In the spirit of the news that the English transfer window could shut in mid-August from next season onwards, AS Roma have decided to hold a little deadline day of their own.
Yesterday, the message from the Rome-based media was that Monchi had given Leicester 48 hours to either say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to his €35m offer for Riyad Mahrez, meaning that today is the Foxes’ last chance.
The hope here is that, since no other clubs have stepped forward to offer the Premier League side more money than Roma, Craig Shakespeare and co. could decide to just cash in while they can and avoid ending up with a potentially unhappy player for a whole season.
That, however, doesn’t look like it will happen, with Leicester seemingly willing to wait until clubs get quite desperate towards the end of the window to get the money they want for the Algeria international.
Of course, this plan could easily backfire, but it seems to be a risk they are willing to take.
Gazzetta dello Sport say that, as has been explained many times, Monchi will start trying to sign Juan Cuadrado from Wednesday onwards if he doesn’t hear anything from Leicester, but, until then, Mahrez remains his number one target.
Not entirely sure we believe this, but until we’re proven right, we have to take their word for it.
This could be the end of the Mahrez to Roma saga.
Sad face emoji.
