian players (the whole squad) "declared war" to all the italian journalists in spain and decided to start the first "press silence" in the history of italian football.
years after, Gianni Brera, one of the greatest journalists in the history of italian football, talked about it. he said "i was very sad about that story, i felt for cabrini and rossi, but the whole thing was originated by a world-wide misunderstanding. the spanish press misunderstood the italian article about cabrini and rossi holding each others hands and labelled them as maricones (a very offensive spanish expression for homosexual). but no italian journalist ever said or even just implied they were homosexuals"
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Never heard about that story, it's a nice one.

Brera used to be the king of football journalism and his disliking of Gianni Rivera is legendary. Brera clearly was in the Mazzola camp and he was also the main advocate of the theory that Rivera and Mazzola couldn't play together.
 
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