Capello backed his Roma prediction and says it is time for the club to win

Fabio Capello has backed Roma to compete for the Serie A title this season, saying he predicted Gian Piero Gasperini's side would be a serious threat to champions Inter. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport after Roma's opening weekend, Capello said he had flagged the club as "the first rival for Inter for the title" 15 days earlier, and that Roma's eight goals in two matches without conceding confirmed his assessment. He praised the speed at which new signings had integrated into the squad, highlighting the fact that the team showed no signs of adjustment problems in the opening 180 minutes of Serie A. Capello noted that Roma's early success stemmed from their ability to recreate the form that ended last season, when they mounted a late push to secure Champions League qualification. He emphasised that Gasperini's players already understood the coach's tactical ideas and could execute them from the outset, unlike in his first year at the club. The lack of integration issues meant new arrivals were absorbed quickly into a squad where all 11 players were already running and fighting hard for the same cause. Capello stated: "When in a squad you see that everyone runs and fights, anyone who arrives integrates quickly: it's not a squad that needs to do something different or new." He added: "I've seen it, I've said it, I've even told Gasperini twice: at Roma it is now time to win."

Roma have made a blistering start to the 2026–27 season under Gian Piero Gasperini, scoring seven goals across their first two Serie A fixtures. A dominant 4–0 victory over Fiorentina at the Olimpico in the opening match was followed by a 3–0 win away at Lecce, displaying the immediate attacking potency of Gasperini's tactical approach. The seven goals in the opening 180 minutes rank among Roma's best starts in recent years. Across the last nine Serie A seasons, only the 2021–22 campaign saw Roma match or exceed this output in their first two matches—when they also scored seven goals. The statistic underlines the impact of Gasperini's offensive system and how quickly the squad has absorbed his tactical concepts, establishing an exceptionally high offensive intensity from the outset of the campaign.

Head coach Gian Piero Gasperini belongs to a particular category of figures in Roma's history: outsiders who have left a profound mark on the club not by assimilating into its culture, but by demanding that the environment adapt to them instead. Gasperini arrived at Roma not to win immediate popularity or become part of the vast web of relationships that surrounds Trigoria, but with a method, a work ethic, and the conviction that the pitch alone should determine hierarchies. Roma has long struggled with a paradox: creating comfort that can become dangerous for professionals. Trigoria has historically been a place where talent can flourish—few cities offer comparable football emotion—yet where it is equally easy to settle into comfortable patterns of relationships, habits, friendships and informal power centres. A coach from outside who arrives and breaks that dynamic inevitably becomes uncomfortable because he either ignores the unwritten rules or consciously chooses to disregard them. He cares only about the pitch, measures work output, and demands answers. This inevitably shatters existing equilibriums. Roma's history is full of figures who arrived in the capital without initially possessing its codes but became integral to its identity: Liedholm and Falcao came from worlds far removed from Rome; Sebino Nela and Roberto Pruzzo were outsiders who, over time, became more Roman than many Romans; Ottavio Bianchi was divisive precisely because he was impervious to many environmental dynamics; Fabio Capello imposed discipline and demands as instruments of governance; Gabriel Batistuta brought an almost obsessive hunger to win immediately; Luciano Spalletti introduced new ideas and a different conception of football; and José Mourinho, with completely different characteristics, built a fierce mentality around competition. The great local talents—Di Bartolomei, Bruno Conti, Giannini, Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi—gave their best when working alongside someone strong enough not to indulge them. Gasperini is probably one of the least "Roman" coaches Roma could have chosen, and that is precisely why he may be the right one. He does not seek constant compromise or seem interested in building an accommodating persona. He demands intensity, physical availability, tactical application, willingness to accept competition and flexible hierarchies. A truly meritocratic culture inevitably generates more resistance than is commonly acknowledged, because almost everyone favours meritocracy until it questions their own position. Gasperini must remain Gasperini—maintaining the distance that allows him to observe Trigoria without being completely seduced by it, insisting that work comes before relationships, performance before reputation, and collective objective before individual need to feel important.