Ivano

Great read this, if you have mins to spare

https://gentlemanultra.com/2019/02/01/ivano-bonetti-scudetto-winner-and-football-league-trailblazer/

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

Great read this, if you have mins to spare

https://gentlemanultra.com/2019/02/01/ivano-bonetti-scudetto-winner-and-football-league-trailblazer/

As much as I enjoyed watching him play for Town he was hardly a legend, he played less than twenty games for us.

Quoted from promotion plaice

As much as I enjoyed watching him play for Town he was hardly a legend, he played less than twenty games for us.

I agree Cult hero but those 20 games WOW

Good article but unfortunately my eyes dont glaze over with reminiscences of him.
He was a good player but not a great player. Yes he put GTFC on the map for a while, gave us publicity be it good and bad but he could never be called a legend IMO.

He wanted serious money to play in Macca's testimonial. I believe that is standard in Italy, but it didn't sit well with me.

Quoted from promotion plaice

As much as I enjoyed watching him play for Town he was hardly a legend, he played less than twenty games for us.

We're still talking about him and how good he was more than 20 years after he played for us. How does that not give him legendary status?

Quoted from pen penfras

We're still talking about him and how good he was more than 20 years after he played for us. How does that not give him legendary status?

He played in 2 of my favourite Town home games in 40 years of following the Club WBA 1-0 and Luton 7-1

The fans raised £50k, did they not, to release him from third party ownership?

And Ivano paid the other £50k. Have I got that right?

How many modern-day footballers would be willing to do that, and how many players would we be willing to do that for?

The guy played in a Champions League final at Wembley. He looked like he loved playing for us, when all was well.

His skill was clearly undoubted. Yes, wasn't with us for long but, for me, legends are people who are going to be talked about for a long, long time - and Ivano falls in that bracket.

Quoted from RichMariner

The fans raised £50k, did they not, to release him from third party ownership?

And Ivano paid the other £50k. Have I got that right?

How many modern-day footballers would be willing to do that, and how many players would we be willing to do that for?

The guy played in a Champions League final at Wembley. He looked like he loved playing for us, when all was well.

His skill was clearly undoubted. Yes, wasn't with us for long but, for me, legends are people who are going to be talked about for a long, long time - and Ivano falls in that bracket.

If nothing else he was the one man that united every single Town fan to get behind that team for 90 mins the noise from 8k against WBA was ridiculous for the full 90 mins . Even had they had Messi and Ronaldo playing for them that day they would still have lost seldom outside of Anfield on a European night can a clubs fans have won a game . That WBA game had all the right ingredients for the perfect football match from a fan`s point of view and Ivano was pivotal . The roar when Laws put Gilbert into the Findus was spine tingling and the 3 home stands in Unison chanting Mariners was the most moving thing I have ever felt part of at any game ever . Not many Clubs have the fanbase we do were a partizan lot here but if you give us 100% we will back you to the hilt WBA are a much bigger Club but I bet not many of there 1800 fans that day had heard noise like it?

Quoted from 1mickylyons

If nothing else he was the one man that united every single Town fan to get behind that team for 90 mins the noise from 8k against WBA was ridiculous for the full 90 mins . Even had they had Messi and Ronaldo playing for them that day they would still have lost seldom outside of Anfield on a European night can a clubs fans have won a game . That WBA game had all the right ingredients for the perfect football match from a fan`s point of view and Ivano was pivotal . The roar when Laws put Gilbert into the Findus was spine tingling and the 3 home stands in Unison chanting Mariners was the most moving thing I have ever felt part of at any game ever . Not many Clubs have the fanbase we do were a partizan lot here but if you give us 100% we will back you to the hilt WBA are a much bigger Club but I bet not many of there 1800 fans that day had heard noise like it?

thumbs up to that post. ivano , as you might imagine, is a legend in my eyes.Best player, bar none, that i have ever seen in  a Town shirt

My favourite ever town player. Made us dare to dream.

His crossing ability was unreal some of the best I’ve seen at bp he was a joy to watch

Cult hero undoubtedly.....the financial side of it was all a bit suspect to me but as a player he was talented and had the Town buzzing back then.

Quoted from pen penfras

We're still talking about him and how good he was more than 20 years after he played for us. How does that not give him legendary status?

He played 19 games. We talk about him because we don't move on. He does not hold legendary status just a little curio interest based on the fact fans raised the money to buy him and the plate throwing incident. Saying he's a Town legend is a bit of a let down for those over the years that really are.

Quoted from pen penfras

We're still talking about him and how good he was more than 20 years after he played for us. How does that not give him legendary status?

Bang on.

I'm just surprised that we've not had a generation of young Ivano's come through given his exploits at the Pier during his time at the club! He'd be chatting up a different lady every weekend. Well, his interpreter was doing the chatting up, but you get my drift...

Quoted from Maringer

I'm just surprised that we've not had a generation of young Ivano's come through given his exploits at the Pier during his time at the club! He'd be chatting up a different lady every weekend. Well, his interpreter was doing the chatting up, but you get my drift...

Being a big nosed ugly sodomist who couldn’t make himself understood never helped me with women ☹️

There's two sides to the Ivano issue isn't there?

On one hand you've got the Italian winger, full of flair and something of a trailblazer for a foreign player (especially outside the top flight at the time).  We had a good side under Laws, a very good side, but he added that little bit extra to it.  He united the club, the fans, the town in fact.  It felt like Ivano and Laws could lead us to something bigger and better, for a while they allowed us to dream.  Buckley Ball was great, it was entertaining to was David v Goliath but ultimately we never came out on top.  We always came up short when it mattered because we just couldn't compete with the bigger boys and their big budgets.  

Under Laws that attitude changed, we weren't just plucky Grimsby, we had an attitude about us that said we meant business.  We weren't just content to turn up and play pretty football. We wanted to turn up, intercourse excrement up in style and leave with 3 points.  We did all this whilst our star striker was in the treatment room.  

Ivano was a massive part of that, a bloody massive part.  That side had some genuine class in it, but Ivano was the talisman in every sense of the word.  

The flip of the coin is the guy who didn't really care about the club, he was here for a quick buck and by all accounts would have been happy to bleed the club dry.  I'm sure I've read a few ex-players accounts of him saying they soon grew tired of his attitude and disrespect.    The issue around Macca's testimonial left a real sour taste that arguably summed him up to a tee.

I lean more towards the cult hero than legend status.  Someone like Craig Disley, who played at a far lower level is more fitting of a legend status because he got it, he got what it meant to the fans and the people of this area.  Ivano gave us hope but ultimately he was only interested in feeding his own ego and pocket.

It was nice dreaming for a bit though...

Quoted from diehardmariner

There's two sides to the Ivano issue isn't there?

On one hand you've got the Italian winger, full of flair and something of a trailblazer for a foreign player (especially outside the top flight at the time).  We had a good side under Laws, a very good side, but he added that little bit extra to it.  He united the club, the fans, the town in fact.  It felt like Ivano and Laws could lead us to something bigger and better, for a while they allowed us to dream.  Buckley Ball was great, it was entertaining to was David v Goliath but ultimately we never came out on top.  We always came up short when it mattered because we just couldn't compete with the bigger boys and their big budgets.  

Under Laws that attitude changed, we weren't just plucky Grimsby, we had an attitude about us that said we meant business.  We weren't just content to turn up and play pretty football. We wanted to turn up, intercourse excrement up in style and leave with 3 points.  We did all this whilst our star striker was in the treatment room.  

Ivano was a massive part of that, a bloody massive part.  That side had some genuine class in it, but Ivano was the talisman in every sense of the word.  

The flip of the coin is the guy who didn't really care about the club, he was here for a quick buck and by all accounts would have been happy to bleed the club dry.  I'm sure I've read a few ex-players accounts of him saying they soon grew tired of his attitude and disrespect.    The issue around Macca's testimonial left a real sour taste that arguably summed him up to a tee.

I lean more towards the cult hero than legend status.  Someone like Craig Disley, who played at a far lower level is more fitting of a legend status because he got it, he got what it meant to the fans and the people of this area.  Ivano gave us hope but ultimately he was only interested in feeding his own ego and pocket.

It was nice dreaming for a bit though...

That`s how I also see it and Ivano has never come back which is a shame because the fans love him.

If he was here for a quick buck, I'm not sure why he would pay £50k himself to play for us.

I think the payment for testimonials is embedded in Italian culture and just different to us, not necessarily mean per se.

Bonetti in the pier  
Did anybody see Enzo Gambaro in the pier? Might explain why he never played for us. Or was he unlucky that he played right back

Quoted from 316[b

]The fans raised £50k, did they not, to release him from third party ownership?

And Ivano paid the other £50k. Have I got that right?
[/b]
How many modern-day footballers would be willing to do that, and how many players would we be willing to do that for?

The guy played in a Champions League final at Wembley. He looked like he loved playing for us, when all was well.

His skill was clearly undoubted. Yes, wasn't with us for long but, for me, legends are people who are going to be talked about for a long, long time - and Ivano falls in that bracket.

His players registration was held by a consortium ( third party ? ) but he was part of that consortium. He was in fact partly paying himself.

I never actually saw him in the same adulation as a lot of fans did. Although obviously a very good footballer I felt that there was a " bit of a conman " about him. It still rankles me that the " incident " with Laws was partly precipitated by Ivano being more bothered about the club paying for him to fly back to Italy than the fact that we had thrown away a lead to end up being beaten. He was a high maintainance player with all his living costs at Kenwick Park being covered by the club. We also had to pay for a full time interpreter as he spoke very little English and he insisted on the club paying for his visits back to Italy.

Are you telling me that the club didn’t know what it was getting?

Yes, high maintenance maybe. But why should that have been a surprise? The guy had Champions League experience. He was highly paid all his career. He should have never ended up in a place like Grimsby but he did.

We didn’t have to take him. Laws didn’t have to play him if he thought he was going to be difficult or divisive.

But clearly the club and Laws felt the benefits outweighed the negatives and it’s a bit rich to now criticise his demeanour when we knew exactly what we were trying to buy.

Quoted from RichMariner

Are you telling me that the club didn’t know what it was getting?

Yes, high maintenance maybe. But why should that have been a surprise? The guy had Champions League experience. He was highly paid all his career. He should have never ended up in a place like Grimsby but he did.

We didn’t have to take him. Laws didn’t have to play him if he thought he was going to be difficult or divisive.

But clearly the club and Laws felt the benefits outweighed the negatives and it’s a bit rich to now criticise his demeanour when we knew exactly what we were trying to buy.

There is a world of difference between accepting the high maintenance of a player and then seeing that abused and used to the extreme.
You say that he should never have ended up at a place like Grimsby but maybe he saw us as a soft touch and the management didn't realise beforehand how manipulative and divisive he was. It's all water under the bridge now but I , for one , don't get gooey eyed when I think about him. We have had many good players in my time of watching town but I will always remember Ivano as the player who precipitated an ugly dressing room scene that got the club noticed for all the wrong reasons.

Quoted from rancido

There is a world of difference between accepting the high maintenance of a player and then seeing that abused and used to the extreme.
You say that he should never have ended up at a place like Grimsby but maybe he saw us as a soft touch and the management didn't realise beforehand how manipulative and divisive he was. It's all water under the bridge now but I , for one , don't get gooey eyed when I think about him. We have had many good players in my time of watching town but I will always remember Ivano as the player who precipitated an ugly dressing room scene that got the club noticed for all the wrong reasons.

You choose to remember that rather than the WBA or Luton games?

Quoted from rancido

His players registration was held by a consortium ( third party ? ) but he was part of that consortium. He was in fact partly paying himself.

I never actually saw him in the same adulation as a lot of fans did. Although obviously a very good footballer I felt that there was a " bit of a conman " about him. It still rankles me that the " incident " with Laws was partly precipitated by Ivano being more bothered about the club paying for him to fly back to Italy than the fact that we had thrown away a lead to end up being beaten. He was a high maintainance player with all his living costs at Kenwick Park being covered by the club. We also had to pay for a full time interpreter as he spoke very little English and he insisted on the club paying for his visits back to Italy.

Not all his living costs.  I worked in the health club at Kenwick and he used to pay for the sun beds  

Quoted from 1mickylyons

You choose to remember that rather than the WBA or Luton games?

Yes because I can recall many memorable games before Ivano came but only the one incident that made the national press for the wrong reasons. Wasn't it also a Luton game that lead to " chickengate "?
The guy was a gifted footballer but also a conman and sadly it seems he has conned some of our supporters into thinking he was some kind of " superman ". I would rather remember  Paul Futcher and Matt Tees who served our club rather than Ivano and his 20 game cameo.

He chickened out and would have been happy to deny a great clubman 20 grand, the greedy illegitimate.

great player. Only behind Trevor Whymark and Lord Paul of Futcherland, as the best footballers Ive seen at GY.