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AS Roma - The upbringing of a dynasty

My time at AS Roma and bringing them back to the glory days.
Started on 20 June 2012 by JamJamMan1
Latest Reply on 21 June 2012 by JamJamMan1
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AS Roma – the upbringing of a dynasty.

I’m Jamie Robinson, the date is 16th March 2018 and I am the current England manager. Suddenly I am offered a very interesting job, the AS Roma manager’s position had become free after the sacking of Vincenzo Montella and I was approached to give the team some fresh new ideas.

Before I jump into the story, I’ll give you some back-story on myself and the philosophy that I try and put across to the football teams I control – now I am very modest about my managerial skills so I always start unemployed when I begin a game on football manager and this time was no different.

My Backstory
I became the manager at Peterhead FC on the 22nd of June 2011 and in the two years that I was with the club; I managed to promote them to the Scottish first division following two straight back-to-back promotions.

After this I realised I had done all I could with the team and moved to the Norwegian club FC Sogndal, unfortunately this didn’t have the best of beginnings as they stated I had full control of the team but they immediately sold my best player….so I resigned after a week in charge.

Following this I headed over to America and I was appointed the manager at Colorado Rapids and was given the duty of guiding them away from the bottom of the table, with only 12 games left of the season I managed to guide them to five places above the ‘wooden spoon’ position and gained the respect from my chairmen, the fans and most importantly the players. Now this is where a bizarre story comes into play, obviously the Rapids only finished in the bottom half of the table and didn’t manage to qualify for the playoffs, although now the finals of the MLS was set….Houston Dynamo vs. San Jose – yet there was one problem, the Dynamo manager suddenly left the club and signed up to the New York Red Bulls. I applied for the job and secured it….along with the win and the MLS title!

This would then follow with the second successive MLS Title, the US Cup and the North American Champions League…all in one season. I managed Houston for 18 months when my reign came to an end (once again due to the board not giving me full control) so I decided to leave the job after the clubs most successful period in their history.

I took 2 months out of the game, waiting for a job to open up which I was comfortable about and thought I deserved maybe even an international managerial job. After the 2016 European Championships had concluded there were 13 international managerial spaces open and I applied for every single one….and got acceptance for 11 of them (DAMN YOU SPAIN AND ITALY!!!) yet the one that stood out for me would be the managerial space for the English National Team. Being 100% English it would always be a dream to be involved with the English camp but gaining the job within the first 5 years of management was a dream come true!
I entered the camp with winning credentials and a confident win success from wherever I had been, I looked at the squad and saw that it was full of the ‘golden generation’ (Wayne Rooney had just retired) so I decided to get rid of Gerrard, Lampard and Terry and I made Ryan Shawcross the fulltime England captain. I began to add in young blood in the way of Connor Wickham, Kyle Walker and Raheem Sterling. This proved a success as we only lost 3 fixtures in 21 games on the way to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Garry Boyce and Tom Pegler (both regans) had become vital players in the center of my midfield, as they were both perceived as wonderkids and very capable of working together. We defeated Chile and Australia in the group and also drew with Ukraine which would lead us to a penalty shootout victory over Ghana and a 3-0 victory over Nigeria in the second round and quarter finals respectively. We would come up against a very strong Italian side in the semi-finals and beat them 1-0 with a Leighton Baines spot kick and we were then booked in the final to face France.

Unfortunately we lost 1-0 to France in the final (Leighton Baines would ironically miss his penalty in injury of the second half) and I resigned from my post after the game. I have stated I will one day return to England but I don’t believe it is my time to lead them to glory.

Also during my time with England I became the caretaker manager for West Bromwich Albion and guided them from 19th to 12th with just 14 games left in the season.

I officially became the AS Roma manager just before the World Cup began (in March 2018 like stated at the beginning) yet I placed myself “on holiday” until the start of the following season so I could focus on England duty but still hold the position of the AS Roma manager.

My Philosophy
With every manager comes a different style of play, they will obvious try and adapt their style of play to the players they are dealing with. I try and stick to my style of play and prefer to adapt my players to that specific way of tactic, I see myself as being quite traditional with either a 4-4-2 or focusing on wing play in either a 4-5-1 or 4-1-2-2-1. I attempt to play quick football in order to move the play up and down the pitch to tire my opponents out and I will play the ball in short directions in order to replicate a ‘Barcelona’ style of play. I will only play counter attack if the fixture is important and I will need a vital goal, otherwise I chose to decline this option as it can cost me dearly. I much prefer my wingers to take the ball to the by-line and then whip it into the six yard box, but if they’re equipped enough to come on the inside then they have my blessing.
I will always try and play with a ball winning midfielder in the center as I see it being important that we regain possession just incase we somehow lose the ball when going forward, I also play with freely moving full back to make them capable of getting forward whenever possible.


AS Roma
When I joined them they had just finished in a record breaking low league position of 15th and just narrowly avoided the relegation zone. After actually visiting the city of Rome in real life I knew how highly the team was rated and how loyal their supporters were. They have had world-class players in their team in the past and had some huge success.

When I was introduced to the team I noticed one thing, about 50% of the players in the starting squad were Italian, in such a traditional club with a rich history – I was astounded with the lack of Italian players that they had in their squad. Luckily they had a captain (Daniele De Rossi, now 34 and aging quickly) and vice captain (Andrea Bertolacci, a very good ball player midfield who is able to prowl the field in a trustworthy manner) who were both Italian and seemed very loyal to the club.

All the staff at the club were world class so I wont be having any trouble with the backroom side of things, the youth coaches were the worlds best and I noticed that the chairmen was happy to stay and happy to provide me with vast amounts of cash to make the club famous once more.

There was one thing I noticed when examining the club as a whole, they had some exceedingly talents youth players in the under 20’s who in the future were rated to become world-class footballers.

After I noticed this I made myself a couple of aims & objectives for the AS Roma side and I would attempt to turn the club upside down and bring glory to the streets of Rome once again.

So as I said I would do, I got rid of the old garbage that was clogging up the wage bill and they were taking spaces in the team that should have been held by players of a much higher standard. Stefano Okaka, Loic Negro, Aurelien Chedjiou, Pablo Zabaleta, Shinki Kagawa, Daniel Osvaldo and Mohammed Al-Kaltham (regan) were all sold on to other clubs as well as releasing up to 13 players who weren’t going to be in my future plans.

I prefer to have a backbone in my team and that started with veteran goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, this would be followed by the upcoming Maurizio Celi (Regan and Roma youth academy product) at the heart of defense, Andrea Bertolacci in the center of midfield and then I would be recruiting a world class striker for the new term.

Davide Santon was my first signing; on loan from PSG to help with the left back position and also stick with my theme at attempting to keep it Italian, along with highly rated 21 year old Greek left winger Takis Kurdi who had just earned the ‘Player of the Tournament’ trophy at the 2018 World Cup. With extra cash I had, I purchased powerful 20-year-old striker from Nigeria (regan) Dele Emuejeraye. I also signed a young midfielder from Empoli named Giacomo Fico who would provide cover for Bertolacci in the future.
Like I stated before, this is going to be a long-term plan and that is why I thought id share it in some sort of managerial story. I set myself some aims and objectives in order to realise that I am doing the right thing in order to return AS Roma to their glory days. This will be a 7-year plan which will end on the season of 24/25.

1. Bring Success
That is most definitely the number one priority for the club they haven’t won Serie A since 2001 and they have only won the league title 3 times in their history, along with 9 Italian cups and no success in European competitions. So I have set myself that I want to win 7 trophies in the next 7 years of gameplay.

2. Enhance Youth System
Like I said when I first became the AS Roma manager, the youth system was amazing and the current product in the first team was filled with over paid and over priced foreign imports. I want the club to become traditional again and take some sort of new approach by bringing up the youngsters through the youth system. I have two separate aims for this and they’re both quite high hopes….I hope that in the next 7 years I will one day have a starting 11 of AS Roma youth products and they will showcase the excellent 10/10 possibilities of playing for AS Roma. My other hope is that by the time the 2024 Euro Championships come around, I want the Italian team to have at least 50% of their squad taken up by AS Roma players. As I have said, these are two very high hopes but I want to set the bar high in order for me to work hard and push for clear results.

3. Keep the Italian Tradition
This doesn’t mean that every single player has to be Italian; I just would want an Italian feel about the place. When I first came to the club there was mixtures of every single nationality under the sun and I don’t think that should be right. So with the influx of youth I am hoping to do and the outgoings of a wide range of useless foreigners – I will hopefully increase the amount of Italian born players within my AS Roma squad.
2018/19 Season

My squad was quite strong, with a mixture of youth and experienced players and also some highly rated young internationals. I had just received some individuals back from loan spells elsewhere and they would be put straight into my first team squad. Here is my squad for the 18/19 season and some background information on them:

Maarten Stekelenburg (GK) [Dutch]
My number one goalkeeper and a strong force between the goalposts, now as he ages I will be looking for a younger keeper but for the time being he will always retain the first team spot.

Franco Signore (GK) (Regan) [Italian]
A young cover goalkeeper that I signed from Sampdoria, he didn’t have much hope for the future but he would be able to replace Stekelenburg if something happened.

Martin Montoya (DR) [Spanish]
My starting right back, as well as a fully fledged international with the Spanish side. He is very strong and has the pace to stick with quick strikers or wingers who may come up against him.

Sindre Storhaug (D,RC) (Regan) [Norwegian]
A Norwegian under 21 international who has come through the AS Roma youth system, he will provide cover for the right back position when Montoya deserves a rest. He seems to have a very promising future if he decides to wait for a place in the first team.

Alessandro Alberti (D,RC) (Regan [Italian]
A young yet uninspiring product from the youth academy, he is very lethargic and can cause mistakes in the center of defense on a wide range of occasions. He is primarily a squad player this year unless I can loan him out.

Maurizio Celi (DC) (Regan) [Italian]
The heart of my defense and a much loved figure around the club, at only 22 he is being lined up as a future AS Roma and Italian captain and has a unbelievably bright future in football.

Tommaso Del Sole (DC) (Regan) [Italian]
Also a young youth graduate, Del Sole just returned from a successful loan spell at Sporting Lisbon. Due to his Italian allegiance and promising stats, I decided he will be paired with Celi at the center of defense for the upcoming season.

Raul Albiol (DC) [Spanish]
The experienced Spanish center back had played in the heart of defense before I got to the club, he will be starting on the bench for me as he was beginning to age and didn’t have the best partnership with Celi.

Daniele De Rossi (DC, DM, MC) [Italian]
One of the clubs most favoured footballers of all time, now he is aging his place in the first team is slowly slipping away yet he will be involved as much as possible as he is still the club captain and he has a strong influence on the club as a whole.

Walter Frediani (DC, DM, MC) [Italian]
Touted as ‘The next Daniele De Rossi’ – Walter Frediani has high hopes from the media and the clubs fans. Fresh off a loan spell in France with Havre AC and providing great stats with determination and work rate, the 18 year old seems to be an exact replica.

Fabio (D,WB,RL) [Brazilian]
The former Manchester United utility player had been at AS Roma for over 4 years, he would provide cover for either the left back or right back and will primarily start on the bench.

Davide Santon (D,WB,RL) [Italian]
Although Santon has a starting position as right back for the Italian national side, I will be playing him on the left side, as he is equally equipped of doing so. He is strong and has experience at the age of 29, playing in the second team at PSG wasn’t doing him an favours so I signed him on a full season loan.

Cristiano Posenato (D,WB,DM,M,R) (Regan) [Italian]
Posenato hasn’t got the greatest of stats but I kept him at the club as he has the ability to play in many positions, he came through the youth system and is of Italian descent. He will be more of a squad player and being played whenever possible.

Giacomo Fico (DM,M,LC) (Regan) [Italian]
This promising youngster was signed from Empoli in pre-season and I believe he will become a success at the club. Although he doesn’t have a set position in the first team, I’m sure with the right number of games and experience he can become a loyal club man for years to come.

Vito Ruggeri (M,RC) (Regan) [Italian]
Another youth product from the academy and mostly a fringe player as he hasn’t developed too well, he will provide cover in the center of midfield when our first teamers are feeling tired and need a rest, otherwise he wont be getting many games.

Andrea Bertolacci (DM,M,AM,C) [Italian]
The man! My future captain and the star man of my AS Roma side, he can produce the goods for the team whenever they need him and he is always a very consistent performer. He likes to charge forward with the ball whenever possible but he always has the ability to cover back in defense and make a vital tackle.

Jefferson Montero (M,AM,RL) [Colombian]
Quick winger Montero will be my starting right midfield for the upcoming campaign, although he has poor stats I have a very good right winger coming through the youth system and wouldn’t want to bring in somebody else for big money.

Matteo Bianchini (M,AM,R) (Regan) [Italian]
Probably my brightest talent in the youth academy and he wont be featuring at all in the first team this year as I want him to develop appropriately. He already has a lot of pace and technique and I believe if trained correctly, then he can be one of the best wingers in the world.

Takis Kurdi (M,AM,L) (Regan) [Greek]
Now I didn’t want to make any ‘big money’ signing for this side, but when he won the player of the tournament at the 2018 world cup, I had to attempt to buy him. He signed from Braga for £21M and will be the starting left midfielder; he has unbelievable stats for just a 20 year old and will easily become one of the best footballers in the world.

Gervinho (AM,RLC) [Ivorian]
We all know the skills of Gervinho and he hasn’t changed in the game, although he is 30 years old and lacking pace slightly, but I use him more as a ‘super sub’ and he is able to spark up second half’s if we are lacking something.

Dennis Asbøll (AM,ST,R) (Regan) [Norwegian]
23-year-old Asbøll had just been signed from Chelsea when I arrived at the club, he is a tall striker who is able to strike a ball with some power. He is fairly lethargic and quite inconsistent on goal scoring terms, but he has 20/20 for penalty kicks and will provide an equal balance in attack with Emuejeraye.

Federico Di Fausto (AM,ST,R) (Regan) [Italian]
Unbelievably seems a carbon copy of Asbøll, he has similar height and weight but he is just 4 years younger. Another product of the youth system seems to have a decent future ahead, he is the fourth best forward in my squad so he wont be getting much game time in the upcoming season.

Enea Tresoldi (AM,ST,C) (Regan) [Italian]
Described as a ‘wonderkid’ the AS Roma youth product did seem to have a bright future ahead, but I knew he wouldn’t be much in my plans in the upcoming season and I worried about his development. A powerful striker who has good technique, Tresoldi prefers to play the poacher role as opposed to the ‘deep lying forward’ he seems to represent.

Dele Emuejeraye (ST) (Regan) [Nigerian]
The star of the front line, with 5 years experience playing for Nigeria and Ajax, the world-class striker seems to have all the credentials to become a legend at the club if used correctly. At only 20 years old, Emuejeraye still has some learning to do but he will be the primary front man in my AS Roma side and I will be looking to him for the vital goals.

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