Sabatini: Garcia will not leave until he wins title

The men from the capital sit second in the top flight, seven points adrift of leaders Juventus, but have won just two of their last eight league matches.

However, Sabatini, who saw Roma crash out of the Coppa Italia at the hands of Fiorentina on Tuesday, has not ruled out making a tilt for the title this year.

"There's still a long way to go in the league," he said. "We'll hold on to second place and try to get to first. We still believe we can.

"Things aren't going so well at the moment but that can happen. We have to come through it and get back to where we were.

"We have to get our confidence back and return to being the strong, competitive Roma of old.

"We still believe we can win the title, but we also need to be good enough to defend second place.

"President [James] Pallotta wants to take the team to the very top and I'm sure he'll succeed in doing that.

"We're still growing and we're confident we'll go on to achieve great success.

"Pallotta wants to win and if it's not this year it will be next year. There's no need to stop talking about the Scudetto.

"We're trying to lay the groundwork here to be able to win the title every season."

Reports on Wednesday suggested Garcia could leave Roma at the end of the season, with Italy coach Antonio Conte touted to take over, but Sabatini insists the Frenchman is going nowhere.

"Garcia has received offers that you might call 'unrefusable', but he wants to stay at Roma and win with Roma," he added. "When you're in a rut like this the team has to pull out all the stops. Garcia and the guys will get back to the level they were.

"Garcia won't leave this club until he's brought the Scudetto back to Rome."