La Vecchia Signora compra un vecchio gioiello: Calcio Italiano 2018-19

[Lang Spoon]

Wowzers.

[Gert from the Well]

FABIGOL!

Fabio Quagliarella's brace in the 4:0 defeat of Udinese means he has equalled Batistuta's record of scoring in 11 consecutive Serie A games. He is also outscoring Ronaldo - not bad for someone 5 days shy of their 36th birthday.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It completely passed me by - not difficult, to be honest - that Palermo were now under English ownership.



Last seen hurtling through the abyss that is Bolton Wanderers Football Club. Poor bastards, they'll be begging for Zamparini back.

I hope they haven't gone to Palermo with the intention of ripping the locals off, or screwing up in any way.

[Diable Rouge]

Serie A UK rights have moved to Premier Sports (eir Sports 2 in Ireland) for the rest of the season - games being shown on Sunday and Monday.

https://www.premiersports.com/footba...er-sports.html

[Simon G]

Some free games as well on their sister channel - FreeSports (ch422 on Sky, not sure about elsewhere).

[Felicity, I guess so]

Atalanta dump Juve out of the Coppa but Fiorentina 7:1 Roma rather leapt from the screen- anyone know how that came about?

[ursus arctos]

The Viola were relentless and Roma capitulated

[Diable Rouge]

How I've missed actual telly coverage - Bologna just take the lead against Inter, and full value for it.

[Diable Rouge]

Why do the Inter players have Japanese script on the backs of their shirts?

[ursus arctos]

Chinese.

To mark the Lunar New Year at the behest of their Chinese owners (see also Valencia yesterday).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Oreste Simonotti must be spinning in his grave.

[ursus arctos]

I’m sure that the ultras who racially abused Koulibally will have a culturally nuanced take, particularly given the result

[ursus arctos]

Following their 1-0 win in Cagliari, Atalanta are now a single point off of the the final Champions League qualification placing (and playing better than either Inter in 3d or Milan in 4th)

[ursus arctos]

The Englishmen are out at Palermo.

That didn’t take long at all.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That would be an outstanding fly on the wall series.

[ursus arctos]

Not one anyone could get insurance cover for, of course.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Hahaha. No matter how bad things get in Sunderland, they have no idea how much worse things could be.

I'm looking forward to the 8 part fly on the wall documentary about Sergio Ramos. Yes, you read that right, 8 parts.

[ursus arctos]

Thread on the mess at Palermo (click through to read the whole thing)

https://twitter.com/ViciniLo/status/1092926983296729090

https://twitter.com/ViciniLo/status/1092926983296729090

[Incandenza]

Sickening that they owe money to an entity that controls the image rights of the club. Seems like starting from the bottom may be the best thing, as long as that meant that they started with a clean slate, but of course I'm sure the risk of them just fading away in the depths of Serie D is quite real.

[Ray de Galles]

Fantastic finish at Genoa v Lazio, in both the end to the game and the strike that won it. First Serie A game I've seen in ages and I'm tempted to get Premier Sport to see more (this was on Freesport).

[Gert from the Well]

Ranieri's first game since returning to Roma is looking to be a bit of a classic. 2:1 against Empoli approaching half-time and already Roma are giving a master class in inept defending, particularly from crosses. Lovely goals for Roma from El Shaarawy, rare start and goal for Schick (due no doubt to his fetching bright red alice band) and a classic OG from the ever calamity prone Juan Jesus.

[Snake Plissken]

Juan Jesus gave away a penalty in their loss away to SPAL. First home victory for the hosts in six months.

[ursus arctos]

Sobering results of la Gazzetta's investigation into the financial condition of Serie A clubs.


(in Italian, but the graphic is relatively easy to understand: Ricavi = Revenue, Costi = Expenses, Plus/Minusvalenze = Balance on transfers of players' registrations, Risultato netto = Net Income, Debiti netti = Net Debt)


Only a couple of clubs posted positive net income, and in each case that was due to profits recorded on transfers. Not a single club had revenues exceed expenses.


And the net debt of the "Big" clubs is staggering: Inter 487 million euro; Juventus 458.1 million, Milan 301.7 million, Roma 396.2 million.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Milan's losses are astonishing.

[George]

Juventus's debt is roughly equal to its current annual income. Aside from being the most successful and popular club in Italy they also strike me as being far more professionally run than their main competitors as a business. Even the relatively mundane fact that they own their own stadium helps. Roma look the most vulnerable - that debt is twice their annual income and then there's the significant outlay that would be required for building the new stadium...eventually