Marked for Devis Vásquez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 May 2028
Nowhere to hide for AS Roma
0‑3 against AC Milan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad8 May 2028
Ricardo Mathias: 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Matías Soulé 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.
Market8 May 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.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at AS Roma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angeliño is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Neil El Aynaoui and AS Roma agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 May 2028
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.
Market8 May 2028
The Manu Koné story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manu Koné signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jan 2028
Position 18, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Carlo Pinsoglio: 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.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Jan 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Acerbi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Nobody could get near Amin Sarr
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Martin Frese 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market31 Jan 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Amin Sarr’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Jan 2028
The longest week starts now for AS Roma
Beaten 0‑2 by Napoli in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS Roma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Matías Soulé 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
The name of Tommaso Baldanzi has come up in conversations AS Roma were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Wesley 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Artem Dovbyk
“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.
Loan watch17 Jan 2028
“I watch every AS Roma game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dolomiti Bellunesi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market17 Jan 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AS Roma will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Nov 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for AS Roma
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Monza kept coming because nothing stopped them, and AS Roma will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Matías Soulé 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.
Match13 Nov 2027
Whatever happens, AS Roma do not lose
6 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Wesley 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.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Dolomiti Bellunesi to sit and watch. I want to come back to AS Roma and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
Match13 Nov 2027
AS Roma and Monza take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad15 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AS Roma told Mario Hermoso something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.