While there has been talk of Justin Kluivert being included in some kind of swap to keep Henrikh Mkhitaryan at AS Roma for longer than this season, the Italian side has been working on more short-term goals.
Their prime objective has always been to convince Arsenal to sell them the Armenia international, or, in a less ideal scenario, extend the loan by a season.
However, there’s also been a pandemic, which has shuffled fixture dates around, meaning that if Roma continue their Europa League run, they could end up playing until the end of August.
That means extending Mkhitaryan’s loan until that date, and Il Tempo believe that agreement has been found, as the deal struck last summer was set to expire on June 30th, or Tuesday.
With Arsenal in no European competitions going forward, there was no real reason for the Gunners to deny this request other than just to be awkward, as it wouldn’t conflict with any of their plans.
For Roma’s second loanee, Chris Smalling, the story is a tad different, as there’s a chance the Italians could face Manchester United in the Europa League.
So that negotiation is a bit trickier.
