Roma’s spooky season lingers as Ivan Juric haunted by return to Verona | Nicky Bandini

Halloween has been and gone, but Roma’s past keeps coming back to haunt them. Terrorised last month by Edoardo Bove, the graduate of their own academy who scored one goal and set up another in a 5-1 defeat to Fiorentina, the Giallorossi travelled on Sunday to face Verona.

This was the club where Roma’s manager, Ivan Juric, built his reputation by steering a side that yo-yoed between Italy’s top two tiers throughout the 2010s to consecutive top-half finishes. It’s also a place he feels profoundly connected to. “Whenever I say: ‘I’m going home’, I mean I’m going to Verona,” said the Croatian. “My soul is linked to this city.”

Home is where the heart is, but that can leave you at risk of being stabbed in it. Italian journalists have nicknamed Romeo and Juliet’s old haunt “Fatal Verona” ever since the Scaligeri denied Milan the Serie A title by beating them on the final day of the 1972-73 season. Now, Juric’s Roma tenure may have suffered a terminal wound there as well.

The game started catastrophically, Nicola Zalewski somehow missing that Verona’s Casper Tengstedt was between him and Gianluca Mancini when he attempted a crossfield pass in the 13th minute. The Danish striker intercepted and gratefully ran through to score. Roma responded through Matías Soulé, netting his first goal since a July move from Juventus with a mischievous heel flick.

Verona went back in front five minutes later, Giangiacomo Magnani burying a near-post header from a corner. The story repeated in the second half. Roma equalised again through another summer signing, Artem Dovbyk, and continued to play on the front foot. But Verona sealed a 3-2 win with a goal on the counter, Dailon Livramento showing impressive strength to hold off Evan Ndicka before he centred the ball for Abdou Harroui to finish.

Juric was defiantly optimistic at full-time, arguing that Roma had played a dominant game and been undone only by individual mistakes and poor officiating. Magnani had struck Ndicka with his forearm while leaping to score Verona’s second goal. “Unfortunately, in football errors can be costly,” said Juric. “Both those the players make and the referee.” He said his team could build on this performance, but it is not clear whether Juric will be around long enough to oversee further construction. Reports were circulating soon after full-time that he could be fired as soon as Monday.

In truth, like Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, Juric might have been doomed from the start. Roma’s decision to fire Daniele De Rossi four games into this season – and only three months after they handed him a three-year contract extension – was met with such extreme anger from supporters that the family of the club’s CEO, Lina Souloukou, had to be assigned a police escort. She announced her resignation four days after the managerial change.

Juric won his debut game in charge, 3-0 at home to Udinese. It was Roma’s first win of this season, but also the first time in a long time that players had seen empty seats for a home game. Ultras from the Curva Sud boycotted the opening 30 minutes, leaving the stand empty save for a banner of protest. Anger was directed at ownership, not Juric, but it was nevertheless hard to imagine what he could do to win them over.

Fans simply did not see themselves reflected in him as they had done with both of his predecessors. De Rossi was a son of the city, a Roman who grew up to be club captain. Before him was José Mourinho, who delivered a first piece of silverware in 14 years and took the team to two European finals, all while bonding supporters to him with a familiar us-against-the world-rhetoric.

What could Juric offer? He had done creditably consistent work with Verona and Torino, never finishing higher than ninth or lower than 10th for five consecutive seasons. But that hardly made an obvious profile for the manager of a club whose owners, Dan and Ryan Friedkin, put out a statement after De Rossi’s sacking stressing their ambition “to see Roma consistently compete at the highest levels of European football”.

The club urgently needs a return to the Champions League to justify an almost €100m outlay this summer on transfer fees for the likes of Dovbyk, Soulé and Enzo Le Fée. Significant contracts were handed to free transfers Mats Hummels and Mario Hermoso, too, who have started one game between them. Paulo Dybala’s rejection of a move to Saudi Arabia delighted fans but further exacerbated financial pressures and may have contributed to the decision to let Bove leave.

That financial context helps explain why the club might have felt compelled to fire De Rossi, who won only one of his last 11 competitive games in charge. The Friedkins no doubt came to regret their decision to announce their intention to extend his contract in April – just before the team’s form started to turn. De Rossi had initially only been intended as an interim appointment to see Roma through to the end of last season.

Who can they turn to now, though, if they decide that Juric is not the right man for the job? Paulo Sousa, Massimiliano Allegri and Maurizio Sarri’s names have been floated by various media outlets, while Claudio Ranieri’s Roman roots might restore some connections to disaffected supporters but for now that list all feels highly speculative.

Already, the time to turn things around feels tight. After travelling to Union Saint-Gilloise for their Europa League game on Thursday, Roma’s last match before the international break is against a Bologna side who have started to find their feet under Vincenzo Italiano. Then come appointments with the league leaders Napoli, Tottenham, and the Atalanta team that just thumped Napoli 3-0.

Spooky season might indeed be over, but Roma’s fixture list only gets scarier from here.