Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
if i may add my 2 cents, before we move back on topic...
Gerd, i believe being a professional reporter doesn't automatically makes u an objective, impartial and unbiased man. and it's not about being a man city fan or whatever.... it's about the nature of the job itself.
i know personally dozens of journalists (and i'm serious) and one thing i learned about journalists is that, no matter how good or famous they are, they tend to repeat the same mistake: first they decide what story to write, then they start the research. this approach pushes them to make an "artificial selection" of the sources they find. they will tend to mention those sources which corroborate their theory (their story) and omit those sources which confute it.
in this case, for instance, Conn (if i got it right) implied there was a connection between this "racehorse gift" and man utd's buyout.
now this horserace story is definitely interesting, and i'm sure no one would make such an important and expensive gift without a hidden agenda........ but whatever that hidden agenda was, it didn't concern man utd buyout. and i need just 2 words to prove what i'm saying (2 words that apparently mr. Conn refused to consider): hostile takeover.
when u quote a company on the stock exchange, that company is on the market... that company is there for u to take it, if u have enough funds.
and that's something u have to accept when u quote your company (and it's also a very good reason to think carefully before deciding to quote your company in the first place).
the glazers didn't need ferguson's permission to steal man utd (seriously let's stop saying they "bought" man utd: lbos are unanimously considered as a "legal form of stealing", so let's just call things with their real name), hence no need to "bribe him". the only authorizations they needed were the FA's permission and the FSA (financial services authority) authorization.
once they got the green light from FSA, there was nobody that could possibly stop them (the only possible way would have been to start a "takeover fight", offering a higher price per stock).
so, even if i didn't read many Conn's articles (i haven't bought the guardian in ages) and i'm pretty sure u know him much better than i do, if he really implied ferguson had something to do with that takeover, then he wasn't "intellectually honest". they call it "hostile" takeover, for a reason: and that reason is u can't do anything to stop it (most of the times).
they "grabbed" man utd and then they delisted it, so that no one could possibly do to them what they did (and that's probably the most unethical aspect of the whole deal).
as for our friend jumbo here, although i can't really say i know him, i realised he's a very clever and open minded person, not the kind of fan who tend to see everything concerning "his club" from a partial perspective.
besides, if becoming a "professional journalist" can't suddenly change u into an objective person, vice versa, being a football club fan can't turn a clever guy into a biased person. and i remember jumbo expressing clearely unbiased views over some man utd concerns several times.
jumbo said:
Ben, West Ham were bought out by David Gold and David Sullivan (ex-Birmingham owners). There was no mention in the British press about the Italian guy? They mentioned they are looking for further investment so maybe he will buy a large stake in the club still?
really? no mention at all? that's weird. i haven't checked out any foreign media lately, bit it surprises me to hear that english media didn't write about cellino.
according to italian media, he was in competition with this Sullivan lad (who happens to be the king of british porn industry, according to the italian media).
he presented a 70 millions offer (wonder if they were euros or pouds though).
anyhow, from a certain point of view, it's a shame this deal didn't go through, as if Cellino would have overtopped sullivan's offer, the italian media would have covered the whole buyout story, and that would have given us some great feedback about the FA role in theese buyouts.... now that the englishman won instead, italian media won't care anymore, and that leaves only the british media (
) covering the story.
from a different point of view instead, this is a good news. first of, for cagliari fans. can u imagine how pissed off they were about this deal? their owner had 70 millions to waste and he wanted to buyout a foreign club rather than invest those money in his club..... if i were a cagliari fan, i'd be fuming. He was born in cagliari, he's always been a fan and a president very passionate with his club... what the hell was he thinking? cagliari is already a very nice small team, with a very promising young coach (who has being doing wonders so far) some very talented players and a clever management (they ended the last financial year with a profit and have no debts at all)....
with even just half of those 70 millions (assuming they were euros) he could have turned cagliari into a member of the midclass italian elite (samp, lazio, palermo, napoli, genoa, udinese).....
leo said:
Plus if it's true Milan is searching him, in his paints I will not have doubts: better to be a reserve in a worldwide club, than a maybe-starter in a high rated club
milan, or roma, who cares.... the only thing that matters to me is that palermo is gonna lose him
besides, i believe he would be a starter straight away in this milan formation (in the seedorf\beckham spot). he would be the perfect choice to interpretate that role, he has the passing quality required and he could also add that dynamism both seedorf and beckham lack of nowadays.
seedorf is a legend and when he has a good day he still is a monster, but he's 34 and in an entire season, i believe simplicio would play more often than him in that role (therefore simplicio would be handed the starter's role).
breaking news: juve seems to be very close to get candreva!
this is madness. at this point we can clearely say tat juventus management not only lacks of a long term project, of a plan. they lack of logics, of any possible rationale.
this is gonna be another disaster for juve (good luck finding a place for candreva in that messy formation)... but also a very shortsighted move for livorno.... a 7.5 millions deal for the 50% of candreva? they could have easily asked 18 for the entire player this summer.... plus, without candreva, livorno's chances to stay in serie a go deeply down.
and i'm afraid this might well turn out to be a bad move for the player himself.
Huge loss.
I'd like to think I don't permanently have red tinted United glasses on, I'm just passionate about the club and I hate hearing the bullshit myths and one-sided opinion all the time to appease the majority who don't like us because we're succesful. 
Deary me.
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