With likely no Champions League coming in next season, AS Roma are going to be a bit stretched financially, which includes their wage budget.
Their top earner, Edin Džeko, earns around €7m/year after tax, which is likely to become a problem for them as they try to revamp the squad on limited funds, needing to also think about the future i.e. who can replace the Bosnian, who turned 34 in March.
That’s where someone like Moise Kean would come in, as the Everton striker has often been linked with a return to Italy ever since he left his home country last summer.
Once again, Gazzetta dello Sport mention the young Italy international’s name, explaining that regardless of what they do with Džeko and his salary, they still want to bring in a backup (and potential successor).
Profiles like Kean’s or Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahović are the ideal avenues to explore, but it’s made clear any attempt to bring them in would be linked to a ‘loan and purchase option’ at a time when ‘all the teams will want to cash in’.
For Džeko, the three options would be to either get him to agree to a (preferably 15%) wage cut, spread his salary over a longer period of time (i.e. give him an extra year of contract and pay him less each year) or simply sell him (but who will want an ageing and expensive striker apart from maybe an MLS side?).
That means that if Roma somehow convince Everton to do business for Kean and prise him away from Goodison Park, he likely wouldn’t be a starter, having to work his way past the talisman that is the Bosnian.
Is that really any different to his current situation under Carlo Ancelotti? If anything, it’s a bit harder.
