At today’s press conference unveiling new Slovakian defender Norbert Gyomber, AS Roma General Manager Mauro Baldissoni responded to questions about supporter protests and the state of Kevin Strootman’s injury.
Mr Baldissoni, what do you think of the message from Curva Sud?
“AS Roma do not respond to messages with uncertain origins that haven’t been signed. Concerning the initiatives enacted by the city prefect and the police commissioner, these are directives that have been issued by law and order officials, and we, as AS Roma, must accept them and put them in practice.
Having said that, our club has long been known for everything we’ve done to try and improve the experience of attending football matches, such as allowing fans to purchase season tickets that avoid the restrictions of the supporters’ card and facilitating travel for away matches.
In relation to Mr Pallotta’s position, I would like to say that the president is planning to build a modern, fully-equipped stadium that will be a source of pride for all of us. The facility will feature a specially designated section: Curva Sud, which will not only continue to go by this name but will also stand out from the rest of the stadium. It will be a special club for everyone who watches games from there. This is to say that the club has always put the wishes of Roma’s core support first.
As for the rest – including the attempt to blame the club itself for what actually might be a difficult relationship between law and order authorities and the club’s supporters – it all strikes me as down to misunderstanding or exploiting the situation. Everyone who comes to the stadium – which is the essence of what it is to be a fan – does so to support the team. Organizing protests completely contradicts what a supporter’s role should be, especially in such an important game as Roma v Juventus, when our team will challenge our closest competitors for the league championship in recent years.
Roma need the support of its fans, but ultimately it’s up to them to behave themselves as they wish.”
Considering Kevin Strootman’s injury, has the club decided to look for another central midfielder in the transfer window ?
“There’s been no news on Kevin’s physical condition in the last few days. The situation has not changed, we have a footballer who is working on his recovery with the club’s assistance and together we are evaluating the best ways of speeding this process up.
We will let you know as soon as we find out something new. This doesn’t change the assessments we’ve made in the transfer window so far, which we don’t normally comment on.
However, we would like to remind everyone that this isn’t an emergency. Kevin’s situation has not changed from what we already knew. The only thing we can say is that we remain convinced that the player will come back even stronger that he was before. The timescale is not that short, but we already knew that. This doesn’t change our analysis of the transfer window at all.”
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