Roma CEO Guido Fienga was interviewed in today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport and elaborated on the situation involving sporting director Gianluca Petrachi, who was suspended by the club yesterday.
The suspension of the DS a few days after returning to the pitch seems like an own goal: like almost wanting to hurt yourself. What happened?
We don’t believe that Rome is getting hurt. We continue forward and we’re convinced in our growing project and we’re relying on guys who know how to carry it out. We would have liked to avoid the decision to suspend the sporting director, but it was inevitable.
He broke a relationship built on trust, which is the basis of a relationship. But the concentration of the club and team remains high with the return of Serie A and Europa League.
There are some who think that the Petrachi’s dismissal is a reduction in ambition.
First of all, I would like to say that Roma’s project does not foresee any downsizing, it continues on the same trajectory that we have always illustrated. The intention is to improve the club and the team to allow Roma to stand where it deserves — our goals do not change by one iota: which is to be at the top of Italian football and protagonists in Europe.
Petrachi participated in the development of this project, but a mismatch in his perception of the roles and in the relationship with the top management of the club was evident, especially in recent public and private statements.
Couldn’t have Petrachi just stuck around?
Believe me, we would have preferred to avoid such a choice within a week of resumption of the season, especially considering the effort we made to resume play. Obviously it was not possible.
Let’s turn the page: is the negotiation with Friedkin still open?
The issue of the club’s sale is a matter of the ownership group, who are making their assessments. The objective of the current ownership group is clear, though: to raise Roma while being led by players both young and experienced. Any change of ownership has no impact on the club’s strategy and management methods.
Sometimes the names of the Giallorossi players are associated with other clubs as if Roma were a supermarket.
I believe that last summer Roma already showed that it is not a supermarket, as many have described it. Our goal is to keep the best and synergistic players in our plans for growth, offering them a project where they can realise the ambitions they nurture.
And I can assure you that from the manager to the players, the sense of belonging to the project is really strong. In any case, talking about the market when there are 12 games left plus the Europa League is premature. We aim to achieve our goals and retain players who will prove their worth. We want to finish in a Champions League place and win the Europa League. This is our only focus.
So Pellegrini and Zaniolo will stay?
The answer lies in the concepts that I explained. Let Nicolò and Lorenzo find the answer to their ambitions here. This is the most correct way to motivate our players and allow them to always see their future in Rome.
