jquery
jp-tracks-functions
wpml-cookie
eio-lazy-load
gutena-accordion-script
addtoany-core
addtoany-jquery
contact-form-7
embedpress-front
tp-tools
revmin
jquery-datatables
sportspress
wp-optimize-send-command
wp-optimize-lazy-load
custom-slider
custom-post-grid-ajax
comment-reply
theme-como-script
player-script
custom-script
jetpack_likes_queuehandler
google_gtagjs
googlesitekit-events-provider-contact-form-7
Skip to Content
SERIE A

Can Gian Piero Gasperini Banish His Ghosts as Roma Adventure Starts?

By Emmet Gates

Published on: June 19, 2025

Gian Piero Gasperini, as is often his way, did not throw any punches. 

The Italian was conducting his first press conference as Roma boss, and the 67-year-old made no attempt to sell fairytales when asked about the Giallorossi’s Scudetto chances next season.

“The best result will be qualification to the Champions League. Right now, Roma can’t win the Scudetto, but you never know,” Gasperini said in his honest and direct manner.

“For me, the goal is to make this team stronger, with more national and international players that we don’t have at the moment. 

“We have to create a strong core and have continuity. That makes teams grow.” 

Ruling out talk of the Scudetto is a smart decision. For as good a coach as Gasperini is, the players at his disposal simply are not good enough to push for the title. 

Expectations need to be kept realistic and pipe dreams quashed. This is easier said than done in Rome.

For a city that has only produced five Scudetti between Roma and Lazio, demands on the clubs, especially in the red-and-yellow half, is frightening. 

There are multiple radio stations solely dedicated to the fortunes of the Lupi

Gian Piero Gasperini, left, was welcomed to Roma by Claudio Ranieri at his first press conference (Photo by Fabio Rossi/AS Roma via Getty Images)

“The pressure that you get at Roma you don’t get anywhere else. I happened to listen to the Roman radio while driving around the city. I listened to the fiery passion of the fans,” remarked former Roma defender, and current Inter boss, Cristian Chivu last year.

Mirko Vucinic, the mercurial striker once of Roma and Juventus, believed the pressure was worse in the capital than at the 36-time champions.

“When Juventus draw it’s perceived as a loss. You feel it, drawing is not enough,” he said.

“Winning helps, as every victory helps you to get the next one. It is good for you mentally, you feel stronger.

“Fans in Rome are not like this. It’s enough that you do well for a couple of games and it puts you high up in the table, but then as soon as you do something bad you begin to feel that the support for the team isn’t there. And that wears you down in the long run.”

The pressure on Roman-born players, however, multiplies exponentially. 

Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi and now Lorenzo Pellegrini, all local boys, have talked about the intensity of the demanding public. 

Fabio Capello’s remark that winning “one league title with Roma is worth 10 with Juve or Milan” is just as much to do with financial disparity as it is with the fans’ lofty and somewhat unachievable ambition.

It was even an issue Gasperini himself commented on during his press conference. 

“Since I joined, everyone has warned me about the situation in Rome and the fact that it’s a difficult city to obtain football success in, for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “But I think that should be a strength, not a weakness.”

Gasperini was wise, therefore, to simmer any title aspirations instantly. Moreover, he did not play to the gantry by shouting ‘Daje Roma‘, the club’s slogan that is become something of a cliche for new players and managers to say at their unveiling.

Considering Roma have not qualified for the Champions League in six years, finishing in the top four is, as Gasperini pointed out, the logical objective for next season.

Moreover, with the Europa League beckoning once again, fighting on two fronts is going to be challenging.

Ranieri guided Roma to fifth in Serie A last season but has now taken a position in the club’s upper management (Photo by Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

One of the many subplots of the new season will be how Gasp fares in Rome.

This is his first dabble with a big club since his utterly disastrous three-month, five-game spell as Inter coach in 2011.

Then, Gasperini inherited the stagnant remnants of Jose Mourinho’s Treble-winning side and found older players unwilling to compromise or adjust to his tactical demands.

Most believed then, and still do now, that Gasperini’s style of management and view of the game works only with smaller teams filled with unpolished diamonds. 

This was why he and Atalanta were the perfect union. Atalanta produced or signed the raw talent, and Gasperini smoothened out the edges and made them ready to purchase when the giants came calling.

Roma are, to a certain extent, a bigger version of La Dea, albeit with the expectation they challenge for trophies.

Time and patience will be in short supply in the capital, as it always is, but the difference compared to his time at Inter is that Gasperini comes in at a much different level.

Roma need Gasperini, not the other way around.

For his part, Gasperini has spoken of evolution rather than revolution, a chance to build on the foundations Claudio Ranieri laid in the second half of last season.

Ranieri had a hand in bringing Gasperini to Rome, and has implored Romanisti to stand by him.

“We’ve asked him to be Gasperini again here in Rome,” he said. “I’m convinced that the fans will identify with Gasp’s game. We asked him to do well, to get to know the place for a year and continue growing.”

Players like Gianluca Mancini, Bryan Cristante and Stephan El Shaarawy have worked with Gasperini, but many will get a first taste of his maniacal attention to detail and his love for fitness through gruelling training sessions.

There is a lot to work with from the current Roma squad. Paulo Dybala is likely to be a central figure once again, and it no stretch to envisage the 31-year-old filling the Papu Gomez role in Gasperini’s Roma.

In Tommaso Baldanzi, Niccolo Pisilli and Matias Soule, Gasperini has the kind of talent he likes working with most: young and unpolished but with clear potential. 

As he pointed out in his press conference, there is already a lot for Gasperini to work with, yet naturally he will want his own players in.

Matias Soule will be a player Gasperini will be keen to work with in Rome. (Photo by Fabio Rossi/AS Roma via Getty Images)

Gasperini lost four of his first five games at Atalanta and his teams have been known to be slow starters down the years. A similar pattern will not be allowed at Roma.

Yet that being said, his opening to life in the Eternal City is not the most arduous.

Roma kick off their season with a home game against Bologna, a mouthwatering clash between Gasperini and Vincenzo Italiano.

This is followed up with a game against newcomers Pisa and hosting Torino in the capital before the first Derby della Capitale of the season. Win the derby, and Gasperini will have earned plenty of goodwill from the Roma faithful.

Ranieri confessed Roma need a strong coach. Now they have one. Fourteen years on from that Inter spell, can Gasp finally crack it with a big club?

Only time will tell.

Related Articles

Related Articles

Serie A has yet another new home in the UK and Ireland with DAZN replacing OneFootball as the league’s main broadcaster from next season.

Jul 07, 2025 Serie A

When it comes to associating cities with calcio, Milan tops the list - every time. Destination Calcio has a few pointers on how to get he most out of it on matchday.

Jul 06, 2025 Football Culture

Hernan Crespo scored more than 200 goals during his time in Italy with Parma, Lazio, Inter, AC Milan and Genoa. Here are five of his best.

Jul 05, 2025 Serie A