River Plate Blades

[Terry Poole]

 

[Terry Poole]

 

[Terry Poole]

 

[Grappler]

Been to Buenos Aires (and Puerto Belgrano and Ushuaia). An incredible place. The Argentines are a wonderful bunch, a real mix of old Italian fireyness and new world gaucho cool.

But when it comes to football its somewhat different. If you think we hate the pigs to the limit of human endeavour, you should see how much they hate each other in BA. They breathe, piss, shit and bleed football and their loyalty and passion is the stuff of legend.

pommpey

Blade that I used to work with went to a Boca Juniors vs River Plate game, and said it was the scariest atmosphere he has ever known.

 

[Silent Blade]

Blade that I used to work with went to a Boca Juniors vs River Plate game, and said it was the scariest atmosphere he has ever known.

Tony Pritchett, Harry Haslam and Antonio Rattin (we used him as an agent to find us Argentinian players) went to the below match. Sabella was playing for River and Passarella was sent off

http://www.historiadeboca.com.ar/partido/boca-1-river-0-torneo-metropolitano-1978/1742.html

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Tony Pritchett, Harry Haslam and Antonio Rattin (we used him as an agent to find us Argentinian players) went to the below match. Sabella was playing for River and Passarella was sent off

http://www.historiadeboca.com.ar/partido/boca-1-river-0-torneo-metropolitano-1978/1742.html

After the 1966 World Cup, Rattin was public enemy number 1 in the British press. He was in Sheffield for the River Plate game, and it was one of life's surprises to find that he came across as a really nice, friendly guy, rather than the pantomime villain he had been painted as.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Shame as we could have had a Sheffield born Argentinian superstars offspring playing for us twenty years later !

Any photos from your role as River plate guide ?

No photos, I'm afraid, but lots of good memories. I interpreted the speeches after the Dinner at the Cutlers Hall, and before the speeches began, the Master of Ceremonies banged his hammer on the table, and announced 'Ladies and gentlemen, you may now smoke'. As all the entourage and most of the players had been smoking throughout, when I did the translation they thought I was the comic turn, which stood me in good stead when it came to trying to translate some of Harry Haslam's jokes!
The attachment is a pic of one of the pages from the programme, which I got well autographed.

 

[Terry Poole]

Unless Gonzalez was exceptionally fast, Miss Blades' honour remained intact, as both teams got to the Cutlers Hall soon after the match - the River Plate team and entourage had to leave early the next morning for their flight. One or two of their players fancied their chances with Sheffield lasses, but I don't think any succumbed.

View attachment 39430
No photos, I'm afraid, but lots of good memories. I interpreted the speeches after the Dinner at the Cutlers Hall, and before the speeches began, the Master of Ceremonies banged his hammer on the table, and announced 'Ladies and gentlemen, you may now smoke'. As all the entourage and most of the players had been smoking throughout, when I did the translation they thought I was the comic turn, which stood me in good stead when it came to trying to translate some of Harry Haslam's jokes!
The attachment is a pic of one of the pages from the programme, which I got well autographed.

Classic - what a great gig and great memories. I have a menu from that dinner somewhere so will post a picture of it. Hold onto that programme !

I quized Edward, Kenworthy and Stainrod on the worst manager of their United career and they all seemed to rate haslam and particularly begera even though the soon got rid of ke. They didn't rate Sirrell and tk hated peters for obvious reasons. So maybe haslam got a bad press getting us relegated more or less to the 4th.

 

[Terry Poole]

 

[Keen Blade]

I have several Olympiacos shirts.

I spend a fair bit of time in Greece and whilst a few of the people I know support Panathanaikos most are Olympiacos fans.

You should see the rivalry in the small village I go to in Crete when they play each other at basketball!

I don't wear Olympiacos or Blades shirts in Crete any more, ever since I was spat at by a guy in a green tea shirt in Agios Nikolaos whilst wearing a Blades shirt.

I would have expected the advocates of green tea to be more polite.

 

[Maidenhead]

I would have expected the advocates of green tea to be more polite.

I'd missed the 10 minute edit deadline when I noticed that.

Thought I'd got away with it though

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Classic - what a great gig and great memories. I have a menu from that dinner somewhere so will post a picture of it. Hold onto that programme !

I quized Edward, Kenworthy and Stainrod on the worst manager of their United career and they all seemed to rate haslam and particularly begera even though the soon got rid of ke. They didn't rate Sirrell and tk hated peters for obvious reasons. So maybe haslam got a bad press getting us relegated more or less to the 4th.

I would love to see the menu. Were you there, or is that a state secret? I don't remember what we ate, as I was very nervous, and used the alcohol for Dutch courage.
I found Haslam to be very funny, and he was on the crest of a wave, with Sabella's signing and the victory over Liverpool on the day River Plate arrived; little did we know how the season would end. He wound me up for 2 days that I wouldn't be able to translate his speech - professional interpreters, which I am not, get advanced copies of speeches, but all I got was this 'threat'. As it turned out, he told a series of Irish jokes, pretty well impossible to translate without advance warning, so I turned the jokes into incidents poking fun at him. The Argentinians appeared amused, he was happy that they laughed, and as far as I know, there was only one person in the room with a good command of both languages, and he said that in the circumstances, I was gentle on Harry Haslam. I did find him fun, though.
My worst gaff was in my panic at the beginning of the speeches, having told them that they could smoke when they had been smoking throughout the meal, the MC then invited the toast 'Ladies and gentlemen, the Queen'. In Spanish, without the word for toast in the invitation, it sounds totally different, and at least half of them turned round to look at the double doors expecting the Queen to walk in!