The playing field reveals a completely failing buying campaign in relation to the summer expenses: each point in the championship now ‘costs’ 8 million. Fiorentina and Atalanta are primarily teaching the Romans a lesson: here’s how.

Maximum expenditure, minimum yield. This essentially sums up the summer market of Roma for the 2024/25 season, at least in terms of what this initial third of the season has unveiled on the field. The purchasing campaign of the yellow-red club so far has been a semi flop, to say the least. The numbers plainly speak for themselves, harshly critiquing the tenure administered by Sporting Director Florent Ghisolfi, alongside then CEO Lina Soulokou. All in all, Roma shelled out more than 110 million euros for a dozen acquisitions, of which only four are regulars: Angelino, bought out from Galatasaray, alongside Koné, Dovbyk, and Hummels, who, it should be noted, has only essentially secured a regular slot during the last week. The only one with a chance to join at the moment is Saelemaekers. The Giallorossi are the fourth highest-spending team in the last Serie A market, but they will necessarily have to return to action in January for reasons unrelated to injuries. The Juve will have to step up due to the severe setbacks of Bremer, Cabal, and Milik, whom Giuntoli, however, hopes to recover. Napoli is essentially all set, having only one competition and could even come to Roma’s ‘aid’ by transferring Raspadori, just like Atalanta. These are the only three clubs to have spent more money than the yellow-reds this summer, thus producing a tangible and substantial advantage on the field. This is because the blues are leading the league, the Goddess follows them just one point behind, and Juventus is trailing slightly, although with some excuses related to the injury curse. Nevertheless, it has twice as many points (26 to 13). All the matches, theoretically, with the same stated objective of the Champions League. A colossal matter. At the same time, all the footballers who have so far never been integrated into the technical project, need to be analyzed: Le Fée (23 million), Soulé (25 plus bonuses), Dahl (4), and Saud (2.5), plus the various Ryans and Hermoso, who didn’t cost a transfer fee but did cost in wages. All together they clocked in at an impressive 1617 total minutes for the season in 19 games played by Roma in both the league and cup competitions. That is to say, an average of 14 per match. A whopping total of 55 million just in price tags, which, to employ a euphemism, could have been used much better. For example, Fiorentina brought home Pongracic, Kean, Gudmundsson and the loans of Colpani, Adli, Gosens, Bove and Cataldi for roughly 60 million. Almost half of the team that gave Roma a whopping 15 points. Meanwhile, with a significant 36 million, Lazio has purchased Noslin, Dia, Tchaouna, while also taking Nuno Tavares and Dele-Bashiru on loan. This reshuffling of talents speaks volume on the strategic moves these clubs are making, adding more twists and turns to the already piping hot Italian football scene. Names that aren’t at all lofty, but functional. Furthermore, Milan has secured Pavlovic, Morata, and Fofana. Atalanta, with a hefty budget of 62 million, has added further stars to its roster – Retegui, Samardzic, and Bellanova. However, even with the rest of the acquisitions, the regular mainstays, it has not been a grand celebration for Roma after all. Why the over 30 million spent on Dovbyk – the most expensive purchase – has so far produced just 6 goals in the season, the same as Dia. The question is, why the more than 30 million dollars invested in Dovbyk, the priciest acquisition to date, has only yielded a mere 6 goals this season. This is the same tally as Dia. Angelino is certainly not shining. The only one living up to expectations and earning approximately 20 million invested is Manu Koné, highly sought after and wanted by De Rossi. But even the Frenchman took a few weeks to become as crucial as he is now. The numerous transfers and lack of confirmations certainly lightened the annual cost of the squad, with a positive impact on the budget of around 38 million, but it doesn’t mean much if the results are as they are. And especially if there is a need to intervene again in January, having in the meantime on the ‘back’ 55 million of contracts (and related wages, with Hermoso and Hummels also added) purchased outright and unused, poised to be the ballast that hinders the next transfer market sessions. The task of Ranieri will also and above all be this, to massively assist Ghisolfi in reducing waste, providing immediately a more technical and tactical opinion. In short, a field not chained to algorithms and similar things.