Totti Tuesday: ‘Perfume, hippies & ABBA’

While the Who were always singing/talking about their generation, it’s time for us to look at Roma’s generation. Or better said: rejuvenation. In short, I hate the word. Not because of its meaning but because there’s juve somewhere in between. That’s like saying: ‘oh Francesco is playing relazioning today’ aka not done. More about the rejuvenation later on. Let’s get down and dirty…. Well, at least down to the latest friendly played in Irdning.

Loveable losers Liezen

All you need to know about the friendly right here. Destro hattrick, Lobont started again, Tachtsidis didn’t start a fight, Primavera keeper Proietti Gaffi played some minutes too… Those are the most important things.
Someone highlighted it in a previous post but the quality (not the quantity) of our friendlies this summer has been rather low. Irdning, Rapid Vienna, Liezen, Lubin, Severin… It’s not that hard to score 5+ goals, let alone keep a clean sheet against them. Only Liverpool was a big name and even they didn’t play at full strenght.
I would’ve opted for at least one or two bigger teams ala Valencia, Newcastle or Dortmund. Right now, the team and the tifosi seem to live in some sort of euphoria after the 127 093 goals scored during preseason but Catania will be harder than all of them (save Liverpool of course). Let’s hope the positive vibe stays in our camp and ghosts keep haunting Lazio’s one. Someone at the Lazio camp obviously doesn’t know how to use voodoo dolls. While we have our very own doll in the shape of Zeman. Serie A beware!

Castan castrates shirt number

Praise Jebus, I have proof Castan reads this blog! After my lecture on last week’s Totti Tuesday about useless shirt numbers above 40, Castan changed his. He ditched the ugly 44 for Mexes and Heinze’s no5, a traditional number among center backs and Chanel perfume. I expect Piris (43), Florenzi (48) and Romagnoli (46) to follow suit.

The great exodus

Right, rejuvenation. The average age of the team in Irdning right now: 23.9 (courtesy of Romaforever.it, love that site btw). And with a possible arrival of Uvini, Lovren or Marquinhos, that number won’t elevate anytime soon.
This mercato has been as much about outgoing transfers as about incoming. We all know Roma had a big total wage bill. Rosi, Okaka, Simplicio, Brighi, Greco, Heinze, Perrotta, Borriello, Juan, Pizarro… they all had their run on the merry-go-round-mercato. We need to be careful though, that thing attracts children and Saba is never far away.
Rosi and Okaka leaving for peanuts and a slice of fine Parma ham is not really called ‘rejuvenation’, they are 25 and 23 respectively. It does feel like a turnover IMO, time for a new generation to step up. Piris will take over from Rosi while Okaka won’t be missed thanks to Destro and Lopez’ rise to fame. Actually, one thing I won’t forget is that ridiculous backheelgoal against Siena, not to mention the assist from Pit, pronounced ‘Piz’. No need to post a hyperlink here, I’m sure you know which goal I’m talking about. Great memories but alas, too few of them during his Roma career.

Now for the ‘old boys’ Perrotta, Pizarro and Heinze: 34, 32 and 34 respectively. Pizarro’s off to Fiorentina (which is looking more and more like Roma 2.0 nowadays) while Heinze goes back to the motherland to play for Newell’s Old Boys (ironic isn’t it?). He wrote a nice farewell letter, you can find it as Roma’s official site.
Leaves us with Borriello and Perrotta. The first one having a big fat contract and being monitored by Genoa, Fiorentina and some foreign teams like Tottenham. It’s safe to say that Borriello must be a priority for Saba, maybe even more so than looking for a CB. His contract might be a stumbling block but if he does leave us, it will free up a lot of money and of course, lower wages. Somewhere in the previous posts, there were enough debates about salaries (be it net or gross) etc. so check them out for specific figures because 1) I’m lazy and 2) I’m a hippie so money doesn’t interest me.

I think of all the people I listed today, Perrotta is my favorite one. Yes, he’s almost 35 but he’s not a big earner on this team, compared to an Osvaldo, Daniele or Burdisso. Big heart, experienced and a former World Cup winner. Although he didn’t participate in Irdning, he’s not gone either. Due to his heavy contract, Borriello will be the next one in line to leave AS Roma while Saba also has to search for a CB somewhere (my money’s on South-America but I’m not so sure, just a lucky guess) . What happens with Perrotta, who knows? I reckon Chievo would be happy to have him back or maybe a return to Great-Britain like Gattusso?

Tribute time

As my departing gift to all of them (mixed with my undeniable love for ABBA), I’d like to say these words:
So I say, thank you for the football, the goals you’re scoring.
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing.
Who can live without them, I ask in all honesty.
What would the Olimpico be?
Without a tear or crisis, what are we?
So I say grazie per il calcio.
For giving it to me…

I wish them all the best (except when playing Roma of course), in Italy but also foreign countries. Yes, everyone one of them because after all, they did represent the colors we so immensely love.
As for next week, I’ll not be able to write a Totti Tuesday due to my re-examination on Monday (bluh, bwaak, bah, pick one) which will take borrow steal a lot of my time in the course of next week and next weekend. Ciao!

“I already have a basic idea of my starting XI. I have a squad that covers every role with two players, then it depends on their fitness levels and my level of madness on which ones I use.” – Zdenek Zeman, 2012.