All Roads Lead to Roma: Bradley in the Eternal City v. I

Bradley didn't participate in group training again today and did a personalized workout instead. Guess he's still working on getting over the quad strain:

http://www.asroma.it/en/news/training_3/8/

Hello Michael Baggins

Roma just won 13-0 against an amateur side from Irding.

Bradley played the second half. I didn't catch the whole match because I slept in.

I know it's just an amateur side but apparently Destro was unplayable.

Training video, De Rossi playing with Bradley.

They didn't play together today so maybe Zeman was just trying things out.

SoCalYid, you're the most serious Roma supporter on this forum I've run across so I thought I'd check in with you.

Any truth to Roma interest in Clint Dempsey? Talented player but doesn't seem to fit Zeman's style and according to your posts they're shoring up the defense at this point.

No, I like Dempsey but it would be a signing that doesn't make sense to me. Where would he play? I why would he go to a club so stacked he has to worry about where he'll play. I'd like to see him go to a CL contender or participant but Liverpool seems like the best option for now.

As for the actual story, this makes me believe the author was bullsh-tting.

"Roma have been alerted to the stand-off and are now preparing their own bid – ironically with the £12m fee they received from the Reds for striker Fabio Borini."

We've already invested that money and anyone who follows us would know that. If we signed Dempsey someone else would have to leave like Osvaldo which I can't see happening, Zeman likes him.

Bradley played 17 minutes in a friendly yesterday, but today trained separately. I'm guessing he's still feeling something of that thigh strain.

Was going to ask what had happened. The offical Facebook page of AS Roma has been posting quite a lot of pics from their practice. Bradely was in quite a few until this weekend.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xVczsnRuOyg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

hopefully mikey and his wife stay away from the subway when napoli rolls into town.

They've had nothing better to do until the past couple years.

Bradley will be fine.

Roma have another friendly Satuday against SC Liezen.

Than the team heads back to Rome to face Aris (Greece).

Not sure how much Bradley will play each match, he hasn't been training much.

Who knows....maybe Bradley has told Roma he wants Champions League Football and they are waiting for Inter Milan to launch a bid (but Roma has put his valuation too high)

Well Roma played another friendly against an Austrian side today SC Liezen. I didn't watch, the result was never in question and I had a heavy night. We don't play anyone decent until the Aris match on the 19th.

SC Liezen 0-6 Roma

3x Destro
2x Osvaldo
1x Lopez

I don't believe Bradley took part, looks like he was doing individual training again yesterday.

LOL at the end of that video.

"What's your favorite Romney or Obama?"

So is Mikey still training on his own? Whats his chances for Aris? Any news on a decent RB or CB? or is that POS Zeman going to play without defenders?

No.

http://www.asroma.it/en/news/training_17/8morning/

What is Roma's expected starting MF? Where does Brads fit in?

I think initially Bradley and Pranjic will be the CMs and DDR will be the DM. If DDR is sold, Tachtsidis will replace him at DM.

hopefully

Pjanic-DDR-Bradley

DDR will not be sold.

This.....

Selling DDR and replacing him with Bradley I fear for the safety of the owners, that would be incredibly dumb.

I saw on Roma's site that Tachtsidis is doing physical therapy instead of training today due to a thigh problem.

Also, Roma's last friendly before the season starts is against a personal favorite of Yanks Abroad, Aris of Greece.

I agree and I'd much rather see Bradley get to play with him than be a sure starter because DDR was sold. The Man City chatter keeps popping back up, so hopefully it's just wishful thinking on their end.

Good to see news that Mikey's back in training, was starting to be concerned that there hadn't been any word on his condition for about a week.

Also, DDR to Man City ain't happening, I think DiBenedetto would be taking a really quick flight out of Rome for his own safety if it went down.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure but it seems like Sabatini keeps saying he's staying. The fact he leaves open the possibility is what the press are jumping on. He'll say....

"We aren't looking to sell De Rossi, he's the bedrock of our team"

"If a proposal comes we'll evaluate but at the moment we aren't looking to sell"

Which people take as him leaving the door open, so he comes back and says "You never know in football what if a €100m bid comes in", etc. Which doesn't help because of course he's still leaving the door open.

I don't think he'll be sold because City won't pay what it will take for Roma to sell. If he was Modric age maybe but De Rossi is pushing the back end of his career, I think he has 5 more years at this level. So if City bought him that would be an investment to get them over the hump right now, and by hump I mean Champions league not league.

Sabatini is just being honest, If City came with an offer of £35m plus who knows. I would be destroyed but he's just being a realist. We won't be selling him for £25m as some of the press in England have suggested. I don't think he wants to sell him because he knows people would literally go nuts.

As it stands right now (I expect some movement in Italy), Roma have one of the best strike forces in Italy, possibly the best. When you consider all these players are forwards Osvaldo, Totti, Destro, Bojan, Lamela (wing forward/SS), Lopez, Boriello (probably will be sold). We have better options up front than the champions but that's not where they won the title. Juve have the advantage in midfield and it's pretty overwhelming in fact, Pirlo, Vidal, Marchiso, Asamoah (very underrated), Isla (who can play FB/CM). Then of course they have similar depth on the back line. Even though they have a better midfield at the moment I think we can handle them if we get a top class defender. Their back line is deep but I think we can handle them if we can get our forwards service and match them in the midfield battle.

Of course there's still Milan and Inter but as it stands right now neither look that threatening. Actually I worry more about Napoli and Fiorentina, La Viola in particular have built a very good team. If we get a defender I don't think it's crazy to have a minimum expectation of CL football and a cup run considering we aren't in Europe and have a deep squad. We should be able to get to a semifinal at least with our depth.

Just to sum up, I don't think there's any point in selling De Rossi. If we dig just a little deeper we could have a squad that could compete for the league, not just CL places. We need a CB and maybe RB from having a very good mercato. Selling De Rossi will ruin the whole mercato.

Is that Luka Modric's dad in your avatar?