Re: The Official Roma Thread

[McLewis]

Appreciate the perspective, Doc.

As for other news -

With Diawara and Spinazzola in, focus has shifted to Betis duo Bartra and Pau Lopez. Bartra is sought after as Manolas' replacement, but Betis might play hardball and insist on his 60m release clause, which would have us looking elsewhere. We're looking to offer no more than 30.

Lopez's release clause is 30m, but we'll be looking to offer somewhere between 18-20.

Then there's Nico Barella. We've reached an agreement with Cagliari, but he has to choose between us and Inter.

[Unique]

the clubs in england make a shit load of cash from sky tv. how comes sky italy dont pay clubs big money. its not like they are short on people watching football in italy.

[McLewis]

I think this article does a fairly straightforward job of attempting to explain that:

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/serie-a-global-tv-rights-expensive

Keep in mind, this came out before ESPN obtained the US-rights to Serie A. That's been fairly successful so far.

[McLewis]

So Barella has chosen Inter. Good for him. Players should go where they want to go and clubs should only sign players that want to play for them.

I sure hope Cagliari don't force him to come here. As it stands, it looks like he'll be staying with them as Inter don't appear serious about getting him.

Other news:

-  Gianluca Mancini of Atalanta has emerged as the closest acquisition as replacement for Manolas. Of all the CBs we've been linked with, he's probably the one that is closest to Manolas in quality and potential. He's also a better alternative than Bartra, given he has Serie A experience. Would be an excellent pickup for the 2-5 years we'd have him before the inevitable plusvalenza.

- Juve are looking to offer us Gonzalo Higuain in what would be a super unpopular move, so that means it's a very likely one. Personally, if we can get one final Dzeko-esque season from him, I'm on board with this. More importantly, if Fonseca can find a way to get the best out of Schick, this makes this less of a risky move as well. What I don't like about this move? Wages. A player of Higuain's status will command a high wage by our standards.

- Of course the top target for up front remains Jordan Veretout from Fiorentina. We're offering him a 3m per year wage, but it's still a race with Napoli at this point. Could go either way for him.

[McLewis]

Looks like the goalkeeping situation is set to be addressed with Pau Lopez close to joining for 18m. Betis are already looking for his replacement and are eyeing Andriy Lunin from Real Madrid.

Source: El Confidencial

[McLewis]

Gazzetta dello Sport reporting that Spurs are offering Toby Alderweireld to us for roughly 25m. As far as experience goes, he's easily the best CB we've been linked to so far, ahead of Mancini and Bartra respectively.

25m for a 30-year old CB with a few good seasons left in him is an attractive offer.

Of course Spurs want Zaniolo in return, which I don't see happening, but I doubt they serious believe we'd include him in this deal anyway. That would have to be a separate negotiation.

I think I'd prefer an Alderweireld-Mancini partnership to an Alderweireld-Bartra one. Whichever one doesn't include Fazio as starter is probably the right one though. I like il Commandante alot, but Fonseca's tactics are not suited for him.

[Robespierre]

Our mercato is connected to yours

Dzeko - Inter __ Higuain - Roma __ Icardi - Juve
Veretout - Roma __ Barella - Inter

is going to be this ? We'll see it.

[McLewis]

Yeah probably.

I really don't like the Higuain link though. No one on this end does. Not even he wants to come here so I don't think it makes sense to push that one through.

[rincon]

It's a strange net of events.

Barella wants Inter, Inter wants Barella, Cagliari wants to accept Roma's better offer. We want Zaniolo, we give Roma Spinazzola for Pellegrini and cash in a deal were we are the "losers". Inter wants to offload Icardi, Juve wants to offload Higuain, no one really wants to receive them for the prices involved. Roma would be doing everyone (else) a favor by brokering these CF deals.

Paratici, Marotta and Petrachi are going to work.

[iftikhar]

I'm truly scared that Roma might be in a downward spiral from this season. New manager (it's what, third one in five years???), bunch of new players and the same old management.

Stuff of nightmare.

[McLewis]

Ehh it could be worse honestly.

Alderweireld is a dream honestly. He's the only CB we've been linked with that would definitively negate the loss of Manolas. Mancini and Bartra will probably be the 2 CBs we end up getting. Both are improvements on Fazio and Jesus. I'm happy with that upgrade along with Lopez in goal, a marked improvement over Olsen.

Frankly, I'm just glad Petrachi is actually focusing on the defense, something that seemed to be an afterthought to Monchi.

El Shaarawy u-turning for China is a bit of a surprise, but I'm still unconvinced of that one.

[McLewis]

- Speaking of Bartra, it looks like we're ready to give up on him as Betis' asking price is too high. Mancini is now the focus. We're still a ways off from Lopez as well. Petrachi is offering still between 18-20, but Betis want 30.  Mattia Perin is the 2nd choice. Source: il Tempo

- Izzo from Torino is another name entering the discussion too. His agent appears interested, according to Teleradiostereo

- Strootman wants to come back, according to La Repubblica. Marseille may allow it if we give them Nzonzi in return. Monaco and Lyon are still following him as well though.

[McLewis]

Gianluca Di Marzio has Petrachi tracking Nicolas Nkoulou. Not a surprising link for obvious reasons.

Calciomercato has Pau Lopez having his medical on Monday. The fee is expected to be 22.5m paid by us while we also giving up the 50% sell-on fee attached to Tonny Sanabria's next transfer (to Genoa from the looks of it) that we would've received, which is worth another 7.5m, bringing the total transfer for Lopez to 30m. That's almost 4 times as much as we paid for Alisson and he turned out to be a bonafide world beater. Anything less here and this is a bust.  

Corriere dello Sport has us linked Yacine Brahimi, but we'll face competition from Arsenal for his signature. He's a free agent so it's all about the wages and with SES looking set to go to China, that will free up some of our wage bill to offer Brahimi something competitive.

[McLewis]

Not even mad at SES taking the China money. That's more money than he'll ever make in Europe so I get it. That's a lot of grumbling about his transfer fee being so low, but I personally think it's to offset the high wage Shanghai will pay him. Either way, this one stings, but I think we'll recover from it, especially if we can get Brahimi.

[rincon]

I just dont understand Roma. Their best player last season, a 26 yo, and selling for 18m? That's just bad business. Added to the ungodly amount (for Roma's standards) that they are supposed to pay for yet another GK after Olsen it doesn't look good. Why isn't Roma after Perin, Dragowski or Audero?

Selling ES, selling Dzeko, blowing 30m on a GK, losing Manolas. Not a good start.

[iftikhar]

Please rincon, let us (me and McLewis) die in peace

[McLewis]

Just as I did with Monchi and Sabatini, I'm giving Petrachi the benefit of the doubt.

I think the Lopez transfer is down to the inflation around average prices for keepers these days. We can thank the Alisson and Kepa deals for that. Prior to those deals, I firmly believe Lopez would've cost easily half of what we paid for him. We paid 8m for Alisson and another 8 for Olsen. Perin may have been cheaper, but I don't think it would've been by much. I don't think we're going to see prices like that again. This is the world we live in now.

The SES transfer stinks of the player wanting out at all costs and the club acquiescing. At worst, it perhaps exposes Petrachi's inconsistency given that he said in his conference that he would not be pushed or bullied into hasty transfers. It's speculation, of course. The full story will come out in time, I'm sure though.

We were never going to keep Manolas. It was pure dumb luck that we kept him another year after the Zenit move fell through last summer. I think we were all resigned to that. Then shit hit the fan this season and that virtually sealed his exit. Dzeko easily could be among the first to claim he wants to stay, but he's been treated absolutely horribly by fans of this club. We loved him when he was scoring bangers against Chelsea and now we call him a bum for having a soft season. Roma fans are fickle. This isn't news to anyone. And our hierarchy have shown no stomach to defend him from that vitriol. He's right to want to go honestly. We don't deserve him.

We'll need to judge Petrachi and Fonseca on this summer work based on how we start our season. Until then, they both get the benefit of the doubt from me.

[McLewis]

Petrachi continues to make moves. Gianluca Mancini has arrived today for 2m loan + 8m in bonuses +13m obligation to buy next year. Total comes to 23m.

Jordan Veretout is close to joining as well. Price is around 16m, but not sure how much in bonuses yet.

Agustin Almendra is the next name for midfield with DDR going in the other direction. The price for Almendra is also 16m, but may rise.

So far that's - Spinazzola, Diawara, Lopez, Mancini, Almendra and Veretout for the midfield and defense.

1 more CB and a stroker and our mercato should be over. I don't think Alderweireld will be that CB, but I do think we'll end up with Higuain.

[McLewis]

So this is where we are as of the Ternana and Riete friendlies this past weekend:



GK - Lopez is obviously the #1 and I expect to see Mirante serve as #2 and Fuzato to go out on loan. Olsen will (hopefully) be sold.

Defenders - Obviously we need a CB and there are a lot of names attached for that reason. Florenzi has been working as a LW at times this pre-season so I'm not sure he'll be used at RB as much. Karsdorp is as good as gone so that leaves one of Spinazzola and Santon unless we get Hysaj, which I doubt. LB is ok as long as Spinazzola stays fit.

Midfielders - Gonalons and Nzonzi are expected to leave. This is our strongest and arguably most complete area as there will be a far amount of competition for those pivot spots. I'm looking for young Riccardi to make a mark if he isn't sent on loan or back to Primavera. The AM spot is likely Zaniolo's if we can hold on to him otherwise Pellegrini will take that spot. Coric doesn't appear to be in Fonseca's plans so he's probably going on loan.

Attackers - Left side has been interesting to watch, especially given Florenzi getting time there. Right-side needs work as it's just Under and (maybe) Antonucci. Definitely need another winger there. Up top, I expect Dzeko to stay so he'll be the starter. One of Defrel or Schick will leave, but given their injury issues and Dzeko's form, we still need another striker anyway.

[McLewis]

Roma trying to move for Icardi: contact in the last hours with Inter https://t.co/qPKpUdM88x

— RomaPress (@ASRomaPress) July 30, 2019

It looks like Dzeko will be part of this deal. I have no issue with Icardi the player, but far too much baggage personally.

Defrel closing in on Cagliari move https://t.co/lxttHBJWRP

— RomaPress (@ASRomaPress) July 30, 2019

Cagliari are going to have an interesting team if they get him. I'd prefer he stay, but it's not to be.

AS Roma are trying really hard to offload Steven N'Zonzi to AS Monaco. One agent tells Get French Football News: "Monaco are getting calls everyday [to take the player]!"

— Get French Football News (@GFFN) July 30, 2019

I believe it. A shame though as I think he'd do well in Fonseca's setup.

[McLewis]

We seem to be having trouble closing out our transfer market by getting the starting CB we want.

A recap of the last few weeks:

- Torino looked to fleece us for interest in Lyanco, Nkoulou and Izzo. Understandably, they are the starting back 3 for that side this season, even if Lyanco injured. We had no chance for them, especially with the controversy around Petrachi earlier in the summer.

- We bawked at Spurs' demands for 28m for Alderweirld.

- We approached Juve for Rugani and blew up that deal by inserting a clause in the deal that made buying him permanent only if we qualify for the CL. He wanted assurances of a permanent deal, which is understandable.

- Then we turned around and agreed to a 25m deal with Liverpool for Lovren, a decidedly inferior defender, only to blow that one up by refusing him the 1m in bonuses he would've loss by taking a paycut to come here.

Honestly, we should've just gotten Alderweireld if we were going to pay 25m for Lovren and Rugani. 28m doesn't sound like such a steep hurdle now.

I think the biggest problem that we've faced with closing these deals is that we've had a lot of problems selling Nzonzi, Olsen and Gonalons. Money recouped from those sales would've been useful in helping to finance higher offers for the CBs we want.

Not to be lost in this is the signing of young Turkish defender Mert Cetin for about 3m. At 22, he's not going to the primavera and with us down a CB at the moment, he may even see immediate action in the opening matchdays instead of going out on loan. I'm hoping for an Under-type signing, but at CB and not a Bianda-type signing that the club ends up having no faith in ultimately.

The best news?: Dzeko's staying apparently. I personally would've been fine with him leaving, but he's look good in pre-season and is clearly among the elder statesmen in the locker room along with Kolarov, Perotti, Fazio, and Mirante considering how relatively young most of the squad still is. This can only help us.

[rincon]

Official: Dzeko stays and renews until 2022

[Guest]

seems like roma has quietly keeping a strong team
De Rossi though what a loss... didnt he like even say ok pay me as u play u dont even have to play me regularly?

anyway another exciting season awaits

[rincon]

The management chose not to renew him. Extremely poor treatment of who was one of their best midfielders still and a legend. Pallotta and co. earned the hate of the whole city with their current moves. Their treatment of Totti, De Rossi and Nainggolan pissed all the Romans off.

[Arquitecto]

Very glad to see Dzeko renew his contract.

He is nowhere near done and remains what Roma need given all he provides beyond just goals in the front-line and hope to see him go with a banger this season provided Fonseca uses him wisely and to his strengths rather than Roma's managing predecessors.

[rincon]

Not a reasonable thing to say given that Dzeko had by far the best season of his career under Roma's managing predecessors

Dzeko will be fine, and he will be good in big games as always. He likely wont be hitting a 30 goal season again though, he is declining.

[Sponsored content]