The Calcio Comment: De Rossi's sacking is a betrayal by the club and of the Roma fans
It is a real nightmare for Roma fans, the decision taken by the ownership is an insult to the history of the club, to the love story between De Rossi and the team he has always supported.
The only (few, of course) three points won in four games cannot justify such a premature dismissal, after investing more than €100 million in the summer, after buying 12 players, a number so high that it inevitably takes time to find the team, to find balance.
Football clubs are not run this way, you need planning, you need ideas and the strength to back them up.
Decisive, as it turned out, was the 1-1 draw at home to Genoa, which came as a result of Koni De Winter's last-second goal after a strike in the first half scored by Artem Dovbyk. The final score of the match had been heavily influenced by bad refereeing, but by now everything that happened on the field is history, it belongs to the past and cannot be changed.
It was Daniele De Rossi, the club's historic captain, symbol and legend, who was sacrificed after just four games.
There had been many problems between the coach and the management, the plenipotentiary Lina Souloukou is the most important director in Rome, she is in charge and probably the decision to sack De Rossi came first and foremost from her.
Roma fans were completely displaced, again, but this time even more hurt than in January, when Jose Mourinho was fired. There were bad results there, there were problems in the summer and warnings of a possible farewell, the right thing to do would have been to leave in the summer, so the two situations cannot be considered as equal, but the modus operandi has not changed.
The coach found out he had been sacked at the last second, with no signs beforehand, so much so that De Rossi was preparing Wednesday morning's training session and the players learned of the news via social networks. Something never seen before.
De Rossi suddenly found himself fired, removed once again from his Roma team, while he was thinking, as he always did in his career, about the good of Roma.
The dismissal of the now-former Roma coach cannot be motivated by technical issues or results because four games are not a sufficient sample to make such a decision.
A disappointing draw away to Cagliari, influenced anyway by all the chaos related to Paulo Dybala, an absolutely negative and unacceptable defeat to Empoli, an excellent draw in Turin against the Juventus of Thiago Motta, at that moment an almost perfect team. Then a draw comes disappointingly, of course, against Genoa, but still a point away from home.
All after a real revolution operated in the summer: 12 players bought in, as many out. A revolution was made at Roma but the courage to wait for the time to build a new reign was lacking.
Essentially this is what people unaccustomed to working in the world of football would have done, confusing reality with a game of Football Manager. The real problem, however, is the absolute lack of respect for De Rossi, who has never been a mere player and never has been and never will be a mere coach. De Rossi was, is and always will be Roma.
Used to calm things down after Mourinho's dismissal, enduring these months at the head of the club, then at the first sign of difficulties, Daniele was abandoned. Abandoned and left alone one of the few people who has never left Roma alone, ever. Neither when he was a player, nor when as a coach he chose to take responsibility and put himself on the line for the good of the team. He did that without fear because to Roma, the love of his life, he could never say no. It was his dream and they denied him.
Now Roma and the fans are more alone than ever. This is the truth. It is Ivan Juric's job to continue in the role of coach, but the heart of the team has been betrayed and wounded deeply.