What a season! I'm incredibly proud of all of our performances and trophies and I just can't wait for next season now! I can't wait for new signings, for new youngsters stepping up, for our pre-season games, and for the opening game of next season to hopefully do as well as we did this season, winning 6-1 against Genoa. The Serie A awards and our Roma awards speak for themselves for who played well and just, who was the start of the show.
Definitely my best season as a manager, winning the Manager of the Year award was just an added bonus but doing as well as we did was amazing. To think that now, the name Francesco Totti, my name, is associated with such success not just in the Serie A but now the Champions League, is incredible. I promised my son that if we won it, I'd take him to New York, he's always wanted to go for some reason. It'll give me a reason to see Andrea, who plays for New York City FC and maybe I could take him on as a coach? I don't know, the last time we talked he said he just wanted to retire and not go back to football so I might be disappointed. Anyways, going back to our season, the fact that we had 4 players in the UEFA Team of the Year is so, so rewarding. It really shows that we've been doing a great job. Chianello is just 21 years old and he's becoming so incredible, 3 assists in the final was definitely his best performance and I just can't wait to see the player he becomes. During the summer, there'll also be the Euros, which is very exciting! Italy have got an amazing team and I'll definitely go watch a couple of games because since the World Cup win in 2006, we've not won anything and maybe seeing me in the stands will push the players to perform well. Not just me of course, I'm sure Alessandro will come along too and Paolo and some other Italian legends of the game. This was a great season and now I'm looking forward to a great summer too and next season. Forza Roma!
So it's now been about 4 seasons into the save and I feel like it's going pretty well but I'm not sure if my updates are as good as they could be. I've done the live coverage for important matches in the past and more recently the Champions League final. I also used to do a match-by-match update but felt that the story wouldn't advance fast enough so started doing monthly updates but I'm not sure it's the way to go. Also, I feel like I've not focused the save on Totti enough. So here's what I'm asking: for those of you who actively follow the story, what kind of updates do you enjoy the most and do you think would be the most productive and also should I make the story seem a bit more personal to Totti and have updates about his own managerial life outside of games?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated and thanks for all the support so far, I never expected this save to take off and do so well!
Roma have just completed four signings, three of which were free transfers and one which cost them about 18.5 million euros. All 4 players are truly world-class players and confirm Totti's real ambition for the Champions League this season after they won it last year and in the Serie A to potentially win the title 3 years in a row.
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Managed to sign the European Golde Boy on a FREE TRANSFER. I noticed a couple of months ago that he was available at the end of the season and immediately went in for him and boy oh boy, what a signing he's going to be. Valued at 43 million at 22 years old and has already got over 20 caps for his national team? That gives an indication of his level of ability I think...
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With Dzeko now gone to AC Milan, we needed a striker as a backup and just look at who we brought in. Roberto Firmino! Top goalscorer for Liverpool, he brings in Premier League experience and is just an absolutely insane player who will definitely do an amazing job for us. At 28 years old, he's definitely in his prime and it's going to be a great time for him here at Roma. Getting him on a free was an absolute steal as well, selling him right now would give us a 48 million euros profit...
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Absolutely no clue why Udinese decided to release him but he is one of the most promising goalkeepers in the world and already has 17 caps for the Italian national team which is really impressive. With Donnarumma in the team too, we have the two most promising goalkeepers in the world. A free transfer again, just wow!
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I wanted a good replacement for Nainggolan in case he gets injured or suspended and I came across this player when I was going through transfer rumors. I sent some scouts to look at him and they came back saying for a 21-year-old, he was probably one of the best defensive midfielders they had ever seen. They also said he could definitely become a world-class player so he was worth buying. So we got him. For just 18.5 million euros, I think we definitely got a bargain and I can't wait to see him play.
Roma have just completed the signing of Christophe Sykora, who has the potential to be the next Patrick Vieira according to reports. The youngster has been compared to the ex-Arsenal legend many times during his time at Bordeaux where he played 80 games and scored 7 goals from the defensive midfielder spot. Only somewhat negative aspect of the transfer for Roma, they spent 71 million euros on him. With the kind of games he's been having in France and for the French U-21 team, he'll probably end up being worth it was he to continue with those amazing performances but Totti will be hoping for a straight impact as he comes in to a really talented and young Roma team. Indeed, more and more young players are signing for the club who still has a majority of their players aged 27 to over 30 years old which means that those youngsters are making the future look bright for AS Roma under Francesco Totti.
Thomas Tuchel has added to his incredible trophy cabinet as Germany won the Euros 2020 against England in the final and got to the final with fantastic performances against Portugal and Spain. Unfortunately, it wasn't all smiles for all countries as the likes of Italy getting out in the 2nd round and France also getting knocked out in the second round as Andrea Stramaccioni resigned from the Italy role after a very disappointing campaign which angered Italian fans who were looking for some silverware as they've not won any major trophies since the FIFA World Cup in 2006. Speculations are now going around about who could take over the Italy role with Daniele Bonera's name being touted by the media as the favourite for the role but some rumors saw Francesco Totti also linked with the role. Seeing as Totti as won many trophies with Roma as a manager and has definitely seen his ability and reputation grow in the past 2 years, he could be in with a chance to get the job and didn't deny his interest in the job when asked about it in a press conference. Luis Enrique was also a managerial casualty following the Euros 2020 as he was sacked by the Spanish Football Federation, with no one looking like a huge favourite as of right now.
There were rumors going around about this and it happened. AS Roma manager Francesco Totti has been named national coach of Italian National Football Team. A huge moment for the Roma legend who is currently on his way to becoming one of the greatest managers of all time as he keeps winning trophies after trophies. He's obviously a long way away from the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho for now but Totti has been nothing short of sensational since the start of his managerial career and the appointment to the Italian National Team will definitely be a bonus for him; a lot more work, but a bonus.
"So Francesco, you're now the manager of the Italian national team! How does it feel?"
"I gotta say, it's incredible. When I joined Roma back about 2 years ago, my plan was mostly to just win the Serie A with the club and maybe think about winning the Champions League. Now, we've won both those competitions and are signing some of the world's best players on free transfers or just for almost no money and I just felt like I wanted a new challenge. The next World Cup takes place in 2 years and the next Euros in 4 years and I feel like it is my duty as an Italian manager to try and guide my country to that kind of glory. As a club manager, there's only so much I can do apart from developing young players into incredible ones and try to get them to the Italian national team and get them to perform there so I wanted a bit more of a direct impact with the team and that's why I took the job."
"Don't you think it will be really hard to balance with your club duties though?"
"Hahaha, absolutely not. It's obviously more work, a lot more work, but it's a challenge and that's what I wanted. I know that I'll have to push myself with those two jobs but I also know that I'm very capable, just like Leonid Slutskiy has been doing with CSKA Moskva and the Russian national team. It's truly admirable and it's what I'm aiming for."
A very heavy pre-season but a great one for sure; the UEFA Super Cup loss was a bit disappointing but oh well, it wasn't that big of a deal for us anyway and the players played fine. We played really well against Real Madrid and Sevilla and I was also really impressed with our Supercoppa win! It's the second year in a row that we win it now and this year was much more convincing than last year I mean, 6-0??? What a victory! Hopefully a sign of things to come this season as we take on Perugia for the first game of the season in 5 days.
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So it's fair to say that we didn't expect to win by that much; I played a lot of our new players in the hopes that they'd start off their season well and get in the bath before the season started and wow what a great decision this turned out to be! A 6-0 win is always a great victory to get, especially when you win a trophy at the end of it. Roberto Firmino was absolutely outstanding and got a hattrick in his first game! Radja didn't get sent off which was a real positive and he scored a goal, which I guess is just an added bonus. Javier and Juan also both scored which was nice to see and overall the whole team just had an amazing game! Kenedy got injured (again) though which was really irritating and according to our physios, he'll be out for 2 months. This means he'll miss the start of the season but I guess it's not that big of a deal for now because we've got El Shaarawy and Vigliotta who can come in and replace him for now.
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Very disappointing defeat but Porto deserved it; they scored early on and worked really hard to get the other goals they got and overall they knew we were the better team and we just took them for granted. I think it was good to lose that game as now we learned a lesson before the season started to not underestimate those kind of teams and really just stay focused throughout the entirety of games that we play.
View attachment 163475 He had an absolutely wonderful pre-season and really sets the standards high for the season. In every single game except the one against Boca Juniors, he played really well and outperformed almost everyone on the team, even when he was played out of position at the left-midfielder spot. He also managed to score a goal which was an added bonus and just again, a great pre-season for him and hopefully he'll keep this form up throughout the season and won't get badly injured like last year!
What a great month with both Roma and Italy! With the Italian squad, I needed to prove to everyone that I could handle a club AND a national team and well, 3 wins from 3 in the European League Division B and that's the best that Italy has done in any competition in a long time so I'm proud of my first few games, we've got Croatia in November which should be a tough game too. Going to Roma now and what an amazing month and a half. In August we had two games and we absolutely just rocked it, 5-1 against Napoli being by far our most impressive win this season although I'm really proud about the Juventus, Milan and Arsenal wins. We've put ourselves in a great place to top our Champions League group, we're clear at the top of the table and we're performing with confidence. Nothing seems to be going wrong for us yet and I love it. It's just so rewarding to see my club, AS Roma, do so well after so many years of just mediocre seasons. We're the best team in Europe now and people know that, so all we have to do is just confirm that status then we'll really be Kings of Europe.
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Definitely our most impressive win from August and it will probably stay our most impressive win for a long time this season; incredible result that puts us in a strong position at the top of the league and since Achraf has been playing left-midfielder, he's really been an incredible player scoring goals left right and center. Stephan was also really good too and Gens Luis, the European Golden Boy, the young left-back making his debut, scored a goal and made 3 assists! Somehow he didn't get the man of the match award which is beyond me but apparently Stephan played better, who knows what the people awarding the man of the match thought.
View attachment 163111 My very first game in charge of Italy and man what a game! A great way to start my international managerial career I mean, a 5-1 win! It doesn't get any better than that. I think the best part about it is that we went 1-0 down after 4 minutes and I could hear all the press behind me who were commentating saying "has Totti made a mistake have Italy made a mistake by appointing him, it definitely looks like it right now as Italy go 1-0 down to Finland" and then we scored 5 minutes later. And after half-time we scored another, and another, and another and got an easy win. Great performance, especially from Matteo.
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Our first game of the group was probably the toughest one we'll have; against Arsenal. They finished 4th last season (no surprise there) and managed to qualify for the Champions League through the playoffs and I was happy that as current holders of the competition, we managed to show that we are still capable of it by beating such a strong Arsenal side. Games against PSV will be tough too, especially the one in Eindhoven. Riccardo got a late red card which was really annoying and I had a big talk with him at the end of the game to tell him to not make stupid decisions like that at the end of important matches, especially in the Champions League. Thankfully, our next game is against Red Bull Salzburg and not PSV.
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An absolutely fantastic victory from the boys, so well deserved as well. Bruno is absolutely on fire as well since he joined, what a player! Again, we went 1-0 down and they just all look so disheartened at the end of the first half but we pulled it back and got the 3 points which is a really sweet victory made even sweeter because it was against our title rivals Juventus. In an interview with AS Roma TV recently, they asked me if I hated Juventus or Lazio the most; it was a stupid question but I knew I had to answer it just for the fans and I just answered honestly by saying that right now Juventus, because they're actually in the Serie A! Hahaha. I still can't believe they got relegated last season finishing BOTTOM of the league. How embarrassing.
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Fantastic victory again, especially getting that clean sheet. It's now 11 wins in a row for us which is even more rewarding considering now we have to defend our title to try and win it for the third season in a row. Eugene was incredible, last year he was linked with a move back to Barcelona so often that I just thought he'd up leaving but he stayed and proved to become crucial at the end of last season. Thankfully, he's still here playing for us and today was an example of why we need him here. Another really amazing win to put on the board.
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A nice start to our campaign which gives us a great chance of going through already! I would have expected a bigger win but I think away Champions League games are always harder, especially in those Eastern European countries, the atmosphere there is amazing. Anyways, another good win and with our next game against PSV, winning that will really put us in a commanding position to finish top of the group which would be very good. A great way to end the month as well as we can now get ready for the Cagliari game in peace and knowing that we're doing well in all the competitions we're still part of!
Our most consistent and impressive player so far; no wonder why I gave him the award! He's been amazing, scored a couple of goals and just overall really improved the team. I'm so glad we got him on a free and I hope he continues to perform this well over the course of the next months because I'm really impressed by him so far. He kind of reminds me of those really technical yet deadly players, a bit like Neymar actually. I don't know about him being as good as Neymar yet but he might get there, who knows.
Roma continued their fabulous start to the season with a 3-0 victory over Fiorentina, meaning they've now won their last 13 league games and are clear at the top of the table after 8 games. An excellent performance from Roma legend Miralem Pjanic was definitely the highlight of the game as he never played so well to get the man of the match award in the past year or two but today he definitely deserved it. Firmino continued his amazing start to his new life in Rome with another goal as well whilst Stephan El Shaarawy to score his 10th goal of the season after 13 games played in all competitions. Totti seems absolutely unbeatable at the moment and with a game very soon against PSV, he could also pretty much secure top spot of their Champions League group if they were to win when they travel to Eindhoven.
What a great victory! Thoroughly deserved for sure and everyone played really well. We might have taken the lead through an own goal but we really showed our superiority in the second half when we scored two other goals. When I became a manager, I really never expected to have that much success already but it looks like it's working really well so far. I've already won the two major European trophies and am now competing to defend our title and maybe win it for the third season in a row. Incredible stuff and honestly, if it wasn't for Roma, I wouldn't be getting that kind of success right now so I'm really, really proud.
Roma suffered their second defeat of the season (lost 3-1 against Porto in the SuperCup in August) as they crumbled to a 1-0 loss at Philips Stadion against a very young PSV side. The Dutch side scored quite early on in the 14th minute and prevented Roma from getting any attacks on goal as they held on to the lead to grab the 3 points to give themselves a real lifeline in their Champions League campaign. This now means that after 3 games, Roma and Arsenal are tied on 6 points and qualification for the next round could come down to the wire and be a very tough battle between Roma, Arsenal and PSV.
Very disappointing loss that I didn't expect to happen at all; I really value my motivational skills with this group of players but tonight they just didn't really seem to want to listen. At half-time everyone was down, tired, they didn't want to play and we didn't. I was very mad at the players but understood because to be honest, it's hard to take a second defeat in the whole season to a team that was on paper, much weaker than us. I expect a better performance against Udinese in the league later this week but also a much better performance in our next Champions League which we'll play against them in early November. Let's hope this serves as a wake-up call to never underestimate our opponents, even if they're supposedly weaker.
The current Serie A leaders kept their 100% record in the league as they beat Udinese 2-1 at Friuli in a very tight contest which saw the outcome of the game change 3 times in 8 minutes as Roma took the lead and just a minute after Udinese managed to equalise before Brazilian striker Kenedy kept his goalscoring form going since coming back from injury as he made it 2-1 in the 78th minute. This is Roma's 14th league win in a row now, with the current record belonging to Inter who won 17 games in a row from October 2006 to February 2007 but with Roma's current run of form, there's no reason to believe that they can't beat that record this season. Totti will be happy about Roma's advantage in terms of chances and possession at this game, as possession is an aspect of the game that he highly respects as seen in his previous strategies and games at the club.
A good win considering Udinese's status; now that we are the best team in Italy (we won the league twice in a row, we're the best team, admit it), we take almost every game as favourites and sometimes that makes it harder for us but I'm glad the players were able to focus enough to come back in the game and win it late on, especially after such a quick equaliser from them. With just 3 more wins, we'll level the record by Inter around 12 years ago which would be awesome to do but I don't really care for records that much, as long as we can keep that good run of form going in the league I'm happy.
Roma continued their ridiculous form and get closer and closer to a historic Serie A record as they won their 15th game in a row to stay firm leaders with 10 wins from 10 games. Uruguayan centre-back Velazquez got sent off late on but it had no impact on the game whereas one could argue that Marcelo Diaz's sending off after 20 minutes killed the game for bottom-placed Bologna. This game was also clearly the last possible chance for manager Di Francesco to impress as he was sacked just minutes after the game by the club, leaving Bologna in a lot of trouble just 10 games in with no manager and a bottom place. Kenedy and Firmino proved to be the perfect Brazilian offensive partnership as they both scored their 2nd and 8th goals of the season respectively.
Great victory against well, a clearly weaker side. A clean sheet is definitely a positive thing to get out of this game and our strikers proved their worth by each scoring a goal and it's great to see Kenedy getting back into it already since coming back from his injury. We're playing well and with confidence and we have our next game of the league against Spezia in just a couple of days so we need to already start getting ready for that before facing PSV right after for revenge. I want a win against them, we didn't really deserve to lose that first game we played against them and if we lose again, our qualification for the next round of the Champions League will really not be secured and might actually just not happen if we don't perform so let's hope we do.
As expected, Roma absolutely thrashed Spezia to stay clear at the top of the Serie A, with Roberto Firmino scoring 4 goals and becoming the second top goalscorer in the league in the process. Kenedy was the other striker involved in the rout as he scored his only goal in the 51st minute, to make it 3-0 at the time. An absolutely fantastic performance from Roma who seemed like they struggled a lot against Spezia in the last couple of games they played against them but they finally got the very convincing victory they wanted. This will boost the players' morale ahead of their next fixture which is in the Champions League against PSV as they face the Dutch for the first time since their 1-0 loss in Eindhoven a couple of weeks ago.
Absolutely terrific win today, so proud of the players! Roberto was just outstanding and Kenedy scored again! I don't know what else I could ask for from my Roma boys, they all just play so well together and we've got a great harmony in the squad now and if it keeps going like this, I don't see why we can't smash Inter's record of most wins in a row and smash Juventus' record for the most points at the end of the season! Just incredible stuff and the fact that Stephan AND Roberto are the two top goalscorers really shows that we are incredible up top. We've not been that fantastic defensively yet this season but still have one of the strongest ones in the league. It was a great win that really puts us in the mood for revenge now against PSV.
Roma lost yet again but this time at home when they faced PSV to go down to third in their Champions League group, leaving current HOLDERS of the competition under a lot of pressure as they could fail to qualify for the next round. The Dutch earned a very hard-fought victory as they are now more likely to qualify than ever. Stephan El Shaarawy will be very unhappy about missing his penalty which might have cost his team a point and maybe even a place in the next round.
Awful, just awful. For the whole week we were just talking about getting revenge and playing well against them and getting a win and making sure we qualify and today we just flopped completely. Just like the first time we played them, they came out on top and we ended up losing a very, very important game. Our next one is against Arsenal and that game will definitely be the decider so we just can't afford to slip, AT ALL. Thankfully we're going back to the league now where we're just bossing it and then it's the international break so I'll get to spend some time with the boys in the national team which is always nice, especially because we're doing very well in our European International Division B group.
View attachment 162303 Roma have equalled Inter's record of most games won in a row in the Serie A of 17 as they managed to grab all 3 points against a strong Sassuolo side. Indeed, the away team managed to equalise just 6 minutes after going a goal down but it was Iturbe's 74th-minute header which decided the game. Pastore was back in the lineup after some time on the bench and got himself the man of the match award which will certainly please him and his manager Francesco Totti. Roma's dream continues this season in the league as they are first and miles ahead of second-placed Inter, currently 7 points behind Roma with 29 from 12 games. After I Giallorossi's defeat against PSV in midweek, they'll definitely be happy about this victory and the international break to give them some time off before coming back to face Carpi then Arsenal in a crucial Champions League game.
A fantastic victory which I thought we wouldn't get in the end; Sassuolo fought really hard to get a point from the game but we held them off and got a late goal which secured us the win which is always very emotional and nice to see. Juan has impressed me as of late and he might just start playing more often if it's to play like that. Kenedy though, was nowhere to be seen; I don't know what he had today but he just wasn't in it. It's fine, we got the 3 points and the team was happy about the victory and so was I so I'll let it slip for now. Going to manage the national team is always really fun, especially because I still get to see some of my Roma boys but we have a big game against Croatia in 5 days so let's hope we do well in that!
Italy could only salvage a draw against Croatia as they stay top of their group in the European International Division B following their 100% record until this game. It's Totti's Italy's first setback since the Italian legend signed a contract with the national team but the fans will surely understand and appreciate the performance given the incredible quality in the Croatian national team. Italy will now travel to Costa Rica for a friendly against the home country before leaving each other again at the end of the international break. El Shaarawy was the key man in Italy's game today as they are now promoted to Division A and they will surely look back on some great wins against Finland and good results against Croatia.
Well, not the best performance in the world but we're promoted! Division A; it should be a lot harder than this division, I'm fully expecting it, but with the squad we have here I don't feel as though it will be that hard for us to compete. I definitely believe that we have one of the strongest squads in the world so now it's up to us to show that in our next game against Costa Rica and keep showing that until our next national game after that. I always like to travel with the national team, everyone speaks Italian, we meet old friends, we all talk it's great. Not that we don't do that with Roma but the national team creates a special feeling. In terms of work though, I've not felt like I had that much more to do since signing the contract with the national team. It's a lot of fun and I'm glad I followed the same path as Russia's manager because it's just really great to manage your national team, it gives me a lot of pride.
