With Patrik Schick incredibly close to becoming a Bayer Leverkusen player, AS Roma will have a little bit more money to play with on the transfer market.
Their first port of call once that money hits their bank account will be talks with Manchester United, as they continue their quest to sign Chris Smalling after a productive loan last season.
This is what Corriere della Sera are reporting on Thursday, explaining the cash from the Schick deal ‘should unblock’ Roma’s transfer market with them ready to ‘return to the attack’ for Smalling, seen as more and more of a ‘priority’ for Paulo Fonseca’s plans.
Calciomercato go one step further, however, reporting the deal is pretty much sorted now, kicking their article off with club and player ‘are ready to hug again’.
They state Manchester United ‘will settle for less than the €20m + €3m loan request they made in August’ and the Italian club will, all in all, end up paying €18m for Smalling.
That’s broken into the €3m they paid for his loan last season, the €3m they will put forward for this season’s loan and €12m for the ‘obligation to buy based on easy terms’.
The decisive part in all of this was Smalling’s desire to return, having made it clear ‘several times’ he wanted to stay at Roma.
Could this be it? We sure hope so, because this hasn’t exactly been the most exciting saga.
