As was reported on Wednesday, the arrival of Marash Kumbulla at AS Roma is bad news for Chris Smalling.
The England international, currently contracted to Manchester United, has been waiting all summer to be able to return to Italy after a successful loan spell under Paulo Fonseca, but his club’s reluctance to lower their €20m or so asking price has caused problems.
Roma have been unwilling to match that, and once the opportunity to sign Kumbulla appeared after they sold Patrik Schick to Bayer Leverkusen, they took it.
That doesn’t mean they’ve completely forgotten about Smalling, but he’s certainly no longer the priority.
As reported by Corriere dello Sport on Thursday, the lack of progress in talks between Roma and Manchester United following the sale of Schick led them to look elsewhere.
Down his end, ‘the English defender is disappointed’, but the Serie A side ‘have not lost all hope of bringing him back’.
Wednesday’s article suggested that should Juan Jesus and Federico Fazio be found new homes, then a return for Smalling would be on the cards.
So far, however, ‘no solution’ has come up, and Manchester United ‘risk finding themselves with an unhappy Smalling who has refused other teams in the Premier League’.
This is where Corriere speculate that ‘in the last days of the transfer market, the two clubs could agree on a new loan’.
The information is somewhat backed up by Il Tempo, who have a bit more hope when it comes to Roma’s chances of getting rid of Fazio, with Valencia, Real Betis and Celta Vigo ‘hunting’ the Argentine.
For them, Roma ‘aren’t quitting’ on Smalling, but they just need to offload someone first.
It’s all a waiting game now, sadly, and we’ll just have to see what the Italians can get done when it comes to getting rid of their deadwood.
