Rage Online Blog

The hilarious ramifications of Faustino Asprilla's abortive move to Darlington are explored in full in this article in the Guardian, Apparently Tino was going to be paid £17,000 a week - quite a lot by Division Three standards - and his arrival at Feethams was alleged to have made players such as Nicky Summerbee and Denis Wise consider moving to the North East, as well as a rekindling of the Paul Gascoigne rumours. George Reynolds is going to have to try and think of another gimmick to get the Darlington public to fill the new stadium.

Labels: Darlington, Faustino Asprilla

One or two interesting pieces in today's Observer. Possibly the most worrying is the story that Darlington are hoping to sign Faustino Asprilla, who is apparently a personal friend of chairman George Reynolds. Thankfully we've already played Darlo, so we only have to worry about him when they visit the KasStad, although it is always disappointing to hear of our rivals attempts to climb out of this division ahead of us. It's one way to fill their new stadium, but I'd rather that their problem was how to fill it in the Conference.

There is also an interesting article by Steve Baines, the only referee who used to be a professional footballer. He makes the point that, with so many players (over 550) currently looking for clubs, some of them should consider taking up refereeing as they will have a particular advantage that they can bring to the job. Baines took charge of two Oxford games last season - the win at Hartlepool and the scoreless draw at home to Bristol Rovers.

Wimbledon supporters will be heartened by the news that there is a possibility of their relocation proposal being reconsidered. A report submitted by the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association (WISA) has shown considerable discrepencies between the evidence submitted to the independent commission by the club to support their application to move and the accounts submitted two months later. If it can be shown that the commission was misled by the club then there could well be a point for having the case reheard.

Finally there is a fascinating story about the problems besetting the Italian League, and the quite Machiavellian influence that Silvio Berlusconi wields over the procedings, being chairman of AC Milan, owner of a couple of media companies, oh, and Prime Minister of the whole blooming country too...

Labels: AFC Wimbledon, Darlington, Faustino Asprilla, referees, Steve Baines

Good news for Darlington comes with the news that former Carlisle chairman Michael Knighton has declined an opportunity to work for them. In fact, according to the Nationwide League web site, Knighton (who was at Feethams on Saturday to watch Darlo lose to United) has said that he has no plans to own a football club for at least the next three or four years, although the bad news is that he has threatened always to be involved in the game. Shame.

Labels: Darlington, Michael Knighton