Roma enter this match against Bologna FC 1909 with their season narrowing to a point, and with a manager who has become the focal point for everything that has gone wrong in recent weeks. The backdrop is unavoidable: a team drifting from its Champions League ambitions and a club hierarchy that has begun reshuffling in real time.And yet, if there was any expectation that Gasperini would use his pre-match press conference to escalate the tension or crow over his victory over Ranieri, he didn’t take the bait. Instead, he tried to reframe the conversation entirely, away from personalities and toward institutional stability.

He emphasized two points above all: that the club has consistently backed him, and that Roma the club must remain the priority. Through these comments, he quietly asserted his legitimacy as manager and reminded the press corps that the external noise hasn’t shaken ownership’s faith in him, or his ability to salvage something from this season.That doesn’t make the moment any less precarious. Roma are running out of matches, out of margin, and out of explanations.

Bologna, the same side that already exposed both the best and worst of this squad earlier in the year, now stands in the way again—this time with far more at stake. Gasperini’s words may have been measured, but the subtext is clear: belief in the club only matters if it is justified on the pitch. Everything else is already slipping away.Here’s his full presser.

Let us know what you think in the comments.What do you make of Roma’s statement regarding Claudio Ranieri leaving the club and your new role? “I’d like to highlight two things. The first is that the club have never lacked belief in me.

From day one, from our very first meeting, I’ve always felt Roma’s support and trust. This is essential in order for us to work as best as we can. The second thing that seems very important to me in the statement is that Roma comes first.

These are the two fundamentals.”Is there anything Ranieri has said in recent days that affected you the most, maybe hurt you the most, or upset you the most? “Not upset me. I’ve never had any such feelings about what has been a very difficult and very intense situation.

There had never been anything of the sort, neither in other meetings nor personally. The only thing is it really surprised me.”You’ve said in the past that within Trigoria people need to develop and improve. Do you expect a qualitative leap in this regard?

“From what point of view? I didn’t do anything. The situation happened the way it happened, but it’s nothing to do with me.

Don’t draw me into this – I didn’t do anything against anyone, anyone at all.”I was asking a different question, though. A few months ago you said that improvement was needed within Trigoria. What are you expecting?

“I said ‘within Trigoria’ because Trigoria is the place where the football is played, where the action should be taking place, where I hope the focus of footballing matters is. I’m just trying to do my job in football. As for all of the other issues, I’m on the outside and I don’t deal with them, I don’t talk about them.

My only goal is to work with football here, that’s it. Everything else seems to me to be on a different level. “I’m referring to having a stadium which is always full of fans, to the city that follows us, but also to all of you who follow the club with passion.

But I’d like you too to finally get back to talking about football. I don’t talk about anything else – I don’t know how else to say it, and I don’t want to get involved in these discussions. I’ve been dragged into it but I just want to stick to football.

I hope that you and everyone else gets back to talking about the game, about teams, about results, about players, about what can be done to satisfy the passionate fanbase that the club has.” Paulo Dybala will likely be available again tomorrow. Can you confirm whether this is the case? Is there a chance that he’ll start the game?

“It seems unlikely that he’ll be in the starting eleven. Paulo started working again this week after more than 80 days out of action, nearly 90 days, in fact. So, no, I’m ruling out him starting the game.

When a player comes back after many months out it’s hard for them to slot into the starting team. Let’s hope – I certainly hope – that he can come on over the course o