Spalletti thanks Roma staff
By Football Italia staff
Luciano Spalletti thanks the staff behind the scenes at Roma, and admits “I’m sorry to leave”.
It was officially confirmed this morning that the Coach will not renew his contract with the Giallorossi, and it’s expected he’ll take over the vacancy at Inter ahead of next season.
“Thank you to Monchi for those beautiful words,” Spalletti began his Press conference by saying.
“Having got to know him and worked with him, given his personal qualities it will be a regret that I’ll no longer be working with him.
“There’s a need here for points of reference, strong people, a strong professionalism in their attitude to work.
“Monchi has those characteristics and I’m convinced he’ll be able to put all of them at the disposal of Roma, where I haven’t succeeded.
“If he can bring everyone together it will be very strong Roma. Thank you, direttore.
“I’ve made two notes, and it’s better if I go in order. Firstly I have to thank those who I was close to.
“The first thought goes to those behind the scenes, to those who gave me an important hand, those who are first into work and prepare two or three things for us to make our work easier.
“I’m talking about the unseen team, they have huge importance because without their contribution it would be difficult for me, somewhat disorderly.
“I’m talking about the kids in the kitchen, the cleaning ladies, those people who travel unnoticed down the Trigoria corridors.
“Then I have to thank the players, the club, my staff and all the staff who are here. All of them are great professionals, and I thank them now that I’m leaving a very strong Roma.
“I don’t have to make assessments, that’s up to you.
“You have to evaluate if we won, if we lost, if we got the correct result, if we could have done more. I don’t want to get into it.
“I just want to say that I worked deeply and seriously, trying to do my best for the good of Roma. It’s clear that I have my way, and that I believe in it, so I tried to put that into practice.
“Through various steps we’ve come to this point.
“Everyone in their head can judge the results as they want, I’m clear that I’ve had a lot of joy and a lot of suffering with the things which happened during the season.
“The best thing has been the serious attitude of the group, how we set up to do our daily work. That’s the passport to a good season, the ticket to going head-to-head with any opponent.
“If you don’t work properly then getting a good result on Sunday is impossible. The work of the lads made the difference to the results, as well as incidents.
“I was never completely detached from Roma, even when I was in Russia I always looked out for their results and their performances.
“I think that we worked in right manner, properly, seriously, and then there were some crucial steps, crucial results and crucial moments; but the most important thing is that in my opinion we’re leaving a strong Roma.
“It’s a Roma which, as a team, has different individual qualities but which has behaved almost entirely collectively.
“I still think they could be better as a collective, as is everyone’s objective. I probably didn’t succeed in that regard, because in my opinion we didn’t have everyone on the same side.
“This team has important potential, as is that of the club and the movement, the tide which surrounds us.
“Starting from Sunday’s game, it seemed like a party and a farewell. There was a goodbye to football from a great football phenomenon in [Francesco] Totti.
“But in that he was reborn, he’s like a beautiful woman who has something in her womb which can come out and bring the total support in one direction, enveloping all this potential and that Roma has.
“This is a very strong and beautiful environment and I’m sorry to leave it.”
Spalletti: ‘I didn’t deserve whistles’
By Football Italia staff
Luciano Spalletti insists he didn’t deserve to be whistled by Roma fans - “I behaved with consistency”.
It was announced this morning that the Coach is leaving the Giallorossi, and he was given a frosty reception on Sunday during Francesco Totti’s last match.
“It’s up to you to judge whether or not I made mistakes,” Spalletti shrugged in his farewell Press conference.
“I behaved with consistency, I said things in strong moments but if I said them it’s because I felt I needed something at that time for my relationship with the team and the club.
“Those are the fundamental moments, the moments which move things.
“You can’t go back, I heard the whistles on Sunday. I had felt them before, I heard them before Sunday.
“They’re not on my conscience, but on the conscience of those who wanted to create an inner war between myself and Totti which didn’t exist.
“I didn’t deserve those whistles for what I’ve done and how I worked.
“Then you continued with this story, which could create problems for Roma in the future and I didn’t want to give it to you.
“Now you have to do the opposite work, there’s a lesser Totti and you must match the quality of the man, the footballer who you’ve always seen.
“My hope for the future is to do things a little differently.
“This thing that was born on Sunday, that’s a bit crazy just like the game was - you saw the goals we conceded - is born of very important things, of Francesco’s goodbye, of this mass of people who were involved emotionally and who showed love for Roma.
“Any Roma player can become a champion and the potential is there. I hope that this is the line which compels all of us and, naturally, Roma to do better.
“We’re all together in the sense that I remain friends with Francesco and we’ll go to dinner, in terms of the happiness of a footballer things can be good or bad but the fact is I’ll continue to respect Francesco in every way.
“I was direct with him. I don’t know if he talks about some ventriloquism, but there’s mutual esteem with him.
“This situation that has been created disturbed me, I’ve probably done something wrong. In my opinion though, no, nothing wrong.
“But I saw on Sunday that so many people were whistling me and I didn’t like those whistles. Because I didn’t deserve them.
“If I met those people one-by-one, if they could enter into my head for the moment that we lost to Lyon, that we lost to our neighbours - there are two teams in Rome, and we lost crucial matches.
“If they’d been in my head for a minute in those matches we lost, they wouldn’t have whistled on Sunday.”
What does Spalletti mean when he says everyone isn’t together?
“I’ve spoken. I’ve talked about my conscience and others. I’ve done my job, and I think Francesco is a great footballer, he leaves a gap which will be very difficult to fill.
“I hope he’ll be given, as I think he will be, a director’s role, with the past he has and the history he has he can make the group united and close.
“When I defended the others, the message came out that I was against Totti.
“In a year and a half I didn’t succeed in bringing everyone together, and that’s a sign that I failed in the most important thing because Roma has the potential in terms of structure, environment and the strength of the city.
“The first thing I wanted to do is to get them all pushing for the same goal and I didn’t succeed. I’m sorry.
“When I arrived Roma were in trouble, there were no leaders and I had take decisions where Francesco was one of the ones I thanked the most: I penalised him by playing him less.
“But if he didn’t play much and Roma achieved a record points total, it means that objectives can also be achieved in other ways.
“In saying that, I don’t want to take anything away from the immense champion who Totti is.
"It's from outside that a champion drags his team forward, and this was a concept I didn't know before.
"I will alway say that I'll remain friends with Totti. We'll see how good he is now, because Monchi will show him, and we'll be closer and closer friends.
"He himself does not understand this exaltation that reduces everything to 'you or I' and takes away any chance of being 'us'.
"I hope he keeps going. I'm leaving, I hope Francesco continues. If everyone agrees, keep going. It wasn't me who made him stop."
Mourinho was right. That guy definitely loves talking to the media.
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Spalletti: ‘EDF should get Roma job’
By Football Italia staff
Luciano Spalletti hopes “one of Eusebio Di Francesco or Vincenzo Montella” replaces him at Roma.
The Coach is leaving the Giallorossi, probably to join Inter, and gave his reasoning in a lengthy Press conference this afternoon.
“A message for Di Francesco?” Spalletti considered.
“But has Di Francesco been announced? Is this a trap?
“I hope one of Di Francesco or Montella is the next Roma Coach, because they know the environment and they have the human qualities you need, as well as the Coaching skills.
“As for myself, I’m free to talk to who I want. I’ll start tomorrow and if anyone wants to call me then I’ll listen to them.”
What was lacking for Roma to win the Scudetto?
"I thought we had qualities in this team, because along with the directors - and while always respecting the parameters - we tried to build a great team.
"Juventus deserved to win though, they wouldn't allow anyone to overtake them.
"Last year we had players like [Miralem] Pjanic and [Seydou] Keita. This year we went in a different direction, the team was more direct and we had a player in Dzeko who could run in behind the defence.
"He scored so many goals. If we think that at some points in this season he was under discussion because people felt he wasn't doing enough for a Roma number 9 then imagine his potential.
"He's a sensitive guy, if someone else scores a goal and then people write that Dzeko could leave, he gets unsettled.
"He feels guilty even when he doesn't play.
"The fact is that Roma are a strong team among other strong teams. At the start of the season, Milan, Inter, Roma, Juventus and Napoli all have designs on winning."
Spalletti was then asked if a lack of transfer activity in January had pushed him toward the exit.
“Do you want me to talk badly about the club? I’ve received all that can be received, and when chances are presented to me I accept them.
“We could have bought some new players but I, to defend the character of those I already had, decided to leave it and continue like this. I felt it was more important to reinforce the position of those already at Roma.
“[President James] Pallotta, in his way of doing sport, has seen important things. He wants to build a stadium for Roma and I doubt he’s doing it for his own interests.
“It’s the key to having more players, more revenue, more fun.
“I’ll quote a Roman songwriter who had written on his headstone: ‘I don’t rule out a return’. I like that.”