Founded in 1927, its full name is AS Roma, in fact it is made up of 3 local amateur football clubs in Rome, and it was originally founded to unite the forces of football clubs in the capital to fight against the powerful football leagues of the north.

However, Roma was troubled by another club in the capital at the beginning of its establishment, that is, Lazio, which was founded in 1900, in order to compete for fans and the market, Lazio was very opposed to the union of these three small clubs, and even used the power of the government to suppress it.

But in the end, the Romans survived, and they not only established the AS Club of Rome, but also chose the emblem of the city of Rome as the team's crest, the gentle she-wolf with two babies at her breasts, which not only represents Rome's unyielding character, but also represents their caring side.

The club had been at the bottom of the top flight until 1941, when they won their first Serie A title. But then they fell silent again, and by the time Roma reappeared, 40 years had passed, and they had won another league title under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti, Corco, Shrissu and others.

From then until the 2000-2001 season, they won their third top-flight title.

In its long 81-year career, AS Roma won three league titles, nine Coppa Italia titles, two Super Cups and one UEFA Cup.

With such a record, it's hard to define it as a giant. But in reality, Roma is indeed known as Italy's "giant" club.

This is because since the Sensi family became the owner of the Red Wolves, they have spent a lot of money to recruit many famous players, such as Bonucci, Cafu, Aldair, Falcao, Giannini, Conte...... With these players, no one dares to underestimate Roma.

The most important transfer came in 1989, when Roma signed Francisco from a small local club called Lodigiani. Totti's little player, Totti had just turned 13 at the time, and he was still an unknown little player.

But 19 years later, Totti has grown into a world-class superstar, even though he is now 31 years old. However, Roma fans still affectionately call him "Prince of Rome". The ageless Totti has been contributing his life's talent and energy to the club of Roma, and under his leadership, Roma have always occupied a place in the top flight of Italy. Let the Roma fans have enough foundation and confidence. Call yourself a "big family".

Totti to Rome. The importance of this is understood by anyone who watches the game, just as when you think of Manchester United, you think of Alex Ferguson, and when you think of Arsenal, you think of Arsene Wenger. You don't know who the current manager of Roma is, and you don't even know who Sensi is, but you definitely can't avoid the topic of Totti.

In his 19-year career, Totti has already become Roma, and Roma is also integrated into Totti's blood.

It can be said that without Totti, Roma would not be able to achieve such a record today, nor can he let his image be accepted by fans all over the world, he is like the business card of the Roma club, many people know Totti first, only to know the Roma club, just like Maradona back then, many fans can't tell what club Napoli is, but when it comes to Maradona, people will understand that this club is where the world-class superstar lives.

But there is an old Chinese saying that blessing and misfortune lie in wait, and misfortune and fortune depend on it, and everything has its two sides.

Totti became the calling card of AS Roma and made the club deeply imprinted, but as a player, Totti is undoubtedly world-class, but as a leader, he leaves much to be desired.

Totti is most criticized for his lack of commitment to responsibility. In the 2006 World Cup final, there was a lot of confidence in Totti's Italian midfield, but in that game, Totti exposed his weakness in key games, and his performance was a big disappointment, Italy did little in attack, and if Materazzi had not managed to get Zidane down, everyone agreed that the title of the tournament would have gone to France.

When it comes to this World Cup, people are more reminded of the earlier Euro 2004 tournament, when Totti spat in the face of the opposing player Poulsen in the group stage against Denmark, which drew a chorus of criticism from the Italian media and collapsed the image that Totti had maintained for many years.

These two incidents have made the Italian media realise that Totti is a strong outsider, and that he has a technical advantage that no other Italian player can match, but he is full of flaws in his character, in short, he is not a calm and qualified leader, and he cannot be at the helm of a team with big ambitions.

Totti's refusal to return to Donadoni's national team then made the media form a one-sided criticism of him, many media believed that he saw the serious aging problems of Italy, and thought that he could not bear the responsibility of leading the team to the European Cup again, and in order to save his reputation, he did not hesitate to refuse the invitation of the national team, and his behavior was obviously evading responsibility.

Regardless of what Totti thinks in his heart, there is no reason to refuse a call-up to the national team, and this alone is enough to show his weakness.

With such a player as the leader of the team, and for more than 10 years, it is not difficult to understand that AS Roma has never been able to make a final breakthrough and become a true "giant".

In fact, in the 2000-2001 season, why Roma were able to win the Serie A title is also full of controversy. Many said it was Totti's best year and he deserved to win the trophy, but many more believe that Roma were able to win the league that season because they brought in the real soul, Batistuta.

Barty's prestige in Serie A needs no elaboration. Purple Lily's nine-year journey in Serie A has already made him a super-striker in Serie A clubs, and even Buffon admits that in his decades of Serie A goalkeeper career, no player has been able to put him under as much pressure as Barty.

Barty's influence is not only reflected in his outstanding shooting ability, but also in his indomitable fighting spirit and indomitable spirit, the kind of powerful shooting that cannot be done by a player without strong confidence and great determination, and Purple Lily's nine years of persistence. It is even more difficult for these new generation players who are shouting at their teammates to transfer if they are not trying to transfer under the pretext of Morse. His arrival not only brought great deterrence to the Roma striker, but also brought the tenacity that Totti lacked.

It was under the leadership of Barty, and at the same time under the leadership of the Iron Blooded Sect leader Capello. Roma had one of the most bloody seasons in the club's history that year. It is remembered that the midfield of Cafu, Tomasi, Emerson, Candela and Totti was able to attack and defend. With a solid backline of Zerbina, Samoel and Panucci, and an invincible forward line of Barty and Montella, they have been unstoppable almost from the start of the season. There were no twists and turns in between.

If it was Totti alone, the club would never be able to win the league championship in one go, and it was precisely because of Barty's leadership on the pitch that the Roma players always tensed their nerves, and finally won the league championship without any suspense.

Not to mention whether this championship is more credit to Barty or Totti, in short, the debate about Totti in Italy has never stopped, those who love him think that he is the symbol of the club, the embodiment of loyalty, and those who hate him think that he is the club's football bully, a cancer of Rome, just as the so-called success is also Totti, defeat is also Totti.

What's even more interesting is that there are a lot of jokes about Totti made up in Italy, not all of which are mockery, and some of them are also the way fans express their affection for Totti, which has gradually become a trend, and there are even media outlets that publish various joke collections for Totti.

Let's share one of the jokes:

Some media asked Totti: "May I ask Totti, how did you see the war between the United States and Iraq?" ”

Totti replied: "Both teams are very fluid and very technical, but we have to be sad to know that only one of them will be able to play in the World Cup. ”

……

From these jokes, it can be seen that in fact, many people are using Totti's name to make funny, and they do not mean to belittle or insult him, but a player can become a celebrity who is ridiculed all over the country, which also shows the great influence of Totti.

But it was this huge influence that enveloped the locker room of the Club of Rome, and under Totti's fame, whether it was De Rossi or Cassano and others, they could only become Totti's assistants, destined to not be able to carry the banner of the Club of Rome.

Cassano was expelled by Totti because of a falling out with the manager at the time, and when he returned to Italy from Real Madrid, the Roma club expressed disdain for him, and in the end he had to settle in Sampdoria, from a rising star to a "domestic well-known" player, Cassano once claimed in an interview that it was because of the breakdown of his relationship with Totti that the club was reluctant to accept his return, and as a result, he had to go to a second-rate team.

Despite Cassano's own problems, Totti's strong position at the Club of Rome still shocked everyone.

Peeling back Totti, let's take a look at other aspects of Rome.

In 2001, Roma won the championship, and the role of coach Capello can be said to be indispensable, so after Capello left, Roma's selection of coaches fell into a problem, the club's own reputation is not enough to attract those world-class coaches to join, but just find a local coach, it seems that the club has dropped a little bit, so from 03 to 06 years, the coach of Rome has changed one after another, from Prandelli to Warner, from Conte's new appointment to Zeman to eat back grass, the club's coach's seat has been replaced like a marquee, Roma's record has also gradually declined in this constant change, from the "five sisters" of Serie A to the difficult family in the Champions League.

It wasn't until Spalletti took office in '06 that the chaos at the club of Rome came to an end.

Spalletti began his coaching career at Empoli, first as a player. He then moved to youth coach and in 1995 became the club's official head coach.

During his tenure at Udinese, Spalletti led the small club Black Rooster to the Champions League finals, and it was with this that he fell into the eyes of the club of Roma and became the head coach of this pseudo-giant.

Spalletti brought a new look to Roma, and at the outset of his tenure he was clear about his tactics, which were to play the "Barça style" that was becoming popular all over the world: fast short passes, tight formations, and aggressive running.

In Barcelona. This tactic is called Tiki-Taka. In Rome, though, Roma fans have given him a whole new name: wolf pack tactics.

Spalletti's wolf pack tactics are very similar to Barcelona's Tiki-Taka, and even the lack of strikers has been fully learned. Sparaati has first-class center forwards such as Vucinic and Totti. But he learned from others to play a no-blade formation. This point is indeed a surprise to other teams in Serie A, with the east wind of "phone gate", Roma has become the only Serie A team that can compete with Inter Milan. It even won the league runner-up for two consecutive years.

However, a fiasco in the Champions League, but completely exposed the problem of Roma's wolf pack tactics, in April 2007, Roma in the Champions Cup with Manchester United 1:7 away bloodbath, this bloody case shocked the world, even CCTV commentator Zhang Lu said after the game: "I would rather twist my foot at that time, than to come to the commentary of this game." ”

Rome lost so badly that there wasn't even a fig leaf left.

Although the unavailability of Perrotta and Pizarro was one of the reasons for Roma's heavy defeat, the real problem was Spalletti's tactics, who learned Tiki-Taka's short pass penetration, but not Guardiola's high pressing.

In Roma's wolf tactics, Totti as the most important fulcrum and offensive transit station in the front, he was given defensive immunity by Spalletti, and Totti himself does not like to defend, he and Prandelli had a conflict, the reason was that Prandelli asked him to retreat to defend, and then the relationship between the two was tense, Prandelli resigned as the club's head coach for physical reasons, which also made Totti's determination not to participate in the defense stronger.

Some people take the lead as an example, others of course follow the same example, Rome's frontcourt players are inferior to Barcelona players in terms of penetration and passing, and even the defense is completely lost, their wolf tactics, not so much called wolves, it is better to call them crazy wolves, their tactics are to attack, attack, and attack, if it weren't for the two years of Serie A affected by the "phonegate" incident, Juventus, Milan and other giants have been hit hard, Rome's two league runners-up? Hmph, I'll look at the hanging.

And the fact is also the same, in the game with other teams, Roma appeared sharp, the wolves opened their fangs unstoppable, but in the game with the league leader Inter Milan, in the face of Mancini's strong arrangement, Roma can only sigh in vain, in addition to the 06-07 season had a 3-1 away victory over Inter, in other games met Inter Milan either lost or drawn, this season is even worse, Mourinho, who is stronger than Mancini, took over Inter Milan, Roma were humiliated 4-0 at home by Inter in the first half of the season, and Spalletti almost resigned.

So when it comes to coaching, there is still a certain gap between Roma and Arsenal and other giants, Spalletti's start was amazing, but after his peers gradually figured out his tactical thinking, his team's performance was not as good as before.

After talking about the coach, let's talk about the other players.

From Caniggia to Falcao, from Montella to Cassano, this team has always had good strikers, and the same is true for this season's strikers, although Tadei and Vucinic are not as famous as their predecessors, but both are good at attacking the city and occupy a very important position in Spalletti's tactics.

It's just that these two players have always had limited strength, and they may be first-class in Serie A, but looking at the world, they can't be compared with top masters like Ronaldo and Messi, and even Descartes can blow them up several streets, so they can only call for wind and rain within Serie A for the time being, and when they come to the European arena, they can only be regarded as small characters.

In addition to Totti, Roma actually has another player who deserves to be world-class, and that is their all-round midfield stalwart De Rossi.

In the Italian national team, De Rossi is gradually replacing Gattuso's position and becoming the new bodyguard next to Pirlo, which is Lippi's affirmation of his defensive skills, but we must also see the other side, that is, he has the ability to connect the ball in front and back of the court that Gattuso does not have, and if Gattuso scores ten points in defense, De Rossi is enough to score nine points at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

It was with this that De Rossi began to become an indispensable workhorse in the Azzurri, slowly propping up the Blues' midfield with Andrea Pirlo, and because of his excellent ability to attack with long balls, Prandelli later even put him in the central defensive position, giving him the same power as Pique to attack at the back.

In addition to De Rossi, Pedro is also a very important player in the Red Wolves team, his presence is similar to that of Claude Makelele, when he is present, few people will notice him, and only when he is absent will people realize that something is missing from the original team.

His running ability is very good, whether it is in attack or defense, he can be in place in time, Zhang Lu once commented that he "can be used as a half-player", a player with such ability is valuable in any team, just as Vieira is to Arsenal, Makelele is to Real Madrid, this is an indispensable force to maintain the team's offensive and defensive balance.

And the heavy defeat to Manchester United, people later summarized various reasons, one of the most important is that because of Perrotta's absence, the Roma midfielder lost the defensive barrier, and was finally turned into a sieve by Manchester United.

Such a fiasco, of course, has a certain amount of chance, but there is also a certain inevitability in the accident, Manchester United's shooting success rate in that game was amazing, 12 of the 18 shots on goal in the first half actually hit the goal frame, which is rare in any other game, but Roma's defense was also disappointing, because they gave the opponent 18 shots on goal in the first half!

In a game like this, to say that Roma have only conceded seven goals, I can only say that they are so lucky, and if I want to see it, it is normal for them to concede double digits.

Having a less reliable leader, and not being able to innovate tactically, combined with the above points, in my personal opinion, Roma really can't be called a "giant", because they lack enough perseverance and will to make changes, their goal is to win the Serie A title at most, to be able to stay in the top three in Serie A all year round, to qualify for the European competition every year, in the eyes of their fans, they are completely satisfied, such a team, doomed to not be able to make a big difference.

So I think when Totti was the leader of Roma, the club was dead. (To be continued......)