After years of extravagance, the Serie A club aim to keep expectations low-key and move past Manchester United in the Champions League

Perhaps no team embodies Serie A's new-found austerity as much as Roma. Six or seven years ago they thought nothing of blowing £60 million summer after summer. They thought big, felt big and spent big. They didn't always play big and that was a problem in a football mad city which gives new meaning to the term "goldfish bowl". But more of this later.

Now, the club are saddled with debts close to £90m. In the last four years, they've dismantled their once star-studded squad, shedding the likes of Gabriel Batistuta, Cafu, Emerson, Walter Samuel, Antonio Cassano and - most recently - Vincenzo Montella. Those six players cost in excess of £100m and have been replaced by a gaggle of cheap no-names and homegrown kids. And, guess what? Roma are playing their best football in decades and sit second in Serie A. This week they take on Manchester United in a tie which could lead to the Champions League semi-final.

Talk about less is more. How does this happen? How does a club plunge into debt, lose most of its stars and bounce back stronger than before?

It all begins with two men. The first is Fabio Capello, the manager who delivered Roma the scudetto back in 2000-01. He was rash, boastful and abrasive, taking on arch-rivals Juventus with gusto. He persuaded the club to open the coffers at every opportunity and talked about "teaching the city of Rome how to be winners". He may have rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way, but he was also true to his word: Roma did win the title and two million people gathered in the city centre in a mass celebration which dwarfed even the World Cup festivities last summer.

And then came the betrayal. In the space of twelve hours, Capello handed in his resignation, drove his Roma-issued car to Turin, dumped it in a public car park and signed for Juventus. Roma went into a tailspin, the creditors (munificent in their largesse when Capello was around) called in their debts and the club made five managerial changes in twelve months. When Luciano Spalletti, the former Udinese boss, was called in to save the club in the summer of 2005, expectations were close to zero. Which, as it turned out, proved to be a good thing.

"I don't know that I could have achieved what I achieved had I arrived in different circumstances," he said recently. "The fact that the club were desperate when I got there allowed me to try out my ideas. Thankfully, the players listened."

Indeed they did. Spalletti is one of those hyper-tactical managers who spends hours in front of the blackboard drawing up complicated schemes.

He's low-key and understated, the opposite of Capello, but gets his message across. Roma play a virtual 4-6-0 system - Francesco Totti is the furthest man forward, but he regularly retreats, leaving a vacuum up front - which befuddles opponents. Midfielders storm forward virtually at random, confusing defenders.

When it works, it's a joy to behold. But it's fair to say that it took the pain and despair of Capello's betrayal for Roma to embrace the vision of someone like Spalletti.

The other key figure is the man who has been a constant in the last 12 years: Francesco Totti. Born and bred in Rome, he is the epitome of the one-club man, always faithful to the cause. Even though Spalletti's system forced him to change his role and playing style - something veteran stars are loathe to do - Totti was an early convert and has thrived in Roma's new scheme.

While this "new" Roma may have been built around diminished expectations, the good results have made it difficult to keep things in perspective. Which brings us back to the goldfish bowl argument.

Roma live in a world of mediatic overkill. In addition to the capital's four daily papers there is a Roma-only paper, "Il Romanista" - imagine the "Celtic View", only in a 30-page daily version and unaffiliated with the club. Rome also has three local sports radio stations, each of which provides blanket coverage including live commentary of training sessions. The city's five local television stations offer more than 120 hours a week of Roma-only programming in addition to the club's in-house TV station.

Everything gets magnified, and that's exactly what Spalletti has been trying to avoid. He tries to dampen the enthusiasm, avoid comparisons with Capello, maintain the humility. But every day it gets more difficult.

Which is why Roma could defeat themselves before they even steps on tothe pitch against United. The Golden days of Capello, when Roma could match anyone Euro for Euro are gone. If this side is going to achieve anything it needs to stick to the Spalletti script. But it is easier said than done in a city that loves its heroes so much it has a tendency to swallow them up and spit them out.