Monchi and Di Francesco can lead Roma to glory
There is no doubt about it, this coming season will be tough for AS Roma. With rivals strengthening and clubs like Milan and potentially Inter making moves up the table, Roma are stuck in a precarious position. They have lost four key players in Mo Salah to Liverpool, Wojciech Szczesny (who was on loan from Arsenal) to Juventus, Antonio Rudiger to Premier League champions Chelsea and of course, the great Francesco Totti to retirement. Not only that, but manager Luciano Spalletti left the club to join Inter, leaving Roma manager-less for a brief period of time.
However, two appointments have been made at the club this summer that could potentially mean they aren’t left behind the rest of the Serie A big boys. New Sporting Director Monchi from Sevilla and former Sassuolo coach Eusebio Di Francesco have been brought in to change the club's fortunes, to make them competitive without spending a ridiculous amount of money. Is there a reason to be concerned with Roma this season? Possibly, but they have the two right men to guide them to some sort of success.
Is that even possible in this day and age when the sums of €180M and €220M are being thrown around on single players? If you say no, you may not be fully aware of what Monchi does for a living. So let’s take a quick look at how Monchi has done over the course of his career.
Former goalkeeper Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo, or as we call him Monchi, took over as Sporting Director at Sevilla in 2000, and proceeded to completely change the fortunes of the club. Signing players like Carlos Bacca, Luis Fabiano, Ivan Rakitic, Julio Baptista and Dani Alves for just under €25M, he won tons of trophies with them and then sold them on for around €160M.
That’s before we even get to youth academy graduates such as Sergio Ramos, Jesus Navas, Jose Antonio Reyes, Luis Alberto and Alberto Moreno, all of whom were sold on for almost €100M without having cost the club a penny.
Monchi knows what he likes in a player, he knows how to get the best players for good prices and he knows what he wants in a manager. For those that have seen the film or read the book, “Moneyball” Monchi can be considered a Billy Beane like character. Never quite good enough to make it as a player, but knows how to build a team from next to nothing.
So far, Monchi has sold or lost some key players (as mentioned before) and has already gone about replacing them at cheaper rates. The club have bought 11 players this summer for a total of €70.40M, which may seem a lot of money and of course, it is. But bearing in mind that they’ve sold five players for a total of €92.02M, they’ve completely reshaped the team and still made an astonishing €22M profit.
And who is the man tasked with working alongside Monchi to ease this period of transition? One of the brightest and coolest coaches in Calcio, Eusebio Di Francesco. The former Roma centre midfielder did a fantastic job at Sassuolo, guiding them from Serie B to the Europa League in a matter of years, and earned a reputation as one of the next generation of young Italian managers.
But Roma just finished second, why aren’t they appointing someone to take them to the next level, someone who has the experience of winning trophies? Club President James Pallotta appointed Di Francesco with the future in mind; he also wanted someone who could work side by side with Monchi, and not have his ego put out of joint.
Can Di Francesco really take Roma to the next level? Well, don’t look at his past or his career, instead look at the managers Monchi has had during his time at Sevilla and see how well they did when at the club, compared to how they did away from it.
Joaquin Caparros left Sevilla in 2005 to join Deportivo La Coruna, but only really had any sort of success with Athletic Bilbao where he reached the Copa del Rey final. Juande Ramos won five trophies with Sevilla, but had a horrid time at his next club Tottenham Hotspur, where he was sacked just over a year into the job. He also had a tough time with Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow.
Manuel Jimenez, Antonio Alvarez and Gregorio Manzano have all failed to win anything in a major European league; Marcelino did quite well with Villarreal before getting the sack and taking up the reigns at Valencia; Michel was a laughing stock at Marseille in France before getting sacked; Unai Emery had a disaster of a debut season with PSG following his Europa League triumphs with Sevilla.
The point is that under Monchi these managers all succeeded, or at the very least won or challenged for honours at the club, but once they left they failed. Miserably. Eusebio Di Francesco is at the right club at this point in time, under the right Sporting Director and with a good squad of players.
Monchi and Eusebio are the duo tasked with the challenge of making Roma consistently competitive, whilst not falling foul of FFP regulations. Monchi will give Di Francesco the right players to suit his 4-3-3 formation, and in theory, it should work. The future is looking bright for Roma, despite the summer of selling.