If these frustrations can make you moody, why do you do it? Money?

“The money aspect of it is not the driving force for me with Roma. Where I get depressed and frustrated is that I hate to lose. It’s that more than anything else. It’s just the competitive nature in me. I know some teams have two or three times the budget we do but still, it really bothers me when we fall short.”

You said Roma could become a top 10 club when you became president. Having seen what you’ve seen, do you still think that's possible?

“It is possible, but we can’t become a top 10 club without a stadium. We can have great years, like we did last year and have periods where we go deep in the Champions League and move forward, but if you want to be a Top 10 club, and I’m not measuring it by revenues, I’m measuring it by everything - on the pitch, how we’re respected, qualitative issues, quantitative issues, how we do in media, how we do in social, all of those things… we need more money to compete and that is why I say the stadium is the game changer for us.

"If people think I’m more obsessed with the stadium than the team then they are simply not getting it – it’s because I’m obsessed with the team that I am so determined to deliver this stadium so we can have a team that can compete on something closer to a level playing field.”

Where would you place us now?

“I think in the last few years, if you take it as a totality, I think we’ve been a top 20 club. On the football front, there’s probably two to three teams in Spain, one or two teams in France, two teams in Germany, that’s seven teams right there. Then you probably take six teams in the UK and that's 13 and then you’ve got maybe five in Italy. So if you look at it that way, we’re certainly a top 20 team on the pitch. In some areas off the pitch, I think we’re definitely a top 10 club.”

Have you ever contemplated walking away?

“No, never. I’m 61 in two weeks and I still feel totally energised by this project. When I’m 75 years old, maybe I won’t be the guy sat here running it, but it’s not a short-term project for me.”

Do you believe that you’re misunderstood?

“I don’t think so. I speak to a lot of fans and I know they understand what we’re trying to do. I even speak to some fans of other clubs and they say, ‘I might not like your club but you’re doing a great job for Italian football and we need this’. You will always get someone who will say, we’re only interested in trading players to make money, and I’m like, ‘Really? I haven’t seen a penny in my pocket from transfers’.”