Opinion: Renewals come at right time as Roma build for future

For the past, it’s impossible to not think of Francesco Totti as the club’s all-time great; for the present, there’s the sadness but warm embrace of Roma’s greatest ever player turning in after multiple decades of service. Kevin Strootman and Daniele De Rossi’s renewals this week demonstrates that the club is already planning for the immediate future; Roma without Totti will be incredibly difficult to imagine, but five more years for the club’s own washing machine and newly crowned Capitano Presente is a stable foundation for the team going forward.

De Rossi’s own tale at Roma hardly needs recapping. Quite simply, there is no one else in the squad that can make the painful transition from Totti more bearable. Few clubs in Italy can boast of having one, nevertheless two, homegrown legends who have given their all to side they supported since childhood.

Two more years for De Rossi means that this is truly his side now, his turn to don the armband and lead the team from the pitch as he so often does anyway, making crowning his symbolic status into a reality.

As he himself noted, minutes after signing his new deal, to lose both him and Totti in the same summer would have been just too difficult for fans to bear. But the team, too, would have suffered.

Strootman and Roma’s tale is more complex, a loyalty forged in adversity rather than birthplace. Strootman’s well-documented injury issues would have sunk a lesser character, or seen him written off by a lesser club. But Roma stood by him, Strootman worked at his rehabilitation with phenomenal resilience, and both parties were rewarded with one of the finest seasons of his career this term – capped with perhaps his best match of the lot, against Genoa on Sunday, to help clinch Champions League football.

And that’s the beauty of this deal. Strootman is a leader in every sense of the word, a man as loyal to the club as the club has been to him. He has roared back into health this season, playing over 2700 minutes; more than any other teammate in the league, bar four. His form in the second half of this season, in particular, has grown from strength to strength, culminating in that Genoa display.

He racked up three goals and four assists in the final three months of the season, serving as an ever-present and vital cog in Roma’s push for second place. His penchant for scoring goals during the most important of occasions has returned, as well, with vital strikes against Lazio, Napoli, and Olympique Lyonnais.

De Rossi, to everyone’s amazement, trumped that with four goals in the last five games – the most prolific stretch of his career. Both men are clearly in a good place, physically and mentally, and have now committed to stay there for a good while yet.

These two renewals are thus an immensely important first step to stabilise the club this summer and helps to transition the team into the new season in the best of ways. Guaranteed Champions’ League group stage football will allow Roma to be on the biggest spotlight in Europe once again, competing against the best sides and raking in the accompanying prestige and revenue.

With Monchi at the helm of transfers and Champions’ League participation guaranteed, Roma can focus on a strong summer of strengthening, built off a platform of stabilisation that these contract renewals help to build. It demonstrates that the key players are excited and committed to an even stronger and brighter future.

Without Totti, it’s easy to become distraught about what the future of Roma holds. Who is going to take his place, as irreplaceable as it is? Who will serve as the leaders on the pitch?

Alongside De Rossi, and the similarly Rome born-and-raised Alessandro Florenzi, that question can be answered by Strootman; about to enter his prime as fit and roaring as the club have ever seen him.

The future can now count upon Roma’s own washing machine to clean the loose passes on the way to the goal of a brighter future.

And the side’s own ­Capitano Futuro to take the team into the bold new present.