After selling Kostas Manolas to Napoli, AS Roma are in dire need of a good and experienced centre-back this summer.
First on the list was Gianluca Mancini from Atalanta, but with negotiations at a standstill with the Italians, the Serie A side have turned their attention to Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld.
We covered in great detail all of the reports from Thursday, with the whole of Italy’s sport media concurring that Roma were going after the Belgian, even if they wanted to pay way less than the €30m in his release clause.
Claims varied from €10m to €12m, yet it was clear they weren’t interested in overspending on a 30-year-old who only has one year left on his contract.
Corriere dello Sport cover the latest update, explaining Alderweireld already showed some interest in a move to Italy’s capital a couple of weeks ago.
A meeting took place on Thursday between Roma’s director of football, Gianluca Petrachi, and the Tottenham defender’s agent, where a four-year contract worth €3m/year was offered.
The hope is the proposed deal will be enough to convince to lower his salary from the €4m/year he’s on at Spurs.
It was claimed Franco Baldini was ‘ready to get on a plane’ to help with any further negotiations, and, well, he’s done just that, as Corriere believe he could meet Daniel Levy as early as Friday to talk about the transfer fee.
The hope is for the Italian to use his good relationship to reduce the €30m price (the clause) by two thirds, allowing Roma to pay just €10m for the centre-back.
The Italian newspaper also reveal there will be no talks about Nicolo Zaniolo, as Tottenham will not be making a second big investment in a midfielder (after Tanguy Ndombele) unless Christian Eriksen is sold.
There’s a lot of wishful thinking by Roma here, and we would truly be shocked if Daniel Levy accepted a mere €10m for the Belgian.
