Totti rules out immediate Roma return despite centenary hopes

Kostas Manolas, the hero of Roma's 3-0 win over Barcelona, has given an interview to Betarades looking back at his time in the giallorossi shirt. He spoke warmly about Francesco Totti, whom he described as the best person he has known in football. "He is the best person, the most humble. I cannot say one negative word about him. Before being a footballer he is a man. He welcomed me as if I were his son. That is why we have always been very close. Even today we speak on the phone. He knew what to do with the ball an hour before it reached him. There was a huge difference between him and all of us, technically and mentally. Totti helped me. If it had not been for him, I would not have renewed. He convinced me. He was like a brother to me and I could not say no to him. Totti should be inside Roma. It is not possible that he is outside. If I were the president, I would keep him for life, in the role he wants." Manolas also praised Totti as a captain who put players at ease. "Totti was a captain who above all tried to make you feel comfortable. He was not one who came into the dressing room to frighten you or show you his teeth. During a match he could get angry, perhaps if you gave away a bad pass he would start cursing, but in the dressing room he was not that kind of captain. He managed to bring out his personality without shouting and without intimidating you." On Totti's technical quality, he added: "There was a huge difference between him and all of us, from the earth to the moon. He was superior to all of us technically, mentally, in everything. If he had been in the physical condition of his 25-26 years, he would have had no rivals." On Totti's final match and retirement, Manolas said: "I was crying too. You could not do otherwise. I had lived through it in the last days and I saw how he was facing the situation. He did not want to stop. It was the club that made him stop. The club, the coach, Spalletti… Totti wanted to keep playing. In my opinion he still had something to give. Maybe he was no longer in the best physical condition, but even in recent times he came on and scored. In those 15, 20 or 30 minutes he always managed to do something, an assist or a goal." Manolas was also frank about Luciano Spalletti. "He is a very, very, very good coach. As a person, though, he is difficult. In my view he does not behave correctly with the players. But as a coach he is one of the best I have ever had, if not the best. I tell the truth. Just because he did not behave well with me, I cannot say he was a bad coach. He was a great coach. If I said the opposite I would be a liar." On the Arsenal move, Manolas claimed: "It was Spalletti who blocked my transfer to Arsenal, you have to know that. He said that if I left, he would leave too. And from that day he made my life impossible." He said he had concrete, written interest from Arsenal and then Chelsea, and that his agent Giannis Evangelopoulos was about to fly to talk to Chelsea, who had called about him. They had mentioned Antonio Conte's interest. On the Zenit offer, Manolas said: "Many people accuse me of going where the money is. Zenit offered me 7 million on signing, plus another 3 million to the agents. I would have earned 7 million a year and, with bonuses for championships won, I could have reached 8 million net. Over four years I would have taken 40 million net, into my pockets. They would have paid the taxes." He explained the Roma side of the story: "Roma needed money for financial fair play. At that moment there were me, Salah, Rüdiger. Paredes did not play much and did not yet have such a high market value." He recalled the collapse of the deal: "I arrived at the meeting and they told me the contract figures would be written in roubles. They explained that the rouble can rise or fall by as much as 20%. I told them I wanted the amounts in euros. They replied that it was not possible, that I was the only player who wanted it. I told them that if I walked out of that meeting, I would not go back, because I am superstitious. They told me to leave. When I was at home they called and said they had agreed to put everything in euros. But I replied that it was now too late." On his return to Roma, he said: "When I came back, they told me I would no longer play and would no longer do anything. I replied that there was no problem, that we would have a coffee and in the end we would see who would play." He also linked his goal against Barcelona to the decision: "That was the season I scored against Barcelona. You see? Not all evil comes to harm. That is what remains in history. What money? I could have earned 10 million in one year, but instead I stayed at Roma for less than a third of that. But what I did for myself is worth ten times as much." Manolas said he was not a believer in the comeback against Barcelona. "When you play against Barcelona and you are Roma, you have a 10% chance, maybe I am even saying too much, perhaps 1%. There were enormous differences. A miracle had to happen to go through, especially after losing 4-1." He recalled sitting with team-mates before the match: "We were sitting at a table, there were De Rossi, Kolarov, Džeko, Pellegrini and others. They said we would come back, that we would win 3-0. I looked at them and said: 'You are completely mad! How do we win 3-0? Do you really think we will not even concede a goal against these? What you are saying does not exist. It is all nonsense. Today we will concede another three or four and go home.' I did not believe it at all." Manolas's account also spans his move away from Rome. He said he chose Napoli because the club was in a difficult position: "Roma had an enormous problem with financial fair play. It had to collect that money. In the end they convinced me and I went to Napoli." He described it as the only time he had reversed a decision: "I had left the first meeting without signing because some things had not pleased me. Then I went back and signed. Unfortunately it went badly for me. That is why I always say I never go back." He added that Atlético Madrid had also wanted him, but offered less money, and that his wife had not wanted him to join Napoli, though he made the decisions himself. Manolas said Raiola had promised Manchester United: "Mino Raiola wanted to bring me to England. He told me not to be in a hurry to go to Napoli, that he would take me to Manchester United. But I never had patience."

Former Roma forward Antonio Cassano has heaped praise on Rodrigo Mora, comparing the Portuguese midfielder to the early version of Joao Felix from his Benfica days, before the forward moved to Atletico Madrid. Speaking on the programme Viva el Futbol, Cassano said: "He reminds me a lot of the first Joao Felix, the one from Benfica. A wonderful player, stratospheric, you see few like him now. Then Felix didn't deliver and dropped off, but at the start I liked him enormously." Cassano also turned his attention to Mora's game time, directing a question at head coach Gian Piero Gasperini. Cassano said: "I really like Mora, he still has to grow. I'd like to ask Gasperini: why does he play him sometimes and not others?" The former playmaker said he would like to see Mora featuring more consistently, while acknowledging that the player still has to complete his development. What stands out to Cassano is not only the player's technical qualities but also his attitude in training every day. He said he had received information from the Trigoria environment about the player's work ethic. Cassano said: "At Trigoria they tell me he is a great worker, a workaholic. Mora is devastating, one-on-one he always beats his man. If he doesn't get messed up, I think he can make people talk about him for the next 15-16 years."

Fidelis Castro's goal and assist, earned in two starts at home to Genoa and Cagliari, have revived debate over the striker's place in the Roma squad and the money spent on him. The Argentine, fresh from a call-up to the national team, has once again drawn criticism from those who question whether Roma needed him at all, and whether he is worth the reported €35 million outlay. Some critics said last summer that Roma should have targeted Robinio Vaz instead, and that the money spent on Castro was wasted. The article notes that Vaz, who is described as a well-paid bit-part player at Hull City, would have been a better investment, and suggests that Dovbyk, who after just three months had worn out much of Bologna's patience, could have been kept. Against this, the writer argues that Castro has the hardest job among Roma's forwards. He plays almost exclusively in place of Malen, and when he comes on, the team is often more tired and less composed than when Malen is leading the line, leaving Castro to chase the ball alone and run down opponents mounting comebacks. Castro made his first start against Genoa, where he scored the first goal, decisive for the win, with a moment of magic. In his second start, against Cagliari, he struggled, as did the whole side, which came from behind to win and only really hit form in the closing stages. The writer contends that this was enough to revive the criticism seen over the summer, when the transfer market was labelled a disaster partly because the backup striker had cost so much. The article argues that it is too complicated for critics to consider that Malen is a cannibal who leaves his backup only a few minutes, and only when he has no energy left. The writer draws a comparison with the 1985-86 season, when Eriksson's Roma came close to the Scudetto. Pruzzo was the prolific starter, with Bruno Conti and Boniek alongside him, while Graziani and the young Tovalieri provided cover. Tovalieri was a key figure in the Coppa Italia that season and scored three goals in 22 appearances in the league, the writer notes, because Pruzzo left few scraps. The point is that Roma have an outstanding striker and a very good deputy, and that critics should be grateful rather than anxious. The article adds that last season, Ferguson and Dovbyk were the forwards, and that in January, before Malen arrived, Roma had brought in Vaz and tried to sign Füllkrug.