With a €12m release clause in his contract, it’s only natural that clubs such as Chelsea are interested in AS Roma’s Paulo Dybala.
The story has been going on for nearly a week now, fuelled by the fact that Mauricio Pochettino is now in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Corriere dello Sport look at the situation on Wednesday following statements from two Chelsea stars, Thiago Silva and Enzo Fernandez, regarding the interest of their club in the Argentine.
The latter of the two revealed he had spoken to Dybala about a potential move to Stamford Bridge, clearly encouraging his compatriot to give it a go.
However, Corriere try to downplay matters a bit, and point out it’s best ‘not to take the ending of the story for granted’, because there is no guarantee that a move to Chelsea will take place.
Dybala’s words on Sunday evening about him wanting to stay in Rome ‘because training is starting’ suggest that his entourage are ‘waiting for a meeting’ with the Serie A club’s brass regarding a new contract.
That being said, it’s stated that ‘it is equally certain that the Premier League temptation’, which has taken the form of a Chelsea move for now, ‘fuels Dybala’s ambition’, who is definitely happy where he is, but also ‘interested in learning about the best league in the world’.
A move to Saudi Arabia isn’t anywhere near as exciting for him, while England is described as a ‘woodworm that continues to scratch the head, a persuasive voice that creeps into sleep causing an unaware smile’.
AS Roma’s best chance at preventing a move would be to provide a contract extension that would modify the €12m clause for foreign clubs, which is also set at €20m for Italian sides.
To do so, however, Tiago Pinto would have to ‘treat him as the highest paid player in the squad’, turning his €6m/year bonuses included into €6m/year as a fixed base, with bonuses on top.
Corriere add that, for now, the advantage the Italians have is that Chelsea have ‘not yet presented their proposal’, and Dybala still doesn’t have his head fully turned.
However, we all know that ‘when money and pride are at stake, it’s easy to change your mind (and team) much faster than you think’.
