06/07/2024 27comments  |  Jump to last

Everton's final pre-season opponents will be AS Roma at Goodison Park the Club have now confirmed.

A TV listing by beIN Sport Australia leaked the news last week that the Blues would be facing the Italian Serie A club owned by the Friedkin Group, the prospective buyer of Farhad Moshiri's majority stake, on Saturday 10 August in the traditional home friendly against a top Continental club prior to the kick-off to the new season.

Both Everton and Roma begin their domestic seasons the following weekend.

Dan Friedkin is the president of Roma and so a game between the two clubs his firm might end up owning would make sense.

Article continues below video content


Having entered into a period of exclusivity with Moshiri, the Friedkin Group are currently doing their due dilligence of Everton's accounts while the Premier League assess them against the Owners' and Directors' Test by which they expect to be approved for the takeover in the coming weeks.

 

Reader Comments (27)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()


Danny O’Neill
1 Posted 07/07/2024 at 06:36:00
I thought we'd have another friendly against an international team. The fact that it is Roma pleases me. My favourite Italian team.

I'd rather it was played in Roma as it's one of my favourite cities. I also think this signals that this ownership issue is closing in on Everton in my opinion. Not long to go before the season starts.

Annika Herbert
2 Posted 07/07/2024 at 06:59:44
I was hoping it would be Fiorentina, Danny, as they are my favourite Italian team and I love Florence.

But I have to admit Rome is nice too.

Gerry Quinn
3 Posted 07/07/2024 at 07:13:01
All together now…

"Arrivederci Roma"

Jack Convery
4 Posted 07/07/2024 at 08:44:33
Sounds good. However, is it Roma fans that the RS have had problems with in the past?
Allen Rodgers
5 Posted 07/07/2024 at 09:23:15
Danny, Fiorentina are playing PNE on Sat 27 July at Deepdale.
Eric Myles
6 Posted 07/07/2024 at 09:36:11
My Italian team is Inter.

Milan is a great city with great people.

I've visited a couple of times but was lucky enough to be sent there for work also a couple of times.

Ed Prytherch
7 Posted 07/07/2024 at 14:35:46
Funny how people have opposite experiences.

I worked in Rome for 7 months in 1974 and loved the city and I have visited Italy many times since.

Milan is the only Italian city that I vowed never to return to. Too much traffic and noise and too little patience. The New York City of Italy.

Mike Doyle
8 Posted 07/07/2024 at 15:14:10
Ed (7),

I really like Rome too. The only place in Italy I wouldn't return to is Venice.

From a tourist perspective, I'd say it is overpriced and overrated – and the service was fairly poor.

Danny O’Neill
9 Posted 07/07/2024 at 15:30:59
I would totally agree on the comment about Milano. A soulless place. Firenze (Florence) is beautiful. We lived out there for two years, although I spent a lot of time away.

We were only half an hour south of Roma. I went to watch both, but took to Roma. The Lazio fans were fascist.

If anyone visits Roma, there is a small town called Anzio. Go to the harbour and enjoy the best seafood ever. There is a place owned by a guy called Walter. Strange name for an Italian, but speaks perfect English!

As for Scilla, that was interesting. I woke up, went to the car for a day out. Wouldn't start. Next thing two blokes arrived on a scooter. We opened the bonnet and the battery was missing. But low and behold they had one. My one! They fitted it for me at cost!!!

Paul Kossoff
10 Posted 07/07/2024 at 23:19:26
Danny 9.

The Battle of Anzio cost the Americans nearly 24,000 combat casualties and the British nearly 10,000. The Allies also suffered 37,000 noncombat casualties, an unusually high number for an engagement in the European theatre. Many of these non-battlefield losses were caused by malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases that were endemic to the marshes in the beachhead area. The Germans suffered some 27,500

On the day of the landing, however, the Italian government agreed to the Allies' secret terms for a capitulation. It was understood that Italy would be treated with leniency in direct proportion to the part that it would take, as soon as possible, in the war against Germany. The Italian surrender was announced on September 8

My Dad fought at Anzio. "Hell on earth" he described it as.

Colin Glassar
11 Posted 07/07/2024 at 23:45:10
Paul, my dad also fought at Anzio where he was severely wounded. He never forgave the American generals, Lucas and Clark, for not moving out from the beach on day one when there were no enemy troops for miles around. They could’ve cut the road from Rome to Monte Casino and shortened the war by several months but they were told to dig in and wait.

You know what happened after that; Anzio Annie, wave after wave of attacks from the fanatical panzer Lehr division and Hitler youth, constant bombardment etc… Anzio is not fondly remembered in my family.

Walter Zenga the great goalie is Italian. Not an uncommon name in he German speaking north.

Mike Gaynes
12 Posted 07/07/2024 at 00:05:47
Rome. Wondrous memories. Visiting as a backpacker with my brother 50 years ago this spring. Returning with my wife 10 years ago and revelling in the sidewalk cafes in Trastevere and dawn at the Trevi Fountain.

Returning again in 2018 with a touring choir, performing in St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, then later holing up in a family restaurant during a wild thunderstorm and "singing for our supper" to the owners all afternoon while they plied us with incredible food and way too much limoncello.

And Audrey and Greg on a scooter in Roman Holiday.

Ah, Roma.

Eric Myles
13 Posted 08/07/2024 at 02:03:03
Nobody likes Milan? Wow!

I stayed in a local area about 20 minutes walk from the centre and it was great. Friendly locals and local restaurants with great food, and beer, local beer made on the premises, not the mass-produced Peroni crap. Canal walks with local flea markets along the banks, it reminded me of Paris.

And of course the San Siro is a fantastic stadium.

Only traffic noise was from the train line that went by.

Rome, meh! Although I did stay in a nice local area there just by the Stadio Olimpico.

Like Mike #8, I passed on the chance to return to Venice.

Mike Gaynes
14 Posted 08/07/2024 at 04:49:56
Sorry, Eric, we sang in the Duomo di Milano as well, but the spectacular cathedral acoustics were the only thing about the city that anybody liked. Even the food wasn't good.

By the way, if anybody is going to Rome, I found the name of that incredible family restaurant near Vatican City -- Ristorante Bar dei Museo Pizzeria Massa, walking distance from the Vatican Museum. Tell Maria the drunken California choir says hi.

Eric Myles
15 Posted 08/07/2024 at 05:51:03
You obviously didn't try the city's signature dish, Mike, the Milanese pork chop.
Colin Glassar
16 Posted 08/07/2024 at 06:50:34
Italy, north to south, east to west, is just great. A country I could easily retire to. Love the language, food, people, history, culture etc…
Paul Ferry
17 Posted 08/07/2024 at 07:21:39
The history isn't really that great after the Renaissance Colin.

I love. randomly driving in Southern Italy despised arrogantly by the Milanese, Florentines, Romans, Venetians etc, as backward ignorant peasants. Watch Christ Stopped at Eboli. That's the soul of Italy, closer to its heel. That's where the best Italians are - Pietrapertosa, Positano. Castelmezzano, Atrani, Pietrapertosa, Tropea, Bova,

And, then as Danny say, get on a boat to Sicily - Erice, Cefalu, Taormina, and Bagheria, where the greatest film of all time - Cinema Paradiso (the director's cut is essential) - was mainly filmed.

Bergamo is my number one North Italian town. Bologna is second. The rest I don't really care about, except for Firenze and Trieste.

Colin Glassar
18 Posted 08/07/2024 at 07:26:04
No one’s perfect, Paul 😉
Mike Gaynes
19 Posted 08/07/2024 at 07:36:49
Nah, Eric, they gave us local veal and their famous risotto. I'm not a fan of osso buco, and as a diabetic I avoid rice.

So the best thing I ate that night was a Clif Bar from my backpack. Only miserable meal on the whole 4-country tour.

Paul Ferry
20 Posted 08/07/2024 at 08:05:58
... and Sienna, sorry.
Danny O’Neill
21 Posted 08/07/2024 at 08:06:21
Italy is as beautiful as she is frustrating. The people are colourful and I always used to say, if they didn't have hands, they probably couldn't talk.

And I'm convinced, through experience, an Italian male would rather get knocked down crossing the road rather than run to avoid an approaching car as that would look uncool!

A nation of very different parts. The north, which has long campaigned for a separate state. The Sud Tirol, where I go Ski-ing. Previously part of Austria, but ceded to Italy after WW1, but still predominantly German-speaking and Austrian in culture.

Then you have Napoli and the south. They are like different countries. I went to Sardinia as well. I'd recommend it to all.

And as for the driving, that was an experience and you just had to join in otherwise you wouldn't get anywhere. Road marking and traffic lights? Waste of paint and pointless!! Loved the place.

Tony Abrahams
22 Posted 08/07/2024 at 08:14:31
With those little motorbikes everywhere, I did just that on the way to watching Everton play in Fiorentina, Danny, and in the pissing down rain, one of my tyres blew out!
Duncan McDine
23 Posted 08/07/2024 at 08:50:07
Glad to see that we've got a decent opposition at Goodison Park for the final pre-season friendly, and it gives hope that the takeover is on track. It will certainly be one of the last trips to the old lady for me (and I don't mean that in a kind of Wayne Rooney way).

This thread has become a bit 'TripAdvisor' however. Each poster trying to prove that they're the go-to Italian guide for ToffeeWeb. I didn't notice this kind of behaviour when the Coventry game was announced!

The food, weather, people, culture might all be great in Italy, but their ska bands are shite.

Phil (Kelsall) Roberts
24 Posted 08/07/2024 at 15:11:33
Napoli. A place described as a Negation of God by Disraeli (Never forgot that one from A-level History) and also the first manufacturing site I went to where the guys at the gatehouse were armed.

Milano for me in October. First time since my boss was changed to someone in Vlaardingen in 2002.

Eric Myles
26 Posted 09/07/2024 at 02:42:36
Duncan #23, this article's in the Rumour Mill section, so it might not happen yet.

Maybe we should be on the Roma forum giving them advice as to the best pubs and eats in Liverpool.

Danny O’Neill
27 Posted 14/07/2024 at 20:17:42
We used to have our Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Commonwealth Cemeteries in Anzio, where I was stationed. We would then move to Netunno, where the Americans laid theirs to rest and pay our respects.
I once hosted the Scots Guards on a battlefield tour around the area alongside an Italian guide.

I go to Iper (Ypres) often. Those visits are very sobering.

Napoli is chaotic. I used to jokingly call it 1980s Liverpool in the sun!!!

Bill Watson
28 Posted 14/07/2024 at 00:06:20
Danny #21

We travelled all over Italy in the 1970s and 1980s and were told by a B&B owner, in Naples, that red traffic lights were only advisory and the driver who blew the horn first had right of way.
It seemed a bit tongue in cheek but that's how it seemed to work in practice.
The other thing to watch out for was Fiat 500s, undertaking you on the pavement!


Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.



How to get rid of these ads and support TW

© ToffeeWeb