Daniele De Rossi discusses the right formula for Roma’s long-term success | OneFootball

Roma boss Daniele De Rossi was asked about what it will take for Roma to grow in quality and ambition over the next few years.

During his pre-match press conference, De Rossi gave a lengthy response where he focused on what requirements players who will be joining the team in the future will have to fulfill.

“In the last few years Roma have had me, [Jose] Mourinho, and before then [Paulo] Fonseca. Everyone has their own way of doing transfers and everyone builds their squad differently, although it’s not something I’ve done before yet.”

“We’ve been regularly finishing fifth, sixth, seventh, so we need to change something. Whether it’s been big names or other players, that has remained a constant. The league placing has been decent but it’s not what we want for our future. A strong coach gets the club to buy the players he wants – he has to impose himself. A strong club has to listen to and cater to the coach, within the realms of possibility. If you go and ask for a €100 million player, you’re crazy.”

“I think the prime requisite for a player should be having hunger and desire, and thinking that playing for Roma is the best thing that could happen to them, whether it’s because they love the club, for their career path, because they like Rome or because they want to join Real or Barcelona one day.”

“But if you don’t have that hunger, it doesn’t matter if it’s a big-name player or a young player. Some young players have less hunger than experienced ones – we’ve seen that loads of times. We need people who set the pitch alight with their running and their desire. I’m not just talking about Roma, the shirt, the Curva – those things meant a lot to me, but for many of the players I played with they didn’t because they weren’t born Romanisti, yet they still went out there and gave 110%.”

“When [Miralem] Pjanic joined Juventus, everyone insulted him but when he was here he did everything he should have done. I remember that. Everything you have to do to win one game more rather than one game less. Winning one more can change the future. Instilling that desire and getting them to perform well, that’s up to me. I could go into the park, take 20 players, give them a Roma shirt, and they’d have hunger and desire. But you have to find the right players, with the right motivation, who really perform on the pitch. Who perform not just physically, not just consistently, but who have the right intentions and motivation.”