The Martin O'Neill thread (with added sacking #2188)

[adrenachrome]

I wonder if the old "fascist scum get out of brum" ANL chant will get an airing when he comes to VP. 

[supertom]

You can't really compare PDC to BFR or Mark Bosnich say. There's a difference between sudden moments of arse brained idiocy and in PDC's case being totally vehement and persistent in his views. But though Di Canio seems to think Mussolini was great he still appreciates that he did unspeakable things. I think if anything Di Canio's just very arrogant. He likes attention and he knows full well how to get it. It's about show. I don't think he's racist by any stretch. He's just a fiery character. Does he have the temperament to be a top manager? I'm not sure. He will shock, he'll entertain, then he'll disappear off back to Italy. I think he knows he can't work the crowd in this country saluting like he did in Italy.

Do I feel sorry for Sunderland fans? Not really. Like any set of club fans you have to endure what the powers that be deem suitable for your club. Often that means the wrong manager. We had to put up with McLeish.

And lets face it, this is a fickle business. If Di Canio wins 4-5 of his remaining games and has them finish around mid-table, they'll bloody love him. He's got a game against Newcastle coming up too. Win that and the level of complaints from the Cats fans will probably more than half.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I wonder if MON is screaming at everybody that will listen asking why are people not asking why I've been sacked, why is there not a public debate, why are the papers back pages not full of glowing tributes to his genius.

To quote a username on here, Martin who?

[N'ZMAV]

If people didn't know that Paolo Di Canio was a facist then no-one would be bothered. I can't say I know the beliefs of my managers at work - does it affect their ability to do their job? It doesn't seem too. Do I care? No.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I wonder if the old "fascist scum get out of brum" ANL chant will get an airing when he comes to VP. 

I hope so.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Why is it when he was at Swindon we hardly ever heard anything about it, now he's at Sunderland I'm bloody sick of hearing it, He's entitled to his own opinions in my view.

[Ron Manager]

Im not at all bothered about his political views. Thats his choice. What I am very concerned about is the possibility of him getting Sunderland
going. He obviously has something which works if only for a few months.

Sunderland are the best bet to keep us up.

Lets hope he fails.

[Clampy]

Why is it when he was at Swindon we hardly ever heard anything about it, now he's at Sunderland I'm bloody sick of hearing it, He's entitled to his own opinions in my view.

I think David Milliband being against his appointment brought it back out into the open again.

You at Stoke on Saturday mate?

[dekko]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but James Richardson (of Football Italia fame) said something interesting the other day: In Italy its perfectly acceptable to say something along the lines of 'Mussolini was terrible, but he was principled and he did good things like draining the marshes and getting the trains to run on time', because they feel that you have to take all the aspects of the system individually.  So PDC's opinons aren't that out of line with mainstream Italian thinking (just look how many outright Fascist or Neo-Fascist parties are active in Italian politics).

Over here, however, we tend to take the view that any praise of any aspect of the Fascist system is wrong, because to do so is to implicitly condone the nature of the whole system - Mussolini may have reformed the economy, trains etc, but he did it through a system built on violence and terror, and that taints everything he did.

My view, for what its worth, is that Fascism, no matter how supposedly 'nuanced', has no place in our society.  Especially as it wasn't long ago when quasi-Fascist parties like the BNP were on the verge of getting seats in parliament, the EDL were lurching about our streets harassing anyone slightly browner than them, and the Golden Dawn are beating and murdering immigrants in Greece more or less with impunity.  Im not saying PDC running Sunderland is somehow going to turn us into Nazi Germany, but if we start accepting the extreme right in football, then its not a massive leap for it to start infiltrating other british institutions.


TL;DR
PDC would've got away with it in Italy, but this aint Italy.  Also, Fascism is fucking abhorrent, I'd prefer not to have it in my country thankyouverymuch

[fbriai]

It's not acceptable over here, Dekko mate. It's just that some politicians every now and again say stupid things in the lead up to elections as they think that it will win them some votes. They get caned for it in the press, mind. Although for Berlusconi that's irrelevant as he owns half of the media and seemingly led his recent election campaign on the principle of there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Fascism is certainly viewed differently here to the way that it's viewed in Britain, inevitably, and it's certainly a lot more prevalent, but I wouldn't say that mainstream thinking is accepting of it. Political discourse is still littered with people being accused of being 'fascist' or 'communist', whether they be of the centre-right or centre-left, which is all a throw-back to the War and which smudges the lines somewhat. Yes, there are several active fascist parties, but they aren't, at least yet, God forbid, mainstream.

Personally, I think Milliband should be applauded for what he's done. People complain about politicians not being principled and not standing for anything anymore, well, in the past, Di Canio has declared himself to be a fascist. In Britain, given our history and given the number of people who gave their lives to defeat fascism, that should be unacceptable and I think standing up and saying I don't hold truck with someone who holds those beliefs is quite right.

[Brend'Watkins]

Why is it when he was at Swindon we hardly ever heard anything about it, now he's at Sunderland I'm bloody sick of hearing it, He's entitled to his own opinions in my view.

The comparison is the bloke running a corner shop and whoever is the current CEO of Tesco.  The Premier League is big world wide, Div 2 in England isn't.   

[dekko]

It's not acceptable over here, Dekko mate. It's just that some politicians every now and again say stupid things in the lead up to elections as they think that it will win them some votes. They get caned for it in the press, mind. Although for Berlusconi that's irrelevant as he owns half of the media and seemingly led his recent election campaign on the principle of there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Fascism is certainly viewed differently here to the way that it's viewed in Britain, inevitably, and it's certainly a lot more prevalent, but I wouldn't say that mainstream thinking is accepting of it. Political discourse is still littered with people being accused of being 'fascist' or 'communist', whether they be of the centre-right or centre-left, which is all a throw-back to the War and which smudges the lines somewhat. Yes, there are several active fascist parties, but they aren't, at least yet, God forbid, mainstream.

Personally, I think Milliband should be applauded for what he's done. People complain about politicians not being principled and not standing for anything anymore, well, in the past, Di Canio has declared himself to be a fascist. In Britain, given our history and given the number of people who gave their lives to defeat fascism, that should be unacceptable and I think standing up and saying I don't hold truck with someone who holds those beliefs is quite right.

Yeah, I'll happily admit that my knowledge of Italian politics is fairly limited, so thanks for correcting me.  I was under the impression that the coalition politics in the country meant that there was a lot of minor Fascist parties that were part of the big political blocs, but a quick look at wikipedia tells me I was confusing anti-immigrant, right wing and populist with outright Fascist.

DiCanio can still bugger off though.

[damon loves JT]

I wonder if the old "fascist scum get out of brum" ANL chant will get an airing when he comes to VP. 

I would go for 'Sieg Heil, Di Canio' myself

[eastie]

He may get a response and keep them up but I will be surprised if di canio lasts a year on wearside - he is a loose cannon and i cannot see Ellis short tolerating his behaviour for long .

[Clampy]

I might stand by the fence where the away team coach pulls up and shout 'I hear your a racist now Paolo'.