Former Roma sporting director Gianluca Petrachi – who left the club only a few months into his adventure at the capital club in 2020 – spoke once again about the Giallorossi in a recent interview with Teleradiostereo.
“I must compliment Roma,” he said when asked about the recent success in the Conference League. “Winning is never easy.”
“Time will tell if a competition like the Conference League works in the grand scheme of things. It’s a fairly accessible competition but with good teams.”
“Seeing a lot of my players win that trophy filled me with satisfaction,” he continued.
“I got to know many of them quite deeply, and they managed to win because inside they have a soul.”
“Even seeing players like Pellegrini, Zaniolo and Cristante rejoice, whom I kept on the team, I’m happy to see that.”
“The defensive trio, as it was built, is a testament to the great unity of the team. I know they’re good guys and they wanted this trophy badly.”
On signing Chris Smalling in the summer of 2019, “Initially was fighting to sign Lovren, but I saw that he was not convinced, he was recovering form several injuries and we wanted to bring him on loan.”
“Then the opportunity to sign Smalling came up, I didn’t think it was possible on loan, but the agents told me it was feasible and I didn’t think twice.”
“Biggest regret is not being able to finish my work at the club,” concluded Petrachi.
“So many things have been done, the fact remains that seeing 8 players signed by me in the final is a a bit of a shame.”
“One thinks about what could have been and wasn’t.”
