De Rossi brings ‘positive attitude and desire to improve’ to Roma | OneFootball

Daniele De Rossi explains he wants to give Roma ‘positive attitudes, hunger, the desire to improve’ and is working well with new director Florent Ghisolfi, even if they don’t speak the same language.

The club icon took over as coach in mid-January when Jose Mourinho was fired and took them to sixth place in Serie A, as well as the semi-final of the Europa League.

Speaking at the AIAC event called The Coach Experience, De Rossi realises his lifelong passion for the Giallorossi is an asset that not many can call upon.

“I approach the new season with great enthusiasm, possible too much, as I am at the Trigoria ground every day. We had a long meeting yesterday with the directors, looking at our objectives and how the future will look.

“Maybe I will take a vacation in 10 years and step away from Roma then, but for the moment I want to be there, I feel the need to be there.”

While predecessor Mourinho used to say that even challenging for the Champions League places or European silverware was a ‘miracle,’ De Rossi is much more demanding of the current squad.

“Bayer Leverkusen were superior in the Europa League and we want to improve. We went close to the Champions League, but it’s not like we can say we’ll win the cup next year.”

De Rossi on working with new Roma director Ghisolfi

Much has changed behind the scenes too at Roma with the arrival of new director Ghisolfi, who was working at OGC Nice.

“We are working well together. We didn’t know each other, we speak two different languages, even if we can communicate in English,” explained De Rossi.

“What I try to bring is a positive attitude, hunger, the desire to improve upon what we were. These are the right foundations to build on, I cannot accept aiming for a centimetre below some magical nights we already experienced, like Roma-Lazio, Roma-Brighton, Roma-Milan and Milan-Roma. That is what we want.”

Roma are once again hampered by the Financial Fair Play parameters, which predecessor Tiago Pinto already had to work within as director of sport until his resignation in February.