AS Roma, the Rome city football team, has changed coach for the fourth time in less than a year. The troubles began when Fabio Capello, who had trained the team since 1999, left at the end of the 2003-04 season to coach Juventus. The first replacement trainer only stayed for a few weeks and then left for personal reasons to be replaced by Rudi Voeller, the German who had played for Roma in the 1980s. He found the job very difficult, the Roma fans were dissatisfied with the results and he left after less than two months. The next coach, Gigi Delneri, had been the successful trainer of Chievo, a team from near Verona that shot to stardom in 2001 when it went into the Serie A league. Delneri lasted a little more than five months at Roma and has now quit, making no secret of the fact the he found the AS Roma players spoilt and the fans not much better.

The new coach is Bruno Conti. Born in Nettuno, a coastal town a few miles south of the city, he is regarded a local boy. Conti played 15 seasons for Roma and was a member of the team when it won the league championship in 1983, as well as being a member of the Italian football team that won the World Cup in 1982. He has little experience as a coach, but he knows AS. Roma well and the fans like him and feel that the team has been put back into the hands of a Roman.