Marked for Simone Parisi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 May 2028
A falling-out at AS Roma
Angeliño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market22 May 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valerio Spinelli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 May 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valerio Mariani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 May 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ruggero Ranieri has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market22 May 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arturo Benedetti has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad22 May 2028
11 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout22 May 2028
Matías Soulé 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Nov 2027
Still nobody has beaten AS Roma
The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.14, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Matías Soulé at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AS Roma.
Match20 Nov 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Market22 Nov 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Devis Vásquez wants continental football; whether AS Roma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Anass Salah-Eddine 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giovanni Lombardi commits to AS Roma for another 4 years.
Match20 Nov 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match27 Oct 2027
AS Roma through in the cup
A 3‑0 win over Sorrento, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match30 Oct 2027
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Tom Cannon decided nobody was going anywhere. Atalanta had no time left to answer.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match30 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, AS Roma do not lose
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Simone Parisi, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.57
A mark of 8.57 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“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.
Market1 Nov 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nahuel Molina wants continental football; whether AS Roma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Angeliño 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Nobody wins at AS Roma
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Roma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at AS Roma
Matías Soulé 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simone Parisi commits to AS Roma for another 4 years.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
A promise honoured at AS Roma
Something was said to Marten de Roon and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Matías Soulé’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
The goals keep arriving from Antonio Arena’s exile
3 goals in 10 games at FC Fredericia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.