9 hours ago, Munkworth said:

 

Good luck to Duffers. What a player on his day. Shame the injuries left him not quite the player he was. Robben, Duff and Cole wasn't a bad triplet of wingers to have. We needed three though because at least one of them was always bloody injured!

@The Don Antonio You are named after the Spurs manager by the way. Might want to change it now. 😁

13 minutes ago, Zeta said:

@The Don Antonio You are named after the Spurs manager by the way. Might want to change it now. 😁

I might just be cheeky and change my picture to Antonio Rudiger... 

He is also a Don Antonio ...🤣

17 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

I might just be cheeky and change my picture to Antonio Rudiger... 

He is also a Don Antonio ...🤣

You’ll have to hope we sign a new Antonio this summer then!

31 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

You’ll have to hope we sign a new Antonio this summer then!

Or Rudiger extend his contract.lol

Sheva is managing Genoa apparently. Nice bit of cake that. 

On 05/11/2021 at 19:13, The Don Antonio said:

I might just be cheeky and change my picture to Antonio Rudiger... 

He is also a Don Antonio ...🤣

I had always assumed that your username was a nod to Tony Dorigo's brief spell at Torino.

I notice a couple of our ex-Academy guys are doing rather well in the Championship this year.

John Swift at Reading has 8 goals and 8 assists, and the third best average rating per game in the division (7.42), closely followed by Dominic Solanke (7.37 and fourth best), who is finally justifying his large transfer fee for Bournemouth ... 16 goals in 20 games so far this season. 

The impact of our Academy is far reaching !

Tammy scores an overhead kick. 4m40s on the video. Missed several chances, though:

 

Emenalo turns down the Newcastle DoF offer (source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/12/04/exclusive-michael-emenalo-former-chelsea-technical-director/):

Former Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo has turned down an offer to become Newcastle United’s director of football after the club could not match his ambitious plans.

As first revealed by Telegraph Sport, Emenalo had emerged as the leading contender for the post after travelling to Saudi Arabia for talks but has now decided the role and Newcastle’s plans, in their current form, are not right for him.

Other than being the first choice of Newcastle’s Saudi backers, Emenalo is believed to have had the support of director Jamie Reuben. But, following detailed negotiations with director Amanda Staveley, the 56-year-old has decided to decline the club’s offer.

The news is a big blow for the club and head coach Eddie Howe - whose appointment Emenalo had been supportive of - and will raise question marks over Newcastle’s complicated ownership structure - particularly given Unai Emery also turned down an approach before Howe was hired.

Emenalo made presentations to Newcastle on his short-term - focusing on avoiding relegation from the Premier League - and long-term plans. He was confident that, over time, he could help move the club towards the top of English football.

But a delay in negotiations and differences in ideas over the post made it clear that Newcastle do not share the same vision as Emenalo. His decision to turn down the club’s offer is not related to their fight against relegation nor Premier League position.

There has been no fall-out or disagreement between Emenalo and Newcastle, who could make a new approach to him in the future, but the current offer he received was not deemed to be suitable.

Newcastle are now faced with having to look elsewhere for a director of football and could even make a short-term appointment to get them through to the end of the season, with Frank McParland one such option.

Telegraph Sport reported how, with under a month to go until the transfer window opens, Staveley has been approaching potential transfer targets herself.

That will raise alarm bells among fans who believe the club needs an experienced director of football to target the right players and hold negotiations, with Newcastle in danger of being relegated to the Championship.

Emenalo is widely regarded as one of the best operators in his field in football, chiefly for his work at Chelsea where he spent 10 hugely successful years.

During Emenalo’s time with the club, Chelsea won the Premier League title three times, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the Europa League and the Champions League.

He was one of the club’s key decision makers in the appointment of managers, working with 10 during his time at Stamford Bridge, and also played a big role in first-team recruitment.

It was Emenalo who identified Belgium as a blossoming market and, with his scouts, spotted and signed talents such as Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois, while also helping to convince Eden Hazard to later join Chelsea.

Emenalo also played a big part in the development and the success of Chelsea’s academy with graduates such as Mason Mount, Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek establishing themselves as first-team regulars and others, such as Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guehi, earning the club millions.

Emenalo’s philosophy on loaning players out has also proved to be revolutionary, with Chelsea profiting financially and in a sporting sense from his belief that older academy graduates should play at least 45 games to get them ready for the rigours of first-team football in the Premier League.

Chelsea’s so-called "loan army" was initially met with great scepticism and criticism, but it has since been copied by a number of top clubs around the world.

After resigning from his position at Chelsea in November 2017, Emenalo later experienced a more difficult spell at Monaco, joining the club at a time of great upheaval at the end of a successful cycle for the Ligue 1 club.

Emenalo was forced to cope with the sale of high-profile players and the coming and going of coaches before eventually leaving Monaco by mutual consent just over two years ago.

But, given the deep-rooted problems Monaco experienced throughout the club, Emenalo’s reputation within football was not tainted by his spell in Ligue 1 and he has since received a number of offers to return to work.

Reports going around Real are willing to accept 21m for Hazard, with Everton being linked.

Man is now dead to me. 

Diego Costa has won the Brazilian title with Atletico Mineiro, only the 2nd in their history, last time was in 1971!

They seem to have some good players like Hulk and Eduardo Vargas.

Nice brace for Abraham yesterday. 

Still not sure why he didn't get given more of a chance from TT ... Tammy has 9 goals since 7th November. Oh how we could have done with some of that ... :-) 

Vialli got cancer again. 😞

2 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Vialli got cancer again. 😞

sh*t, that's grim news.

On 08/12/2021 at 01:24, sonic90 said:

Diego Costa has won the Brazilian title with Atletico Mineiro, only the 2nd in their history, last time was in 1971!

They seem to have some good players like Hulk and Eduardo Vargas.

Any rumours linking him to us?

45 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Vialli got cancer again. 😞

I hope he comes through it again. 

54 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Vialli got cancer again. 😞

Oh no... Two colleagues of mine got the same news last month, it seems to have hit them harder than the first time 😪

On 19/12/2021 at 17:46, Sexyfootball said:

Nice brace for Abraham yesterday. 

Still not sure why he didn't get given more of a chance from TT ... Tammy has 9 goals since 7th November. Oh how we could have done with some of that ... 🙂

I've seen a bit of Tammy in Italy a bit hit and miss.

Some matches misses a lot of easy chances and others scores a cracker.

15 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Vialli got cancer again. 😞

Sad to hear that. Speedy recovery to the great man.

He's had a rough few years 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59787330

a man of his word

A good day in the African Cup of Nations for Ola Aina and Kenneth Omeruo ... a 1-0 win for Nigeria against Egypt and our two ex's were part of the 4-man defence that kept a clean sheet and shut out Mo Salah, whose whoscored rating for the game was 5.9 LOL.

I saw some of it, Nigeria by far the more threatening team.

I liked Simon thought he looked a class player.

Egypt were poor and now need a win and draw to be sure of getting through.

Really we want Egypt to progress to keep Salah out there, he is far more dangerous for Liverpool than Egypt.