On Sunday night/Monday morning, a spate of articles emerged in the British tabloids claiming that ‘THREE ITALIAN GIANTS’ were after Manchester United’s Matteo Darmian.
Looking at said reports, most credited Gazzetta dello Sport without a link to their website, using a relay from TuttoMercatoWeb instead.
The three ‘Italian giants’ in question were Juventus, Napoli and AS Roma, yet at no point do either Italian outlet mention the Serie A champions.
We’re not sure why the Turin outfit were thrown into the mix, but it seems the other two weren’t glamorous enough, and a three way race was necessary to gather the clicks on a Monday morning.
So, back to what was actually said in Gazzetta dello Sport, and, well, it’s not all that exciting.
On Sunday, the daily newspaper looked at the Manchester United defender’s situation at Old Trafford after his impressive display for Italy against Sweden, and speculated where he could end up.
The fact of the matter is, Darmian can play on either side of the defence, and Roma need someone to fill in for the injured Rick Karsdorp, while Napoli are in a similar situation with Faouzi Ghoulam.
Naturally, this led into “over the last hours, both teams approached Matteo Darmian”, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a story.
We just find it very convenient that these ‘approaches’ happened after his great display for his national team when his situation has been the same for a while now and both clubs have needed new players for about a week or so.
Anyways, it’s not all that easy, as Manchester United might not be all that keen on selling him, mostly due to the fact that they aren’t willing to make a loss on the 27-year-old, having paid around €20m for him back in 2015 when his value is now said to be around €10-12m.
A loan is also mentioned as a possibility, but we doubt José Mourinho will agree to that.
We’ll keep an eye on this for you, and there might be a few more stories over the coming days, but we’re not holding our breath.
Gazzetta dello Sport believe Matteo Darmian was Italy’s best player last night. They’ve got a point, he was good. Mourinho was in the crowd too.
And what excellent ratings. Heat-maps and everything. pic.twitter.com/7FkgbKcIIB
— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) November 11, 2017
