Football Season Guide

Paulo Fonseca's Roma experience began with the greatest ambitions and high expectations. In the end it was short-lived and rather disappointing. In his two seasons in charge, the Portuguese coach led the Wolves to 5th and 7th finishes, definitely not what the American owners of the club envisioned The end result was that his contract was not renewed and somewhat surprisingly the club hired another Portuguese gaffer, “The Special One” Jose Mourinho himself. Although his recent past has been far from successful, Mourinho is still highly-regarded in Italy. His signing was seen as a statement of intent by Roma to challenge at the top of Serie A. It was immediately clear that they meant serious business as they offloaded an array of players whose time in the Capital had been over for some time. This included Bruno Peres and Juan Jesus. Moreover, they got rid of erratic goalkeeper Pau Lopez and also let go his deputy, Mirante. The goalkeeper issue was solved by hiring the experienced Rui Patricio from Wolverhampton, while Olsen, returning from loan may not be given a chance as Fuzato should be his deputy. With left-back Spinazzola injured for some time, they invested in Vina, a valid Uruguayan albeit inexperienced in European football. More was spent on Shomurodov, a forward who impressed a lot in his season at Genoa: he was supposed to represent an alternative to Dzeko up-front but, with the latter heading to Inter, could be given some playing time until a replacement for the Bosnian striker arrives. Roma's main "signing" could be represented by wonder kid Zaniolo's return after two seasons out injured. The club are still looking for a central midfielder and a defender, while a striker will be needed with Dzeko gone.