While everyone at AS Roma would probably do the Birdie song standing on their heads if Francesco Totti asked, the Italian capital’s golden boy learned his charms have limits this week.

The striker has been hinting for some time he’d like to come out of international retirement, having quit Italy after being part of Lippi’s 2006 World Cup-winning team.

The most recent come-get-me call was last month, when he said he would “think twice” about returning if Marcello Lippi picked up the phone.

But Lippi is either not getting the signals or he’s turning a deaf ear.

“Francesco is an extraordinary lad and player, but he’s made his decision and I’m not going back on it,” Lippi told reporters at the Azzurri’s training camp for Wednesday’s friendly in Switzerland.

There are two ways the Roma captain can interpret this. Either Lippi wants him back but would like the player to explicitly say he has made a U-turn, so it doesn’t seem like the boss is coming cap in hand for help after Italy’s dreadful Confederations Cup showing.

Or Lippi has no place in his plans for a gifted-yet-injury prone 32-year-old and Totti’s retirement is a good way to sidestep the issue. After all, Lippi already has plenty of people on the wrong side of their prime — what he needs are more players whose best days are in front of them.

I suspect it’s the second option. In which case, Totti would be wise to stop dropping the hints, take Paolo Maldini’s lead and devote his exception talents exclusively to his club in the twilight of his career.

PHOTO: AS Roma’s Francesco Totti celebrates after scoring against Ghent during their UEFA Europa League qualifier at the Otten stadium in Ghent Aug 6, 2009. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

The Champions League final is almost upon us and the views of the Roman locals are quite interesting.

As Paul Virgo explains above, AS Roma fans are rooting for Barcelona while Lazio supporters want Manchester United to win.

The Stadio Olimpico is eerily quiet but it will soon be buzzing on Wednesday when the hordes of fans descend on the venue for what many are calling a ‘dream final’.

The sight of Serie A sides flopping in the Champions League has become a familiar one and although the three teams eliminated this week were a little unlucky, a mental block against English opposition is developing.

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho, who won the trophy with Porto in 2004, was hired in June largely to boost their hopes of challenging Europe’s elite after years of failure.

However, his confident nature and man-management skills can only go so far and he acknowledged that the Italians need something extra if they are to really threaten the continent’s best teams.

The former Chelsea boss talked of his side lacking the necessary “intensity” after being eliminated in the last 16 by holders Manchester United on Wednesday following a 2-0 defeat.

“We need something more to win this competition, but I will talk about this with the club. I will open my heart,” the Portuguese told reporters.

United manager Alex Ferguson was scathing about his side’s first-half performance, but the fact they dispatched the strongest team in Italy with plenty to spare speaks volumes of the widening gulf in class.

“The interesting thing for me is that we played a team close to its maximum potential in terms of their experience and they played to their maximum,” Ferguson told reporters after accusing his players of playing “suicide football”.

“To get through is a big plus because we will be better in the next round, we can play far better than that.” (more…)

One-club players are rare and precious.

The likes of Paolo Maldini, Raul, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes might be handsomely paid by their clubs, but the fact they have spurned chances to get even richer elsewhere suggests they share at least some of the fans’ devotion to the colours they wear.

Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira recognised this recently when talking about his former Juventus team mate Alessandro Del Piero.

“What I like about him, and envy a little, is that he has played all his career for the same team and won everything with that team,” Vieira told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Indeed, Del Piero has a good claim to being the world’s top one-club man.

Five Serie A titles and a Champions League are part of the 34-year-old’s trophy haul at Juventus. He also holds the Turin club’s record for appearances and goals — he netted his 250th for Juve in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Reggina.

AC Milan’s Maldini has more Serie A and Italy appearances than Del Piero, Real Madrid’s Raul has scored more European goals and both have won more Champions Leagues, as have Scholes and his Manchester United team mate Ryan Giggs.

Del Piero probably trumps them all though because he has a World Cup-winner’s medal in his cabinet.

What’s more, Del Piero gets bonus club-loyalty points because he stuck with Juve when they were relegated for match-fixing in 2006, scoring 21 goals to help them to immediate promotion and finding the net as many times last season to fire them to a third-place finish on their return to the top flight.

Sticklers might argue that, strictly speaking, Del Piero is not a one-club man. He also played for Padova in Serie B before joining Juve in 1993, but I think it would be churlish to count a few seasons outside the big time when he was a teenager (if you’re too rigid Raul would fail the one-club test too as he played for Atletico Madrid’s academy before it was closed and he moved across town).

Nevertheless, my vote does not go to Alex but to another 2006 World Cup winner, AS Roma’s Francesco Totti.

Del Piero is a wonderful player but he has a tendency to blow hot and cold, while Totti has consistently been excellent in Serie A when fit.

And, unlike the other footballers I’ve mentioned, Totti did not have the fortune to start his career at a club regularly vying for domestic and European trophies.

He has less honours to his name, but only because he stayed true to Roma rather than succumbing to the courtship of clubs such as Real and Milan. In my book that sacrifice more than makes up for the European club trophy missing from his CV.

And if Roma are now a force to be reckoned with outside Italy, Totti deserves a large slice of the credit.

What do you think? Who would you give the top one-club player award to? Is there anyone I have overlooked altogether who’s more worthy?

PHOTO: Juve’s Alessandro Del Piero celebrates after scoring as AS Roma’s Francesco Totti watches during their Serie A match in Turin Feb. 16, 2008. REUTERS/Max Rossi

On the whole, the lot of a Serie A player is sweet - the pay and the food are good while there are plenty of pretty monuments to see on your day off.

A downside, however, is that if your team are doing badly, you risk living in conditions of near imprisonment for several weeks.

Italian pros usually spend the night before a match at the club training centre.

The aim is to help them focus on the task ahead in a distraction-free environment, although it also enables clubs to ensure their guys aren’t eating/drinking/smoking/doing anything that would affect their performance on the field.

But when a side hits a rough patch, Italian presidents often call a full-time ‘ritiro’, effectively holing players up on club premises indefinitely. (more…)