Is it just me or am I the only one who believes Spalletti has done a fantastic job this season? Rubbish signings, crappy management and the Totti parade, all big íssues, yet he still gets something good out of the season. Our "American Heroes" have disrespected Spalletti, Totti and now De Rossi.....hmmm I wonder where the problems lies. Signore Spalletti will leave Roma at the end of the season, with his head held high.
He's done a good job on the pitch, he's been dreadful at best in front of a microphone. I won't lose any sleep over him joining Inter. I just hope we get a replacement equal to him which I know we won't which is why I'd rather he stay.
I scratch my head everytime I hear about Chinese money?!?! What team that is owned by a Chinese owner has done anything? I haven't seen a Chinese owned team toss around 200 mil the way Man U does. This myth of Chinese owners spending is all urban legand
I agree in the sense that I think only about 4 or 5 managers in all of football are as good as Spalletti, so almost anyone is most likely a downgrade in my opinion. I'm also not as convinced as some that he won't get Inter playing fantastic football in a hurry. However, I'm not sure that it's really the "American" ownership that "drove him out." Something has just been really off with Spalletti from the very first media and fan criticism about Totti not playing last winter. He's seemed so bitter and acidic in almost every single response or comment for a year and half. I eventually stopped listing to his press conferences (first time I've ever done that for any manager) just because it irritated me that they seemed mainly a stage for him to make pointed comments like "don't ask me about renewing, just ask Totti" and just show his open disdain for all the Roma press (many of who are simply asking the same questions half this forum asks daily). I was elated last winter that he took the job and have always loved Spalletti but, to be honest, I've not been really impressed with how he's handled himself the past year and half at Roma. It may well be that he wasn't on the same page with ownership but even if that is the case I still don't like that he's constantly made it seem like Totti-centric fans and media were such a problem for him from the beginning. His oddly bitter attitude starting pretty much right after he was hired as well. Why take the job if Roma press and fans wanting Totti to play are such sore spots?
Fully agree. Especially considering that Inter are under tighter FFP restrictions than we are, they will have to sell half their team if they want to buy someone like Naingollan. And they have no one anyone wants, with the exception of maybe Icardi and Handonovic and maybe Miranda.
I am not sure what you are talking about. Inter net spending this year is close from 170 mil!! That included: Joao Mario 40 mil Gabigol 30 mil Gagliardini 28 mil Candreva 22 mil Jovetic 13.5 mil Ansaldi 10.5 mil Eder 10 mil Miranda 9 mil Brozovic 5 mil Caprari 5 mil Now you can argue that there is mismanagement of the money, and that it won't be sustainable to spend like that every summer with FFP and all. But the money is clearly there and I am really scared to think what Sabatini can do with 150 mil to spend in one summer. As for Milan, their Chinese owners are already spending 70 mil (On Kessie, Musacchio, Rodriguez) and the market hasn't opened yet. Who knows where this shopping spree will stop. If we don't get our shit together, it won't be long before the dark days of living in the shadow of the north come back again.
I agree but something (or things) cearly went off with the Spalletti-Roma relationship. I can only speculate and think of few issues: 1. The Sabatini drama last year. Reportedly he wanted him to stay and publicly stated that many times only for Pallotta to fire him later. The fact that he is joining him now supports this hypothesis. 2. The Pjanic situation. Losing one of his best players to a direct rival. I think there is a chance Pjanic's words were true and Roma were the ones desperate to offer him to Juve. 3. To add insult to injury he got no replacement. He wanted Diawara and instead they went after Wilshere and couldn't even get him. 4. He wanted reinforcement in the winter and got Grenier who we now know wasn't his choice since he had no interest to utilize him. 5. Paredes words today about Roma were willing to sell him to Juve twice in the summer and winter if he hadn't refused. This is not the behaviour of a club interested in competing. 6. The complete lack of backing from the management with all the abuse he got from the media. He was fighting on all fronts all by himself 7. Pallotta publicly criticized his tactical choices and lack of rotation after the horrible week in March (http://www.football-italia.net/99495/pallotta-blasts-roma-and-spalletti) 8. The Totti situation was the straw the broke the camel back. Again these are all speculations and could be completely false but to me it explains some of the bitterness in his tone. I think I can understand where he is coming from.
Those are good points. I do think it's clear that Pallotta (or someone high up) did want Spalletti to use a few more young players as depth and Spalletti was not agreed. That very likely did go back to the summer mercato as well. It's a good point about Sabatini leaving as well. It was certainly clear that Spalletti was likely gone when the whole Pallotta criticism about roster use and young players that you mention came out. However, I would say that the bitter and often odd responses to any question regarding Totti happened well before any of these issues and before any transfer window. If anything, the Totti "stress" seems more what got the ball rolling with Spalletti's discontent. Also, I'm not really sure what Pallotta/management could have said to "back" Spalletti in regards to not playing Totti without being absolutely trashed by fans and media for being anti-Totti and "trying to run him off after all he's done for AS Roma". That's what I was saying about Spalletti knowing that dynamic full well when he took the job as even the most casual follower of football does. About Pjanic/Paredes: I still think about the same thing I thought at the time: The club preferred to sell Paredes in order to keep Pjanic (at a higher salary and needing to bring in some money) but Paredes didn't want to leave (particularly for a club where he didn't stand much chance of playing). I don't believe a word Pjanic has said about the matter since he's been contradictory from the beginning. He seems to say whatever he thinks makes himself look better. All in all, I'm very disappointed that Spalletti is leaving (although it's far from a surprise) and don't want to imply it's all on him when none of us know the full story. However, I do think there's been something off about his attitude from almost the very beginning. Sadly, it's all too "Stile Roma" that even coming off a season where the team lost some big matches but mainly played on an elite level that I would say was among the best 6-8 teams in all Europe that there's such upheaval.
Spalletti +a boat load of cash is very dangerous. We all know he can build a good side playing his way quickly.
Regarding the Totti situation, my personal take is that Spalletti came back with the intention of changing how the club thinks and operates. That was the theme of most of his pressers in the earlier days. Along the same lines he wanted Roma to move on from the Totti era. Part of that might have been a matter of ego or maybe he sincerely felt it is the healthy way to go in the future. There is no doubt he acted in a way that in a sense would force Totti to consider retiring. Then Totti had that a tantrum fit with that famous interview to show him who is the real boss. The media had a field day with it. Pallotta caved in and gave Totti the contract he wanted at the end of the season. Since then I feel Spalletti felt he was fighting a lost battle. Add the other issues and it becomes understandable why he started to desperately look for a reason to leave. His remark about "I am not staying if Totti doesn't play next season" was a classic Spalletti sarcasm.
My view reading between the lines is its the Jan transfer window that broke him, as it was from here he seems to really let lose with his mouth. I think its likely they made him player promises to push on and give the team even more chance to win something and they couldn't keep them. Within a week our season was sealed. I have no strong reasons to doubt Spalletti who has been one of the best coaches in Roma's history but I do have doubts on how they're running things behind the scenes.
Minus the big games that we lost, Spalletti is a very good coach. It really is unfortunate that this all had to go down this way. I think Spalletti had to know what he was getting into and he let this whole thing get much bigger than it needed to be. So many times he could have brought in Totti but didn't. There were times when he only used 1 or 2 subs, times when he could have brought Totti on when we needed a goal, times where he could have brought him on 10 minutes earlier and everyone would have been happy and we would have won all the same. But he didn't. He let his ego or whatever it is he felt against Totti get in the way and it showed strongly. Totti saved this team last season and gave us a chance at champions league, Spalletti should have been much more grateful to him for that, but instead as Totti scored and assisted extremely important goals, Spalletti's face said it all. For all of This, I fault Spalletti. This in my opinion wasn't the only factor though... This was the other big factor. It was clear that Spalletti was not happy with this, and for this I do not fault him one bit. He maybe did not deal with it in the best way, however he needed a few extra pieces to the puzzle to really make that push to close the gap with Juve. Maybe with a few key signings we could have made up that 4 point gap with Juve. We had the opportunity and management didn't help out. The last thing I want to point out once more is that although we did have a great season points total wise, let's not forget the big games that we lost, although getting much better - Serie A is still not the strongest, and just 3 years ago Garcia probably would have hit this point total as well had Juve not locked things up so early that we threw away the last few games and because we had already locked up second. Thinking of these things kind of puts things in a different perspective for me and it's because of these things and what happened with Totti that I am not very upset to see him go. Hopefully we lock up Di Francesco and hopefully he becomes very successful with us for a long time.
Now compare that to what team like Barca, Man U, RM, Bayern have spent in that same time period. Man U spent as much on Pogba last year as Inter spent on those players. My point was Inter are a big club but nowhere near the level of the elite clubs. where they can make a 50 mil mistake and just buy another player to correct it like Juve can. Inter can spend a bit more than Roma but not enough to make up for poor management.
They have the wheeler dealer in and this is also a situation he thrives in. Taking the team from the start of this and building them up to a certain level when someone else needs to add the finishing touches. He doesn't need a lot of money as he buys and sells so much and you have Spalletti who can add players who you think aren't anything special but they play well in his system. They could do this in a much smaller budget but they have the potential of 100 +.
I think the point was that Inter and Milan spending boatloads isn't a new thing. We were sweating impending cash injections into those clubs at the same time the last two years. Considering how the Milan owners were scrambling to finance the purchase, I would not be giving them the benefit of the doubt by saying the big money is sustainable. Sabatini has a hell of a task ahead of him dealing with the old and/or over-priced squad he inherited, and he's a hire that indicates a rebuilding phase. We should probably be concerned about Inter in two or three years, but I'd be worried about Roma in that time span anyway, considering the fine line we're walking.
I don't disagree but the discussion was about Inter (and ACM) still being super clubs that could spend 300 mil to revamp their club with player salaries all 10 mil a season and that just is not so anymore. I think Saba can work well at Inter but it's going to take time. The debate started on who would be the next team not named Juve to win a scudetto. The debate then centered on ACM and Inter being historically much bigger clubs than Roma and Napoli and they would be the ones. I was just arguing the days of just throwing money out and rebuilding your team in 1 transfer season are over unless you are an elite club. I just think Roma and Napoli are further along in the rebuilding process than Inter or ACM
Don't forget Inter have run into FFP problems a couple times already and if they don't fix their budget we could see them hit with a transfer ban.
But the thing is they're not taking over Palermo. They have a number of high quality players who just lack direction, one Spalletti can give them. Add in a handful of the new buys and they can get going very quickly. It's a big mistake to see him go here.
Their MF and defense is in shambles. I don't think they are a mid-table team but I don't think they are an automatic CL qualifier either. I've said I really like Spalletti and hoped he'd stay but I think that's done and over. Maybe with Pallotta coming to town for Totti's final game he can talk Spalletti into staying but I wouldn't count on it. When I look at who finished above them the only team that I see them beating out is Atalanta. ACM looks to be fixing their MF. I expect Napoli and Roma to keep most of their important pieces plus add some players. I also think EDF is every bit the tactician that Spalletti is, I'm not sure he can drive the team the way Spalletti did but I guess we'll see. In the end I have a hard time seeing any of those teams beating Juve. So much talent at every position. There 2nd string could probably finish in the top 5.
It's certainly possible that Pallotta talked a bigger game about signing players that the reality of crunching numbers did not see happen.
Spalletti could probably get their mid and attack working without a single signing. Their defense needs an overhaul though. Something like 4-2-3-1; Handanovic; Ansaldi, Andreolli, Miranda, Santon; Medel/Kondogbia, Gagliardini; Brozovic/Gabigol (maybe?), Eder/Banega/Joao Mario, Candreva/Biabiany; Icardi/Gabigol/Palacio. I'm not sure it would be his ideal players but if he could get some fundamentals instilled in a preseason it wouldn't take that much work till they are competing for top 2-3 again on a consistent basis. Add signings that match his style and it looks even better for him. Plus if Spalletti can cope with the hellish atmosphere that has been Roma lately, the San Siro must look like a paradise (even with the crazy owners).
Spalletti is the best coach they've had since Mourinho. There's no argument from me there. However that team is in such a mess that I think it will take a miracle for them to be competitive by next season. Their biggest problem imo, is the huge lack of two-way players. Candreva and Perisic are the only ones of quality that come to mind, and Perisic is probably off to England. The rest are either trash going forward or are too lazy to defend. Which is going to be a big obstacle for Spalletti who likes his fluidity. Inter are going to have to risk UEFA sanctions at this point if they want to do anything by next season. They are littered with dead weight on high contracts and little to no resale value. I think people underestimate how large of a gap there is between Roma and Napoli, and the rest of Serie A at the moment. It's probably even larger than the gap between 1st and 2nd at this point.