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When Paulo Fonseca told the world that he still wanted Chris Smalling and he was still in touch with the player, everyone pricked their ears up.

It came after about a week of silence from the Italian media regarding the deal, asĀ it felt like the Serie A side had given up on the Manchester United defender following their acquisition of Marash Kumbulla from Verona.

However, the Portuguese managerā€™s words renewed everything, as he made clear he still wanted those above to make a push for the centre-back.

Theyā€™ve tried, but the nature of Fonsecaā€™s outburst, if you will, has not gone down well at Old Trafford.

Thatā€™s according to Corriere dello Sport, who explain ā€˜the public announcement of frequent contacts between Fonseca and a member of Manchester hanā€™t been received well by those in charge at the Red Devils, who are less and less prepared to go down to a compromise with the giallorossiā€™.

Basically, Fonsecaā€™s optimism might have backfired.

Corriere explain Roma are still working on the deal, but the Englishman ā€˜isnā€™t a priorityā€™, and the feeling is ā€˜theyā€™ll talk about it in the last few days of the window after having sold a series of playersā€™.

Those are Juan Jesus and Federico Fazio, but they are proving somewhat difficult to offload for the time being.