The former Giallorossi manager, on the sidelines of the presentation of his book in the capital, returned to talking about his past in the club, but not only: “I suffered a lot for never having won a Scudetto in this city”
– Rome
“In my six years in Rome I was obsessed with this team and I continue to be a victim of it, albeit in a more diluted way.” Even during the debate on his book “My furious and solitary football”, staged in the Maxxi auditorium this afternoon, Walter Sabatini’s thoughts revolved around the yellow and red colors. “I suffered a lot for never having won a Scudetto in this city, it continues to be an excruciating pain”, says the former sporting director sadly.
REFEREES
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A comment on José Mourinho’s Roma is therefore almost inevitable. The leader elected by the Giallorossi people – and by the Friedkins – ended up at the center of the debate on the excessive protests and the behavior of the Romanist bench towards the referees: “This happens because we are talking about Mourinho, there are subjects destined to attract spasmodic attention and he is one of those. He built a career on it, rightly or wrongly. He obviously built it with trophies but also thanks to this ability. I must admit that he is partly right to position himself in a certain way when it comes to talking about class referee, he has been targeted a lot since he returned to Italy. Even in the Europa League, during the final, Roma were defrauded and there is no doubt about this. However, I admit that I hate certain attitudes he makes his bench keep. When I was at Salernitana, Roma’s protests conditioned the match director, making us leave the Olimpico defeated.”
MOURINHO
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Sabatini also returns to the Europa League final lost by Roma in Budapest: “Against Sevilla, Roma would have deserved the victory. Thanks to their coach’s understanding and ability, they managed to put the match in the right direction, setting up and risking Dybala who theoretically he couldn’t even have played. One of Mourinho’s best skills has always been to understand the players and the situations. This coach is the greatest guarantee that Roma has. I would renew his contract, provided that he really wants to stay and I wouldn’t understand any hesitation: the love he found in the capital he will never find again, not even if he were to choose to go and be coach of Portugal”.
DYBALA
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On the other hand, there is no doubt about the ‘ownership’ of the number 10 shirt, which in recent days has once again become a hot topic on social networks and radio stations dedicated to Roma. In fact, according to someone, the social clue launched by Adidas would suggest an imminent change of number in sight for Dybala – currently he has chosen number 21 – who would inherit the historic jacket worn for the last time by Francesco Totti. However, Sabatini does not seem to agree: “The number 10 shirt belongs to Francesco. Right now Paulo is the only true champion that Roma has, but the number 10 belongs to Totti”. Despite, for the former sports director, Joya is destined to remain in the capital for a long time to come: “I am convinced that Dybala will stay in Rome, he is an intelligent boy and he is the first to be aware that he needs at least another season to overcome all his probably physical. Even he knows that he has found an audience that loves him and incites him unconditionally, he would be a fool to leave”.
MARKET
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Sabatini, on the other hand, prefers not to go into the merits of the current transfer market led by Tiago Pinto, limiting himself to listing the needs of the Roma squad without naming possible reinforcements to go looking for: “I’d take a couple of midfielders and a deep first striker. Scamacca is “He’s a strong player, but he still needs to fix something. I met him in the Trigoria youth sector, before moving to the Netherlands due to some bad advice.”
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