About a month or so ago, there was a period of a couple of weeks when Manchester United were seemingly going after Cristian Romero.
The Juventus defender was loaned to Atalanta last year for the next two seasons, but it was reported that Gian Piero Gasperini’s side would purchase the player a year early by triggering the €16m option to buy pre-agreed in the deal.
Manchester United were said to be interested in the Argentine to bolster their back line, with some even claiming that a €45m bid had been made, pre-empting the purchase and giving Atalanta a chance to make an instant profit.
Since then, however, there has been silence, which Calciomercato pick up on on Thursday.
The defender has been with Argentina at the Copa America, but injured himself ahead of the quarter final against Ecuador, and is out for the foreseeable future.
Either way, with or without injury, the outlet describe the whole situation surrounding the player as an ‘enigma’, especially when Manchester United seemed so keen on buying him.
As they say, following the purchase of Amad Diallo Traoré a year ago, ‘everything suggests that relations between the two clubs are very good’, meaning a conversation could easily be struck up at any time.
However, there is ‘silence on the market’, and ‘silence comes out of Brazil’, where the player currently is with his national team.
Meanwhile, Atalanta still haven’t purchased him from Juventus, but the trend is now that ‘there are more chances that they will hold onto him’ instead of selling him.
Why Manchester United have gone so quiet isn’t said, but a lot could be down to an apparent feasibility when it comes to signing Raphaël Varane from Real Madrid.
Perhaps they’ve simply moved on, believing they can do better with their money, but the mood in Italy tends to point towards them not coming back for Romero.
