Joe Tacopina has taken aim at James Pallotta and accused the former Roma president of being something of a keyboard warrior who didn’t pay enough attention during his time at the club.
Tacopina, who has also held a role at Bologna, as well as being Venezia president in the past, is on the verge of becoming Catania president, where he wants to sign Papu Gomez.
“In the U.S. we love our teams but we don’t live and die with our teams, they’re not part of the fiber of the community the way they are in Italy,” Tacopina told The Italian Football Podcast. “And if you don’t appreciate that then that is another recipe for disaster.
“Look at Pallotta’s existence at Roma, it was miserable with the fans there – they hated him. He couldn’t even go there because he was chased out.
“We as owners are custodians of the clubs, we’re not owners of the clubs, even though we own the clubs on paper and have paid the money, we are not owners – we are custodians. The club belongs to the city.
“It’s funny, Jim is a sensitive guy. I simply pointed out that the Pallotta era was not successful because Roma didn’t win a thing. He didn’t even win an exhibition cup and by Roma’s standards, that’s not good. It’s as simple as that, it’s just a fact, but Jim takes everything personally.
“He got very defensive and said I didn’t have any operational role. What’s funny is that I have tons of emails from Jim Pallotta asking me to do plenty of things at Roma, including doing Francesco Totti’s contract renewal.
“But let Jim have fun behind his keyboard. If he had paid as much attention to Roma in the last ten years as he does now, he may have been more successful.”
