The Big Interview: Alessandro Spugna
With Roma sat a top the Serie A table, in the Coppa Italia final and a Champions League tie against Barcelona on the horizon, Spugna is one of Europe's most fascinating coaches right now.
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“Secrets? There are no secrets really...”
The words of Alessandro Spugna, head coach of AS Roma, when I ask what has been behind the club’s rapid rise this season, which sees them top of Serie A by eight points with eight games to play, in the Coppa Italia final and the last eight of the Champions League.
Barcelona loom next week in the team’s toughest test yet, but under the tutelage of the 49-year-old they look well placed to become the first side to dethrone Juventus - a long-time employer of Spugna - since the Old Lady came into Serie A five years ago.
Last season they finished second, five points off Juventus, but putting them into the Champions League for the first time, and the progress under Spugna has been on a constant upward curve since he took over in the summer of 2021, with the club still having a shot at all three major trophies with two months of the season remaining.
“Just thorough planning in the light of the previous season,” Spugna continues. “We realised we had diminished the gap to Juventus, so we believed it was possible to bridge it completely and by planning I also mean the possibility to sign new players which allowed us to increase our level from both a technical and tactical standpoint, but also our experience.
“We had to play in Europe and now the knockout stages too, because we did not know how far we could go. We are able to transfer all this to the Championship and the Cup at domestic level.”
Roma is also new to the women’s football scene and has been a big part of the rejuvenation of the game in Italy which has seen not just them, but the likes of Inter and AC Milan join Juventus at the top end of Serie A in recent seasons.
“I always say a game of football is the same for everyone…”
Le Giallorosse took over the licence of Res Roma in 2018 and with Italy legend Betty Bavagnoli at the helm, won their only major honour to date in 2021, the Coppa Italia.
The image of the team lifting the trophy is blown up on the wall behind the desk Spugna sits at, a reminder of what they have achieved in such a short space of time, but also of what they want to achieve in the future.
“We have great support at all levels, from the directors to the sporting level because we realised we could do something extraordinary and through some targeted signings for the moment they are working.
“They are not completed, it is a process, there is a few months left but things are going to plan, I would say.”
He is keen to stress Roma has not yet “taken over” from Juventus when we discuss their season so far, but admits it has been great to see the league become so much more competitive with big clubs from the men’s game now investing more and more in their women’s teams.
“Jokes apart, absolutely” he says. “Milan and Inter are investing more and more but not just those two teams. The level of the competition overall has increased a lot thanks to some big signings, especially some foreign players, which has helped raise the overall level.”
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Spugna’s coaching journey has been an eclectic one. He played briefly for Torino at youth level before becoming a coach at the same club within the academy at the age of just 28.
After 12 years at Torino, Spugna moved across Turin to Juventus, the club he is now a rival of, again, to work in the men’s academy.
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