By Xpike Go To Postwheres all the #madness part 2: more madder rumors
pls not again
not this shitttest of shits madness shit
gracias
Keane, Perisic and Griezmann are the most concrete United stories. Still think we need a central midfielder to go along with a striker we're sure to sign.
By Cleff Go To PostKeane, Perisic and Griezmann are the most concrete United stories. Still think we need a central midfielder to go along with a striker we're sure to sign.Mou is crazy enough to make a bid for Renato Sanches.
#portuguesepride
By Francis Go To PostNeed another left back, too. Mou and Shaw isn't going to work out.It's more Shaw will tear his ACL in the first match next season.
All I know about Renato sanches is i got his ones to watch card in fifa all year and he didnt get one inform
Not
One
Inform
Not
One
Inform
By Xpike Go To Postdont think itll be that hard to get renato, he's surplus to bayern right nowand 50m is the new 35m
http://sport.ilmattino.it/sscnapoli/szczesny_napoli_arsenal-2469916.html
Szczesny on his way to Napoli? Enjoy, flabber.
Sad to see him go permanently if this is true.
Szczesny on his way to Napoli? Enjoy, flabber.
Sad to see him go permanently if this is true.
By Grizzled Cola Go To PostAll I know about Renato sanches is i got his ones to watch card in fifa all year and he didnt get one informKind of hard to be inform when you don't play.
Not
One
Inform
Renato for United would be an interesting choice for him.
He desperately needs game time.
By FlutterPuffs Go To PostIt's more Shaw will tear his ACL in the first match next season.Well, that as well. He might not even be fit in time for once it starts.
Valencia/Darmian at RB and *new player*/Shaw at LB.
Honestly I have no idea how Renato is now. Elchele doesnt rate him though, but it makes sense why.
Seen some good moves from him during the Euros though, but well... he seems too content with living life atm.
Seen some good moves from him during the Euros though, but well... he seems too content with living life atm.
By Grizzled Cola Go To PostLevy will milk us for DierYou're not getting Dier.
Was good in a back 3, and great in a middle two. No way we let someone that versatile leave.
By Andrew Go To PostSzczesny reminds me of the trophy drought days.Wasn't he your keeper that past 2 FA Cup wins before this one?
By JesalR Go To PostYou're not getting Dier.
Was good in a back 3, and great in a middle two. No way we let someone that versatile leave.
The only player from the 1st XI going this summer will be Walker
By inky Go To PostWasn't he your keeper that past 2 FA Cup wins before this one?Yeah he was.
Just a lot of bad memories of him between the sticks.
More of a symbol of our mediocrity I suppose.
By Marston Go To Posthttp://sport.ilmattino.it/sscnapoli/szczesny_napoli_arsenal-2469916.html
Szczesny on his way to Napoli? Enjoy, flabber.
Sad to see him go permanently if this is true.
rip flabby
By FlutterPuffs Go To PostHonestly, other than Greaseman I have no bloody idea what and who Mou wants.He wants Carvalho, Essien and Drogba.
By Shanks D Zoro Go To PostThis is gonna be a long one, so if you don’t care for Totti or me, then skip. ;pShanks i know you are now asleep
Part 1: How it all started
Unfortunately, I don’t remember my first Totti moment. I would have been a few months shy of six when he made his debut. I do remember being left flabbergasted by the Roma-Parma matches. Here was the lad from Roma tearing a new one to Buffon, Canna, and Thurham.
Serie A back in the 90s was a league like none other. The best of the best played there. The best keepers, the best defenders, the best midfielders, and the best forwards all played there or wanted to play there. You couldn’t be considered one of the elites without having played in Italy. It was tactical, it was technical, and it was physical. It wasn’t a case of elite few having the best players, it was half the league competing in Europe and boasting world class talent. It was the complete package.
For this lad Totti to be doing what he was doing was amazing, but at the end of the day this was a league with Baggio, Mancini, and Del Piero. Totti was seemed pretty ordinary compared to them. Then came the Brazilian God. They could dribble through half a team, cut inside and then finish it off. Totti was just another player in Serie A.
Baggio was my first love, then he broke my heart. Del Boy was my second love, then I found someone else.
Euro 2000 came around and Totti was under pressure. He was now one of the best in Serie A. He needed to back it up with his Azzurri performances. On route to the final, Totti provided a couple of goals, scored that cheeky penalty, and pretty much dominated our play. Still, nothing special, that was what was expected of him.
However, that final changed it all.
Totti changed my eyes on what football could be. Totti even in defeat was named man of the match. Here was the best time in the world, IMO of the best ten of all time, and Totti was destroying the Deschamps-Vieria-Zidane midfield. He saw the game in a completely different way to the likes of Baggio and Del Piero. He was a battler, he was a visionary, a maestro. The artisan of passing. The magician of calcio. He could see ten moves ahead, but with one wave of his two magic wands one move was all that was required. It was not a perfect game from Totti, they never are (I will get into that more later). His back heel was the assist of the assist for the goal. He completely took out the second best LB I have ever seen, Lizarazu (Yes, you all know who is ranked first; p). The rest of the second half saw pass after pass find forwards like nobody else could.
However, it wasn’t to be. Not for the first, or last time in his career, Totti was let down by the players around.
The impression of his performance has never left me. I didn’t cry that night for me, but for him.
Part 2: The Growing Magisterial.
The next season he won the league with the only truly great team he has played with. He was fantastic, his best season to date and it was il capitano that scored the goal to start of the celebrations against Parma on the final day of the season. He really was like no other player. He didn’t need speed or raw strength he would just use his pure football intellect to pick apart opposition defences at will.
Back to what I said about how Totti changed my view on football. Ronaldo was maybe my favourite player. The fiercest striker that was in the world, he could turn even Maldini inside out. The more I watched and the more I realised the limitations of a player like Ronaldo. He could bully, dribble past the best in the world, and score impossible goals, but he couldn’t do what Totti could do and the more his speed was taken from him the more he diminished.
Totti never needed speed. He just knew where to place himself and where his teammates would be. Back to goal, Cafu running down the wing, Totti knew a 50 yard diagonal ball to Cafu would do the job, and the ball would find Cafu at the exact moment he was galloping down the pitch so he didn’t need to slow down.
Totti could slot a pass down a whole tighter than a virgin snatch. It didn’t matter how many players were between Totti and a teammate, he would find a through ball, a flick, or a chip to get them a shot on goal.
Part 3: The Never Ending Love affair.
By 2006 Totti was for me the best attacking player in the world. Then came the Empoli match in Feb, Totti was badly hurt. Totti had a fracture and ligament damage that would rule him out of the world cup, a metal plate was put into his leg. Nob0ody who have said anything if he had taken his recovery slow and focused on the next season. However, Totti against all odds and at risk of ending his career early, fought back to play again that season and would be included in the squad for Germany. Half fit he would become a World Cup winner, contributing the most assists at the tournament, a winning penalty, and plenty of Totti passes.
Seeing him risk it all, the guy who supposedly didn’t care about the national team, leaving no doubt that he was like no other.
Part 4: The Total Footballer
As I said earlier, Totti never had the perfect game. Totti grew up in the hardest era of Seria A. He was always encouraged to make things happen. He wasn’t expected to be the tempo setter like Xavi, or the finisher like Ronaldo. He was the meant to be the player that could unlock any defence with one pace at any given moment. He would not care about completing 115 passes at 99%. He was all about completing one pass that would carry a 99% probability of failure, amongst the top 1% of passers ;p.
He does the things that you can’t coach, the things that you can’t read about, and the things you can’t learn. He does the things that you make up in a nano second in the middle of a moment.
Totti’s career stats are nothing special. Serie A’s second highest scorer, but that was mainly down to longevity. A personal best league campaign of 26, that was good enough for the golden boot.
People on here say bring up the fact that he only ever scored more than 20 twice in a league campaign. People take his lack of goals as a slight against him. What is it 9 for Italy? LMAO even Balotelli has that.
That is how far Totti moved the goalposts. People slag him off for not producing the Messi/Ronaldio numbers when on reality Totti is a Zidane.
I recently said Totti never had a team built around him. Of course he has always been the number one player for Roma. The player all coaches insert into the lineup first. The thing with Totti is that he is so good he can play anywhere in the front six and has had to in his career. Coaches came in and wanted to fit Totti around the rest of the squad as opposed to fit players around Totti.
He changed the modern game more than any other player. He had to fill a role he had never done before. He saw no personal glory. United and Barcelona saw CL titles. He showed the footballing elites what football could be seven years after he had shown me the way. #ShanksIsAlwaysRight
Part 5: The Critics
Totti is a player who can do no right. He is a cunt. He isn’t too bright. He is selfish. He is arrogant.
I feel people use these tiny things more than any other player to drag him through the mud.
He didn’t do much in 2006. Well he was risking it all at 50%.
He didn’t win much. Well neither did Maradona and Baggio.
Yeah, but Maradona made teams better. But he never had to play with Mancini and Wojo.
He isn’t a top player because he never played for a top team. Sorry for being loyal, wait a minute. Didn’t you criticise Player X for not being loyal?
People can find enough reasons to bring him down for things that are beyond his control. He took shitty Roma sides to play above what they should have been. Even last season he got them a CL position, only to see him not played and Roma beaten by Porto.
People call Messi the GOAT, which is fair enough he is the only player who has an attribute better that Totti, yet they forget he has also has consistently played his career with four or five of the other top ten players in the world. When he gets to a final with Argentine people criticise those around him, Totti has spent a career with players who have not been good enough.
That is the joy of Totti. He is the player who made Spurs break their transfer record to sign Lamela lol. He makes players better. Sadly, he is usually dealt a very shitty hand.
People say he never won a Balloon. Well just think, Ronaldinho, Owen, and Kaka have won one. Totti started his career years before them and is finishing it years after it, and not once did he ever drop off in form during 25 seasons.
If you were to give out career Balloons, then who do you give them to? Maldini, Buffon, Giggs, and Totti. That is the level Totti played at. Not just an amazing year, an exceptional few years, but two decades at the top of the game.
Part 6: Arriveriderci
If you are still with me, thank you Yurt and FF, maybe n8. Flabber stopped long ago because ofhow poorly written this is :p.
For me Totti sums up what is beautiful about football. A ridiculous flick, a geometrically impossible volley, a gravity defying touch, a rocket of a strike, a pass that defies the space time continuum.
I have always believed everything I have written about Totti, I hope this goes someway to explaining why(I just finished off my 8th beer writing this over three hours, so sorry if it doesn’t make sense :P)
If anyone is accidently reading this part, I am sorry if I have dismissed when you posted a comment or a video about what your favourite player just did. It is just that well I saw Totti do that consistently for 20 years. :P
For me a little bit of football died last night, but at the same time maybe another spark was lit when a 16-year-old born in 2001 scored his first career goal in Totti’s last game.
I leave you with this.
Thanks for the memories.
From the Buffon chip to the pass to SES.
You are my GOAT, my God, my one and only.
Probably dreaming of totti
But that was a really great write up
You already know my thoughts on totti so i wont go into a 3 hour typing spree to tell you haha.
You and totti are both legends <3
By Cleff Go To PostPaxman needs to shut the fuck up and let Corbyn talk.I can understand holding politicians to account but he just interrupted him the entire time when he didn't like the answer he was given.
By FlutterPuffs Go To PostHonestly I have no idea how Renato is now. Elchele doesnt rate him though, but it makes sense why.Euros. The epitome of quality.
Seen some good moves from him during the Euros though, but well… he seems too content with living life atm.
By Hitch Go To PostStarted watching a Let's Play of TLoU last nightSee m8s, hitcher doesn't always have bad opinions about games
When he started using Listen Mode my heart sank. Horribly out-of-place gameplay feature, makes the game look like shit as well.
By Bold 2 in One Go To PostWe also need energetic bodies that can aid in a quick transition of defence to attack.That's Renato Sanches.
By JuveFan Go To PostSee m8s, hitcher doesn't always have bad opinions about gamesYou trying to worm your way into his cabinet if he is elected?
Fucking hell Paxman was absolutely embarrassing there. Just shouted over him the entire time. Guarantee he is so much softer on May.
By n8 dogg Go To PostFucking hell Paxman was absolutely embarrassing there. Just shouted over him the entire time. Guarantee he is so much softer on May.He kept on attacking Corbyn over the fact that the manifesto doesn't 100% lie with his personal beliefs. It's ridiculous. As Corbyn said, he is not a dictator.
By FortuneFaded Go To PostHe kept on attacking Corbyn over the fact that the manifesto doesn't 100% lie with his personal beliefs. It's ridiculous. As Corbyn said, he is not a dictator.
Imagine attacking a politician for being democratic
Imagine that.
By n8 dogg Go To PostFucking hell Paxman was absolutely embarrassing there. Just shouted over him the entire time. Guarantee he is so much softer on May.
By Hitch Go To PostStarted watching a Let's Play of TLoU last nightyou can turn it off
When he started using Listen Mode my heart sank. Horribly out-of-place gameplay feature, makes the game look like shit as well.
By Laboured Go To Post
That bloke in the audience complaining about voting labour all his life but sending his kids to private schools and paying more corporation tax is gonna make him change his mind
okm8
By Fergie Go To PostLmao carra 💀
