As things stand, Chris Smalling’s loan at AS Roma comes to an end on June 30th.
That’s only five days away, and the Italian side have limited time to convince Manchester United to either let them keep him for the next month or so, or simply keep him permanently.
Unfortunately, things haven’t quite progressed as well as expected, since the Premier League club are still ‘asking for €25m’, according to Il Messaggero, which is too much for their Serie A counterparts.
They are currently ‘trying to lower’ those demands, and ‘want to play all their cards’ before turning their attention elsewhere, which is likely to be towards Jan Vertonghen, who will become a free agent when the season ends.
Paulo Fonseca, down his end, keeps letting his superiors know publicly how much he relies on the Englishman and how badly he wants to have him around for the foreseeable future.
Therein lies the issue, as Roma want to please their manager, with whom they are very happy, but they won’t do so at any price.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Manchester United agree to Smalling staying for the next couple of months, which would, in turn, allow more time for further negotiations.
