Roma have sacked manager Daniele de Rossi just four matches into the new Serie A season.

Roma, who hired De Rossi to replace Jose Mourinho at the Stadio Olimpico in January, have been unable to win any of their Serie A matches this season, drawing three and losing at home to Empoli last month.

Roma are currently 16th in the Serie A standings following their 1-1 draw at Genoa on Sunday.

A club statement read: “The club’s decision is taken in the interest of the team, to be able to promptly resume the desired path at a time when the season is still at its beginning.

“To Daniele, who will always be at home in the Giallorossi club, a heartfelt thanks for the work carried out in these months with passion and dedication.”

De Rossi’s tenure at Roma started superbly. In his first 11 league matches, Roma lost just once, picking up 26 points from a possible 33. That run took Roma from ninth to fifth in the table.

They also reached the semi-finals of the Europa League, being knocked out by Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen.

A sixth-place finish last season saw them qualify again for this season’s Europa League. Among Roma’s fixtures in Europe this season are a trip to Tottenham on 28 November.

This summer, Roma signed last season’s La Liga top goalscorer Artem Dovbyk from Girona, as well as experienced German centre-back Mats Hummels on a free transfer.

There have been a number of exits. Former Manchester United centre-back Chris Smalling left for Saudi Pro League side Al-Fayha, former Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has joined AC Milan on loan and Romelu Lukau, who spent last season on loan from Chelsea with Roma, has joined Napoli.

Andrea Belotti (Como), Rui Patricio (Atalanta) and Leonardo Spinazzola (Napoli) have also departed in recent months.

As a player, De Rossi, who is now 41, spent 22 years with Roma between 1997 and 2019, making 616 appearances for them. He was also part of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning side.

The Friedkin Group, whose proposed takeover of Everton collapsed in July, own a 95.97% stake in the club.

By now, comparisons were being made with Paolo Rossi, the inspiration when Italy won the 1982 World Cup.

“Rossi was a champion,” Schillaci said ahead of a semi-final against Argentina that his side were expected to win. “I am an ordinary, modest guy. I just hope I can continue to do what I have been doing.”

He did, opening the scoring with another poacher’s effort, but this time it was not enough. Italy passed England’s record of 499 minutes without conceding at a finals before their goal was breached in the second half – and the fairy tale was finished when they went out on penalties.

Every national newspaper in Italy used the headline ‘End of a dream’ while Gazzetta and Corriere dello Sport simply put ‘NO’ in huge letters on their front pages.

“We deserved to win,” reflected Schillaci. “I think if we had beaten Argentina we would have gone on to win the World Cup.”

That was not quite the end of the Schillaci story, however. The day before West Germany beat Argentina in the final, he grabbed his sixth goal of the tournament in the third-place play-off against England, putting him ahead of Czech Tomas Skuhravy as the tournament’s leading goalscorer.

“After the tournament, I went away to somewhere quiet,” Schillaci says. “Everybody wanted a piece of me but I just wanted to get away from it all, especially after the pain of our semi-final defeat.”

The next time he made the headlines, it would be for a less savoury reason. The following November, he was banned for one game for threatening to have Fabio Poll shot after the Bologna player punched him during an on-pitch row.

By then, the goals were drying up too. He scored only five in the league in the 1990-91 season and six the following campaign. An injury-plagued move to Inter Milan in 1992 failed to revive him and he ended his career in exile – albeit a lucrative one – as the first Italian to play in Japan’s fledgling J-League.

While he was still in Serie A and struggling to regain his World Cup form, Schillaci said: “Even if I were to drop out of the Italian team, I will still have with me for the rest of my life the wonderful memories of Italia ’90.”

He still had them after returning to his home city to run the youth academy he used to play for.

What was clear from talking to Schillaci was that, while he enjoyed reliving past glories when he was asked to play in exhibition matches, he was also happy his fame did not change him too much.

Watch Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci score a wonderful goal for hosts Italy against Uruguay in their second-round match during the 1990 World Cup.

Schillaci was the top scorer at Italia ’90, scoring six goals to win the Golden Boot on home soil.

It was announced on Wednesday that Schillaci has died aged 59.

READ MORE: Italy’s World Cup icon Schillaci dies aged 59

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Murray explained he told Rovers chief executive Andrew Barrowman he was “not going to sit here and beg for my job”.

“I felt I had enough credit in the bank to at least have had a conversation before a decision was made where we could maybe sit down around a table, shake hands even and walk away,” he added.

“But to do it over the phone I felt wasn’t right. You obviously try and evaluate the reasons that they gave, which still don’t make any sense to me.”

Murray has been one of the names linked with the vacant St Johnstone job following the sacking of Craig Levein.

“I’m like any manager, I am open to any offer,” Murray said.

“It’s sad when someone loses their job but that’s the nature of the business that we are in. Unfortunately, you are always waiting for someone to leave and you might have an opportunity.

“There will be more when the domino effect kicks in, which I probably started this season. You have to be ready and I am ready. I didn’t need a rest. I’ve had my rest in the summer, so it wasn’t like I needed to recharge my batteries.

“I have got a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks, which is really, really good – all football related – so I’m really looking forward to all of that. But if a job comes up before that then fantastic.”

Meanwhile, Falkirk manager John McGlynn said “it’s a compliment for all the good work that’s been getting done” to also be linked with St Johnstone after his side’s 43-game unbeaten league run took his side to the League 1 title and an early lead in the Championship.

“I think myself and [assistant] Paul Smith did a really good job at Raith Rovers to get them out of League 1 and then finish third in our first season in the Championship, in a league that contained Hearts and Dundee, and then fifth in our last season,” he said.

“And we’ve come in here and, within two and a bit seasons, we are where we are now. It’s nice to be linked with it, but I’m very comfortable and very happy where I am.”

Nottingham Forest are hoping to one day turn the City Ground into a 50,000-seat stadium, says Reds owner Evangelos Marinakis.

The expansion would go beyond Forest’s existing plans to increase the ground’s capacity from about 30,000 to 42,000 through the rebuilding of the Peter Taylor Stand and extension of the Bridgford Stand.

Those plans and Forest’s future on the banks of the River Trent were in jeopardy when negotiations between Nottingham City Council – which owns the land where the stadium stands – and the club collapsed over increased rent demands earlier this year.

A deal to sell the land to the Premier League club, which was agreed in July, appears to have secured the Reds’ future at their home for 126 years.

“What we need to do is have a bigger stadium,” Marinakis told BBC East Midlands Today.

“We have a lot of supporters and a huge waiting list for season tickets and I’m sure a 50,000-seat stadium will be full watching our team and our passion.”