The King of Rome

08/03/2018

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Totti set for managerial role at Roma after interview?

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So I went back to Rome for an interview... I know people saw me because it's all over the news. Obviously, the rumours are true but I just know what to tell the press when they ask me about it anyway. From the start of my managerial career, my family was living in Rome. They didn't want to move to Milan they loved the life we were living in Rome so I said sure, I'll just come back home every 2 or 3 days for the afternoon and the evening and leave the next day. I guess that can be my excuse. The truth is, I don't know if I want to leave now. I know that I could tell them that I want to postpone my decision until the end of the season and if they agree to that they'll just get an interim manager until then. I don't want to leave Inter feeling like I haven't achieved what I could achieve. My Champions League dream with them is already over and even though Roma might not get Champions League football next season, I know that if I move there it will be for a long time and I'll have as much time as I want to get them to the Champions League and who knows maybe win it one day. For the past month or so, Roma has definitely become an option for me and I've been really excited about it and the interview with the board at the Olimpico made it even better. The best part is that they all know me so well that it just felt like an old friends meet-up more than a formal job interview. I know Mancini is also hoping to land the job so I hope that my history with the club at Roma will give me an advantage but he'll be a tough candidate to beat. He's got a lot more experience and he's managed in England, Turkey and Italy. Maybe the fact that he played AND managed Lazio will put the board off!
 
01/04/2018


With just 7 games left in the Serie A, Inter lead the title race very comfortably as they stay 14 points clear of Juventus ahead of the latter's game in hand. Despite not performing very convincingly against Napoli today, they managed to get all 3 points thanks to a Marco Asensio goal which is better than nothing at this point. Manager Francesco Totti is rumoured to have had an interview with AS Roma and could leave the club at the end of the season as managers have the right to ask clubs to delay decisions until the end of the season. It's looking quite likely that the Roma legend rejoins his boyhood club as manager and Inter might have to start looking for a manager already. Nothing has been decided for sure and should Totti decide to stay at Inter at the end of the season he will surely make a lot of Inter fans happy and will have quite a lot of money available to him as well as another Champions League campaign to look forward to.

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If there's anything I've learned in my managerial career so far, it's that a win is a win. We might have not won 4-0 or 5-0 but a 1-0 win against Napoli is a good result especially given what's at stake. March was a pretty good month for us after we managed to get over the Benfica loss and I'm confident ahead of our last 7 games as we face teams that we can definitely beat. We're on a 3 game winning streak now and still unbeaten in the league which is an amazing record so let's hope we can keep that going. As of right now, I haven't heard back from Roma and I feel like maybe they might have decided to go for Mancini over me. I guess it'd make sense considering my lack of experience as a manager but I'd feel really betrayed if they went for him. I know that the press has been saying that I asked Roma if I could reply to their "offer" at the end of the season but I've not gotten an "offer" to speak of yet so it makes me kind of angry that such stupid rumours are going around right now. Our schedule for the next month and a half is looking good and despite having 2 very big games against Roma and AC Milan, we're playing teams that we can DEFINITELY win and not just narrowly but easily.

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16/04/2018

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Inter grab 2 easy wins; one more victory to clinch title

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I won't lie, it was a bit painful for me to watch my boyhood club get battered like that. I remember how it felt when we lost 4-0 to Benfica and I just couldn't help but think about all the Roma players and how the felt after this loss, especially because they're just not having a great season this year. The win against Pro Vercelli was very convincing and very well deserved; so was the one against Roma to be honest. Now though, we just need 3 points to win the Serie A. It's the moment I have been waiting for for the past what, 2 months? I knew at the start of the season that we were title favourites but now our game against Hellas Verona decides it all. Do we win the title and clinch Inter's first Serie A title since 2010? Hopefully! It would be just absolutely amazing if we could win to break Juventus' streak.

19/04/2018

For the first time since the 2009/2010 season, Internazionale have won the Serie A. With 4 games to spare, they are 13 points clear at the top of the league, having scored 84 goals in 34 games and conceding only 25 as the Serie A's second best defence behind Juventus. Inter will of course have to thank club top goalscorer Mauro Icardi, who scored 7 goals in his last 3 Serie A games, taking him to the top of the Serie A Goalscorer table with 17 goals this season. Cristiano Biraghi has also been instrumental to Inter's triumph by averaging an 8/10 throughout the whole season whilst Mkhitaryan had the most assists with 16. This season will be a season to remember for Inter as they stay unbeaten in the league with 4 games left and still have one more trophy to play for in the TIM Cup which they already won last year. Finally, Inter will definitely have to thank manager Francesco Totti who came in about a year and a half ago and managed to win 4 trophies with Inter so far: the TIM Cup in 2017, the Supercoppa in 2017, the Serie A in 2018 and most notably the Europa League in 2017. The Italian legend could be on his way out as Roma are still on the lookout for a manager since Spalletti's departure in late February which leaves a lot of people to believe that they might just wait until the end of the season to appoint a new man in charge.

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14/05/2018

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Serie A awards for the 2017/2018 season


Serie A Team of the Year

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Media and Fan's Players of the Year

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Serie A Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Strikers of the Year
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Serie A Player of the Year, Top Goalscorer and Young Player of the Year

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Serie A Manager of the Year

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All those awards are just pure proof of how well we did this season. I mean, wow! What a year! Personally, winning the Serie A and the Manager of the Year award too are just my biggest achievements but I'm so proud of all the players who won awards; Icardi did so well at the end of the season to win the Top Goalscorer award, Embolo has just been incredible all season and unfortunately, he could only win one award but we just got so many! And we have so many players in the Team of the Year too I mean again, it just goes to show how well we did this year. Just 4 players from the 11 are not Inter players! I'm just really lost for words about what we achieved in the Serie A this season and now I'm really excited about our chances in the TIM Cup. Oh, and by the way, we also broke a couple of club AND Serie A records:

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16/05/2018


Inter Milan won their third trophy of the season as they beat Napoli 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in the TIM Cup final to make it two TIM Cups wins in a row. Breel Embolo was the Man of the Match in the game after he managed to score a goal and assisted Mkhitaryan's goal as well in what could be Francesco Totti's last game as Inter's manager. The Italian legend will definitely be happy about this performance as Inter showed their dominance in Italy once again by not only beating one of the strongest sides in the country but also winning every competition they could possibly win this season in Italy. Their disappointing Champions League campaign probably ended up helping them in the title race as well as their TIM Cup victory as they didn't have as heavy of a schedule as they would have had if they were still in the competition. Inter's future seems very bright with a lot of youngsters stepping up this season and their key players performing like absolute superstars as they also managed to finish the Serie A season unbeaten and won their last game of the season to take their winning streak to 11 games. Inter's last month and a half was for sure impressive and will definitely give the players an extra incentive when they start their next season off which could see them extend that winning streak even further.

I feel happy. This year was an absolutely incredible year at Inter and we won so many trophies, so many awards, so many games. I don't see how we could have dominated any more than we did in Italy this year and I'm so proud of the boys and what they managed to accomplish, especially all of our younger players. I still don't really know where my future lies here but as we were celebrating all those trophies I just felt sad for some reason, as if I knew that I was saying goodbye to this club. It doesn't feel right to, after all they've done for me and I've done for them but I just can't help but think that Roma might just come in for me. Arsenal sacked Ancelotti and West Ham also sacked their manager and all over the news it said that Mancini was the most likely to take over at those clubs, so maybe I'm in for a shout at Roma! Wherever I end up going I know I'll never forget this season and never forget what we've achieved because for just my second season as a manager, I never even dreamt of it being so successful.

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27/05/2018

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Francesco Totti named AS Roma manager

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AS Roma have today confirmed the rumours linking Totti with a move back to his boyhood club as he takes over for the next 3 years at the Stadio Olimpico. He has left Inter fans disappointed after his recent achievements with the Milan-based club but there really was nothing that could get in the way of Totti's return to Roma. He replaces former manager Luciano Spalletti who was sacked at the end of February and Roma fans were absolutely ecstatic to hear about Totti's return especially after his very impressive (but short) managerial career.

I'm so happy to be here, it's an absolute honour to come back and keep the legend alive here and I hope that we can do some really great things together again! I left in the first place to get some managerial experience in the hopes of one day managing this club and what I managed to achieve at Inter is something I'm very proud of and hoping to replicate here at Roma.

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Great results with Inter mate - curious to see how you go with Roma now.

Best of luck anyway, I'll still be following.
 
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28/05/2018


I can't describe how it felt to be back here. To come back and meet with all my old team-mates, the staff. It was all very nostalgic especially when I saw Daniele. He's always been one of my greatest friends at Roma, we've both been here for so long and it was amazing to see him again and work with him again. I had our first training session at the Trigoria today and it was all just good fun but also hard work. The players are all going on holiday soon and I just wanted to have a couple of sessions with them to really see what I'm working with and so far I have to say I'm quite happy with the quality of the players and their performances. I already have a transfer lined up, he's a young striker who'll come to the team in early July after his holidays and he should have a great time here. The one small problem is that he played for Lazio, so I don't know if the fans will take that very well but if they know me well then they know that when it comes to Lazio, I'm always on top even in terms of results, performances on the pitch, and signings. This player will be so much better at Roma than he was at Lazio, I can guarantee it. So far, the team reports and the schedules aren't in so there's not much I can do in preparation for next season so I'll just spend some time with my family as I've missed them a lot when I was living in Milan. Being back in Roma just seems so perfect for my family and my career and the club, let's hope that the players perform next season and meet my expectations and everyone's expectations.

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08/07/2018
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Squad report and pre-season matches

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A heavy pre-season ahead of us, I thought it was necessary for us to really just have some big and some relatively smaller matches to prepare for the season. The games against Atletico and Real Madrid, as well as Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, will be very tough but I think it will be more fun than a hard game. Empoli, Ludogorets and Monaco are games that we should be able to win and it'll give the players confidence ahead of the new season. Talking about our players, Bruma was an unfortunate departure as he moved to Real Madrid for a hefty 33 million euro initial fee but could get us as much as 45 million in total. This means that we have a budget of about 65 million euros to find a replacement for him and maybe get a backup striker too. We're still trying to finish up the deal that we had planned for an ex-Chelsea striker but for now it just doesn't really seem to be moving forward.

Having looked at our squad, we have a couple of stand-out players who I feel will definitely be our key men this season and despite having depth in the squad, I'll be building the team around them for sure:

Edin Dzeko - striker

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Our best striker for sure. Shani Tarashaj is right up there for sure and in the long-term he will probably lead the line for us but as of right now, Edin is our main man up front. He was the top goalscorer for the club last season, scoring 20 goals in 43 appearances and he'll be even better this year for sure.

Mohamed Salah - right attacking midfielder

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Our main offensive threat down on the right-hand side of the field. I'll be looking to involve him in as much play as possible because he is for sure our best player in the whole squad. Hopefully he'll live up to that this season and maybe even outperform my expectations that I have of him for this season

Miralem Pjanic - centre midfielder

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Our best creative player by far and will be in the centre of the midfield almost every game if possible. At 28, he's in his prime and it would be stupid to not play him ahead of Nainggolan and De Rossi. He's been here for quite a few seasons now and knows exactly how things work at this club and I used to play with him as well, he's a cracking player that'll do a lot of great things for us.

Javi Manquillo - right back

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One of our most promising players and Roma's top performer last season. I've got high hopes for him and hopefully he'll be just as good as last year and do well for us. He's quick, quite strong and can definitely cross a ball and given how I like my team to play, he'll fit in at right back perfectly.

For our formation, I'm sticking with what I had at Inter as it worked out so well and I can definitely see us doing well with it this season. A 4-1-2-1-2 asymmetric which really does do wonders. I'll probably try out a few other formations during the pre-season friendlies but this tactic will probably end up being my favoured formation to play.

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16/08/2018

Pre-season review

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A great pre-season comes to an end. Some of those results are just absolutely incredible I have to say! 5-0 against Sevilla, 2-1 against Real Madrid, 5-1 against Barcelona??? That game was in all the papers in Spain and in Europe and they were all saying that we were definitely a force to be reckoned with and to be fair I would completely agree. The team that we have here is absolutely incredible and it showed in our pre-season. Nine games, 8 wins and 1 draw! A win even against Paris Saint-Germain I mean all of those games were just ridiculous. They might have all played a bit of a weaker side but we just completely outplayed everyone who we won against.

Best match of the pre-season

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Best player of the pre-season

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He's already proving to be an absolutely class signing. In 9 games he scored 3 goals and got 5 assists and he got an 8.31 average rating from those 9 games; it's not like we played very poor teams either, he performed against Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, some of the best teams in Europe! I can't wait for our first game of the season to see how he does then.
Kenedy was pretty decent too but he didn't get as much playing time, simply because we have some other strikers in the team so Dzeko played a lot and performed well too! He scored 7 goals in 9 games I mean that's a heck of a goal scoring record already. I'm really happy with our performances and the squad, our first game is in the TIM Cup 3rd qualifying round against Albino Leffe at home so we should grab an easy win there but I want it to be convincing so the fans can get excited!

Most promising player of the pre-season

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Shani only played 2 games and fully delivered in those two games, scoring 2 and assisting one. He's one of our backup striker and a back up to Salah on the right-wing as well and I'm very excited about managing him, he seems like a great player and hopefully he'll perform this well during this season.

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26/08/2018

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First win for Totti's Roma against Genoa

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Roma secured their first victory of the season as they beat Genoa 2-1 at the Olimpico. This was also Totti's first game in charge of Roma since taking over from Inter in late May. Kenedy will be very proud of his Serie A debut with Roma as he managed to score the opening goal before Salah eventually made it 2-0 in the 61st minute in a game that Roma deserved to win throughout the whole 90 minutes. Genoa managed to grab a goal back late on but it wasn't enough as Roma stayed solid at the back to keep their 3 points, putting them in 6th in the Serie A after the first game of the season.

Good victory for a first match, not as convincing as I would have wanted but still a good win. The players aren't necessarily used to the formation we're using but it will come in time. Kenedy played magnificently well and Salah was great as well. After our 4-0 win against AlbinoLeffe, this was a good follow-up victory and the fact that we're not playing in the TIM Cup for a little bit or in any European competitions gives us the chance to focus on the league for the time being. My goal is obviously to qualify for the Champions League for Roma this season but I definitely think we'll have a shot at winning the league if we prove to be good enough.
 
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01/09/2018

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It was a bit of a last-minute signing but I just couldn't pass on the opportunity of signing such a world-class player. We got him for about 20 million euros in what could be the signing/deal of the season for sure. He'll be an absolutely amazing player for us I mean, how could he not be? There's a reason that he signed for Barcelona after a season at Sevilla, he's that good! I'm excited to see him play soon and I'm not sure how I'm gonna work out the players who can play as our attacking midfielder or left midfielder but I know we have incredibly talented players in all those positions so we've now really boosted our chances at qualifying for the Champions League or maybe even winning the title!
 
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02/09/2018

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Roma grab deserved win against Fiorentina


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Roma continued their good start to the season with a 2-0 away win against Fiorentina as Manquillo scored a brace with a goal in each half. Roma dominated most of the game and definitely deserved to come out on top in a game which saw a total of 41 shots. With a game in hand over almost all the teams in the league, Roma go top of the Serie A with a goal difference of +3 and 6 points from a possible 6 which confirms Totti's ambitions with his boyhood club in the league. With the international games now underway, Totti will have a chance to review his plans for his next game with Roma against AC Milan in 15 days.

A good victory which lets the players and myself leave on a good note before coming back to the league in 2 weeks. Javi did very well to score two goals and all the players performed very well overall. I was a bit disappointed by Mohamed's performances but even world-class players have bad games sometimes so I didn't worry about it too much. We're doing well now, let's just keep this up and we'll be able to compete well in the league.
 
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