SHARE

Since his injury, the hype around Chris Smalling and a potential stay at AS Roma has died down a bit.

It’s not gone completely, however, with Tuesday’s report from Teleradiostereo a good example of work still being done behind the scenes to try and convince Manchester United to part ways with their defender.

It said contacts had ‘intensified’ between Roma and the Premier League club for the transfer as they sought to beat the competition to his long-term signature.

No clubs were mentioned, but Il Messaggero on Wednesday give a bit more information, reminding everyone both Juventus and Inter also like what they’ve seen when Smalling has played in Serie A.

However, it’s made clear that Roma are ‘calm’, as the player ‘told the board last weekend that he’d be happy to stay’.

Despite that, the battle isn’t won, as the club still need to sort things out with Manchester United, and we all know the English club’s valuation of Smalling is larger than what the Italians are willing to pay for the time being.

There’s still many months of this to go, since no decision needs to be made anytime soon, but it’s understandable that Roma would want this sorted sooner rather than later.