Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

Wigan have still got to play City, Arsenal and Spurs, but the rest of their games are against midtable fodder like Swansea and West Brom who will have long stopped trying by then. And they've got QPR. They're probably going to be okay.

Have City got any reason to be trying?

I don't dislike Sunderland at all. But I think maybe I would now like them to be relegated. Would others be happy with that?

"It was a big surprise but I had the fire in my stomach. I said yes after a second and I said I come by swim, no problem."

Despite his new team being perched precariously one point above the relegation zone and facing trips to Chelsea and Newcastle, he professed absolute confidence in Sunderland's ability to survive under his idiosyncratic, inexperienced, brand of leadership.

"People are sceptical but I see managers with more experience than Paolo Di Canio, they are relegated," he said. "Why not change this habit one day. I hear people talking about my statistics but it doesn't mean anything."

So how much would money would he be prepared to gamble on Sunderland still being a Premier League team next season. "You call the Mad Italian," he said. "I bet what I have got."

"You call the Mad Italian,"

is he referencing that stupid ad here?

Warnock now available (unless genuinely retired) - Reading and Sunderland have missed out

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/01/leeds-united-neil-warnock-exit

Leeds and di Canio might have been a powerful combination

Somehow I don't think Warnock is the go-to guy for when you want to stay in the Premiership. They might as well have gone for Iain Dowie.

Leeds and di Canio might have been a powerful combination

lol

more than a few of my friends stateside have mentioned the juxtaposition of di Canio joining Sunderland not long after Robbie Rodgers retired (from Leeds) & came out of the closet

not like the two are explicitly related of course

suggest superinjunction

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/56694/relegation-fascism-and-paolo-di-canio-a-sunderland-fan-takes-stock

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BG6iAQyCEAAl3S-.jpg

serious scoop for the sun here - this is why we need journalists who are willing to go the extra mile.

since they had the headline ready they should've asked for his thoughts on Ant and Dec's surprise return to the top of the singles charts instead.

This story just gets bigger and bigger

I want to see who's quoted immediately above tbh

Incredible.

Andy wasnt home from the pub since they called first time id say

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/apr/02/paolo-di-canio-sunderland

seems to have been reading this thread

If Di Canio were to declare himself a fascist while running a suburban corner shop it would seem less of a pastoral, representative issue than if he were to do so as a director of Tesco. It is the same question of degree and scale that applies to all things

this argument is total bollocks, not least when he was a very high profile boss at swindon and his eccentric outbursts were constantly covered in the media.

seems to have been reading this thread

Was my first thought as well. We do get mined occasionally, but more likely there isn't actually that much more to say now, unless he actually starts doing fascist things rather than just thinking them.

What are the gags? Thousand year team, ssfc, the wehrmackems, cmon

Ronay's article is unusually bad -- just goes round in circles

quite looking forward to people judging PDC by results / football (possibly bad results and bad football)

It IS odd that at Swindon he WAS regularly discussed on The Football League Show (Bhasim / Claridge et al), Focus, whatever, and never in these terms but just as an entertaining eccentric.

I swear, on F Focus about 3 weeks ago, they asked Lawro and Keown if he'd be a PL manager and Lawro said "someone'll take a chance on him" or whatever and NONE of this came up.

just realized something, hope this is my last thought on the subject

PDC's fascism is only acceptable BECAUSE he's nuts

if he was like Pulis or Moyes, and said the same things, it WOULD seem truly sinister

but a clown like PDC saying it is the one way for it to seem ultimately harmless.

I swear, on F Focus about 3 weeks ago, they asked Lawro and Keown if he'd be a PL manager and Lawro said "someone'll take a chance on him" or whatever and NONE of this came up.

I saw that.

The BBC employed him as a fifth columnist as recently as three weeks ago.

When do MOTD ever mention anything controversial and off-the-field unless it's forced onto the agenda?

"Well, all those Italians are into fashion aren't they?" #RAKE

i think people are just being fascistists anyway - nobody remembers that time when he just grabbed the ball instead of scoring when that dude was injured in that game - fascists are people too.

or that time when the ref dived to the ground to get him banned for 11 games, he didn't even accuse the ref as being a racist whereas a non-fascist would certainly have done so. just two examples.

Is there a spread on how many of these 250 hours Tevez will do?

i liked the sunderland press officer snapping "kindly do not tell me how to do my job" as if he hasnt made a relatively finessable situation look deeply suss enough already

i dunno but 250 hours is like 35 days of full time work

and incidentally also more than 4 season's worth of league matches.

pretty harsh punishment.

'He was very clear when talking to me that this has been a salutory lesson,' said Mr Boliver. 'The likelihood of this happening again is highly unlikely.

'Mr Tevez would welcome the opportunity to put something back into the community. Clearly, he is fit for unpaid work.'

Either the Sunderland press officer has made a complete fuck-up of this or Di Canio has dug his heels in and basically refused to renounce fascism. When standing up and going "I am shit at my job" is the best case scenario it's probably time to look for a career outside PR.

What are the gags? Thousand year team, ssfc, the wehrmackems, cmon

The Wearmacht

Mussolini would be disappointed that his legacy can't produce even a single pun

If he'd only gone back to West Ham, we could've had Eel Duce

I wouldn't rule it out for next season

then consider that a copyright claim

"I am not a racist and I do not support the ideology of fascism"

http://www.safc.com/news/club-news/2013/april/statement-from-paolo-di-canio

http://www.offthepost.info/wp-content/uploads/1537809205-570x379.jpg

meanwhile in hell

"I do not support the ideology of fascism" is either terrible English or a very carefully worded non-denial. I suspect the latter.

idk the 'not' seems in the right place

And it completely fails to address the salutes, the funeral attendance, the tattoo, the admiration for Mussolini. Basically, it's the Shaggy defence: "It wasn't me!"

What's the funeral attendance? And assuming it is carefully-worded, what do you think should happen now?

Attending funeral of leading Italian fascist.

Oh, I don't know what should happen. I'm just exercising my right to have a pop. It's carefully worded enough that Sunderland's catastrophic backroom staff will doubtless claim it puts everything to bed. Next press conference, though, I bet someone asks: "You say you 'do not support the ideology of fascism'. Does that mean you are not a fascist? If you're not, why did you etc etc"

fascism, okay fine water under the bridge, but some things are unforgivable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeGA7sA8HDw

Really hoping opposition fans have "Your manager's a Nazi" chants ready and waiting to go

that pic of moyes... terrifying.