Marked for Alan Lescano
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Feb 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
Fiorentina wanted more than $6.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $5.4M of what AS Roma paid for Alan Lescano is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
AS Roma ran out of time with Inter. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market4 Feb 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AS Roma heard it as anything else.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
AS Roma close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market4 Feb 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Roma can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
$1.2M on the table at Atalanta. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jan 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Roma have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match26 Jan 2030
4‑0, and João Pedro took the headlines on an afternoon when everything AS Roma tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market28 Jan 2030
Empoli come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AS Roma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
$11.1M on the table at AC Milan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad28 Jan 2030
The match ball belongs to João Pedro, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
$10.6M was the most the club would pay and AC Milan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
The offer went to Fiorentina this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market28 Jan 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market28 Jan 2030
AS Roma may not be able to give João Pedro what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Pedro wants continental football; whether AS Roma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Roma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market10 Dec 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AS Roma, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match8 Dec 2029
No end in sight to AS Roma's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AS Roma has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at AS Roma
Gianluca Mancini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Loan watch10 Dec 2029
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Roma, and 1 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad10 Dec 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AS Roma are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Looking ahead10 Dec 2029
Lazio next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marten de Roon, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2029
Cup progress for AS Roma
A 4‑0 win over Monopoli, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad5 Nov 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market5 Nov 2029
Alan Lescano hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Roma can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market5 Nov 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AS Roma heard it as anything else.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Gianluca Mancini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Nobody could get near João Pedro
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Massimo Zilli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Oct 2029
Diego Moreira has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS Roma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at AS Roma
Rasmus Højlund and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Loan watch15 Oct 2029
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AS Roma, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad15 Oct 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS Roma know it.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad15 Oct 2029
6 new faces, and AS Roma are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market15 Oct 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianluigi Donnarumma signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
Alan Lescano asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Oct 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Roma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Oct 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Gianluca Mancini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bryan Cristante and AS Roma agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
International break empties AS Roma
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ismaël Koné, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rasmus Højlund is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Sep 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AS Roma people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Sep 2029
Alan Lescano hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Roma can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Rasmus Højlund and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Sep 2029
Devyne Rensch wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AS Roma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market10 Sep 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Viery wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS Roma know it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
16 new faces, and AS Roma are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rasmus Højlund is on it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Alex Amorim falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Aug 2029
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torino had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market27 Aug 2029
Bologna come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AS Roma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market27 Aug 2029
Angeliño hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Roma can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
$10.7M was the most the club would pay and AC Milan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market27 Aug 2029
The chase for Andrea Oliveri ended with $6.3M changing hands and Atalanta out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Roma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Roma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Andrea Oliveri gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrea Oliveri has just signed for AS Roma, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bari waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Roma is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AS Roma have done the hard part with Frosinone, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market13 Aug 2029
AS Roma say no — this time
The offer from Bari for Niccolò Pisilli was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Boardroom13 Aug 2029
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $378.9K of what AS Roma paid for Enis Ujkaj is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AS Roma heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Aug 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Rasmus Højlund and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Aug 2029
A row about effort at AS Roma
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luís Henrique was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AS Roma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
AS Roma have gone to Celta with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market16 Jul 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AS Roma people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Angelo Donadoni damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and AS Roma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
$9.6M on the table at Sassuolo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market16 Jul 2029
The fee is $8.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Fiorentina drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
AC Milan wanted more than $10.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market16 Jul 2029
AS Roma say no — this time
The offer from Hellas Verona for Noa Lang was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market16 Jul 2029
Alan Lescano hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Roma can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 May 2029
Continental nights are coming to AS Roma
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Match28 May 2029
The season ends: position 4 for AS Roma
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 68 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad28 May 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Rasmus Højlund
26 goals and a season average of 7.40 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad28 May 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Gianluca Mancini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 May 2029
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match26 May 2029
A 1‑0 win over AC Milan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market28 May 2029
34 games and 0 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Player ratings28 May 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 May 2029
Alan Lescano gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 May 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad7 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Roma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 May 2029
Genoa left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market7 May 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AS Roma can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Alessandro Schöpf ran the middle of the pitch — 6.79
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad7 May 2029
A smaller club would suit Rasmus Højlund now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether AS Roma can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The dugout7 May 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Caio Santos to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
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Player ratings
The cruellest goal, and it is Rasmus Højlund's
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The dugout
Nahuel Molina has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
Noa Lang is still being punished for one mistake
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Roma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Rasmus Højlund and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Apr 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market30 Apr 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lorenzo Colombo has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AS Roma.
Loan watch30 Apr 2029
12 clean sheets on loan for Marvin Keller
33 appearances at Bologna and the goals have stopped going in. AS Roma lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Caio Santos after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Alan Lescano gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Diego Moreira has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AS Roma will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Alan Lescano
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Marked 7.51. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Half-satisfied: Caio Santos on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
AS Roma bank $7.0K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Jacopo Mirra is somebody else's player now, and $7.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
Squad19 Mar 2029
The division's best last weekend was a AS Roma man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Rasmus Højlund was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Feb 2029
The small margins put AS Roma out
Out, 0‑1 to Lazio, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match3 Mar 2029
4 matches without a win for AS Roma
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around AS Roma are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Nahuel Molina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Mar 2029
4 matches without a goal for AS Roma
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market5 Mar 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AS Roma can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. AS Roma have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Noa Lang's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Diego Moreira has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AS Roma will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS Roma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Jan 2029
436 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and AS Roma know exactly what they have.
Market1 Jan 2029
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AS Roma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at AS Roma
Rasmus Højlund and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market1 Jan 2029
Nahuel Molina is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AS Roma has been clear about where Nahuel Molina stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match30 Dec 2028
AS Roma come up short against Como
Como left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market1 Jan 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2028
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match25 Nov 2028
7 unbeaten for AS Roma
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation AS Roma did not have in the autumn.
Match25 Nov 2028
AS Roma cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Loan watch27 Nov 2028
“I watch every AS Roma game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gubbio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alan Lescano, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Half-satisfied: Caio Santos on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match25 Nov 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Frosinone defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead27 Nov 2028
Udinese next, and one man in the AS Roma dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Mohamed Seck
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Seck will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Roma the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Roma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Giacomo Raspadori for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AS Roma will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Jeff Ekhator gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market20 Nov 2028
The name of Nahuel Molina keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AS Roma say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Benjamín Domínguez is on it.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kostas Koulierakis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AS Roma needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Rasmus Højlund has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at AS Roma that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Alan Lescano knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Roma, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Devyne Rensch: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Roma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match28 Oct 2028
Three points for AS Roma, 2‑0 the final word against Bologna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market30 Oct 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AS Roma.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Ninety minutes of Noa Lang at his very best
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AS Roma.
Loan watch30 Oct 2028
“I did not go to Gubbio to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Roma and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
A promise honoured at AS Roma
Something was said to Kostas Koulierakis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Sep 2028
A derby to forget for AS Roma
Beaten 1‑2 by Lazio in the one fixture where losing is not allowed. The football was bad enough; the week ahead will be worse.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
Alan Lescano: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Roma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Oct 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AS Roma heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Nahuel Molina was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
AS Roma have asked about the manager
The approach has gone in and the answer belongs to Millwall. Business like this is done quietly and reported loudly, and rarely in that order.
Market2 Oct 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Diego Moreira was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Loan watch2 Oct 2028
“I did not go to Gubbio to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Roma and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Ciro Monti left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
AC Milan wanted more than $26.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Aug 2028
13 unbeaten for AS Roma
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation AS Roma did not have in the autumn.
Market28 Aug 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Roma have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market28 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market28 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AS Roma, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Aug 2028
A falling-out at AS Roma
Rasmus Højlund and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
AS Roma still without a manager
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
$26.2M on the table at AC Milan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market14 Aug 2028
Enis Ujkaj hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS Roma can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Aug 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AS Roma heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market14 Aug 2028
Frosinone pay $1.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market14 Aug 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AS Roma have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS Roma know it.
Loan watch14 Aug 2028
“I did not go to Fiorentina to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Roma and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Jeff Ekhator knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS Roma, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sassuolo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Roma is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market19 Jun 2028
Business is business: Manu Koné goes
Liverpool paid $59.5M and AS Roma took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market19 Jun 2028
The fee is $16.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Juventus drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market19 Jun 2028
Lazar Samardžić has left for Modena in a $14.6M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
Manu Koné has gone, the accounts have $59.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The deal with Sunderland is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Rasmus Højlund was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A move Jeff Ekhator would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jeff Ekhator is living that version at AS Roma, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jun 2028
Inter pay $66.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market12 Jun 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bologna had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AS Roma people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market12 Jun 2028
Artem Dovbyk has left for Juventus in a $21.3M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Supporters turn on the $66.6M sale of Wesley
He is going to Inter, the club has $66.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Roma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Alan Lescano arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alan Lescano has, at AS Roma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A falling-out at AS Roma
Gianluigi Donnarumma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
In brief
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Boardroom
Still nobody in the AS Roma dugout
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Squad
International break empties AS Roma
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at AS Roma
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match12 Jun 2028
Full time on the season at Lecce
Position 4 on 62 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market12 Jun 2028
Goiás come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lecce did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lecce people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market12 Jun 2028
Business is business: Alan Lescano goes
AS Roma paid $9.1M and Lecce took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jun 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Lecce will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The offer went to Lokomotiv Sofia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Lecce
Mohamed Kaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Lecce go back to a list with one name crossed off it.