Rome, Gasperini and Massara at loggerheads: behind the scenes of the transfer market

They talk about verbal clashes. Poisonous words. Face to face filled with resentment. An almost unmanageable relationship. One thing is certain between legend and truth: there is not a peaceful relationship between Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini and sporting director Ricky Massara. In the middle, the figure of Claudio Ranieri, the club’s senior advisor, who chose the coach last summer and who must guarantee unity within the club in a difficult context, amidst needs that risk clashing every time. On the one hand the expressed market requests of the coach, a man who certainly does not like beating around the bush and long waits, and on the other the need to balance the club’s accounts in the name of financial fair play.

ESCALATION

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The tensions between Gasp and Massara, a manager with proven abilities and a mild but not compliant character, originate from last summer, when for tactical reasons the coach repeatedly asked for the left winger Sancho from Manchester United and the attacking wildcard Fabio Silva from Wolverhampton. A push and pull also justified by doubts about Sancho’s behavioral qualities and the Portuguese’s real usefulness in a department where Dybala, Soulé, Baldanzi, El Shaarawy, Dovbyk and Ferguson were among the staff. The evaporation of the two Premier League operations had already soured the relationship between the coach and the sporting director, conflicts which then went into the background for a few weeks coinciding with Roma’s excellent start to the season. But with every question in the press conference about the abstinence of the two center forwards Dovbyk and Ferguson, two profiles never fully digested by the coach, the tension promptly began to grow again. Until the last days of January, in which the coach was already expecting to bring at least Giacomo Raspadori to Lecce, while waiting for Joshua Zirkzee. And after the heated discussions between the two on their return from the away match in Bergamo, which culminated in a bitter defeat for the former Nerazzurri coach, the two began to glare at each other again in Puglia, where the coach did not want to speak after the match with the Giallorossi to avoid further shocks.

JACK IN THE CENTER

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Just the difficult one negotiation for Raspadori now constitutes the unit of measurement of the heated confrontation within the Giallorossi. The manager complained that the sporting director was unable to reach an agreement with the player before Atletico, in turn the manager reproached the manager for not being able to convince the attacker despite the telephone contacts he had in recent days. Exasperating the moment, moreover, is the uncertainty over Zirkzee (with whom Roma has an agreement), whose position will be examined again by United after the dismissal of Ruben Amorin (for whom the former Bologna player was not necessary), and other transfer skirmishes over profiles not appreciated by the coach. For example: Niclas Fullkrug (now at Milan) and Albert Gudmundsson of Fiorentina were proposed to Gasp, who for the coach are not at the top of the list of favorites for different reasons: in particular the German was not considered by the coach to be fully useful to the Giallorossi cause due to his technical characteristics.

SUMMIT

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The discussion with president Dan Friedkin, expected today in Trigoria, should serve to find solutions and ease the tension. Gasp wants to fully understand what the club’s present and future plans are also in view of the summer, when between finished loans and failed renewals many will leave Trigoria. And between a Raspadori, a Zirkzee and another defender (Jayden Oosterwolde of Fenerbahce) to take, the American owner will certainly have to “purchase” first of all a precious and necessary asset for everyone: “peace” between the coach and the sporting director. The serenity.