European Football Thread

[Lineker]

Conte confirmed as the new Inter head coach.

[Tigerstyle]

On 28/05/2019 at 23:52, Baddar said:

AVB is the new Marseille Head Coach.

Always a fan of Anthony Vanden Borre

[Colly]

Anthony Vorrell Bhompson.

[FLiam]

Looks more and more likely that Maurizio Sarri is going to take the Juventus job. 

I think that's good for Ramsey, he'd fill the box-to-box role that he likes perfectly.

[Arjen Robben]

Quite nice.

[Baddar]

Lopetegui was unveiled as the new Sevilla coach today.

[MDK]

And Santi got recalled to the Spain squad! Bless him.

[Arjen Robben]

[Colly]

I hope sometimes they're late because they couldn't find the house of the last guy they delivered pizza too. Or better, accidentally gave him the ball.

[Lineker]

Quote

The former Roma captain Francesco Totti left his position within the club’s management on Monday in a move that will increase fan opposition to the team’s American owner, James Pallotta. While he has been a technical director since retiring from playing two years ago, Totti said he was left out of decisions about the hiring and firing of coaches and moves in the player transfer market.

“I never had the chance to express myself. They never involved me,” Totti said in a news conference at the Italian Olympic Committee. “The first year that can happen but by the second [year] I understood what they wanted to do … They knew of my desire to offer a lot to this squad but they never wanted it. They kept me out of everything. It’s a day that I hoped never would have come.”

After 30 seasons with his hometown club – 25 of them as a player – and leading the club to their last Serie A title in 2001, the 42-year-old Totti remains Roma’s most emblematic figure. “Presidents come and go, coaches come and go, players come and go. But not emblems,” Totti said. “This is far worse than retiring as a player. Leaving Roma is like dying. I feel like it’d be better if I died.”

Totti’s departure comes a month after then-captain Daniele De Rossi announced he, too, was leaving Roma after the club surprisingly decided not to renew his contract. Totti said Romans were being pushed out of Roma since Pallotta and some fellow Boston executives purchased the club in 2011 becoming the first foreign majority owners in Serie A.

“For eight years here, since the Americans came, they’ve done everything they could to sweep us aside,” Totti said. Pallotta runs the club from Boston and has not been to Rome in more than a year, and Totti said that was problematic. “When the boss isn’t around everyone does whatever they feel like,” Totti said. “That’s the case anywhere.”

Pallotta said last week in a long interview published on Roma’s website that he had offered Totti the role of technical director. “This is a very important role at the club, easily one of the most important and influential roles in our football operations, and the fact that we want him to take on the role says everything about what we think of Francesco,” Pallotta said. “I don’t know what is being said and by whom, because I’ve given up reading most of the media, but I believe Francesco already has great influence on our decision making.”

While Paulo Fonseca was hired from Shakhtar Donetsk last week as Roma’s new coach, Totti deflected reports that he had preferred Gennaro Gattuso or Sinisa Mihajlovic for the job. “The only coach I called was Antonio Conte,” Totti said, referring to the new Internazionale coach.

Roma are coming off one of their worst seasons in years, with a sixth-place finish in Serie A meaning they missed out on the lucrative Champions League. A year after reaching the semi-finals, Roma were eliminated from the Champions League by Porto in the first knockout stage.

The club have also been struggling to build a new stadium. Pallotta first presented a plan for a new ground in March 2014, saying that it would be ready for the 2016-17 season, yet construction has still not started because of a series of bureaucratic delays.

Asked what it would take for him to return to Roma, Totti replied: “First of all, different ownership.” Totti also confirmed long-held speculation that the club forced him to retire from playing before he wanted to, and added that he had a six-year contract within management. “There were a lot of promises made,” he said. “But in the end they weren’t kept.”

[Baddar]

Mallorca came back from a 2-0 first leg deficit to beat Deportivo and claim back to back promotions. 

I'm hoping they're playing at home the week I visit next year! 

[Lineker]

 

[Lineker]

Roma icon Daniele De Rossi has decided to retire from football, according to Sky in Italy.

[Baddar]

I'd say he's more of a Legend.

[Lineker]

Quote

Sinisa Mihajlovic announced that he has leukaemia in a press conference on Saturday, but has said he will continue working as Bologna’s head coach.

Mihajlovic said that the illness was discovered in tests carried out shortly before pre-season training began. Rumours about his health had spread over the past days after he did not join his team on a retreat to the Dolomites in northeastern Italy.

“When they told me, it was a huge shock. I spent two days in my room crying ... they are not tears of fear, I know I will win. I always play to win, both in football and in life,” an emotional Mihajlovic said. “It’s a treatable form, you can recover. And I will defeat it.”

The former Serbian international also revealed that he undergoes regular tests because his father died of cancer, and that doctors informed him he may not have noticed any symptoms for another year.

Bologna’s general manager, Walter Sabatini, said that Mihajlovic would remain the team’s coach “whatever happens in the coming days”, while the team doctor, Gianni Nanni, said the 50-year-old has “acute leukaemia” and will start treatment on Tuesday.

The Bologna captain, Blerem Dzemaili, has said the playing squad will give their full support to their coach. “We know what kind of person [Sinisa] is, how strong he is and we’ll try to transmit our strength to him too. He is like a father to us, so we’ll fight for him the way he fights for us.”

Roberto Mancini, a former teammate of Mihajlovic, sent the Serb a positive message on Instagram, writing “you’re too strong, this won’t scare you”. Bologna’s first-team players, still away in the Dolomites, watched Mihajlovic’s press conference gathered around a tablet during training.

Mihajlovic replaced Filippo Inzaghi as Bologna coach in January, steering them from the relegation zone to a 10th-place finish in his second spell at the Serie A club. He has also coached the Serbian national team as well as Catania, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, Milan and Torino in Italy, and a brief stint with Sporting in Portugal. 

In his playing career as a full-back, Mihajlovic won the European Cup with Red Star Belgrade, the Cup Winners’ Cup with Lazio, two Serie A titles and four Italian cups. Known for his powerful free-kicks, Mihajlovic was capped for Serbia as well as the former Yugoslavia.

He is perhaps best remembered in the UK for a racism row with Patrick Vieira, who accused Mihajlovic of calling him a “monkey” during a Champions League tie between Arsenal and Lazio in 2000. Mihajlovic later apologised to Vieira, and the pair later became teammates at Internazionale.

[Malenko]

I'm not sure where to post this or if it has been posted previously

Spanish fourth division Mostoles is now called Flat Earth FC.

https://www.rt.com/sport/463070-flat-earth-fc-spanish-football/

There's also an interview.  At some point he claims the existence of birth certificates is proof the Man (not Becky) is fooling us and so there must be land behind Antarctica. I'm going to assume he watched GoT.

[Baddar]

I think Juve are covered pretty much everywhere now.

[Adam]

Aaron Ramsey's alright then, he's the only one with no competition  

But yeah that is stupendous squad depth.

[DavidMarrio]

They'll still flap it in the Champions League 

[Baddar]

3 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

They'll still flap it in the Champions League 

This.

 

45 minutes ago, Adam said:

Aaron Ramsey's alright then, he's the only one with no competition  

But yeah that is stupendous squad depth.

I know you were kidding but there's a handful of their forwards/midfielders who would slot into the CAM role when Ramsey is injured (so a good portion of the season, then).