Could Roma finish the summer a with a flourish by landing not one but flashy wingers?
At the risk of repeating myself: It’s almost unthinkable that the new Serie A season is less than 10 days away. Thanks to a tumultuous season—even by Roma’s already absurd standards—and a summer filled with club competitions, our sense of time may have been warped. But here we are, nine days away from Roma’s opening match against Bologna and roughly two and a half weeks away from the end of the transfer season, and the Giallorossi’s remaining transfer priorities have come into focus: wingers.
Two of them, to be exact. As we wind through mid-August, Roma has set its sights on a pair of wantaway wingers: Manchester United’s former wunderkind, Jadon Sancho, and Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey. As Premiership players, they each come with enormous salaries, wages that, to the skeptics among us, far exceed their actual production on the pitch. But hey, football is nothing if not an entertainment business, so logic doesn’t necessarily rule the roost.
When dealing with two players who earn nearly four hundred thousand pounds combined, it’s fair to question whether Roma can swing these deals. Nevertheless, these rumors have gained steam over the past several days, to the point where it’s not a question of which player Roma prefers but whether or not they can land both.
According to Il Tempo’s Filippo Biafora, Roma is working on both tracks and may have already submitted offers for Bailey and Sancho. As one might have guessed, given their inflated salaries, Massara is taking the cautious route, submitting loan offers with an option/obligation under certain conditions.
On Bailey:
Sky Sports’ Angelo Mangiante reiterates what we discussed above: Roma want Bailey on a loan with an option to buy and are willing to cover his salary, at least according to Fabrizio Romano, but Aston Villa are keen on at least obtaining a loan fee. Both sources claim that negotiations are underway for the 28-year-old Jamaican winger.
On Sancho, courtesy of BBC Sport
Roma have made an offer to sign England winger Jadon Sancho from Manchester United, where he remains excluded from training with the first-team squad.
United sources have not revealed the size of the bid from the Serie A club, nor whether it has been accepted…
The former Borussia Dortmund wide man returned to United in the summer after Chelsea paid a £5m penalty to get out of an obligation to buy him, having spent last season on loan at Stamford Bridge.
There have also been suggestions that Roma would be interested in a loan, containing clauses that could be triggered at the end of the season.
However, that issue is complicated by the fact that Sancho’s United contract expires next summer. The club does have an option to extend it by an additional year, although given Sancho’s salary, it is debatable whether they would be willing to do that.
United are determined to sell Sancho. However, the closer to September they get without a deal in place, the more likely they are to consider a potential loan move, given it would at least take a significant sum off their wage bill.
With only nine days before kick off against Bologna, Sancho and Bailey (along with Artem Dovbyk’s possible departure from Roma) figure to be the key storylines to watch. It would be a hell of a way to wrap up the first summer of the Gasperini-Massara duo, so stay tuned!
Category: General Sports
