Football Season Guide

When the club ended up in the hands of some American entrepreneurs, Roma supporters thought that their suffering would have been over as wads of cash would have been spent on the strengthening of the squad. Unfortunately for them, though, the technical and tactical revolutions occurred in the last two campaigns proved to be utterly disastrous as Roma did not even manage to reach a qualification to the Europa League. So, after the negative experiences with wunderkind Luis Enrique and Messiah Zeman, this time around it will be Rudi Garcia’s turn to bring the Wolves back where they belong, among the leaders of the Serie A. The former Lille coach is currently dealing with a bit of a work in progress as players are still arriving and leaving at the same time. The management, wisely?, decided to let Marquinhos go to PSG for a massive amount of money that was invested on several players. The Brazilian was not the only one to leave: Stekelenburg, Piris, Tachtsidis and Goicoechea were all greeted for good and with little, if no, regret at all. De Sanctis arrived from Napoli and should be the new man in goals. In a 4-3-3 formation, Maicon and Benatia should immediately make the back four together with Castan and Balzaretti, with Burdisso, Dodo, Jedvaj and Torosidis as the main alternatives. The midfield was strengthened by the arrival of Strootman who should join De Rossi, Pjanic, as long as he is not sold in the end, or Florenzi Bradley and Marquinho while, for the attack, Gervinho will be the alternative to the likes of Totti, Destro and Lamela while Osvaldo and Borriello are expected to quit before the transfer window closes.