Massimo Taibbi had a brief tenure Manchester United Between 1999 and 2000. The Italian never really made an impact, but still regrets his departure.

Taibi joins Red Devils from Venezia £4.5 million, which was a significant amount at that time. Soon after his arrival he put in a famous performance against Liverpool but things were disappointing in other games.

He was nicknamed ‘The Blind Venetian’ after the English press criticized his inability to save shots. Only six months after moving to Manchester United, he joined Reggina on loan before performing very well at Atalanta.

Now, the former goalkeeper has opened up about his time at Old Trafford.

good relations with ferguson

in an interview with gazzetta dello sportTaibi revealed how the move was taken.

He also revealed his good relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson, despite his occasional hair dryer treatment.

“It was a spectacle. It was 1999, I arrived in Manchester as a semi-unknown. They wanted to sign Toldo first, then when I was playing for Venezia they bought me. And Sir Alex even came to pick me up at the airport and introduced me to the whole management.

“It was 8 o’clock at night, no idea about it. We had a good relationship, although at half-time of that 5-0 Chelsea-Manchester United game he gave me a dirty look which I still remember.”

Giving more details about the 5–0 defeat to Chelsea, Taibi said that Ferguson was angry at half-time.

“I made a mistake and conceded a goal. At halftime, he turned the locker room upside down. When he got angry, he shook the walls. He took it out on everyone, even me. He looked at me badly and said, ‘Massimo, that’s a save…’ But he would keep me in check.”

The former goalkeeper clarified that he should not have left the club permanently. He had to attend to a family emergency but signed a four-year deal with Manchester United.

“I was the one who made the mistake of leaving. I had a family problem in Italy and I was in a hurry to resolve it.”

Describing his exit as his biggest regret, he said: “Yes, I had a four-year contract. I was the best player on the pitch at Liverpool, then I made the mistake I was telling you about.

“Ferguson advised me to learn the language and play my cards right. I was wrong to be impulsive.”

Our opinion: Departure decision changed Taibi’s career

At that time, Manchester United was slowly moving towards a change in the goalkeeping department. Taibi’s decision to leave was his own and it was not that he was forced out.

Had he managed to weather the storm, he could have become the club’s first-choice in the long term. Admittedly, his life in England had a difficult start, but as he himself says – there was a lot of promise there.

The Italian media have found themselves in the line of fire for helping to embarrass Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario this week.

La Gazzetta dello Sport Report on the Tottenham goalkeeper today after an incident on social media went viral for the wrong reasons.

The Tottenham goalkeeper was seen celebrating with his Italy teammates in front of the TV this week as they watched Wales lose to Bosnia on penalties in the World Cup play-off.

Italy took a wrong step

According to the Gazzetta report, the Italian team celebrated the elimination of the ‘favourite Welsh’.

RAI cameras were watching them, filming the reactions of the Tottenham goalkeeper and others in the player’s lounge. They were present in public due to their families being at the game.

This incident was particularly disliked in Bosnia. He saw this reaction as arrogance on the part of Italians.

According to Gazzetta, the issue risked becoming a ‘scandal’ but has mostly turned into ‘nonsense’.

Italy and their players are trying to play it down ahead of the game in Bosnia. It is likely to be ‘the most challenging in recent memory’ for Italians.

RAI in the firing line

Vicario and his associates did not help even a bit. But according to Fabio Ravazzani, director of Tellalombardia, it is a matter of opinion.

Instead of condemning the Tottenham goalkeeper and his teammates, he questioned what Italian TV stations were doing.

“The (serious) mistake was to steal these images and circulate them as if we were on Big Brother,” Tutto Juve reports him as saying.

“That’s the thing. The pictures of the celebration, filmed without his knowledge and broadcast after being recorded, certainly hindered Bosnia’s visit. It was RAI’s own goal to broadcast them.”

The pressure is now on Italy, who face a big and tough game in Bosnia, against a team and crowd they have only helped to inspire. Luckily for Vicario, the questions being asked are why someone knows this rather than why they did it.

Philadelphia 76ers fans may be having flashbacks of a brutal end to the 2024-25 season, as injuries have ravaged their roster, leaving them extremely vulnerable against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Joel Embiid, and Paul George all sat out, and as expected, they were defeated by the Cavs, 115–101, in a game that was not as close as the final score line would indicate.

What makes matters worse is that the ghost of a transaction that could haunt the 76ers franchise for some time is making its presence felt. Earlier in the night, the 76ers jumbotron showed the team’s almost unrecognizable starting lineup against the Cavs, with Cameron Payne starting at point guard amid the team’s injury problems. The problem, however, is that they put Payne’s photo on the graphic instead of showing it a picture of Jared McCain has been replaced in his place.

Yes – the same McCain the 76ers traded for with the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trade deadline last month.

Via Q Carlin of Sixers Wire:

I look at the jumbotron as the intro starts and…that’s not Cam Payne #sixers pic.twitter.com/m8QOtpzFlg

– Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) 9 March 2026

The 76ers could use Jared McCain right now

The 76ers believed they had enough safety depth to the extent that they were comfortable trading McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder for some draft picks.

However, in today’s NBA where injury problems are a daily occurrence, the 76ers could have maintained that depth at least until the end of the season. Instead, the 76ers decided to avoid the tax, trade some picks for McCain, and sacrifice a valuable young member of their core in the process.

Amidst the 76ers’ injuries, someone like McCann could step up and take on leadership responsibilities just as he did when he flourished during his rookie campaign. But now, with the Thunder benefiting from McCann’s excellent outside shooting, Philly has nothing but what they had, but no longer have.

On Saturday evening, the Golden State Warriors suffered a tough loss in a closely contested match against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The good news for the Warriors was that Kristaps Porzingis was able to return in this game after missing several games due to illness, and the team was able to stay closer than expected against the defending champions.

Recently, head coach Steve Kerr made headlines for his comments on 95.7 The Game, in which he spoke in detail about Porzingis’ alleged illness, which is reported to have stemmed from POTS.

“I read about the POTS diagnosis and called the Hawks [general manager] Onsie Saleh,” Kerr said. “He’s a good friend of mine and I said ‘Is this Potts story real?’ He said it’s not really Potts. That was some misinformation that was out there,” Kerr said, according to Sports Illustrated’s Joey Ackley.

Kerr has since apologized for these comments, and now, Porzingis is speaking out on them.

“Yeah, it wasn’t ideal because again he put something out so people could start talking about it. But, again, I told Steve, it’s OK. I know he didn’t mean anything, he didn’t want to publicize something about my health. He just said what he knew at this time and yes, honestly, it’s OK,” Porzingis said, according to NBC Sports Bay Area and California on YouTube.

Porzingis was brought to the Warriors from the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline in exchange for Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga. Porzingis has appeared in only two games so far for the Warriors due to illness, which also caused him to miss several contests during his brief tenure in Atlanta.

The Warriors will hope that Porzingis will be able to stay on the field moving forward. They next hit the road on Monday evening against the Utah Jazz.

The Miami Heat put forth a great effort in the second half, but ultimately failed to get the job done and lost 124-117 to the Philadelphia 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday.

The Heat came back from a 16-point deficit at halftime to take an 81–80 lead midway through the third quarter. The 76ers took control of the game before the Heat once again took the driver’s seat 117–116 with only 2:44 left in the final frame.

But that was the last time he scored, as Philadelphia escaped with a hard-fought victory.

As for Bam Adebayo, it was clear that he doomed himself with his poor performance in the first half.

“We didn’t play hard enough,” Adebayo said, as quoted by Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.

“We didn’t work hard enough, brother. I mean, I don’t know how to explain effort.”

It was not clear whether Adebayo, 28, was upset or frustrated, but it seemed as if he wanted to sound the alarm. He has always been vocal and accountable after a loss, knowing that he is the leader of the team.

The Heat, who lost 31–29, lost Norman Powell in the first half with a groin injury.

They allowed the 76ers to score 73 points in the first half, as Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Kelly Oubre Jr. were on the offensive end.

Overall, Philadelphia shot 48% from the field and scored 50 points in the paint.

Adebayo had 29 points on 10 of 20 shooting, 14 rebounds and three assists. Tyler Herro added 25 points, four rebounds and seven assists off the bench.

The Sacramento Kings have not been the best team this season. In fact, if you look at the record they are one of the worst teams in the league, as they are currently 13-46 and in last place in the Western Conference standings. Things are probably about to get even worse for them, as they have closed out their top two playerDomantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine for the remainder of the season due to injuries.

When you’re one of the worst teams in the league, people make fun of you. That’s what happened to the Kings recently, but in the most bizarre fashion, it happened while a reporter was talking to Coby White about the idea of ​​adding him to the team.

The reporter asked, “Is there any appreciation of ‘Hey, they could have sent me to Sacramento’.”

“Yo, come on bro,” White said, laughing.

Reporter: “Is there any appreciation for ‘Hey, they could have sent me to Sacramento'”.

Coby White: “Yo, come on bro.”

The king is catching stray animals 😭

(via @british_buzz)pic.twitter.com/vN5WNFBmzN

– ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) 25 February 2026

At this point, it doesn’t seem like either player would want to be traded to the Kings, especially with the uncertainty surrounding their future. Things have been rough since last season, when Mike Brown was fired, and De’Aaron Fox was traded, and the expectation was that things would improve this season with the arrival of new pieces.

Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse, and the only big positive from this year is that they’ll have a chance to be the top pick in the upcoming draft.

As far as the current roster, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they traded away some of their key players in the offseason, like Sabonis, in order to acquire assets in return. This would signal a true rebuild for the Kings, and given the way things have been going the past few years, it might be the best decision for them.

If they don’t do this, there is every possibility that they will become the laughingstock of the league.