And yet he got Swindon promoted to League One at the first attempt, from not being in a very good position at the off, and they were lying in second place when he left. TBH, he could be the biggest twerp under the Sun, but as long as he is a good manager that surely is all that matters, don't you think..? Leaving aside his political persuasions, of course. Each person is an individual. It would be a pretty poor show if they were all the same.
Agree with what most are saying on here, But McEggbonce's sacking isn't half as bad as how we sacked Nigel, Reading would most likely have gone down with him and are in the bottom 3 as we speak so at least they had a good reason.
The problem being that they kept him despite making it rather clear that they really wanted to fire him at the first opportunity, which was the worst of both worlds. Keeping a manager that you have no faith in is worse than not having faith in a manager who has proven to be a good fit, for me.
p Trixter, why do you spend so much time on our board? Is yours so boring like your teams football that you feel the need to get sustenance else where
Only need Pulis and Fat Sam now and all the Hoof managers will be gone. On the reading front, not so sure that Waitrose will be happy sponsoring a side with an openly facist manager!!!
That seems rather unfair on Pulis. And in defense of fascism (can't believe I'm doing this), it is a valid ideology and Di Canio has previously insisted that he's not racist or anything.
He is a proud fascista, so I guess he's got a bit of a thing for Mussolini. Perhaps not necessarily the empire-building part, but Italian nationalism, corporatism and totalitarianism. He has previously said he's not racist, so as long as it's just the bare bones of fascism without any of the rather detestable views that often accompany it, I see no reason to hate him for it. Still seems like a bit of an arse though.
I don't care how vehemently he denies being a racist, if he goes around doing fascist salutes he's going to offend just as many people as if he started using the n-word in interviews.
It's also a powerful symbol of oppression and genocide. Even if that's not the fascists' fault (it is) that doesn't make it any less so.
Only historically. It's the fault of past fascists, not current ones. As far as we know, he doesn't have any beliefs which should be deemed unacceptable. Obviously it's not advisable to go around doing a salute which historically has rather nasty connotations, but that's not necessarily what it means to him. Besides, among Lazio fans it does have another meaning.
Joe, I can't believe that you are trying to condone fascists by separating the ideology from the hatred and violence of what fascists did in many countries not just Germany and Italy. Fascists are far right in their beliefs and have very little tolerance to any other cause. If he isn't into empire building, how is nationalism and totalitarian any better?
Has Di Canio ever shown that he condones said hatred and violence? I don't agree with nationalist or totalitarian ideologies either, but I respect the fact that other people are free to subscribe to those philosophies, so long as they do so within the law. If Di Canio wants to support the idea of traditional Italian nationalism and an authoritarian state then he should be free to do so without people assuming, without any evidence, that he is also condones violence and racism. If he says he doesn't, then I'm obligated to believe him until I see evidence to the contrary.
Lets face it, Facism as an ideology is appealing to some particuarly in those times where people are struggling and looking for someone/thing to turn their fortunes around. The whole of the German/Italian people were not racist violent people. They were sold an ideology which they thought would be of benifit to themseslves and their country. Once in power Mussolini and Hitler took those ideologies to the extreme and this is where the violence and racism etc came from. As an ideology Facism is not as bad as it is now portrayed. Nazism is not Facism, it is a step further. If you take Islam and the koran. It is a peacefull religion, it is just extremists that have now shifted peoples opinions of it.
The degree to which a population buys into that sort of extremism really scales with two things: economic strife, and time removed from the last damned fool thing they did. Fascism =/= Mussolini, but it's pretty bloody awful on its own; when your beginning position is totalitarian, it's a pretty short and steep slope to some pretty egregious actions. That does not mean that anyone who supports fascism wants the sorts of arbitrary detention and torture that accompanied the Italian fascista government, or the reign of the Colonels in Greece, or post-Arbenz Guatemala, but you have to be pretty naive not to want such a system given the likelihood that it will quickly devolve into such. The further we get from the actions, though, the more romantic and logical it seems in retrospect...hence why, three decades after the deposition of the Colonels, Golden Dawn (which has the perfect combination of time plus economic disaster in its sails) is suddenly gaining a frightening amount of support in Greece. None of which condemns Di Canio; really, the mark of the man would be the response if such a thing started to take hold and it wasn't exactly the totalitarian utopia (wat) desired. Sadly, if Italy's political and economic crises go the way they have, a Golden Dawn-esque party with real clout, with all the hideous warts that organization possesses, is not out of the question. If Di Canio is still supportive then, he's deserves to be loaded into a rocket and fired at the sun...if not, then he's not much different than your average high schooler who reads a bit of Marx and declares themselves a fervent Communist.
Trouble is Joe a lot of people have a definite dislike for the name fascist, because of past history. History itself does not disassociate itself from the full ideology of recognised fascists. True though in modern times people do try and pick out the bits they like and discard the bit they don't like but history doesn't see it that way. Actually we shouldn't be talking about Politics how did this happen....
Oh right, I always thought it was all based on that salute thing at Lazio. Whatever, I'm not sure all of that is important. How would I feel if I was a Reading fan and Di Canio got a 9 game contract today? Since I would have probably spent the last two days contemplating relegation, probably not too devastated. I actually think PDC will turn into a very good manager, and it could give them some hope. That said, I still wouldn't hold out much hope of survival, even though they are still in touch it's gonna take four miraculous wins to stay up. How would I feel if I was a Reading fan and Mark Hughes, Iain Dowie or some Reading assistant manager got the job? Pretty devastated! In reality the damage for Reading was done when they did not strengthen in January, but perhaps sacking the manager was cheaper.
