Cheers for the encouragment, Dusan. I like it here. Perhaps I wouldnt be so active were I not so far away geographically, in the flesh I mean, from my own tribe, but then again, they are almost all british and generally uninterested in italian football...too many of them resorting all too quickly to the 'fucking italians...they are all divers and queers' routine. WHich they don't truly believe, of course. These folks understand the Game. They just use such tactics as they take joy from winding me up and to suggest such a slur is a sure fire path to making me launch into a vicious tirade of profanity, likely heading, if unchecked, into personal insults designed to silence my opponent and wipe the childish, cheeky smile of their face...but living here in Melbourne, I have NOBODY to speak football with. Yes, there are a few people who say they 'follow' mainly british teams, which I know intimately. But their idea of 'following' is different to mine...for instance an australian 'diehard portsmouth supporter' told me a few days back, that he thought that 'pompei were doing ok for themselves'. Now it wasn't just his apparently total ignorance to his beloved club's financial turmoil which bothered me. That just made me mock him silently...it was his pronounciation of Pompey as Pompei. And this is a man who proudly wears his Portsmouth shirt into the council offices on a give $2-for-charity-and-wear-what-you-want friday and attempt to engage me in football banter. Should I have told him that its PompEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, not pompeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii???? Would that have been kinder? I remain unsure. But he sums up the kind of 'supporter' I have to deal with here in Australia.
My brother loves football, he is an aussie italian sicilian. He has enthusiasm, and an understanding of the game, but not the knowledge needed to engage in heavy exchanges about the current plight of Juventus. He follows my ups and downs with some interest, but when i showed joy today, when we met for coffee in the city, he had never heard of Roberto Bettega...which made my story, of how his return the club has buoyed my spirits, seem to him, lacking value. Bettega? I could have said 'im so happy that we have resigned Angelo Di Livio and Julio Cesar' and he likely wouldnt have shown any shock. Instead trying to tap into my enthusiasm...To be honest, I would love it if we re=signed those two players. And also brought back Kohler and Moller. Those krouts were mean but of a different class to what we have now. I remember them both as never putting a foot wrong. The true german machine. Kohler with the hitler tash, and Moller, after scoring a goal, standing hands on hips, head held high, chest puffed out, and a definite nazi zeal in his wild eyes...
Indeed, I have fun here. And appreciate the forum's very existence.