It appears we now have a deadline in the Riyad Mahrez saga.
After Thursday’s rollercoaster of emotions that saw Gazzetta dello Sport claim Roma had a clear path to signing the Algeria international before Foot Mercato were adamant he’d rather join Arsenal over the Serie A side, Friday’s edition of Il Messaggero believe there’s about two weeks left of this.
While Gazzetta claimed a few days ago this could drag on until the beginning of the Premier League season, Il Messaggero think that’s when Monchi might give up and move on.
In case they fail in convincing Leicester to sell Mahrez, Roma have already targeted three alternatives to pursue in Ajax’s Hakim Ziyech, Sassuolo’s Domenico Berardi and AC Milan’s Suso.
The plan is to submit a second offer of around €33m, and if that doesn’t get accepted, then they could give up entirely.
The priority, for now, remains Mahrez, and Il Messaggero make it clear this will be the case until ‘at least August 10th’.
With the Premier League season kicking off with Arsenal-Leicester on the 11th, that fits the aforementioned Gazzetta timeline down to a T.
We’d recommend making yourselves comfortable, as this isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
