There’s something of a tradition from Serie A clubs to tell the Italian media about big offers from Premier League clubs which have been rejected.
For years, Napoli told their local media that Manchester United had offered €100m for Kalidou Koulibaly and that it had been rejected. It looked like an effort to inflate his market value, an effort which ultimately didn’t work out for them.
AC Milan have done similar recently with Chelsea and Rafael Leao, but this kind of revelation goes back many years.
Back when Daniele De Rossi was one of the biggest stars in Italian football, interest from English clubs was repeatedly claimed. The player was having issues off the pitch and it was thought he was tempted by the idea of leaving Rome and all his troubles behind him.
At the time, Rosella Sensi was president at AS Roma, and in an interview this week she’s insisted she turned down an offer from Chelsea.
Corriere dello Sport quote her as saying, when asked about to name transfer which didn’t happen: “Daniele De Rossi. I shouldn’t have done it and I didn’t want to do it. I had received an important offer, which would certainly have helped the club, but certainly not the technical level of the team, so I refused.”
Sensi was then directly asked if the offer was from Chelsea and if it was worth €70m, to which she answered: “Yes.”
De Rossi would go on to spend the vast majority of his career at Roma until a short spell with Boca Juniors.
