Pallotta: I could not be happier with Paulo Fonseca

AS Roma president Jim Pallotta has today praised Paulo Fonseca for the ‘intellectual maturity’ he's shown since taking charge of the Giallorossi.

The Portuguese coach, who arrived in Italy from the Ukrainian Premier League, where he won three titles with Shakhtar Donetsk, was announced as Roma coach exactly one year ago today.

“I could not be happier with Paulo Fonseca,” Pallotta told asroma.com. “Roma will be very lucky if Paulo stays at the club for a long time. He’s incredibly intelligent, has a very sophisticated approach to the football he wants to play, is well liked by all and has shown real maturity.

“He’s got a great relationship with the players and he works really well with Guido [Fienga], Manolo [Zubiria] and the entire Roma staff.

“Let’s also not forget that despite it being the anniversary of him joining Roma, he hasn’t been here for a full season yet. He’s moved to a new country, learnt a new language and taken charge of a club in a new difficult league and he’s taken it all in his stride.”

Of all the attributes that have impressed Pallotta, the Roma president singles out Fonseca’s maturity as something that he believes is quite rare in this game.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make an excuse,” says Pallotta. “He doesn’t make excuses when things go wrong or don’t turn out as he might have hoped. He deals with the setbacks and trials and tribulations of coaching Roma with an intellectual maturity that I think is rare in football or in sports in general.

"I look around the world and I’ve seen many coaches who complain to the media and fans that their club didn’t buy them this player or that player or blame injuries when they don’t win. I’ve never heard Paulo do that and we’ve certainly had our share of injuries. The approach he always adopts is instead to ask himself and others, ‘How can we fix this problem?’”