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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matías Soulé signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at AS Roma would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Matías Soulé’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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AS Roma. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Angeliño 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.
Marked 8.29. 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 ratings8 Nov 2027
Matías Soulé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Lucas Chevalier now has 21 of them across 233 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
4‑0 against Viborg, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Matías Soulé takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Soulé provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Matías Soulé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Donyell Malen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Salvatore Alberti could afford to be generous.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
4‑0 against Stade Rennais, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
With 8 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Juventus, and it could have been more.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Artem Dovbyk takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artem Dovbyk provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Paulo Dybala takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Paulo Dybala provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.74, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between AS Roma and Juventus, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
4‑0 against Lokomotiva Zagreb, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lewis Ferguson provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Lewis Ferguson in the middle of it, and Lokomotiva Zagreb unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Tom Cannon
The dugoutManu Koné has become a man the manager trusts
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Monza had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hellas Verona moved on, Donyell Malen reports back to AS Roma, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Angeliño 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.
AS Roma asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
AS Roma close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 33 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.
“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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Hellas Verona will make the call about Donyell Malen this week. AS Roma have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
AS Roma asked and Torino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes AS Roma will be judged on one thing only.
“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.
In brief
Squad16 new faces, and AS Roma are still learning each other
The dugoutMatías Soulé has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hellas Verona waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AS Roma is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Blackburn Rovers for Donyell Malen 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.
“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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Tom Cannon is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tom Cannon is living that version at AS Roma, and it tends to show in the first month.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filippo Reale is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs have shaken hands with Fiorentina; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AS Roma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Angeliño 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.
“I watch every AS Roma game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mantova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
“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 offer from Union Brescia 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.
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.
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 Matías Soulé is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Chevalier signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at AS Roma would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
13 seasons and 327 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Add another name to the list: Hellas Verona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manu Koné. The answer from AS Roma has not changed — yet.
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.
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 Paulo Dybala is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Evan N'Dicka signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at AS Roma than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marten de Roon has written the date down.
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.
20 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Donyell Malen signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Pellegrini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Angeliño 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.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at AS Roma would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AS Roma. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at AS Roma and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Niccolò Pisilli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
“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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nahuel Molina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Atlético Madrid paid $94.4M 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.
The deal that would have taken Matías Soulé to VfB Stuttgart has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AS Roma with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Santiago Castro has gone, the accounts have $94.4M 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.
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.
“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.
$160.0K 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Matías Soulé again, and this time the name on the line is VfB Stuttgart. AS Roma are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from Catanzaro for Kostas Koulierakis 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.
Virtus Entella pay $3.4M, 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Napoli moved on, Niccolò Pisilli reports back to AS Roma, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
AS Roma offered $160.0K; AC Milan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Inter; AS Roma go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
AS Roma offered $11.8M; Bologna said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Daniele Rugani has, at AS Roma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal with Inter 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mario Hermoso had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and AS Roma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Genoa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manu Koné. The answer from AS Roma has not changed — yet.
“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.
The offer went to AC Milan 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.
With 9 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bologna have kept their man, and AS Roma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
AS Roma have gone to Sassuolo 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.
“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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. AS Roma had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Kostas Koulierakis 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.
23 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
5 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.
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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alessandro Schöpf may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Position 4 on 71 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.
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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
8 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Donyell Malen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Matías Soulé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Diego Porcel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
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.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 Paulo Dybala is on it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Salvatore Alberti, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Paulo Dybala had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Juventus were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
7 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Lewis Ferguson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bryan Cristante provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.36 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
19 goals in 31 games at Bologna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Evan N'Dicka 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.
7 goals in one match, Bryan Cristante on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AS Roma and Lecce.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Castro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Paulo Dybala scored in the 88th minute, Napoli had already begun thinking about the journey home, and AS Roma took the lot.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and AS Roma supporters have already started telling it.
18 goals in 30 games at Bologna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Salvatore Alberti could afford to be generous.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rafael Ximenez Fasanella is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes AS Roma will be judged on one thing only.
9 combined actions and 6.84. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AS Roma told Donyell Malen something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
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.
7 goals in 18 games at Arminia Bielefeld — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Position 5, 55 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Venturino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
16 goals in 28 games at Bologna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
9 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.
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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Santiago Castro in the middle of it, and Sassuolo unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“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.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
Evan N'Dicka 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
11 goals in 25 games at Bologna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AS Roma told Wesley something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutManu Koné has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for AS Roma. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Salvatore Alberti, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Derby days make names, and Evan N'Dicka made his against Lazio. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mario Hermoso reports back to AS Roma with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
7 goals in one match, Paulo Dybala on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AS Roma and Monza.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
AS Roma close the window on a squad of their own making
3 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.
“I watch every AS Roma game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spezia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Christ Inao Oulaï is 20, and AS Roma have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Add another name to the list: AC Milan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gianluca Mancini. The answer from AS Roma has not changed — yet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christ Inao Oulaï has, at AS Roma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Castro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The chase for Kostantis Tzolakis ended with $27.0M changing hands and Hull City out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and AS Roma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kostantis Tzolakis has just signed for AS Roma, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Frosinone made AS Roma work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Matías Soulé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsDonyell Malen was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Hull City have accepted the money. What AS Roma do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Bologna did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $33.7M for Lewis Ferguson, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Santiago Castro is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lewis Ferguson has just signed for AS Roma, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer went to Zenit 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.
The offer went to Bologna 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.
The offer went to Hull City 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.
“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.
The offer from Inter for Rodrigo Mora 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
“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 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.22, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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 Paulo Dybala is on it.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“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.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Derby days make names, and Evan N'Dicka made his against Napoli. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
“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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Rodrigo Mora is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Salvatore Alberti could afford to be generous.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Artem Dovbyk’s exile
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.55 — 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.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes AS Roma will be judged on one thing only.
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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Salvatore Alberti to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matías Soulé signs something — a contract at AS Roma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Chances created: 7. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kostas Tsimikas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 goals in 10 games at Bologna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 goals in 9 games at Genoa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AS Roma updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Venturino did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Venturino has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Altamura tried to reorganise, AS Roma did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marten de Roon
The dugoutEvan N'Dicka is still being punished for one mistake
“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.
17 combined actions and 7.38. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AS Roma told Matías Soulé something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Cagliari kept coming because nothing stopped them, and AS Roma will be asked about the last half hour all week.
7.65, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Lucas Chevalier'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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It needed Santiago Castro to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Fiorentina, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Salvatore Alberti was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the AS Roma dressing room was either.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Santiago Castro is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fiorentina in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AS Roma will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nahuel Molina has written the date down.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at AS Roma and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
With 9 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
“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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Paulo Dybala is on it.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The AS Roma support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Paulo Dybala wants continental football; whether AS Roma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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 Matías Soulé is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Porcel dropped after a run of poor form
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and AS Roma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Castro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santiago Castro. 2‑0 against Parma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Pietro Teixeira Falcetta, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Bryan Cristante was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
“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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mantova had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A conversation is coming this week. AS Roma will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Matías Soulé
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Matías Soulé has come out of that comparison in the side, and AS Roma have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $15.5M has been paid because Lucas Chevalier is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucas Chevalier is living that version at AS Roma, and it tends to show in the first month.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
With 10 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
AS Roma and Paris Saint-Germain have settled on $15.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and AS Roma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Niccolò Pisilli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
AS Roma offered $6.0M; Como said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AS Roma will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bayern Munich paid $47.6M 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.
AS Roma offered $11.6M; Independiente said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The fee is $6.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Argentinos Juniors drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Mile Svilar has gone, the accounts have $47.6M 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Diego Porcel has, at AS Roma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal with Argentinos Juniors 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $44.6M — a club that wants Giacomo Raspadori enough to be asked twice.
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 phone has started ringing about Antonio Arena again, and this time the name on the line is Altamura. AS Roma are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from TSG Hoffenheim for Mile Svilar 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.
The offer went to Argentinos Juniors 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.
AS Roma have gone to Independiente 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Schöpf has just signed for AS Roma, and for once the answer mattered.
“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.
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.
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.
The name of Lorenzo Pellegrini has come up in conversations AS Roma were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
Squad9 new faces, and AS Roma are still learning each other