It can be concluded the end of the "Rudi Garcia Roman Empire" as the Frenchman was relieved of his duty last week . What started with high hopes and dreams has abruptly ended in disappointment as Rudi Garcia departed Roma after two and a half seasons.
Garcia is credited with masterminding the famous winning of French Ligue 1 trophy by Lille and also playing attractive, fast paced, possession based football with the likes of Gervinho, Eden Hazard and Yohan Cabaye in 2009. At Roma, Garcia was a sort of manager the American owners felt could bring in the calmness and stability they desired. In his first season in 2013, Roma played a ruthless fast paced attacking football, devouring opponents for fun and going 10-games without a loss, which also included a nine game winning spree on the troth. Things though did not work out as planned as Juventus claimed their third straight Scudetto while Roma settled for the second place . This still did not curb the enthusiasm and dreams of all Roma fans as they had made the Champions League for the first time since the days of Claudio Ranieri in 2010.
The next season was ever blazing for Roma as they continued where the left the previous season, winning games as the came. It was reality check for Roma when they drew with Sampdoria, and lost to both Napoli and Bayern. They team never recovered as the were crushed by the likes of Sassuolo, AC Milan, Lazio, Palermo, Fiorentina and Empoli , it was clear to all that water had escaped into the ship. The main reason for the collapse was nothing but that of managerial negligence on the part of the board . Garcia built his team on players of strength, pace, technical awareness and brilliance. The loss of Kevin Strootman and Michael Bradley coupled with the decline of Daniele De Rossi meant worthy replacements were needed. Instead mediocre and average players were signed (Seydou Keita- past his prime ,Radja Nainggolan- lacked the technical knowledge needed in a holding role, Juan Iturbe- nothing more than a substitute , Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa- couldn't even make it in Newcastle, Seydou Doumbia- scored one goal in six months). Roma was now on a self-destruct mission. These new players couldn't execute the quick-moving attacking setup of Garcia, the team became slow , relying in counter attacks , defensive and were out to frustrate the opponents instead of going out to attack .
As normally said "A hunter is as good as his hunting tools", Garcia was left to rue the mistake of the summer transfer market of 2014/2015. At the end of the season , Roma finished fifteen points worse than they did the previous season in his first spell . At this point the board was spurred into action but rather than doing a better analysis , they made a further mistake by signing the likes of Wojciech Szczesny, Mohammed Salah, Eden Dzeko, Lucas Digne, Leandro Paredes and William Vainqueur. Make no mistake, these players are good but none fits the profile of a Rudi Garcia type of player. Garcia loves his team to move the ball quickly between players confident in possession giving opponents less time to get back into position hence ,leaving gaps to explore, while the players purchased play a slow tempo and produce when have the team built around them ie Dzeko (up ball, target man and hold up play) and Salah. The signings weren't looking like that which was sanctioned by Garcia, though he had to manage the team. Eventually Roma still ended up as runners-up, but in reality the project was still a long way to perfection .
This season, it was as though the board wasn't satisfied in any way for all the damage done to the team as players who understood the philosophy of the French man were sold Alessio Romagnoli, Andre Bertolacci, Adem Ljajic and Mattia Destro. One also has to take into account that Garcia lost two defensive rocks in the name of Medhi Benattia and Marquinhos to both Bayern and PSG who were sold for high profit and replaced with the likes of Yanga Mbiwa.
While Garcia did not do much to save his job as he got beaten too many times by far inferior teams on several occasions . Rudi Garcia had lost six out of seven Seria A games and drawn the last. It was so bad that Roma's last win was in November 2015. Therefore, with the money spent by the board surely the club deserves better from the Frenchman but the problem still remains that he got the wrong players for his pattern of play. Rudi Garcia must really have a rethink before jumping into management again, as the Roma job was surely a poisoned chalice .
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