Every football club in the world has transfer regrets, and for AS Roma, that’s not signing Fulham midfielder Franck Zambo Anguissa.
Anguissa joined Napoli on loan in the summer, quickly departing from Fulham for a second time after their relegation to the Championship.
He’s been a big hit in Naples ever since, with a series of impressive performances earning him rave reviews and a likely permanent move come the summer, if not sooner.
He could have ended up elsewhere in Italy, though, with Corriere Dello Sport covering how Roma are regretting not pushing for a move themselves.
The newspaper explains that there are ‘growing regrets’ at the club over their failure to get a deal over the line.
Jose Mourinho was keen to add a defensive midfielder to his squad this summer and spent most of it trying to get Granit Xhaka from Arsenal, which at one point seemed extremely close but then never happened.
When it was obvious it wouldn’t, club chief Tiago Pinto turned to Anguissa and ‘started the negotiations’ with Fulham for him.
However, in order to get it over the line, they had to sell another midfielder first, and at that time, neither Javier Pastore nor Steven Nzonzi had left the club, while others were not close to departing either.
Napoli took advantage of this and managed to ‘snatch’ him from Roma, doing a deal with Fulham at an ‘advantageous price’.
They’re now reaping the benefits of that and are likely to sign him from Fulham permanently in the summer, while Roma are left wondering what might have been and a meeting with the midfielder this weekend that will be filled with ‘a thousand regrets’.
