“We’re starting with a handicap, just as we did last season, and just as we got back then we will get back now. I tell you this and I underline it. Goodbye and thank you.”
Those were Claudio Ranieri’s final words in what was a dramatic rant in front of cheap nfl jerseys
Italy’s press when what they’d actually been expecting was a run of the mill question and answer session in Saturday’s pre-match press conference.
In the game itself the following day there was an equally dramatic ending, with Marco Di Vaio snatching a late point for a Bologna side who had trailed 2-0. The difference came in that this was a far less surprising turn of events than what had gone on in the press room, for the Giallorossi look a shadow of the side which finished second in the standings in May. All of which means the Tinkerman’s final four words may be repeated all too soon… “Goodbye and thank you.”
But is that what Roma really need right now? Another rescue job turned title challenge which might lead people to believe that all is actually well with the club? The Lupi’s double runners-up crown last year was not quite enough to cover up the fact that the organisation was carrying a dramatically unmanageable debt, which should really have been addressed a year before and had led former coach Luciano Spalletti to forego the pay-off he was entitled to after getting the bullet two games into the campaign.
Though they are now in the hands of the Unicredit bank, they are far from rescued. A buyer still needs to be found, and in the meantime there is little room for manoeuvre in the bid to remain a competitive club. Meanwhile on the field a shake-up is desperately needed. The two do not mix well.
Much of the talk over the past week, and much of the fuel behind Ranieri’s weekend fire, was to do with talismanic skipper Francesco Totti. While this editorial is not about to claim that this will be the season when ‘Er Pupone’s catalogue of setbacks – or ‘a thousand injuries’, as Ranieri put it – will catch up with him, surely that time can’t be far off now.
And beyond Totti, what is left? Up front Mirko Vucinic needs to kick on majorly this season from his very good showing last time around in order to become a forward player of real prime stock. He may well end up vying for time and space with Marco Borriello, who was only brought in after the club finally woke up Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
to the fact that Adriano will take a lot longer than a few training sessions to become a sprightly forward again. Even Joey Tribbiani would have worked that one out quicker.
Across midfield Ranieri has a multitude of issues beginning to rear their heads. David Pizarro cannot do everything alone and Jeremy Menez is too inconsistent to be a true saviour, while Julio Baptista needs to raise his game a few levels before he could be described as being at a stage even close to inconsistent. Simone Perrotta and Rodrigo Taddei haven’t been at their best for at least three years, Fabio Simplicio will take time to bed in once he’s fully fit and Matteo Brighi never gets a chance to show whether he can fill the anchor role as capably as Daniele De Rossi. On the subject of which, ‘Il Capitan Futuro’ is suffering a very major slump which might have been avoided if he’d left for pastures new two summers ago… There we go, I said it
At the back it isn’t much better news for poor Claudio. Though he does have one of last season’s stand-out keepers in Julio Sergio, the protection he gets this term may not be of a similar ilk to 12 months ago. Nicolas Burdisso was a stellar loan signing, but he can equally be a liability (see Cagliari 10 days ago and the Coppa Italia final for examples), while Philippe Mexes needs to spend more time on his defending and less time on his hair. Juan is a tough prospect but is slowing noticeably, and the latter can also be said of Marco Cassetti. Aleandro Rosi is a good addition though, and John Arne Riise remains amongst the best left-backs in the league.
Looking at such evidence, not all of the blame can be put on the perennial runner-up ‘in panchina’, as he has had to work as best he can with what he’s got. And he’ll have to go on doing so. No matter what formation he’s tried them in – and there have been a few – they have not produced quite what has been necessary to be No. 1. Snide remarks from Totti about ‘catenaccio’ every time he turns in a poor performance will help neither his coach’s public veneer nor his team’s chances of success. It’s time for Roma to be a committed whole. A united front is needed. And whilst some might liken their boss’ recent outburst to that of Rafa Benitez at Liverpool two seasons back, maybe this should be seen more in the light of Jose Mourinho’s ‘zero tituli’ broadcast.
A new coach will have no greater leeway and nowhere near as much Minnesota Vikings jersey
passion as Ranieri, so the Tinkerman should not be tinkered with. If his players can now show the same passion he did on Saturday then they might be able to still make something of this season. Their boss promised that his charges will start to prove they have balls. The time to show it has arrived, because they’re the ones underperforming.
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