Once Roma secured third place last spring, officially ending their almost decade-long Champions League drought, we immediately shifted into silly season mode. Apart from a brief World Cup interlude, we’ve spent the past three months speculating about Roma’s transfer plans: Who would they sign? How much could they spend? Who would they have to sacrifice?
While those questions are slowly answering themselves, there’s still a bit of mystery behind Roma’s transfer machinations. But there’s no ambiguity
in today’s transfer news: We have a new writer!
The Chiesa di Totti is pleased to announce that we have signed Samuel Bannister on a co-ownership deal with The Giallorossi Yorkshire. With nearly a decade covering the Giallorossi under his belt, Samuel brings a wealth of experience and insight to CdT—we’re thrilled to bring Samuel into the fold. However, before he truly gets his feet wet, we wanted to introduce Samuel to the CdT community.
So, please join us in welcoming our newest writer!
We all have our Roma origin stories, so tell us how the Giallorossi sank their hooks into you. Was it the kits? The club’s overall aura? A certain number 10, perhaps?
I actually have two Roma origin stories – one for when the club first emerged onto my radar, and another for when I realised this wasn’t just a team that interested me, but it was my team. The latter is the more tangible story, but I’ll explain in full.
For someone who has always loved football from a young age, I was a relative latecomer to latching onto a professional team to support. Since childhood, I have closely followed my local, semi-professional team in England, but once I got the bug for Roma, I found there was space for those loyalties to coexist. Forgive me for the long-winded explanation, but here’s how that happened…
When I was young, I picked out a favourite team from a range of countries, and my choice for Italy was Roma. I can’t remember specifically what swayed me to the team at the time, but I do remember being fascinated by Francesco Totti at the 2006 World Cup.
But I wasn’t an avid follower by this point, just as I wasn’t for any of my other preferences. I wouldn’t even be able to recall who some of them were, but Roma stuck, even if that was somewhere in the background, enough for me to want to go to a game when on holiday there in 2014.
That’s where part two of my story begins. It was just a pre-season friendly at the Olimpico against Fenerbahce, but I got completely drawn in by the atmosphere – right from the hotel receptionist exclaiming “Forza Roma” when sending us on our way to everything I soaked in at the stadium. You could sense this was something that people lived and breathed.
Eight years after the World Cup, I got to see Totti score in person, with a penalty from pretty much in line with where I was sat in the Tribuna Tevere. The game finished as a 3-3 draw, with Roma coming from two goals down late on (curiously, I have Mattia Destro, who scored a brace, to thank for that). When it was 3-1, something within me was urging Roma on to make a comeback. The seeds had been well and truly planted.
From that point on, I was hooked. Something set in me that evening. Subsequently, I started learning more about the club, watching games on TV once the season started, and, of course, discovering CdT (so things have come full circle for me). Before I knew it, I was all in.
What are some of your favorite Roma-related memories? Are there any specific matches, players, or individual performances you remember fondly?
There’s one easy answer here. It took me a few years to get back to the Olimpico for my first competitive match, but I was fortunate enough that it just so happened to be the 3-0 win over Barcelona. How’s your luck?
I will always carry with me the memories from that night and its aftermath: the almost mystical feeling that what was about to unfold was possible; the blaring car horns as the celebrations reverberated through the city; picking up a Corriere Dello Sport the morning after and seeing every Roma player had been given a 10/10 rating.
I’ve had a few other memorable experiences at games since, such as my first time as part of an away Roma crowd for the visit to Leicester City on the Conference League run, and being in the right place at the right time to get Tammy Abraham’s autograph pitchside after our friendly against Everton in 2024 (he left soon after).
Likewise, I’ve made some memories following the women’s team, like travelling up to Glasgow for their first Champions League game and getting to speak with Betty Bavagnoli and Alessandro Spugna after, or my maiden trip to Tre Fontane, which was for their first home game after winning the league in 2024, making for a jubilant atmosphere.
As for preferred players over the years, beyond the obvious pre-established affinity towards Totti (his and De Rossi’s are the only names I’ve ever had on the back of my shirt), the ones that have meant something more to me include Edin Džeko and Chris Smalling. Watching Džeko’s climb up the club’s scoring chart was something of a gateway for me to learn more about some of the legends he was surpassing. I was still finding my feet as a writer around this time, but I’m still proud that he actually shared some of my work on his Facebook page (well, I like to think it was him, and not a social media manager). As for Smalling, he completely surpassed my expectations in that first season. As an English Roma fan, having a compatriot representing the club with such strength was a pleasure.
I still adore Paulo Dybala, a player I wanted Roma to sign right towards the beginning of my journey with the club when he was at Palermo, and eventually had my wish granted one way or another. And right now, I find Wesley an easy player to root for, since his back story that he spoke about when joining the club was very emotive.
Meanwhile on the women’s side, the irrepressible Giada Greggi stood out to me from day one with her work rate; seeing her blossom into the player and leader she is now has been rewarding. I once tweeted, partway through the Giallorosse’s inaugural season, that I believed she would be the future captain; imagine my amazement when, a few days later, she captained the team for the first time in a game!
Similarly, one last moment I’d like to mention is from when I wrote my first article for Roma’s website, an opportunity that I was grateful to be granted in 2018. My first article was essentially tipping Cengiz Under (remember him?) for a breakthrough after I’d seen some small signs of encouragement from him. Not everyone was convinced in the comments when the piece went out. As it happened, the very next game was the one in which he scored his first goal for the club, inside a minute. The timing could not have been more vindicating for me! Ultimately, perhaps the sceptics were right all along, but the rush from that fleeting moment felt good.
You’ve been writing about Roma for a long time now. Has your experience covering the club influenced how you view it or affected your relationship with it?
There are definitely elements that have strengthened my bond with the club, not least the writing I used to do for their website. That certainly made me feel part of something on another level, just like those experiences I recounted in my origin story.
It’s hard for me to remember a time since I’ve been following Roma properly that I haven’t also been writing about them. I set up my site less than three years after attending my first game, but the idea had been in the pipeline for longer, and it became a sort of vehicle for my developing understanding of this club and all its nuances.
The longer I’ve done this, the more I’ve tried to tap into the history of the club as much as the present. A penchant for niche stats, facts and patterns has, I would say, affected my relationship with the club, establishing what feels like a deeper connection as I’ve made up for lost time.
Through my coverage, I’m grateful for all the connections I’ve made. When I started out, I didn’t know of any other Roma fans in the UK. Now, via various avenues, I’ve met and befriended plenty, including some who’ve even recognised me from what I do, which is humbling.
Having tracked Roma for almost a decade, do you believe the club is moving in the right direction?
These past few years have been shrouded in uncertainty. Some of the decisions made over the course of 2024, for example, were questionable in terms of a vision for the future.
Getting over the hurdle of Champions League qualification this year was a much-needed boost, but I still believe there are some areas to be wary of to make sure it isn’t just a temporary return.
There’s a lot that intrigues me ahead of the new season and that’s why it’s such an exciting time to be coming on board and covering the club with more breadth and depth. This project remains a work in progress – I don’t think we’ve seen everything we expected from a Gasperini side at Roma yet, although it was always going to be hard to replicate a style he refined over nine years at his previous club in one with us.
Similarly, I need to see more evidence of players improving under his guidance, something that he had a strong track record of with Atalanta. Pisilli definitely improved last season, while he certainly got a tune out of new signings like Malen and Wesley, but other than them, there have only been a few cases of fractional improvements from the likes of Ghilardi and maybe Rensch, even though he doesn’t seem to trust them fully yet.
So, it’s a bit of a cop-out answer, but I think this question will be easier to draw conclusions from in a year’s time, once we’ve seen if Roma have overcome the mental hurdles that were holding them back or if the third-placed finish just papered over some cracks.
But I’ve always been an optimist. The club have made that hard to stick to with some decisions in recent years, but hopefully that era of stagnation is behind us now and they can build something sustainable.
Since it’s Silly Season, we have to talk about transfers. We’ve already seen Santiago Castro and Konstantinos Koulierakis, but who else should Roma target before the window closes?
I’m expecting a busy last month of the mercato for Roma after what can only be described as a bit of a slow-burning window so far. The Castro signing is an interesting one in that I don’t think it needed to be the first priority of the summer, but it’s a player with grounding in Serie A who can offer support in an important area of the pitch. As for Koulierakis, I’ve wanted to see some more seniority in defence – a position where experience is crucial – but he’s another young defender who will hopefully have upside. I don’t know too much about him, but it seems like a chance that was worth taking.
As for the remaining areas of need, the left wing is an obvious one, unless the Castro signing signals a switch to a 3-4-1-2 formation. By all accounts, the plan is to still strengthen the territory that Stephan El Shaarawy vacated with someone closer to their prime. We all know the problems Roma ran into last summer getting a new left winger in (or not), but I actually believe it should have been more of a priority the year before as well. Only temporary fixes have been found so far and it’s time to put that right.
Another wing-back would be beneficial as well. Unlike some, I’d be happy with Wesley staying on the left after how he performed there last season, so I’m not as hung up on the idea of the new wing-back having to be left-sided, although with Angeliño and Kostas Tsimikas out, it’s becoming more important for that to be the case.
If there’s room by the end of it all, one more midfielder with a bit of quality, especially for Champions League level, wouldn’t go amiss.
We’ll discuss this season’s expectations later, but for now, let’s look ahead. What challenges and opportunities do you foresee for the Giallorossi this season, and how confident are you that they can match or surpass last season’s 3rd-place finish?
As I’ve mentioned, this could be a pivotal season for the club’s future prospects. We need to see how the team will overcome some challenges, familiar and new, while trying to back up last season’s outcome.
Holding onto results in the big games remains a crucial area to focus on. That Juventus game could have been so costly; thankfully, it wasn’t in the end. But Roma won’t always be so fortunate if things like that keep occurring in those games.
Hopefully, now they know what it feels like to get over the line and secure Champions League status, it should provide a mentality boost.
In addition, I’d like to see more progress from some of the younger players in the squad. That includes players in the 21-24 bracket who may have decent experience now, but need to keep striving to fulfil their potential.
Getting to grips with Gasperini’s style of play is still both an opportunity and a challenge. His system didn’t look fully fluid to me at times last season, but it was a learning curve for the players. Over the next year, this team should be gaining a clearer identity.
Can Malen maintain his impact from the second half of last season, or will it wear off? Will Kone, if he stays, be given more licence to drive up the pitch as he did in his first season (but less so in his second)? What reaction will we see from Soule if he stays, given that Gasperini seemed open to doing without him? Those are some of the main questions intriguing me at the moment.
My expectations for the Champions League itself are reserved for now, but I’m looking forward to seeing how the side react to brushing shoulders with better teams on those big nights.
As for whether Roma can repeat a top-four finish to get there again, I take some encouragement from the high turnover of coaches elsewhere in the league. Roma haven’t been 100% stable either, but more so than several rivals. Part of me believes there’s a genuine chance that second place is achievable; another part of me would just be happy to scrape over the line and get fourth, just to consolidate this newly reclaimed Champions League status. Whatever happens, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of storylines to keep us on our toes, and I’m feeling a growing sense of anticipation for what lies ahead.
Once again, please join me in welcoming Samuel to the Chiesa di Totti community, and let’s hope his addition portends a successful season for the Giallorossi. In the meantime, please check out his work at Giallorossi Yorkshire.
