The Roman Report — 24 August 2026 – 30 August 2026

There is something almost ceremonial about the first night of a new season, the kind of occasion that makes even the most seasoned Roma supporter feel like a child again standing outside the Olimpico. And so it was on Monday evening, as Gian Piero Gasperini led his side out against a heavily rebuilt Fiorentina in front of a sold-out stadium under the Roman summer sky, with the weight of Champions League football hanging over everything like a beautiful, slightly terrifying promise. This is what Roma earned last season. Now comes the reckoning of actually living it.

The team selection resolved itself in the way most of us expected, with Matías Soulé edging out the exciting young Rodrigo Mora for the attacking midfield role behind Paulo Dybala and Donyell Malen. It was the right call, and not just tactically. Soulé has spent the summer being picked apart in the press, linked to everyone from Milan to Bournemouth to, of all places, Fiorentina themselves, portrayed as a man already halfway out the door of a club that wasn't sure it wanted him. He reported back from holiday carrying extra weight, Gasperini noted it publicly, and the headline writers had a field day. Yet none of it broke him. There is a story doing the rounds about how Soulé, upon earning real money for the first time in his life, quietly bought his parents a house with a garden because he had once heard his mother dreaming about it. That is not the profile of a player who folds under pressure. Tonight felt like his moment to remind everyone — the doubters, the transfer-window gossips, and perhaps most importantly himself — exactly what he is capable of when the ball is at his feet and the stadium is alive around him. Against Fiorentina, a side against whom he has consistently flourished, the stage could not have been better written for him.

What struck me about the wider picture this week was hearing Zbigniew Boniek speak so warmly and so wisely about this Roma project. Boniek is not a man who flatters easily, and when he says he likes Gasperini because the coach always extracts the maximum from his squad and because Roma fans will see their team play well and win, you feel the weight of those words. His endorsement of Malen was particularly interesting: the idea of a striker who is always looking for the goalkeeper rather than playing with his back to defenders feels almost old-fashioned in modern football, and Boniek clearly considers it a virtue tailor-made for Serie A. Santiago Castro as a supporting option also pleased the old legend, and rightly so — Roma's attacking depth looks genuinely exciting this season. The one qualifier Boniek offered was characteristically honest: start well, because in Italy the patience of public and press evaporates with extraordinary speed. With a Champions League return looming over every domestic fixture, Roma cannot afford an indifferent opening month.

Behind the scenes, Tony D'Amico continues to work with admirable tenacity in what remains a complicated transfer window. Jayden Oosterwolde's arrival from Fenerbahce represents a sensible, flexible piece of business — a loan with a recall that could convert to an obligation depending on individual targets, Roma's Serie A finish, and Champions League progression, all for a fee somewhere between fifteen and sixteen million euros. It is the kind of structured deal that suggests a club thinking carefully about sustainability without sacrificing ambition. The bad news came in the form of the Luis Henrique pursuit, which has now officially collapsed. Inter were willing to sell, but the player himself was not willing to come, and there is ultimately nothing you can do about that. D'Amico has moved on, and the focus has shifted to Jamie Bynoe-Gittens of Chelsea as the primary target for the left-wing position Gasperini still badly wants filled. Chelsea rebuffed the opening offer — three million euros for a loan plus a forty-million purchase option — which is hardly surprising given they invested around sixty million in the player just a year ago. Roma are preparing a revised approach, but Chelsea are demanding either an outright sale or an obligation with clear conditions, and the gap between the two positions is not trivial. Malick Fofana at Lyon hovers in the background as an intriguing alternative, though his availability hinges considerably on whether Lyon qualify for the Champions League knockouts — a verdict that this week's second leg against Fenerbahce will determine. Ibrahim Mbaye of PSG rounds out D'Amico's shortlist as a potential late-window opportunity if the other avenues close.

There is a line in Paolo Liguori's Il Messaggero column this week that deserves to be repeated: Gasperini cannot deliver this season alone. He is right. Last season showed what this coach can do when a squad responds collectively, when the midfield presses as a unit, when the defence holds its shape under pressure, when Malen runs beyond and Dybala finds the pass between lines. This year the fixture list is harder, the competition more relentless, and the margins thinner. Manu Koné and Wesley must carry their energy into bigger nights. Mancini, N'Dicka and Hermoso must prove that last season was not a peak but a foundation. And Dybala, magnificent and indispensable as he remains, cannot be the answer to every difficult question Roma face.

Gasperini, incidentally, walks into this campaign chasing his ninth consecutive opening-day victory in twenty seasons as a head coach. That is the kind of record that tells you something fundamental about how he approaches beginnings — with clarity, with intent, with the conviction that the first statement of a season matters enormously. The Olimpico was full on Monday night. The Champions League awaits. The window remains open and D'Amico is still hunting. This week was just the opening note — Roma's autumn is going to be very loud indeed.