Football Season Guide

In the recent past, Roma made themselves a name at an international level, winning trophies and reaching finals, while hardly making the top 5 at a domestic level. The past campaign was no exception as they were eliminated from the Europa League semifinals by Bayer Leverkusen, in a very tight clash, but finished 6th in the league. Their season can still be considered a successful one, though, as at some point they were dangerously sliding out of the top 10. It was then, at the beginning of January, that charismatic José Mourinho, the architect of their European triumphs, apparently at odds with some players, was let go and “Capitan Futuro” Daniele De Rossi was handed the reins of the team. At some stage a push for the top 4 seemed possible but they run out of gas and, with 2 wins out of the last 7, they had to content themselves with a Europa League spot. With De Rossi confirmed in the new season, against all expectations, Roma owners decided to start spending and seriously started strengthening the squad in all departments. With aging and disappointing Rui Patricio gone, they hired free-agent Ryan, who will be the new back-up goalie. Then, they signed Angelino permanently at left-back, while acquiring a back-up in Dahl, since injury-prone Spinazzola opted not to renew his deal. In the midfield, they got rid of Aouar and Sanches and in came Le Fée, who did well at Rennes. However, it is the attack where they invested the most signing winger/attacking midfielder Soulé, coming off an impressive season at Frosinone despite relegation, who can become Dybala’s back-up, and striker Dovbyk, who did wonders in Girona and is set to replace Lukaku, who decided to quit. Roma, with Llorente returned to his parent club, are still looking for a centre-back, another winger, also considering that El Shaarawy is losing steam, a back-up striker, since Abraham might not be given another chance, and they will have to solve the long-standing right-back issue, with Kristensen gone and Karsdorp undesired.