ponsaelius

Totti's autobiography being released in English. Might be of interest to some. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916278493/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_fabc_N3CCSP62F6HN938CHJTK

A little bit but not massively. Played a lot of football - 50 Serie A games in two seasons. Was generally decent too. More just a case of him being very old and Fiorentina looking to move on after a poor season. They cleared the decks quite a bit this summer (and had a pretty good window I thought).

Huge respect for Ribery just deciding he doesn't want to retire yet and would like to live on the Amalfi coast.

With the transfer window over I might do a summary post of the market in Italy - or at least rate all the major teams. It's been interesting because so many teams have lost major players and so many of the signings are loans, bargains, punts rather than big names - it's very hard to know exactly where everybody is at. Especially when you throw in the managerial upheaval. It does feel like there isn't a great deal between the top 7 - with the exception of Inter being favourites. This seems to be reflected in the following: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/serie-a/ Although the current odds still have Juventus favourites: https://www.oddschecker.com/football/italy/serie-a/winner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)#In_white_nationalism_and_supremacism https://www.theguardian.com/football/2000/sep/09/newsstory.sport1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustaše#Modern-day_Croatia I mean... probably just a coincidence/faux pas. But still probably not the right club to make this number choice.

Junior Messias deadline day move from Crotone to Milan an interesting one. He moved to Italy at 20 and worked delivering household appliances until he was 25, while playing amateur football. He was noticed by 5th division Casale's manager who pursued him to join them in 2015. He moved to a Serie D side Gozzano and helped them to promotion to Serie C in 2019. Crotone signed him and he helped them to promotion from Serie B in 2020, and played a full season in Serie A last year scoring 9 goals. He'll now be playing in the Champions League age 30.

Just noticed the Croatian midfielder they signed from Bordeaux has taken number 88. That's a bit of a yikes.

Sarri is a great manager for teams slightly below the top level who will buy entirely into his system and ideology. I think Lazio are the side I will try to watch the most this season. They've had a decent window although like most of Serie A a lot of it has picking the bargain bin. Looks like they're going to sign Zaccagni from Verona for 8+2 million euros which is an absolute steal. Even with a year left on his deal an equivalent move would be 3x that in the PL.

Lovely stuff

What a debut for Correa. Got to say I thought he was a bargain signing - cracking player.

Fantastic atmosphere at the Bentegodi even with the restrictions. One of the best atmospheres I've experienced in person when I saw them against Juve.

Ronaldo going to City made some warped footballing sense because they need a centre forward and because you would not be surprised at Abu Dhabi responding to Qatar as a powerplay. A move to Man United makes less sense to me in footballing terms, tbh.

Got to say after an absolutely brilliant summer of international football I've found this transfer window pretty vulgar and dispiriting all round.

Yeah Roma have a real mix of options up front. Interesting seeing them with the pace of Abraham and Shomudorov now to choose between after years of Dzeko. Even Mayoral is a good third choice. Really hope Zaniolo can get back to being the player he looked before the injuries - which was something very special indeed.

Think Udinese will struggle this season. They've been circling the drain for a while and sold their best two players (Musso and De Paul) for upwards of 50 million and, like a lot or other clubs, have done nowt much in terms or incomings.

If you liked A Season With Verona then Miracle of Castle de Sangro is worth a read too.

This has been tried in the past and died on its arse as the Other Games and Not Worthy of a Thread duopoly consumes all. However - good to try again. Some good opening games today. With big players leaving the league and a continued reliance on aging veterans I'm hopeful to see some younger domestic players get more of a chance. 20 year old Bergamo-born Piccoli got a 93rd minute winner for Atalanta (and a great celebration jumping the plexiglass to get to the travelling fans). For Sassuolo - Raspadori seems to be kicking on from where he left off at the end of last season. With Locatelli finally gone to Juve they also gave a Serie A debut to u-21 international Davide Frattesi who had a great season in Serie B last year for Monza. It would be good if the bigger clubs would have the same faith in playing youngsters.

Inter were great there. No doubting how good Conte is but I'd far rather watch an Inzaghi side. Also loving the BT Sport coverage.

Poor performance tonight from Whitley. Deserved 4-2 win for West Allotment. Healthy crowd of 410.

Will be 6 quid.

They were decent but Whitley deserved the win like. Getting the metty along to West Allotment vs Whitley on Friday night in the FA Cup. Then probably North Shields vs Guisborough for the 3pm FA Cup ties on Saturday.

Definitely part of it. Also because NUFC are not playing until tomorrow. Decent crowd of 502 at Whitley today as well for a 2-1 win. Been to 3 of the 4 home games and thoroughly enjoyed each of them.

Exactly. So much of football last year was fucking pish. It was only worth watching because we had fuck all else to do. I'd rather have 6 games on at once, follow the goals as they happen, then scran the highlights later on. Endless wall to wall PL football is awful. Made me get some other hobbies.

Nature is healing.

Totally disagree. The whole lot just blurred into one. Nobody needs to watch every game. Love the return of a proper schedule.