SPALLETTI

“Were Spalletti’s actions supported by the club? Absolutely, yes. Luciano is our coach and since he’s arrived lots of things have changed for the better, and I’m not just talking about the on-field management of the team. Spalletti is a fantastic coach, one of the top five coaches in the world. You could say he lives at Trigoria, he meets with the players, he’s a great professional, he’s easy to work with, he’s always available and he has the chance to achieve something big with this team. What he did stemmed from a fundamental principle – the team comes first and no player comes before another.

“Spalletti has said that he is not sure he will be at the club next season if he doesn’t achieve the objective of qualifying for the Champions League? For me, no matter what happens Luciano is and will remain the coach of Roma. If it’s true that he’s said something like that then it’s a statement that couldn’t be further from reality – I want him with me. If we’ve got one decision right so far then it’s definitely been to bring in Spalletti. That’s my philosophy – having a great coach inevitably leads to great players and a great team. You achieve these objectives through hard work, training and great professionalism.”

SABATINI

“I would like him to stay. He has a contract for another year. We often argue but straight afterwards we’re friends again. Isn’t that what happens with everyone? What I’m worried about is his health – he smokes too much. And at the same time I worry about Roma, almost as much as I do about my own family. My friends and acquaintances are always asking me to watch the matches together, but I can’t do it. I have to be alone – I pace up and down, get agitated…”

SEASON OBJECTIVES

“We threw too much away in the first half of the season. It’s not the players’ fault – I’ve never said that. If we’d got two or three more wins we would have been up there with Juventus and Napoli. There are 12 matches left and I expect results, because this team has the ability to get them.

“If we missed out on the Champions League it would be a result of the legacy left from all of those wasted opportunities at the start of the season – that 11-match run without a win – but it wouldn’t change my plans. Because we’ve done good things and our players are warriors. The plans for a top-level team wouldn’t change. We need to strengthen the defence and we’ll be focusing on that area of the team in particular – not because of shortcomings within the current squad but because some of the players we’ve brought in are on loan and others have been injured.”

SCUDETTO

“I think about it a lot, that’s obvious. But from the start I knew that there would be a lot of work to do. I haven’t got rid of the organisation I found when I took over Roma – I’ve just tried to improve it. The Sensi family did a great job, but times have changed, and quickly. We had to take action. There was no database or communication between the various departments, but there is now. The example to follow is Juventus. From what I’ve been told, they’ve always had a fantastic level of organisation so that’s where we need to act. I have faith – we’re on the right track to achieving that level and once we’re there we’ll win the Scudetto too. As I’ve said in the past, we can win the league because we have the team to do it, but to achieve your objectives you need to add the organisational system too and that’s what we’re working on.”