On July 2nd, Sky Italia reported AS Roma chief Tiago Pinto should ‘formalise the purchase’ of Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Rui Patrício ‘between Sunday and Monday’.
Corriere dello Sport now provides the latest update and states the 33-year-old will be the Serie A side’s ‘first gift’ to their new manager, José Mourinho.
It’s claimed Roma are ‘ready to formalise the purchase’ of the Wolves keeper after the two clubs ‘came closer’ to reaching an agreement in the last few hours.
The Giallorossi’s offer [€10m plus €3m bonuses] is €1m short of the Premier League side’s demand of €11m [plus €3m in bonuses]. Despite this small difference, agreement is likely to be found between the two sides.
After working on exit operations involving Pau López and Cengiz Ünder, Pinto wanted to step up his efforts for the Portugal international to please Mourinho.
Mourinho wanted an experienced goalkeeper to strengthen the Italian club’s defence and was decisive to ‘unblock the operation’.
Meanwhile, Patrício has his ‘suitcase ready’ and will be in Rome in the next few days, perhaps even today. As per the report, the ‘formalisation [of the deal] will arrive in the next few hours, at the latest this morning’.
The operation is in the ‘home stretch’ and it’s now down to Patrício undergoing medical testes before completing a switch to Roma.
