Will Walter Sabatini Return to Roma?

For a city that claims to be eternal, Roma's football team sure experiences a lot of upheaval--at fullback, central defense, striker, in between the sticks; basically everywhere a player named 'Totti' or 'De Rossi' doesn't play. There is, however, one source of stability within the Roma ranks, in the boardroom. For as much turnover as the Giallorossi experience on the field, their executives have a remarkable level of job security, none more so than Director of Sport, Walter Sabatini.

For several months now, it has been widely speculated that Walter Sabatini would leave his post as Roma's Director of Sport at the end of the season, leaving one year of his contract on the table, vacating a position he's held since 2011. While Sabatini has hit a few home runs during his time as a Roma executive--Kevin Strootman, Marquinhos and Erik Lamela come to mind--he has had some horrible misses in the past 18 months, throwing oodles of money at players ill equipped for life in Rome.

Despite those strikes and gutters, Sabatini's job status was never questioned by his superiors, rather it was Sabatini himself who cast doubt on his future with Roma. During a March press conference, Sabatini announced rather unequivocally that he was calling it a day, saying "There's no mystery around my future. I asked (President James) Pallotta to rescind my contract on June 30 and he accepted"

This, of course, led to immediate speculation regarding his next step: Was he going to Chelsea? Would he accept a position with the national setup? Was he starting his own tobacco farm?

We simply didn't know, and while Big Walt would probably take to life on tobacco road like a duck to water, football is in his heart, but he was quick to dismiss the Chelsea connection, stating simply that his English wasn't up to snuff.

Love him or hate him, Roma is facing a critical juncture in the course of their grand project, so this isn't exactly an opportune time to change course; any transition in Roma's leadership will have inevitable reprecussions on their transfer campaign, so there is a certain benefit to maintaining continuity.

But, and there is always a but, while Sabatini has the support of Luciano Spalletti, with both Pantaleo Corvino and Daniele Prade suddenly on the market, one starts to wonder if Roma would be enamored with either Corvino's experience or a reunion with Prade, who never enjoyed the same level of financial backing Sabatini has over the past several years.

Whatever the case may be, Roma must get this decision right. If Sabatini has any doubt about his future, move on--half stepping will only derail the project in the long run.