Re: The Official Roma Thread

by McLewis Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:57 am

I don't actually. I don't believe the problems we're having are caused by him largely. I am in the extreme minority with that stance. I believe too many of the players are weak in mentality, especially the more experienced ones. We could have Pep coaching this team and if we're not up to snuff psychologically, the tactics don't matter. We will lose far more than expected. That's pretty much this season in a nutshell.

I get that EDF will probably get the sack as the coach ultimately is the scapegoat in this situation, right, wrong or indifferent. I just don't think it's his fault. This happened under literally every coach going all the way back to Spalletti's first stint back in 2007. That tells me it's not a coaching problem. Its a player problem. Can't fix that if we keep replacing the coach. What we kee doing is pretty much the definition of insanity.

by McLewis Wed Feb 06, 2019 2:04 am

My thoughts on Raggi's Stadium announcement after umpteen announcements of the same kind:

The Official Roma Thread - Page 9 Giphy

by Arquitecto Wed Feb 06, 2019 7:09 am

I remember when Stadio della Roma was announced to be completed in 2017; and that seemed so far away at the time yet Roma is not even close to beginning construction as the chances this year are even doubtful.

If it helps in my knowledge of the city, the fact that the stadio is even given the go-ahead is a miracle given the deeply layered politics, landlords, cronyism, and the overall outstanding chaos of the bustling city that fights for each square yard of its spread, to death.

Therefore despite Roma's importance to the city of Roma itself, a Romanista should be rather grateful that prospect is brought up.

Raggi on the other hand has proven to be an outstanding mayor in one of the world's most difficult cities to run despite some impending questions upon her, and has shown to definitely desire the construction and completion of the project given its innumerable benefits that it will provide the city as a whole.

And what a stadium it will be.

by McLewis Wed Feb 06, 2019 10:28 pm

One hopes. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop from someone else that has an objection to this. I mean, we've heard it all over the years. I hope this is the real thing, but I am deeply skeptical and will probably remain so until ground is broken.

by McLewis Tue Feb 12, 2019 10:04 pm

The bidding war for Zaniolo is going to be juicy AF.

by McLewis Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:40 am

Roma president James Pallotta gave an extensive interview today with Sirius XM Radio. These are his words:

On the win over Porto.
I think yesterday’s game was interesting. Unfortunately they did get that [away] goal… I thought we played pretty well as a team – actually very well as a team – and we had some other good scoring chances. [Lorenzo] Pellegrini played a great game, [Bryan] Cristante I thought had a really good game, and it was really nice to see. And you are talking about a team, Porto, who I think have been on a 26-game unbeaten streak in all competitions. They might have lost for the last time in October or something like that. So they are a very, very good, strong team. And even in the group stages I think they had 16 out of 18 points.

On VAR, after Pepe was not judged to have handballed in the box.
I don’t know [if it was a penalty]. I mean, I’ve given up on VAR. You know. I don’t understand when it is used sometimes, and I don’t understand some of the calls after it is used sometimes. I think it has been a little frustrating. Certainly before the [winter] break, there were a number of times – including against Fiorentina – where I think we were hurt badly by VAR. I don’t know if it ever evens out, I don’t feel like it does. I am always biased… but I’m not sure it ever does even out. But I’m not really focused on that so much.

On the second leg against Porto.
I’m not sure if I’m going [yet]. I do like our position. I don’t know if they are going to change [the away goals rule] but I do like that if we score a goal over there, or a couple of goals, it is worth [more]. I think, obviously, we can play well against them – and they are a very good team. But I actually like it better this way, than if we played the other way and played in Portugal first.

On having so many young players in the squad now.
We don’t feel like we need to sell these young players. About three years ago we made a concerted effort; Rome should be an attractive place for young players to come and play. We didn’t have a great process that we inherited when we took over the team, and maybe in the first few years we had other priorities too. But if you look at our youth teams right now, from Under-19 to the 10-year-olds, when you look at the aggregate points we are on the top of all of Italy. So we feel like we have some tremendously good young talent that is going to be coming up. We had seven Italian players in the starting line-up last night, which I think the last time that happened was with Juventus about six years ago. So we do think we have a lot of homegrown talent. And in fact today our Under-17 team is playing in this big tournament in Doha and we are in the semi-finals. We beat PSG and Spartak Moscow, and a couple of other wins, so we have some very strong young talent. We made that effort, and I think it is really, really going to pay off in the next two or three years.

Reflecting on the season so far.
Well, I’m not [happy], I’m not actually. Because I feel we should be in second or third, when you really look at it. We gave up an awful lot of points this year, and near the end of games. That’s been pretty frustrating for me. Going 3-0 up against Atalanta and then tieing it…If I look at it – and even if we just take two thirds of the points that I think we messed up on – then we would be pretty close to second place with Napoli. So I’m not happy from that point of view at all.

On how tough Serie A is.
I don’t take anything for granted in this league. I still think Serie A, from 1st to 20th, is the toughest league in Europe. I really believe it is as tough as the Premier League. When you get down to the bottom 10 they are just so strategic and tactical, it is just different. It’s not like we are going for four goals or five goals, they’ve got some strategy and it’s just not that easy. So I don’t take any of them for granted, by any means. We have to, the next bunch of games, just do our job. Hopefully we are healthy and, you know, finish in the top four.

On the stadium approval.
The mayor, and all the others, have come out in the last few weeks and said they want to get it done by the end of the year – not finished and built, of course, but at least breaking ground hopefully by the end of the year. So there has been a lot of positive movement on that side of it. So there’s just ‘nitty-gritty’ things that we have got to finish up with them and hopefully by the end of May we will have everything back and ready to go and approved. One of the issues is we still need to buy the land: there was a letter of intent, and we had an agreement in more than principle, more than two and a half months ago, with Eurnova. And Eurnova Trust has been reasonable, but we are dealing with one unreasonable lawyer that keeps pushing stuff off and asking for unreasonable stuff that we are just not going to agree to. Once we have that done we have control of the entire project, and a lot more flexibility in terms of partners and others coming in to work with us.

On the stadium’s importance.
The stadium is owned by AS Roma holding company, which some people don’t realise, they think it is my boy toy. It is owned by the team, so what happens with the stadium is that all revenues, the incremental revenues that we’re getting, it will only make us have – hopefully – more financial strength to have more flexibility. The stadium is key. It is just 100% key. If Roma is going to compete as a top-five or six team in the world consistently, then it has to have that stadium. It just has to. It’s a matter of economics. When Real Madrid and Barcelona are knocking on the door of billion-dollar revenue numbers, or passing that, then there is no other way to do it. You can try to be as smart as you can in player acquisitions, and that can work for a while – but [to do it with] consistency is going to need some of those finances – it’s just a fact of life.

On Financial Fair Play.
Sometimes, for financial fair play, we just have to sell players. People don’t understand that. That’s the way it works. It’s not like, ‘Oh god, I want to get rid of this guy!’ It’s just that, under financial fair play, you just have to deal with some really stringent conditions – that some other teams have gotten away with! But we haven’t…It is frustrating sometimes, especially when we are having some very constructive conversations, let’s put it that way, with UEFA. You know. When we look at some of the punishments – or lack of punishments – meted out. my view is like, ‘Why am I bothering with financial fair play, shouldn’t I just take a €12m fine and deal with this stuff?’ There is some stuff that needs to be done [with financial fair play]. I just wrote a letter to UEFA actually, and listed a bunch of things out, and just asked for some explanation or some constructive dialogue, versus what we’ve seen on what other teams have done.

On Italian football’s growth.
I think the league has to improve, the federation too. I think we have taken some steps, but I don’t think any of us [club owners] are completely or 100% happy yet. If you look at it, what the Bundesliga has done, what La Liga has done, and clearly what the Premier League has done… Italy should be up there.

On Aleksandar Kolarov.
There’s no question for me he is just the absolute ultimate professional. Every single day he is the first guy in there, he’s pretty much the last guy to leave. He’s just a tough, tough footballer. He doesn’t go on social media, he’s not out drinking, he just plays hard and he trains hard. And sometimes he’s going to make a mistake, like all of us do. I hope the fans realise that, guys like him, you want to have 22 guys like that in your team! You just know the guy is going to go out there and bust his ass. He doesn’t complain, and when he is injured he still wants to go out there.

On some of the emerging players.
All these other kids, like Nicolo and Pellegrini, they are very, very intelligent and thoughtful and mature beyond their ages – like it would surprise you. You are talking about people like Lorenzo, that are clearly in my mind going to be future leaders at Roma. And you have a lot of guys like on the team like Fazio and Kolarov, and you hope they do impart more wisdom, having played for 10-12 years, on some of these young kids.

---------------------------

Probably his best interview to date. Can't say I disagree with much of anything he's said here.

Moving this to this thread since I accidentally posted it in the CL one.

by Arquitecto Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:41 am

Virginia Raggi wrote:Rome mayor Virginia Raggi has revealed that the Giallorossi’s new stadium will cost €1bn to build.

The green light was recently given for work to begin on the Stadio della Roma, and Raggi has now confirmed how much funding will be needed to finance the project.

“The stadium will be built,” she told La Verita.

“Our proposals have already been approved and we’ve ensured they meet very high environmental standards.

“The experts at Politecnico di Torino have only confirmed that. The area identified for the stadium is the right one: after that, it’s clear that there must be a structure which doesn’t serve only cars.

“There are two railway lines that still need to be upgraded. We’ve signed a deal with Ferrovie dello Stato for a general renewal of the rail lines.

“We’re going to invest €1bn of private funding over the next three years. This further highlights the fact that we support the project, regardless of its infrastructure.”

Raggi can tend to procrastinate in her tenure as based on her downfall (the current rising waste problem in Roma) but this is very promising progress shown in quick succession in the recent month though will get why McLewis is well and truly cynical about this unending walls of hurdles.

Good news, regardless.

by McLewis Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:40 am

I'm upgrading myself from outright cynical to cautiously optimistic. We'll see where this goes. Still waiting for that other shoe to drop though. FWIW, I don't think it's Raggi's fault it's taken so long. She's a politician so she's a creature of the system. A very Byzantine system, appropriate for Rome of all places, one could say.

by McLewis Wed Feb 20, 2019 12:05 pm

Roma and Italy starlet Nicolo Zaniolo has reportedly rejected the chance to become a client of super-agent Mino Raiola.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Raiola was among the many representatives and agencies who wanted to take on Zaniolo in light of his breakthrough for club and country.

However, father and former Genoa striker Igor Zaniolo told the newspaper: “We’ll stay with [Claudio] Vigorelli.”

The 19-year-old has already changed agent in his short career, switching to Vigorelli from Stefano Castelnovo.

Raiola, for his part, has a star-studded clientele that includes Paul Pogba, Mario Balotelli, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Marco Verratti.

Something tells me this was probably more his dad than him, but either way this is good news. Manolas getting Raiola is expected as he will almost certainly move to a bigger club within the next season or 2, even if we increase his release clause. Zaniolo, on the other hand, will eventually go as well, but hopefully on his own terms.

by McLewis Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:22 am

Will take 2 ugly wins tbh. This team has to learn to grind them out.

As for the Monchi news, maybe this is becoming a cliché of mine, but I'm truly not surprised by this. On several accounts. He's one of the most respected and sought after DSs in the game and Rome is one of the most volatile places to be a DS in this game.

by RealGunner Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:14 pm

AS Roma can confirm head coach Eusebio Di Francesco has left the club with immediate effect.

The club would like to thank Eusebio for his work during his time at #ASRoma and wish him success in the future.

Full story https://t.co/QGeElB7LnF pic.twitter.com/5wa9ndQeda
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) March 7, 2019

by Hapless_Hans Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:31 pm

Who's next?

Can only see it going downhill for Roma from here

by RealGunner Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:35 pm

Hapless_Hans wrote:Who's next?

Can only see it going downhill for Roma from here

Been downhill for a long long time now

by rincon Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:48 pm

The rumors are that Rainieri will be caretaker for the rest of the season.

by iftikhar Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:53 pm

Nothing good is going to come out of this. :facepalm:

by Arquitecto Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:55 pm

Truly a shame and just undeserved for more reasons than one given Monchi buys players who can be sold for a higher price and Roma being a selling club under Stadio della Roma does not help.

Ranieri coming on could not be anymore of a BORING signing. Good god it is uninspiring. If he fails cant wait for Serse FUCKING Cosmi to try to steady the ship. :facepalm:

by Hapless_Hans Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:56 pm

RealGunner wrote:
Hapless_Hans wrote:Who's next?

Can only see it going downhill for Roma from here

Been downhill for a long long time now

Since about 100 AD

by rincon Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:56 pm

Posted in the wrong thread

rincon wrote:Monchi was fighting with Roma fans after the Porto, match. He apologized today. Now EDF is sacked and Monchi should be going in the summer.

The team got dismantled and EDF ran out of ideas. He got handed a crap hand, but I think it is still right to change. No matter who is at fault, the solution is to move forward.

by Arquitecto Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:58 pm

Pallotta for as much as he has done for Roma and I do like him can be very inconsistent in his words and thoughts as he is a 10/10 businessman to the core but knows little about football and treats Roma the way he does his other franchises. Sad to see such a promising project dismantled.

by Arquitecto Thu Mar 07, 2019 7:01 pm

Monchi I revere to know end but having Strootman and Naingollan sold i.e 50% of your midfield with a constantly injured De Rossi, a sluggish Nzonzi, flop in Pastore (sums up his career) and a deer in headlights Cristante is a joke.

And of course replacing Alisson with a goalkeeper who dips in his gloves in soap before each game (Olsen has been better than we say though).

#JusticeForEusebio

by rincon Thu Mar 07, 2019 7:09 pm

The fans are right to be against Monchi. I've been saying this since the beginning, Roma didn't need to be dismantled like this. Roma didn't need to become Atalanta, or even Sevilla. They expected to compete with Napoli, not with Sampdoria.

by Arquitecto Thu Mar 07, 2019 7:20 pm

I sympathise with the ever classy and patient McLewis who has to bare with what is the most frustrating club to support in top flight football and I am not even a direct supporter.

I dont know how he does it or most Romanisti who also have to put up with hoards of obnoxious fellow fans who's emotions guide their support and nothing else.

My guess is he started off as such but is literally numb to it all and become so stoic to the dramas and flairs that occur within the denizens of this maniacal club.

by adun101 Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:04 pm

Hapless_Hans wrote:
RealGunner wrote:
Hapless_Hans wrote:Who's next?

Can only see it going downhill for Roma from here

Been downhill for a long long time now

Since about 100 AD

A bit later than that. Traianus was the Emperor in 100 AD and the Roman Empire's greatest expansion was achieved under him, the most notable conquest being Dacia, which was mostly the current territory of Romania.

by Hapless_Hans Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:14 pm

Notable conquest, affordable cars.

by adun101 Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:27 pm

Hapless_Hans wrote:Notable conquest, affordable cars.

Also, a stadium in North-Eastern Italy.

by adun101 Thu Mar 07, 2019 9:55 pm

Arquitescu wrote:Monchi I revere to know end but having Strootman and Naingollan sold i.e 50% of your midfield with a constantly injured De Rossi, a sluggish Nzonzi, flop in Pastore (sums up his career) and a deer in headlights Cristante is a joke.

And of course replacing Alisson with a goalkeeper who dips in his gloves in soap before each game (Olsen has been better than we say though).

Roma needed a rebuild and a change of mentality, just like Marotta did when he came at Juventus and like he looks to be doing at Inter. Naingolan is an alcoholic, he needed to go. Dzeko should be next, he's good, but he's a moody veteran who kinda sets the tone for the rest of team. Strootman was probably a mistake, he wasn't that old and his injuries looked to be behind him. Maybe he was making too much money?

Allison wanted to leave and they got a great offer for him. The replacement was a mixed bag.

Nzonzi was good at Sevilla, he just wasn't a fit for EDF's firestarter tactics.

Pastore was a dumb move, I have no idea what was Monchi thinking there.

So, looking at this, the big mistake was letting Strootman go and replacing him with Pastore.

Arquitescu wrote:#JusticeForEusebio

He got his justice all right. It should have happened after the Cagliari game.

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