Delvecchio backs Roma for big season after Champions League return

Walter Sabatini, the former sporting director who built Roma into title contenders, has returned to football as a consultant at Pro Patria, the Serie D club where he ended his playing career 43 years ago. Speaking to Corriere della Sera, Sabatini reflected on his life in the game and offered observations on current Italian football, including pointed comments about his former club and its rivals. Sabatini left Roma's hierarchy years ago and has now chosen to restart in a modest setting, describing it as "a sort of catharsis" and "entering the starting box once more". He acknowledged struggling in an environment that does not accommodate his ideas: "I need agility and speed. I don't hide that I'm finding myself uncomfortable and I don't want to waste my final years. I'm entering perhaps the third or fourth age of my life." Yet he retains the fighting spirit of his early career, when he began working for Triestina at 39. He still relies on instinct over data analysis: "When I see a player I must feel something immediately at first meeting. He must strike me like lightning. The only yardstick of evaluation I conceive is the eye, sensitivity, passion." On Roma specifically, Sabatini was emphatic: "Roma. It's my life, don't make me say anything else because I've developed a complex about being a boring man." He praised Paulo Dybala as "a residual champion of our championship", the only player of the calibre that graced Serie A in the 1990s—when Ronaldo, Platini and Rummenigge competed in Italy. Of Gian Piero Gasperini, Roma's current head coach, Sabatini said: "I have great admiration for his work as a technician but I would have entered into a collision course." He also expressed regret over his spell at Inter, calling himself "a meteor" that earthlings barely noticed pass. On the current league standings, Sabatini noted "great euphoria" within Roma's environment and "spiritual cohesion that makes everyone feel unbeatable", but judged Inter superior: "For the quality of the squad and depth of choices, Inter are a step above everyone." Sabatini watches every match in Serie A and finds inspiration in each one. He remains characteristically combative about his career and health, describing himself as "bulimic for life" and comparing his condition to Kafka's protagonist: "Guilty but no one knows of what crime."

Walter Sabatini, the former Roma executive now working as a consultant for Pro Patria, has reflected on his career at the club in an interview with Corriere della Sera. On his time in the game, Sabatini said: "At Roma. It's my life, don't make me say anything else because I've developed a complex about being a boring man." Sabatini also addressed the current state of Italian football and Roma's standing. Discussing which club has the strongest squad values at present, he observed: "There is great euphoria in the Roma environment. A spiritual cohesion that makes everyone feel unbeatable. But in terms of squad quality and depth of choices, Inter are a step above everyone else." Sabatini commented on the prospect of working alongside Gasperini, the current Roma head coach, though he did not elaborate on the specifics of that assessment beyond the headline suggestion that collaboration between them would have led to friction.

Walter Sabatini, the legendary former Roma sporting director, has returned to football as a consultant at Pro Patria, the club where he finished his playing career 43 years ago. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, the 71-year-old reflected on his decision to re-enter the game and his enduring connection to Roma, where he recruited champions including Nainggolan, Dzeko, Pastore, Ilicic and Kolarov. Asked where he left his heart, Sabatini answered without hesitation: "Roma. It is my life, do not make me say anything else because I have developed a complex about being a boring man." On the prospect of working under Roma's current coach Gian Piero Gasperini, however, he was candid: "No. I have great admiration for his work as a coach but I would have come into collision course." Despite his age and health challenges, Sabatini said he feels the enthusiasm of his early days in the game. "Inside I feel the excitement of when I started working for Triestina and I was 39 years old," he said. "I would like to return to that phase of my life and create my own football laboratory." He acknowledged struggling at Pro Patria, where his dynamic ideas are not accommodated: "I need agility and speed. I am not hiding that I am finding myself uncomfortable and I do not want to waste my last years. I have entered the third, perhaps the fourth age." On evaluating talent, Sabatini insisted on trusting his eye rather than data analytics. "When I see a player I must feel something immediately at the first meeting. He must strike me like lightning. The only metric of evaluation I conceive is the eye, sensitivity, passion." Asked which player now moves him, he singled out Paulo Dybala: "A residual champion of our championship. In the Nineties we had Ronaldo, Platini, Rummenigge. Now of that lineage of phenomena, there is only Paulo in Serie A." He praised Como's Champions League debut display, saying the team displayed "a high level match proposing entertaining football and exalting its individuals." On the balance of power in Serie A, Sabatini noted that while "there is great euphoria in the Roma environment. A spiritual cohesion that makes everyone feel unbeatable," Inter stood above all others: "For the quality of the squad and depth of choices, Inter is a step above everyone." Sabatini expressed regret about his brief spell at Inter, saying he had been "a meteor—the inhabitants of the Earth did not even see me pass." He attributed the Nerazzurri's current strength to Chivu's pragmatism. Of himself, he reflected: "I am bulimic of life. A pity that my skeletal system does not assist my will. Every now and then I think back to my career and say to myself 'but you were an acrobat, not a sporting director'."