italian dave

And almost the first thing in the article is “…he’s such a familiar face here” - so it’s not even a one off, like Johnny Depp in Portishead or Timothy West in Barton under Needlewood!! Not really news at all, in fact!

Never seen a Milan derby but I can imagine it’s something special! As you say, San Siro is much more of a proper football ground that the Olimpico. I’ve been to several Rome derbys: so many amazing memories of those. Gascoigne’s first derby when he scored the equaliser in the dying minutes, I ended up about 20m from my original seat and no idea how! And a night game when the fan displays were unbelievably spectacular! At the other end of the scale I also went to one in the season when the fans were on strike: the crowd was about 20,000, both Curve were half empty and silent!

Wow, 80 Euros! Inter must think they're worth more than Milan! The cheapest for the Milan Lazio game last week were 24 Euros. Right up in the third tier mind!

I went to watch Milan v Lazio on Saturday, and I got tickets easily on-line. And that was with a 73,000 crowd! (I don't think I'd have had much chance for the semi final!). All from the Milan website: you have to open a 'MyMilan' account and then just log on using that account and go to the ticket section. It's no more difficult than getting a City ticket. And they're sent electronically so you can print off or put on your phone. You will need to show some photo ID with the same name etc as the ticket when you get to the ground - and they do check that.

And, of course, their own English connection…with Notts County!

“……expected to feature…..both football clubs”. Good to see that women’s football is going to get some recognition at last.

Chill out Slarti! There’s plenty of people feel the same about football especially every other year - Euros or World Cup. And just like we love football, there’s plenty who love Eurovision. Just give them their few days! I know it’s on everywhere….but just turn the TV off and read a book or go for a walk ?????

It’s Grim Up North……The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

I don’t know if I’m imagining this, or just read it once years ago, but I was under the impression that Inter used to firmly reject any mention of Milan or Milano as part of their name. And that they were adamant that it was simply ‘Internazionale’. It’s still the case that’s their name, but when people talk about Milan in the same sentence they seem slightly more relaxed about it now!? This discussion got me thinking about Juventus too! I just googled it and apparently that name comes from the Latin word for the Italian ‘gioventu’, which means ‘youngster’. So, originally, formed as a club that was made up of promising young players from the Torino area. Never knew that before, so like @PhilC I’ve learnt something too!!!

And that’s also why they are called Milan and not Milano, ie the anglicised name of the City. And, for similar reasons, why one of the two Genova clubs is called Genoa.

Early Morning Rain……..Gordon Lightfoot (RIP)

100%. Conway has all the makings of a proper goalscorer, doesn't he? Just that knack of being in the right place, and he makes it look easy. Saturday's being a case in point. The other player I wouldn't be surprised if we had an approach for is Vyner. Dependant very much on whether we can get him onto a new contract. But if I were in his shoes I wouldn't rush - and other clubs will realise he then has only a season to go. And can't knock his record this season - most definitely an established Championship level CB.

Pleased for Rotherham. They don’t deserve to go down: they’ve been one of the better bottom half sides this season. Blackpool, Wigan, Reading and (when we played them) Huddersfield have all been dire in comparison.

Bell. But hindsight is a wonderful thing! And I’m not seriously disagreeing with the point you’re making.

Yes, that’s very true Dave. Although to be fair he had so many to choose from…….! The Mark Ashton lottery game: just buy as many random players from L1 or lesser known European clubs, and one in 5 will turn out to be a Kodjia or a Webster!

And even then, it was MA’s decision to leave, wasn’t it? Albeit, I think SL may then have realised how he’d been stitched up with the Americans and Ipswich.

That’s a good point, PSR. And I even had the same thought about the financial mess that’s the subject of so much discussion on this thread - and others. I’m not trying to under-play the mess we were in financially. And, on the same point that @spudski makes about polarisation, I don’t get this binary ‘it was all down to covid’ or ‘it was all down to MA/LJ’ - it’s quite possible for it to be a bit of both (and probably one or two other things! And I also recognise that it was SLs stated intent to make the club self-supporting - although he’s made a bit less of that recently. But nevertheless, half the clubs in the championship have been in a desperate financial state over the past 5 years or so. We’ve never actually got to the point of points deductions, transfer embargos or ground closures. So as I say without underestimating the risks associated with where we got to, we don’t stack up that differently to a load of other clubs.

Not sure the feeling would be mutual after yesterday! And before anyone starts - I’m only joking!

Numpty.......Paolo Nutini

Agree with you about Kalas/Kelly - but wasn’t that what Ashton was all about - the bottom line. On Bell, Conway, Belarous: appreciate that LJ is fair game as the whipping boy for most things, but I think it’s taking it a bit far to criticise him for the presumed failure to select players who simply weren’t available at the time. We’ve no way of knowing that at all. And, has has been pointed out, he had very different challenges anyway. One of which is that for the last 2-3 years of his tenure the expectation was that we were too 6 material. And much as I recognise the prospect that Bell and Benarous are, they’re not too 6 Championship standard yet. Conway, maybe. The @ciderwithtommy and @Mr Popodopolous discussion is an interesting one. I’m first in line to blame Ashton for everything and anything, but one thing you have to say is that he was better than we’d ever been before at extracting maximum financial value from our player assets. So often in the past we’d failed to take big bids for players who then ran down contracts, for injured etc etc and in the meantime we’d not achieved success by keeping them. And that’s the dilemma with Scott, isn’t it? My heart says he stays with us and we reach the PL with him. My head says we’re not close enough. The Ashton problem is that there was no dilemma for him: for him it was purely the bottom line, and if it cost us success on the field that was secondary - and not his problem.

And even the Watney Cup is nothing to do with the memorial ground’s history!

Judging by that picture, it won’t need long…..

Welcome to the Whole Week……..Stiff Little Fingers

From a purely selfish point of view, I’d still rather be going to Reading than Huddersfield next season.