Am a bit late in posting this, as I was not online throughout the weekend. Apologies.
Hopefully, Vermaelen's recruitment doesn't mean the exit of any of our existing rearguard. Despite what other Gooners says, I still believe we can get good service out of Gallas & Silvestre whenever they are fit. Senderos, if he truly has improved from his loan spell @ San Siro, should fight for his place.
Arsenal sign Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax on long-term deal
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 June 2009 16.44 BST
The Belgium international defender Thomas Vermaelen has joined Arsenal from Ajax on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee.
The 23-year-old, who captained the Dutch club last season, made his first-team debut at just 18. He has played in the Uefa Cup and the Champions League during his 143 appearances for the Amsterdam side, including two appearances against Arsenal in the 2005-06 Champions League group stages.
Vermaelen has made 21 appearances for Belgium, now being a regular in his country's set-up since making his full international debut in March 2006.
"Thomas is a great signing for Arsenal, and we are all delighted that he is joining us," the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said. "Thomas is a solid performer with good experience of Champions League and Uefa Cup football and is also a regular with the Belgium national team.
"Thomas is primarily a left-footed centre-back, but he's multi-functional and can also play at left-back. He is strong technically with a positive winner's attitude and I have no doubt his arrival will strengthen our team. Thomas Vermaelen will be a huge asset to Arsenal."
After completing his move, Vermaelen said: "Firstly, I have to say that I'm sad to be leaving Ajax and I would just like to thank everyone for their help and friendship towards me over the past eight years.
"I'm just so happy to be joining Arsenal. This is a great club with a world-class manager, high-quality players and a fantastic stadium. Everything is set up for Arsenal to be very successful for years to come and I joined this club because I know Arsenal will be challenging for trophies.
Till later, live long & prosper.
22 June 2009
Insurance premium rebates implementation on track
I soo agree with this stance of BNM. With all due respect to the insurance agents, not all members of the public depend on the agents for advice on managing their insurance coverage & assistance in claims handling. There are insurers who invested in good & useful claims processing system & the policyholders can make a claim just by calling the insurers directly. Hence, members of the public who can manage their insurance on their own should be given an avenue where they can benefit from acting independently. Those who cannot should then use the services of these supposedly well trained agents (& thus, allowing the agents to earn their commissions).
'No backtrack on insurance premium rebates'
Business Times'No backtrack on insurance premium rebates'
Monday, June 22, 2009, 09.24 AM
BANK Negara Malaysia will not backtrack from implementing premium rebates for the direct purchase of general insurance covers from insurers as it is meant to put more money into consumers' pocket.
Thus, come July 1, individuals who purchase general insurance covers directly from insurance companies will be eligible to receive a premium rebate.
The quantum of rebate, however, will depend on the type of insurance purchased.
For motor insurance, individuals will receive a five percent premium rebate in the first year of implementation and 10 per cent thereafter.
"This is something that is fair for consumers. Over time you cannot stop this kind of innovation taking place," Bank Negara's deputy governor Datuk Mohd Razif Abd Kadir said at a Press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.
According to him, there has been "pressure" to withdraw the policy from being implemented.
"But it is aimed at putting more money back into consumers'' pocket, which is in line with the government''s intention of enhancing consumption," he said.
As at end of 2008, the general insurance policy premium amounted to RM4.4 billion, of which half was motor insurance and 15 percent or RM450 million came from direct channel, but without getting any rebate.
"Now, individual consumers will benefit from the rebate," Mohd Razif said.
Bank Negara, he said, has engaged in various discussions with industry players with regard to the implementation of the insurance rebate.
The policy, he added, was also to enhance the ability of consumers in having a wider access to financial products and services.
In line with this, insurance companies have also increasingly introduced direct delivery channels to market their products and services which provided consumers with the options that will best suit their needs, Mohd Razif said.
Thus, the insurance companies are well prepared with the infrastructures that is needed to enable consumers to deal directly, he said.
Despite the emergence of direct distribution channels such as Internet, the 40,000 insurance agents in Malaysia will remain an important intermediary in the general insurance sector to provide personalised services for the convenience of policy owners as well as value-added services such as advice on insurance products and in providing assistance in claims handling.
Customers have the option to use the services of agents to meet their insurance requirements, particularly for complex and sophisticated products.
To facilitate agents to move up the value chain and enter this new area, the government and the insurance industry have and will continue to provide the necessary training and capacity-building opportunities, Mohd Razif said.
Initiatives by Bank Negara and the insurance sector include putting in place appropriate training programmes and requiring agency training expenses to be part of minimum training expenditure, he said.
However, there is no plan to implement such a policy for other insurance products, Mohd Razif said, adding that the idea to increase motor vehicle insurance tariff, which has seen no change since 1978, is still being studied. - Bernama
Till later, live long & prosper.
08 May 2009
Extreme CL Semis exit response in Nairobi
Got this article link from a concerned colleague who emailed a few of us Gooners yesterday, with a message 'guys pls dont try this...' :) Don't worry MMH the Inter fan, I've still got lots to do in life & hence, will not casually end it, not to mention there is a religious issue with taking one's own life.
On the 5 May 2009 match @ Emirates Stadium itself, I felt it was a nightmare that after performing rather well at Old Trafford in the 1st half, the team like disappeared when playing on home ground in the 2nd half. On an evening where the Gunners could've set up a revenge date with Barca, it was definitely an utter waste. Sad, sad... Graciously, I salute Sir Alex's squad. The Gunners' defense frailties were truly exposed with injuries to key players in that area.
I guess I'll just be supporting TH14 come the CL Final. ;)
ESPNsoccernet: UEFA Champions League
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Gunners fan hangs himself after United victory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Arsenal fan hung himself following his team's 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, police said. Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan living in the capital Nairobi's Embakasi neighbourhood, hanged himself in his Arsenal shirt after the match.
"We were watching the match at Bamba 70 pub, and when Arsenal was defeated, Suleiman just walked out in protest and he was crying," Calvin Otieno, one of his friends, said.
"We didn't know he was going to hang himself until this morning when we received the reports and came here to find his body at the balcony," Otieno said outside the deceased's home.
Arsenal slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, capping a disappointing season for the Gunners who were already out of the Premier League title race early in the season.
Till later, live long & prosper.
On the 5 May 2009 match @ Emirates Stadium itself, I felt it was a nightmare that after performing rather well at Old Trafford in the 1st half, the team like disappeared when playing on home ground in the 2nd half. On an evening where the Gunners could've set up a revenge date with Barca, it was definitely an utter waste. Sad, sad... Graciously, I salute Sir Alex's squad. The Gunners' defense frailties were truly exposed with injuries to key players in that area.
I guess I'll just be supporting TH14 come the CL Final. ;)
ESPNsoccernet: UEFA Champions League
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Gunners fan hangs himself after United victory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Arsenal fan hung himself following his team's 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, police said. Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan living in the capital Nairobi's Embakasi neighbourhood, hanged himself in his Arsenal shirt after the match.
"We were watching the match at Bamba 70 pub, and when Arsenal was defeated, Suleiman just walked out in protest and he was crying," Calvin Otieno, one of his friends, said.
"We didn't know he was going to hang himself until this morning when we received the reports and came here to find his body at the balcony," Otieno said outside the deceased's home.
Arsenal slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, capping a disappointing season for the Gunners who were already out of the Premier League title race early in the season.
Till later, live long & prosper.
08 April 2009
BBC's (apparent) list of 100 books
Found out about this via a Notes posting on FB by my brother, who tagged me. Initially drafted my results on my Notes on FB but decided for it to be a mOAm musing, since my FB Notes receives mOAm feeds. Will tag FB friends when this pops up on my FB Notes. I rarely do tagged stuff unless it interests me, so those tagged can choose to ignore. On to the item in question...
The BBC came up with this list of 100 books.
Apparently the average number of books from this list that people have read is 6.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Tally your total at the bottom.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee [X]
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens [X]
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll [X]
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame [X]
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hussein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell [X+]
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas [X]
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hard
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker [X+]
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [X+]
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton [X]
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas [X+]
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Well, I am above average by having read 10 titles (out of which, 4 I loved). I have not finished the LOTR trilogy & barely started Order of Phoenix (someday, I'll at least complete LOTR trilogy plus the Hobbit, which I have a copy on my bookshelf since like a few years back). Some of the others, I've not read it proper but have seen the movie adaption (we all know how accurate those can be :P). Regretfully, some titles I enjoyed reading, like Phantom of the Opera, are not in the list.
Do give the list a go & see what is your result.
Till later, live long & prosper.
The BBC came up with this list of 100 books.
Apparently the average number of books from this list that people have read is 6.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Tally your total at the bottom.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee [X]
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens [X]
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll [X]
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame [X]
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hussein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell [X+]
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas [X]
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hard
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker [X+]
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [X+]
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton [X]
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas [X+]
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Well, I am above average by having read 10 titles (out of which, 4 I loved). I have not finished the LOTR trilogy & barely started Order of Phoenix (someday, I'll at least complete LOTR trilogy plus the Hobbit, which I have a copy on my bookshelf since like a few years back). Some of the others, I've not read it proper but have seen the movie adaption (we all know how accurate those can be :P). Regretfully, some titles I enjoyed reading, like Phantom of the Opera, are not in the list.
Do give the list a go & see what is your result.
Till later, live long & prosper.
02 April 2009
Goal.com: Arsenal buys Juve player
Riots In Turin As Sebastian Giovinco Signs For Arsenal
The city of Turin is now a warzone after Juventus transfer chief Alessio Secco confirmed that club favourite Sebastian Giovinco will be joining Arsenal in the summer.
1 Apr 2009 11:15:11
Every Juventus fan’s worst nightmare has come true this morning – Sebastian Giovinco – the future of the Bianconeri, has been sold to Arsenal.
The ‘Atomic Ant’ is widely regarded as one of the most exciting young talents in world football, and he is tipped for greatness, both for club-and-country. Giovinco was seen by many Juventini as the heir to the symbolic Alessandro Del Piero, and in March he really exploded into life with a series of magical performances. Only last night, Giovinco was again wowing audiences as he scored in Italy Under-21s 1-1 friendly draw with Holland Under-21’s.
However, there have been reports in the press over the past few months that Juventus were considering selling Giovinco in order to fund a raid for Sampdoria enigma Antonio Cassano.
Juventus sporting director Alessio Secco this morning confirmed that a deal has been completed to sell Giovinco to long-term admirers Arsenal, and that the Old Lady will use the money recouped to sign Chelsea’s Florent Malouda.
“It is no secret that we are actively searching for a replacement at left midfield for the retiring Pavel Nedved, and for this reason we have had to make a tough decision,” explained Secco.
“We did not really want to sell Giovinco, but the truth is that €10m was too good to turn down, and we can use this money to sign Malouda, a world class France international, who will be the perfect successor to Pavel.
“I understand that many fans will be upset by our decision to release Seba, but I say to them, please trust my judgement. I know what I am doing. I feel that Seba is just a little too small to really succeed at the top. He gets pushed around a bit.”
Supporters have refused to trust Secco, who is already enemy No.1 after masterminding a host of disastrous signings, including Sergio Almiron, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Dario Knezevic, and Christian Poulsen.
Around 5000 tifosi have taken to the streets in Turin, and the situation can only be described as utter chaos. Shops have been looted, effigies of Secco, Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, Jean Claude Blanc and Claudio Ranieri burnt, while the house of Secco has been fire-bombed.
Gangs of ultras have gathered outside the club's headquarters in Corso Gallileo Ferraris, armed with slingshots and baseball bats. They are ready to show their ferocious opposition, and the uprisings are likely to continue as the angry protesters have gathered support from other breakaway groups. It is guerilla warfare, as the fans use militia-style tactics in an attempt to overthrow power and destabilise the club following Giovinco's sale.
There are now fears that 20,000 season ticket holders at the Olimpico will turn their back on the club.
Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has spoken of his delight after finally capturing Giovinco.
“I have been trying to buy Giovinco since he was eight-years-old, and I almost got him last summer, but the marriage fell through when Philippe Senderos refused to go in part exchange because he wanted Milan instead.
“But the wait has been worth it, and Giovinco will be a fantastic addition to our squad. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the best youngster in the world after Lionel Messi. He is going to be a legend.”
Sources close to Secco say that he is shaken up by the violence in Turin, and will spend the next few days in hiding at Massimo Moratti's secret countryside retreat.
April Fool
:P Apparently, this is 1 of Goal.com's April Fool's joke. The article sounded plausible at 1st, but then the price of €10m so that Juve can replace Nedved with Malouda started to smell. Nevertheless, if it comes true, I ain't complaining. The Gunners CAN afford this lad if they want him.
Till later, live long & prosper.
The city of Turin is now a warzone after Juventus transfer chief Alessio Secco confirmed that club favourite Sebastian Giovinco will be joining Arsenal in the summer.
1 Apr 2009 11:15:11
Every Juventus fan’s worst nightmare has come true this morning – Sebastian Giovinco – the future of the Bianconeri, has been sold to Arsenal.
The ‘Atomic Ant’ is widely regarded as one of the most exciting young talents in world football, and he is tipped for greatness, both for club-and-country. Giovinco was seen by many Juventini as the heir to the symbolic Alessandro Del Piero, and in March he really exploded into life with a series of magical performances. Only last night, Giovinco was again wowing audiences as he scored in Italy Under-21s 1-1 friendly draw with Holland Under-21’s.
However, there have been reports in the press over the past few months that Juventus were considering selling Giovinco in order to fund a raid for Sampdoria enigma Antonio Cassano.
Juventus sporting director Alessio Secco this morning confirmed that a deal has been completed to sell Giovinco to long-term admirers Arsenal, and that the Old Lady will use the money recouped to sign Chelsea’s Florent Malouda.
“It is no secret that we are actively searching for a replacement at left midfield for the retiring Pavel Nedved, and for this reason we have had to make a tough decision,” explained Secco.
“We did not really want to sell Giovinco, but the truth is that €10m was too good to turn down, and we can use this money to sign Malouda, a world class France international, who will be the perfect successor to Pavel.
“I understand that many fans will be upset by our decision to release Seba, but I say to them, please trust my judgement. I know what I am doing. I feel that Seba is just a little too small to really succeed at the top. He gets pushed around a bit.”
Supporters have refused to trust Secco, who is already enemy No.1 after masterminding a host of disastrous signings, including Sergio Almiron, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Dario Knezevic, and Christian Poulsen.
Around 5000 tifosi have taken to the streets in Turin, and the situation can only be described as utter chaos. Shops have been looted, effigies of Secco, Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, Jean Claude Blanc and Claudio Ranieri burnt, while the house of Secco has been fire-bombed.
Gangs of ultras have gathered outside the club's headquarters in Corso Gallileo Ferraris, armed with slingshots and baseball bats. They are ready to show their ferocious opposition, and the uprisings are likely to continue as the angry protesters have gathered support from other breakaway groups. It is guerilla warfare, as the fans use militia-style tactics in an attempt to overthrow power and destabilise the club following Giovinco's sale.
There are now fears that 20,000 season ticket holders at the Olimpico will turn their back on the club.
Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has spoken of his delight after finally capturing Giovinco.
“I have been trying to buy Giovinco since he was eight-years-old, and I almost got him last summer, but the marriage fell through when Philippe Senderos refused to go in part exchange because he wanted Milan instead.
“But the wait has been worth it, and Giovinco will be a fantastic addition to our squad. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the best youngster in the world after Lionel Messi. He is going to be a legend.”
Sources close to Secco say that he is shaken up by the violence in Turin, and will spend the next few days in hiding at Massimo Moratti's secret countryside retreat.
April Fool
:P Apparently, this is 1 of Goal.com's April Fool's joke. The article sounded plausible at 1st, but then the price of €10m so that Juve can replace Nedved with Malouda started to smell. Nevertheless, if it comes true, I ain't complaining. The Gunners CAN afford this lad if they want him.
Till later, live long & prosper.
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