When Gian Piero Gasperini was unveiled as Roma's new coach back in June, he made a point of repeatedly stating that his first objective was getting the fans onside. The former Atalanta coach may have worked miracles in Bergamo but he's always been a bit of a divisive figure, so his appointment certainly wasn't met with universal approval among the supporters.
Truth be told, they would have preferred to see local legend Claudio Ranieri continue as coach for another year. However, Ranieri refused to reverse his retirement in order to take up a directorial role with the club and felt that the infamously gruff Gasperini was precisely the kind of character required to revive Roma.
"I didn't like him [when I was a coach]," Ranieri revealed with typical honesty, "and I told him so, but he was chosen because I am convinced that Rome needs a strong personality, a coach who is never satisfied, who is always angry, who wants to improve the team, the individual.
"I will be a friend for him, I will be on one side and if he needs something, we will try to solve problems together. He's aware of the difficulties we will encounter but if I had stayed, I would have lost a year of time for the construction; he was called to build something that can bear fruit.
"That won't be easy, of course, but that's why we offered him a year to make himself understood." Happily for everyone involved, Gasperini has needed less than six months to win over the fans by cooking up a surprise Scudetto challenge…
The first sign of Gasperini's killer counters
An hour into Sunday's Serie A clash with Cremonese, Roma were 1-0 up and going top of the table – not that you would have known that from Gasperini's demeanour. He'd been on edge pretty much all afternoon, irked by the decision-making of the match officials, and, in the 62nd minute, he was sent off.
Unsurprisingly, Gasperini lost it and, rather amusingly, he argued afterwards that if he was going to be dismissed, it should have been in the first half rather than the second. Indeed, when he was issued two yellow cards in a matter of seconds just after the hour mark, an irate Gasperini insisted that, in that particular moment, he hadn't actually said anything insulting towards the referee or his assistants.
However, Gasperini's rage quickly dissipated. While he was still reluctantly making his way to the stand, substitute Evan Ferguson scored his first goal for the club. Five minutes after that, a visibly ecstatic Gasperini was out of his seat and slapping colleagues after Wesley finished off the kind of killer counterattack with which the 67-year-old had enjoyed such remarkable success at Atalanta.
AdvertisementThe wizard of Rome
By the time the moment came to speak to the press after a 3-1 win that moved Roma two points clear at the summit of Serie A, Gasperini was all smiles – and particularly when he was shown images of a piece of street art that appeared in the Italian capital last week depicting him as a wizard concocting a title challenge with 'grit, heart and sweat'.
"That's wonderful but disconcerting!" Gasperini joked in his post-match interview with . "The ingredients are fantastic, though, and I agree they are the things that we need. Maybe we can also add a little spice and salt." With Gasperini as coach, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Keeping a lid on the fans' expectations represents a tougher task.
What's interesting, though, is that Gasperini isn't really trying to rain on anyone's parade. He's actually preaching positivity, looking to ride rather than quell the wave of optimism generated by Roma's best start to a season for 10 years.
"We want to keep playing like this," Gasperini said on Sunday. "It's only right to dream in these positions, while at the same time being aware that very few dreams come true in the end. However, we're trying to keep the dream going for a while longer."
Getty Images SportContinuing Ranieri's good work
The good news for Roma's long-suffering supporters, some of whom weren't even alive when they last won the Scudetto (2001), is that we've already seen enough evidence to suggest that the Gasperini-led title challenge is at least sustainable.
As Ranieri alluded to, nobody anticipated an especially smooth transition from last season to this. Gasperini is a notoriously demanding coach, he has been known to clash with unwilling workers, and it usually takes some time for his methods to take root.
There was, therefore, a fear that his spell at Roma would go the same way as his last stint at one of Italy's biggest clubs, when he was sacked after just five games in charge of Inter all the way back in 2011.
However, Gasperini has done a sensational job building upon the excellent platform put in place by Ranieri, who took over with the Giallorossi in total disarray last November and led the club to a fifth-place finish, after losing just once in the second half of the season.
As a result, Roma have retained a base level of organisation and commitment that has allowed them to continue eking out wins. Indeed, across Europe's 'big five' leagues, only Real Madrid (23) have won more matches by a single-goal margin in 2025 than the Giallorossi (20).
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A surprisingly strong defence
Roma have also kept clean sheets in half of their 12 Serie A games so far, and conceded just six goals – fewer than anyone else in Italy's top flight thanks to the likes of veteran centre-back Gianluca Mancini, goalkeeper Mile Svilar and midfield duo Manu Kone and Bryan Cristante, who are both doing an excellent job of protecting the three-man backline.
However, to say that the excellent defensive record is surprising would be a massive understatement, as Gasperini's Atalanta were renowned – and revered – for their offensive game, which was significantly aided by the willingness to go one-v-one at the back.
Gasperini even brought up his adventurous approach in his first press conference as Roma boss. "I don’t think it's any secret, everyone knows what kind of football I like," he said. "My style of play reflects my own characteristics.
"My teams have always played in a certain way, with intensity and quality, scoring a lot of goals, always focused on scoring one more rather than conceding one fewer."
And yet 10th-placed Udinese are the only team in the top half of Serie A to have scored few goals (12) than the current league leaders (15).