By The Holy Power Of Simone Perrotta's Contract Renewal

Simone's inked through 2013, or age 47.

I am of the belief that with a decent pair of finishing boots, Simone Perrotta would've been the best footballer since Jesus - the carpenter, not the real one - and his game under the Spalletti system, largely based around Perrotta, not Totti, was some of the best football off the ball footballing we're ever likely to see. (I'm gushing from a completely biased perch and I won't apologize.)

That said, he doesn't seem to be atop Luis' list of desired skill sets, despite Enrique's own gushing at the beginning of his tenure. Which leads one to believe that he might be getting a team mascot contract as the grizzled, wise veteran with the coach's bent to help usher in the new generation, rather fitting since it's entirely possible he fathered Valerio Verre. So another set of managerial eyes on the training pitch type with the occasional clattering pinball to boot. Or: Christian Panucci...if you remove his entire personality.

Intriguing on the contract end is the '+bonuses' portion, since they were famed back in the day. I suspect the bonuses of the current regime differ greatly from that past era, when players could max out contract potential with such goals as spells name correctly, showers once a week and stays away from Belen Rodriguez's polluted area(s) (team wide, you'd be surprised to know) - things of that nature.

Like this time they might actually have to achieve something. Which is @#$%in' lame, let's be honest.

Luis Enrique

If Barcelona wants him, he's probably as good as gone. They're a perfect fit for him and he's a perfect fit for them, this before considering his history. The only question is whether or not they deem him good enough to be Pep 2.0. (Jury's out.)

And frankly, he'd be an idiot not to accept - not everyone gets the chance to coach Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta individually, much less all together in one of the greatest club sides to ever grace the sport.

Watch Pep's space.

Changes

Oh, right. This is new longer the Roma Offside, for the visually or otherwise challenged. SB Nation bought TO awhile back and this site is the first to transition - out of pity for the long suffering of being a Roma fan, I imagine. The old roma.theoffside.com URL will automatically redirect over here within the next couple weeks, and that page will...well, I don't really know. But all posts and comments are here, archived, as can be seen here, here, here and here. (?)

Also, still Chris, in case you couldn't tell by that completely bitchin' Microsoft Paint-aided formation special from the Parma GameThread (of which there will be many).

A couple quick features on the outset:

FanShots - "Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web."

FanPosts - The name is self-explanatory.

This, I think, is the biggest difference between The Offside and SB Nation. These pages are for everyone to use - me, you, your mom and that transsexual rodeo clown you keep in the trundle under the bed. So post away, link away, chat away and be awesome - just keep it relatively kosher.

There will be more as I come to it - they're new digs for me as well.