Football Discussion (Part 6)

[Peruzzi]

Conte is involved, I read that he has admitted his part in arranging a game for Siena (when he was manager) to draw a game, but there was no money involved (just mutually beneficial for both sides)

At the minute its most Genoa players, and a handful from Serie B and below that seem to have the most evidence against them, but more details are coming out all the time as more people are interviewed, and naturally everyone is blaming everyone else.

[nobleknight91]

@jonas10
He's a good talent.Surprised that he chose to play for Morocco while having the chance to keep playing for Holland.

[jonas10]

Conte is involved, I read that he has admitted his part in arranging a game for Siena (when he was manager) to draw a game, but there was no money involved (just mutually beneficial for both sides)

At the minute its most Genoa players, and a handful from Serie B and below that seem to have the most evidence against them, but more details are coming out all the time as more people are interviewed, and naturally everyone is blaming everyone else.

That's shocking,what is going to happen to him?

@jonas10
He's a good talent.Surprised that he chose to play for Morocco while having the chance to keep playing for Holland.

Yeah,is Idol is Afellay wich is also of Moroccan descent but choose to play for Holland.
I don't really know why he made this choice,maybe he wanted to true to his roots.

We have kid here in Sporting who is the U19 England Captain,he came as little kid to Portugal and stayed here the biggest part of his life.And while the Portuguese federation tried to persuade him(he is considered by FIFA one of the biggest English youth hopes) to play for Portugal he choose England instead.

Portugal as became a big starting point to a lot of young players these days.A few years ago a lot of players wouldn't want to come to play here.But Portugal became sort of a display for bigger European clubs,and we also have very good youth academy's(Figo,Ronaldo and Nani to name a few,all started there careers in Sporting).

In a few days will all be hearing about Porto player Hulk as he will be selled to Chelsea by quite a large sum(press is saying a initial 60 million bid was made by Chelsea).

He is an amazing talent.



While not as good,he sort a reminds Ronaldo.
He will be the star of next season premier league.

[danny275]

But what are they accused of?Fixing games?Where does Conte fit in this all story?

Il say one thing,i do like to see how these things are taken care in Italy.They don't fool around.

Here in Portugal everyone is corrupt and nobody does a thing(even in my own club i admit).

Fixing matches, essentially (going from the previous investigation).
Conte's name was brought up by someone who got caught by the authorities, as far as I'm aware. He was manager of Siena at the time of the games in question

Bizarre that this whole thing came about because someone had a car crash

Do you think Conte is involved in this?And what's that story of the car accident?

To quote James Richardson:

The roots of the latest scandal lie in the summer of 2011. After a member of Serie B side Cremonese suffered a serious car crash, tests showed that he and other members of the team had been drugged with sleeping pills. The culprit was one of their own teammates, Marco Paolini, who had been attempting to pay off a mounting series of gambling debts by arranging a series of defeats for his bookies. Cremonese's unexpected winning streak had forced him to take desperate measures.

[Peruzzi]

Not sure whats going to happen to Conte, as no money has exchanged hands im not sure if they are able to do anything.
Juventus have said they will take no action against him so I suppose its up to the FIGC, and to an extent UEFA.

UEFA say any clubs involved wont be allowed to participate in Europe, which would mean Juve get kicked out of the CL, however, since he was Siena manager at the time, I dont know if they would punish Siena, or Juve. And, as theres no money involved, im not sure if theyll do anything at all.


Mauri had his meeting yesterday, according to his lawyers, they have nothing on him. The only contact between Mauri and the men who are at the centre of the scandal is "the ususal contact between friends who hadnt seen each other for a while", ie, hi mate im in town, fancy a beer?

Mauri had no knowledge of what they were doing, and only saw them occasionally. Apparently Mauri and his lawyers are calm and expect to be cleared when a decision is made tomorrow.

[danny275]

They can't do anything to Juve, as far as i'm aware. They weren't involved with Conte at the time. It would set a dangerous precedent

Good for Mauri. Should sue the police while he's at it

Seems Napoli are being investigated now

[Peruzzi]

Bosnian, Vladimir Petkovic looks set to be next manager of Lazio.

Yeah, ive never heard of im either. But judging by his wiki page, he has had a rather unremarkable career, mostly in the Swiss lower divisions, before managing Young Boys and Sion in the Swiss top flight, and some Turkish side.


Obviously he could turn out to be good, but if im honest, its a rather uninspiring signing, when there were far more proven names available.
In my eyes, a signing that shows a complete lack of drive and ambition from Lotito. In my opinion, he is not the man to take over a top 4 Serie A side...

[jonas10]

To quote James Richardson:

The roots of the latest scandal lie in the summer of 2011. After a member of Serie B side Cremonese suffered a serious car crash, tests showed that he and other members of the team had been drugged with sleeping pills. The culprit was one of their own teammates, Marco Paolini, who had been attempting to pay off a mounting series of gambling debts by arranging a series of defeats for his bookies. Cremonese's unexpected winning streak had forced him to take desperate measures.

[/quote]

That's crazy.

This thing as become a bigger problem in football then doping these days.



As for Lazio Manager i would try Bielsa if i were you guys.

[nobleknight91]

Class is permanent
Zidane won't change

[Peruzzi]

I love it when your club shows interest in players that you already like, and want at your club.

First, Tranquillo Barnetta, id love him and hes out of contract at Leverkusen, Lazio one of the clubs interested.
And now, Juan Manuel Martinez, Argentine striker from Velez Sarsfield.

Not exactly a goal machine, but a great player, like Zarate but minus the attitude. Lazio are following him apparently, and id love to see him in our shirt.

[danny275]

Barnetta would be a good signing. Have to say though, this new manager is a bit odd. In terms of he seems to have come from nowhere, into a big job

Rumours that Isla is going to Juve. Udinese have denied it though negotiations are "advanced". So much for wanting to sign for Inter

[Arsenalisti]

Curious how Kagawa will be doing at Utd. I like the lad i wish him well even though he's going to United.

[Peruzzi]

Barnetta would be a good signing. Have to say though, this new manager is a bit odd. In terms of he seems to have come from nowhere, into a big job

Im not sold on him at all, hes come from managing mostly in the swiss league, and most of that in the swiss second division too. Hardly the pedigree to lead a top 4 serie A side...

Another example of Lotito being a dick, people like Zola, and Di Matteo were seriously mentioned, and a few other guys from Serie A and B - and we get some unknown from the lower leagues, cos hes cheap. Great.

IMO, shows a serious lack of ambition from Lotito.

I could be wrong of course, and he could lead us forward, but I highly doubt it.

[danny275]

It could either prove a master stroke or go terribly wrong. Hope it works out well for you


Reportedly, Inter nearly had Verratti signed, right from under Juve's noses. The deal was a co-ownership between Inter and Genoa. Deal was accepted, Juve got wind of it and frightened off Genoa, it seems

I guarantee this will be a shitty window and Stramaccioni will have to work with geriatrics for another season

[Bravez]

Just had a little debate with Adam on twitter, in his opinion Thiago Silva in the best defender in the world, thoughts?

I agree he's a great player but for me Kompany is a better defender, i'd be interested to see what other people who watch more italian football than me think. I watch a lot on ESPN but certainly not as much as Adam or others on here.

[danny275]

I don't even know who i'd consider the best CB in the world

Heskey, if I was pushed. The amount of times he's cleared the ball is astounding...What do you mean he's an opposition striker?

[Bravez]

I don't even know who i'd consider the best CB in the world

Heskey, if I was pushed. The amount of times he's cleared the ball is astounding...What do you mean he's an opposition striker?

By that logic Kerzakhov and Samaras have got to be up there!

[danny275]

I don't even know who i'd consider the best CB in the world

Heskey, if I was pushed. The amount of times he's cleared the ball is astounding...What do you mean he's an opposition striker?

By that logic Kerzakhov and Samaras have got to be up there!

[ReturnOf-TheMac]

We (Blackburn Rovers) Are an absolute shambles something thats been uncovered today. I urge you to read it, you will not believe what your reading.

By Nick Harris
SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
11 June 2012
The chaotic way in which Blackburn Rovers has been run under the ownership of Venky’s is further exposed today by the revelation that transfer policy at the club in the past year has been partly informed by tips from fans via Facebook.
Vineeth Rao, a director at the club and Venky’s most senior Indian representative at Ewood Park for the past 18 months, asked supporters he befriended on the social networking site which players Rovers should buy and sell.
In correspondence between Rao and supporters – which took place throughout much of 2011, and has been seen by Sportingintelligence – Rao passed on his private email address and tells one fan: ‘Send me a mail … will look into them, and forward to scout.’
Rao also:
Kept fans he’d never met up to date with behind the scenes transfer moves.
Suggested to one fan as long ago as July last year that Steve Kean might be on his way out as manager. Rao wrote on 18 July: ‘When new management comes, their [sic] will be changes.’
Asked fans for their views on players as diverse as Spanish striker Raul and Romanian forward Ciprian Marica, both linked to Rovers although neither joined.
Told one fan the club would not be signing the Argentine striker Mariano Pavone, even as Steve Kean was still holding out hope he could hire the player last summer.
The correspondence helps to confirm what has long been an open secret around Ewood Park: that Kean has been marginalised from many if not all of Rovers transfers since the end of the January 2011 transfer window.
Sources both within the club and close to Kean have confirmed he was effectively cut out of many key transfer decisions at the end of January 2011 when his agent Jerome Anderson ceased having a day-to-day involvement in the club.
Instead, Rovers used an assortment of executives and advisors – some with little experience of football – to identify and hire players in the transfer windows of summer 2011 and January this year.
Well informed sources say transfer policy ranged from player searches on Wikipedia at one extreme to the short-term use of seasoned agent Pini Zahavi at the other. Vineeth Rao’s consultation with fans he didn’t know was part of a haphazard overall strategy.
The ridiculous situation has been kept quiet by Kean so as not to embarrass the owners. In turn they have kept him in a job, for now, although his precise long-term position remains unconfirmed.
Kean’s record of just 13 wins in 59 Premier League games since taking the reins from Sam Allardyce in December 2010 is the main reason supporters feel change is necessary.
His record of 0.9 points per Premier League game on average is worse than any of the other top-division managers sacked during his tenure. They include Alex McLeish at Aston Villa, Neil Warnock at QPR, Steve Bruce at Sunderland, not to mention Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool, and Andre Villas Boas at Chelsea.
Some fans were also angry that Kean blamed a drink driving charge on a drink he claimed was spiked as he drank with supporters. They also feel he has been less than transparent about his own role; and the revelation that he has kept quiet while signings have been foisted upon him will only raise suspicions he is a “yes man”.
Nobody from the club nor at Venky’s HQ in Pune will comment.
Blackburn’s newly installed General Manager – press officer Paul Agnew – is on holiday and has not responded to calls and texts. Vineeth Rao has not responded either.
Other senior staff at Ewood Park, including sporting director Simon Hunt and finance director Karen Silk, remain in the dark about what the owners plan next. They found out about Agnew’s promotion via media reports.
The state of confusion at the club is also highlighted by season tickets for next season not being on sale because pricing has yet to be confirmed.
Also to be confirmed is the future role of former Malaysia player turned TV pundit, Shebby Singh, who sources say will take on an increased strategic role at Rovers shortly.
Quite what that involves remains to be seen. What is clear is that Kean – for all the staunch support of Venky’s matriarch Anuradha Desai – has never had complete control of player matters.
The case of Pavone involved the most clear cut difference of opinion between Kean and Venky’s, who didn’t want to have anything to do with the player because they didn’t want to deal with some of his advisors, sources say.
Instead Vineeth Rao and others in the ‘transfer team’ did a deal to bring Scottish striker David Goodwillie to the club. “Kean didn’t want Goodwillie, the same as he didn’t want several others,” a source says.
One source says Kean declined to call Goodwillie to try to persuade him to join as he wanted Pavone instead.
Another player who joined Rovers on the advice of someone other than Kean was Bruno Ribeiro (pictured left with Vineeth Rao).
Ribeiro’s transfer was reported on the Rovers website here.
Kean told the media at the time that Ribeiro’s nickname was Denis, “after Denis Irwin because he never gives the ball away” and that the player would “fill in that position and that is great for us.”
In fact Ribeiro has yet to play a single minute for Rovers in a year, in any competition.
Kean’s precise long-term role at Ewood Park remains uncertain. Most people at the club and at Venky’s HQ in Pune have urged Mrs Desai to sack him.
Sacked deputy chief executive Paul Hunt urged that action in December. Vineeth Rao has done so on several occasions, as has Simon Hunt, both Mrs Desai’s brothers and a range of other advisors. To no avail.
But Desai has now promoted Agnew, Kean’s biggest ally at the club, to General Manager, which suggests Kean is safe for now, in some role or other.
Meanwhile, Sportingintelligence can reveal that a fans’ group, the Blackburn Rovers Action Group, have written to Jermome Anderson asking if he can throw light on what’s happening inside their club.
It is understood that have asked whether Anderson himself – Kean’s agent – drew up Kean’s managerial contract while he was still closely advising the owners, as well as for details about Kean’s drink driving case.
News of that was overshadowed slightly by the coincidental timing on exactly the same day – 17 May 2011 – of a report dealing with another Ewood Park story.
Sportingintelligence understands the BRAC has asked Anderson for help in finding out details about the club’s transfer policy, including why the January 2011 move of Mauro Formica was initially stalled due to “third party ownership” concerns.
Anderson has yet to reply to the supporters and has declined to comment.
Representatives of the Action Group have already met with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore to ask questions and outline concerns over the way Rovers have been run.
On Wednesday they will air their concerns in a private meeting with Sports Minister Hugh Robertson.
But as the weeks to the new season tick by, Blackburn’s future remains as shrouded in mystery as ever.

..

[Scottcb]

We (Blackburn Rovers) Are an absolute shambles something thats been uncovered today. I urge you to read it, you will not believe what your reading.

By Nick Harris
SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
11 June 2012
The chaotic way in which Blackburn Rovers has been run under the ownership of Venky’s is further exposed today by the revelation that transfer policy at the club in the past year has been partly informed by tips from fans via Facebook.
Vineeth Rao, a director at the club and Venky’s most senior Indian representative at Ewood Park for the past 18 months, asked supporters he befriended on the social networking site which players Rovers should buy and sell.
In correspondence between Rao and supporters – which took place throughout much of 2011, and has been seen by Sportingintelligence – Rao passed on his private email address and tells one fan: ‘Send me a mail … will look into them, and forward to scout.’
Rao also:
Kept fans he’d never met up to date with behind the scenes transfer moves.
Suggested to one fan as long ago as July last year that Steve Kean might be on his way out as manager. Rao wrote on 18 July: ‘When new management comes, their [sic] will be changes.’
Asked fans for their views on players as diverse as Spanish striker Raul and Romanian forward Ciprian Marica, both linked to Rovers although neither joined.
Told one fan the club would not be signing the Argentine striker Mariano Pavone, even as Steve Kean was still holding out hope he could hire the player last summer.
The correspondence helps to confirm what has long been an open secret around Ewood Park: that Kean has been marginalised from many if not all of Rovers transfers since the end of the January 2011 transfer window.
Sources both within the club and close to Kean have confirmed he was effectively cut out of many key transfer decisions at the end of January 2011 when his agent Jerome Anderson ceased having a day-to-day involvement in the club.
Instead, Rovers used an assortment of executives and advisors – some with little experience of football – to identify and hire players in the transfer windows of summer 2011 and January this year.
Well informed sources say transfer policy ranged from player searches on Wikipedia at one extreme to the short-term use of seasoned agent Pini Zahavi at the other. Vineeth Rao’s consultation with fans he didn’t know was part of a haphazard overall strategy.
The ridiculous situation has been kept quiet by Kean so as not to embarrass the owners. In turn they have kept him in a job, for now, although his precise long-term position remains unconfirmed.
Kean’s record of just 13 wins in 59 Premier League games since taking the reins from Sam Allardyce in December 2010 is the main reason supporters feel change is necessary.
His record of 0.9 points per Premier League game on average is worse than any of the other top-division managers sacked during his tenure. They include Alex McLeish at Aston Villa, Neil Warnock at QPR, Steve Bruce at Sunderland, not to mention Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool, and Andre Villas Boas at Chelsea.
Some fans were also angry that Kean blamed a drink driving charge on a drink he claimed was spiked as he drank with supporters. They also feel he has been less than transparent about his own role; and the revelation that he has kept quiet while signings have been foisted upon him will only raise suspicions he is a “yes man”.
Nobody from the club nor at Venky’s HQ in Pune will comment.
Blackburn’s newly installed General Manager – press officer Paul Agnew – is on holiday and has not responded to calls and texts. Vineeth Rao has not responded either.
Other senior staff at Ewood Park, including sporting director Simon Hunt and finance director Karen Silk, remain in the dark about what the owners plan next. They found out about Agnew’s promotion via media reports.
The state of confusion at the club is also highlighted by season tickets for next season not being on sale because pricing has yet to be confirmed.
Also to be confirmed is the future role of former Malaysia player turned TV pundit, Shebby Singh, who sources say will take on an increased strategic role at Rovers shortly.
Quite what that involves remains to be seen. What is clear is that Kean – for all the staunch support of Venky’s matriarch Anuradha Desai – has never had complete control of player matters.
The case of Pavone involved the most clear cut difference of opinion between Kean and Venky’s, who didn’t want to have anything to do with the player because they didn’t want to deal with some of his advisors, sources say.
Instead Vineeth Rao and others in the ‘transfer team’ did a deal to bring Scottish striker David Goodwillie to the club. “Kean didn’t want Goodwillie, the same as he didn’t want several others,” a source says.
One source says Kean declined to call Goodwillie to try to persuade him to join as he wanted Pavone instead.
Another player who joined Rovers on the advice of someone other than Kean was Bruno Ribeiro (pictured left with Vineeth Rao).
Ribeiro’s transfer was reported on the Rovers website here.
Kean told the media at the time that Ribeiro’s nickname was Denis, “after Denis Irwin because he never gives the ball away” and that the player would “fill in that position and that is great for us.”
In fact Ribeiro has yet to play a single minute for Rovers in a year, in any competition.
Kean’s precise long-term role at Ewood Park remains uncertain. Most people at the club and at Venky’s HQ in Pune have urged Mrs Desai to sack him.
Sacked deputy chief executive Paul Hunt urged that action in December. Vineeth Rao has done so on several occasions, as has Simon Hunt, both Mrs Desai’s brothers and a range of other advisors. To no avail.
But Desai has now promoted Agnew, Kean’s biggest ally at the club, to General Manager, which suggests Kean is safe for now, in some role or other.
Meanwhile, Sportingintelligence can reveal that a fans’ group, the Blackburn Rovers Action Group, have written to Jermome Anderson asking if he can throw light on what’s happening inside their club.
It is understood that have asked whether Anderson himself – Kean’s agent – drew up Kean’s managerial contract while he was still closely advising the owners, as well as for details about Kean’s drink driving case.
News of that was overshadowed slightly by the coincidental timing on exactly the same day – 17 May 2011 – of a report dealing with another Ewood Park story.
Sportingintelligence understands the BRAC has asked Anderson for help in finding out details about the club’s transfer policy, including why the January 2011 move of Mauro Formica was initially stalled due to “third party ownership” concerns.
Anderson has yet to reply to the supporters and has declined to comment.
Representatives of the Action Group have already met with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore to ask questions and outline concerns over the way Rovers have been run.
On Wednesday they will air their concerns in a private meeting with Sports Minister Hugh Robertson.
But as the weeks to the new season tick by, Blackburn’s future remains as shrouded in mystery as ever.

..

As a Rovers fan it really dosnt come as a shock, which is a real worry.
I'm past the stage of being surprised by the reports that come out.

We are a shambles and i really cant see how we will get out of it.