Thetownend.com

Areet,

I'm a Sunderland fan doing a piece on Paolo Di Canio and his time at Swindon, I've applied for interviews with a few players, but was also looking to get a few comments from some backroom staff members.

With the club takeover being around that time it's a bit of a grey area who was actually there before and after the shit hit the fan with Di Canio, so I was wondering if any of you know if there's anyone still at the club who survived the change in ownership who might know a few things about Di Canio? The truth is out there!

Cheers lads, enjoy the trip to Peterborough tomorrow

Areet

Re Di Canio

HES A CUNT

The End

Paul bodin and Kate cady would have interesting thoughts on Di canio

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Good fucking luck. We didn't/can't get any clear answers about what happened.

Curly Withers, the Teaboy? I don't know if he's still here though.

I hope you mackems have him muzzled and on a short leash, and if he makes promises expect them to be all bluster with no substance and you won't be disappointed.

Areet. This will tell you all you need to know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism#Traits_and_signs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism#Traits_and_signs)

Fucking northern cunt

If he says he going to get a Sunderland tattoo ....... Its bullshit!

You could get a decent sweepstake going over which of your summer signings is going to get paid off first!

If this all goes tits up, it wont be Paolo's fault!

Paolo Di Canio's Sunderland.

The man is a walking ego trip.

Though I mus admit on the face of it he does seem to have brought well Altidore apart.  Giacharini is a class acquisiton

I think Sunderland will do ok this year as it happens. Maybe outsiders for a Europa League spot. Should be good enough to be in the top half.

Cheers, I'll try Paul Bodin. If anyone else has any suggestions then keep them coming!

Leon Clarke might be worth a call?

Ha ha ha.

With regard to matters on the pitch, Di Canio delivered on every promise he made. I can forgive him the tattoo.

I'm pretty sure all of Di Canio's important backroom staff from his time here are now with him at Sunderland. I'd wish you luck for the season, but you've got a great manager now and won't need it.

I had considered it but I think I might have a few problems with that one as it was never resolved. I'm gonna try for big Wes but doubt they'll be too fond of that either, even though it was resolved, allegedly.

I'm sure Jonathan Tehoue would love to share his opinion on Di Canio

A self-opinionated prick who puts himself before everything else except his immediate family!!  Also well versed in the art of breaking into football stadiums - well he had a key and came back in the middle of the night to "collect" some personal belongings, STFC still have it on tape so try Mark Isaacs (stadium manager)!


PS We actually loved him here, but it has all turned out bad now!!

There's a lot of revisionism going on here.  When he was with us, the ego was forgiven...mostly.  He was charismatic, and the fans loved it.  (Does he do the thing with the scarf at full time at your place?  He honed that one at the County Ground.)  But now he's gone, the charisma means nothing and it's all 'ego, ego, ego'.  In fact, bring up the subject of PDC and a lot of the opinions on here start to resemble those on an Oxford forum circa 2011.

It was the same when Hoddle left...from God to Judas in the space of about 5 minutes.  And there are some out there who still haven't forgiven him.

Yeah I can understand if fans aren't his biggest fan anymore, we have a similar situation with Martin O'Neill, only O'Neill obviously didn't break into the Stadium of Light to retrieve his Sherlock Holmes books, or leave in a strop, so it's not as sensitive. To be honest I don't think the old fella has it in him.

It probably will end in tears with Di Canio, but that seems to be the theme with most managers these days, it would be hard for any Sunderland fan to argue that he's not an egotist. There's a very fine line between genius and madness and Di Canio has made a career of dancing on that line. Hopefully he'll do us right in the meantime though.

I can't see myself getting any joy, but I'll let you know how I get on and if I find anything out.

Cheers for your help!

I suppose I could be accused of revisionism, as I was happy with him when he was here, proud of the club and proud of our achievements. But it's the stuff that's come out after he's left, the stuff that smacks of selfishness, his lack of loyalty despite preaching it repeatedly as the most important thing at the club, and his general 'I don't give a shit about your football club anymore now they're not paying my wages, despite repeatedly stating that it was not about the money, it was about integrity and principle and loyalty' nature that has pissed me off and made me change my mind.

His 1.5 seasons in charge will go down in my memory as some of the best football I've seen at the County Ground, and some of the most fun I've had following the team (I'm young, so I'm not arguing they're the best- just the best I've seen). But those memories will be tainted by everything that happened after Ritchie was sold. I was a staunch Di Canio supporter (I didn't worship his very existence mind, I knew he was a flawed genius), but I do look back on all that with some bitterness.

Football fans in fickle shock.

When he was here, he was great and his shortcomings were largely ignored. After he left he was a cunt.

It was the manner of his leaving.....

As would one of the admin staff who under pain of death and a wedge is swore to silence "allegedly"

Ha, ha, wonder what went on there

Spill?

In terms of his commitment to the job he is pretty much faultless. There aren't many managers who would carry on working in the immediate aftermath of both parents deaths, who'd shovel snow off the pitch with the fans to get a game on into the early hours of the morning, who would put in the hours he does in training and in preparatory work/ analysis of the opposition before a game.

It's his commitment to the club and its supporters, or moreover his proclamations of commitment to the club and its supporters, which form such a central part of his cult of personality, that ring hollow in hindsight, and will, in time, ring equally hollow for Sunderland fans I'm sure, though I don't doubt they'll get swept up in it in the same way we did while he was here (and why not? footballs an entertainment/ community sport at heart, and in terms of entertainment, and forging a sense of community, you won't get many better managers for that while he lasts).

I think what's different with Di Canio from others who preach loyalty without practising it (which is, lets face it, a pretty ubiquitous characteristic in the game) is that the sense of relationship and unity he forges between fans/ players/ manager is so strong that, like any extremely close relationship that comes to a messy end, the manner of the break up, and the fallout of having to pick-up the pieces in the aftermath (which we are currently going through now), and the lingering questions of what could have been, mean the memory of his tenure, and the excitement of all that went on during it, will always be qualified by what followed, and not taken for what it was while we were in the midst of it: probably the most enjoyable period to be a Swindon fan since the early/mid 90s.

To the Sunderland fan, if you want a summary of what are, in my opinion, the contradictory character traits that make up the man from what we saw of him in his time here: he's a great tactician, an incredibly hard worker, a hopeless man manager, a financial liability in the transfer market* and a staggering egotist who will leave a trail of entertainment and destruction in his wake in equal measure when he departs.

In short:

Enjoy him while you've got him. Don't expect to love him once he's left.

*don't think having a DOF will protect you from this. If Di Canio falls out with a player (he will) that's it for them. They'll either be ostracised from the squad while continuing to drain you of wages, sold on the cheap, loaned out or have his contract paid up. And don't think he picks his battles either; he fell out with our top scorer and our captain while here and neither were seen again.

^^ good post ^^ not much to add.

In summary you get commitment and results if the premier poofs can hack it, but it comes at a price.

I wouldn't undo the time we had under him if I could. There were so many great moments.

Di Canio was the best thing to happen to this club for years,he had the carpet pulled from under him by the former chairman.
As for the comments on this thread....well some never ever saw the great man in action so tend to be doom merchants on the back of Paolo's actions when he left.

Great manager,great motivator......great man maybe not,but who gives a fuck when you have someone like him in charge....all the best and enjoy the ride because it will be fun.

Cringeworthy reading these muppet comments from the like of DMR....if you aint got nothing to contribute to the forum which is slightly interesting why not do me a favour and get yourself banned.
If ever there was a miserable sad cynical person...it is you.

And the truth is Paolo took us up....and had us top of League 1 when he left....not exactly his fault he was given the funds....in fact it was the reason why he took the job here in the first place because he was promised them.

Can understand the comments by many fans on here....but i beg to differ so there you go.

I've clicked on this thread very much like walking in on your parents having sex.
Get the fuck out and never go near there again.

That never happened to me so i really do not know how that feels.

I doubt you even know kaufman's parents, that'll explain why.

or leefer is kaufman's father (or mother) and therefore would only know what it was like from the other side?

 :D

I was going to make a serious post about di canio being brilliant but equally damaging but can't after the last few posts.
Superb stuff.  :D

Its all been done to death arriba in truth....its the last i talk about Di Canio on this forum,new season tomorrow and thats what matters now.

(http://i.imgur.com/jUdbnFd.gif)

He was the best thing to happen to the club for years, unfortunately he was spending the Chairman's money like water, like it or not Black was entitled to pull the plug as and when he saw fit, the timing was just a bit awkward for sure, a few more months and it could all have been a totally different story.

Thats Good :D

Don't much care for the Mackems after they took our place in Div 1 in 1990. Everyone keeps going on about the budget but if PdC had stayed we would have got promoted and that team and budget would have seemed Ok in the Championship.
As it happens I hope he fucks up rather badly not because of Pdc but because of Sunderland. 

A lot is made of Di Canio falling out with players and bombing them out.

But is that any worse than our current regime totally ostracising 3 players who we paid decent money for and who are probably on good wages? Not giving them squad numbers, not taking them on preseason trips and basically freezing them out.

I can't understand any club would do that with their assets, particularly when they're potless.

Black wasn't hanging around whether we were in L1 or Championship so that budget would still have been an issue

Depends if somebody else would have bought us as a Championship club instead of the massive.

I think even the most clueless fucker could have made a go of that budget in the Championship.

Yeah but could Jed have?

Unless we'd had the league sewn up by January 31st then I don't see that being possible but would definitely agree that we would have been a fair more attractive prospect as a Championship side with back to back promotions. It puzzles me why Black didn't see that and continue to fund until the summer at least.

JedCo still wouldn't have the money to cover the losses. Our budget wouldn't have looked so out of place but I don't think the financial benefits of Championship football is that much greater than L1, at least not in terms of TV money etc. Fairly certain someone posted an excellent breakdown of of it on here months back.

Don't have the figures to hand but IIRC it's substantially more in L1 terms, but not so in Championship terms. And therein lies the dilemma - the revenue goes up substantially but so does the spend you need to compete.

I meant if Black had seen out the season, though there was obviously no guarantee we'd have gone up.

Also IIRC some expert reckoned Championship footy was worth an extra £5M over league 1.

I remember Jwray saying that there was a considerable boost in revenue when reaching the Championship and that sustainability would be more achievable.

This was when I had more confidence in what Jwray was saying.

I stand corrected!

+2mill in tv revenue alone ( 300.00k lg1/2.mill champ )
increase in away support plus you can hike your sponsorship etc

So not an unreasonable figure i guess

If Wray and Di Canio were still here I reckon they would have pissed away the extra 5 million in a matter of weeks

Can't argue with the results though...

Bet Di Canio could :)

I think the club benefited greatly under PDC. The media spotlight was always on us, 6 or 7 games on sky. Some of the best football being played for a long time. My only disappointment with PDC is that he has to air or the dirty laundry and publicly shame players, not sure if that was the best man management.

Loved every minute of his tenure.

Happy to accept the current belt tightening as a result, because it was worth the shot.

Hope he fucks up at Sunderland, but that's more because it's Sunderland.

This - a great ride but the fairground had to move on at some point!

And....

People are mentioning the extra money would have potentially made us sustainable, not with these two in charge.

Not me having a go, just reality. Without a rich owner willing to front up the money or fans willing to pay £50 a game we'd still be in just a rubbish situation.

At the time, the majority of Germans thought Hitler was great but ignored, or were blind to, the  atrocities he committed to take Germany to the top of Europe...

Thank the lord. I thought the internet was broken , I haven't seen a comparison to Hitler anywhere for weeks :)

Leefer, how could you be blind to the Hitler-like atrocities PDC committedto get us to the top of League 1

Really have some standards!

Yep,and sadly most are still blind that they are still at the top in Europe....ask Angela.

Only country who could cause and lose two world wars in the last 100 years and still come up smelling of roses.

Us Brits are doing it all wrong i reckon :D

That I'm afraid is all I know.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2401813/Paolo-Di-Canio-given-talking-police-hotel-incident.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter