Roma have turned their attention to Everton defender Ben Godfrey as they look to bolster Jose Mourinho’s defence in the January transfer window.
That’s according to Corriere dello Sport, who say director of football Tiago Pinto ‘turns to’ the Everton man in his hunt for reinforcements.
The newspaper explains that Roma are on the hunt for a central defender, among other additions this month, but are limited by financial restrictions and Financial Fair Play rules.
Thus, the first objective is to sell an element of the squad to free up a place and be able to register any new purchase in the list for Serie A.
Renato Sanches is top of that list, followed by Leonardo Spinazzola, with the latter enjoying interest in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as Italy.
The bigger issue is a lack of funds, particularly for the European squad, where they only have €1.5m in the budget to sign one, and that has to be spread across the operation and the player’s salary.
That is why he is looking at Godfrey, who is barely playing for Everton and is seen as a solution that ‘costs almost zero’ but can concretely help the side and is athletically up to scratch.
It’s an operation he’s already done in the past to sign the likes of Diego Llorente and Ainsley Maitland-Niles and now wants to repeat with Godfrey.
Whether Everton will let him go isn’t clear. He’s not playing under Sean Dyche but with a limited squad and no money to bolster themselves, it seems unlikely they would sanction a departure at this stage.
Roma are interested nonetheless and seemingly consider the Everton man as a viable, and crucially, cheap option to explore.
