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Free Monthly Episode - Roma Summer Transfer Window Deep Dive (Ep. 224)
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Roma summer transfer deep dive with our very own John Solano, who stays, who goes, who comes.
The first episode of The Italian Football Podcast is free. To listen to all other full episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP to become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast with John Solano, Carlo Garganese and Nima Tuvali.
00:00:24
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of the Italian football podcast. We hope you are doing very well. So with the season over, obviously, and the transfer market happening is fully underway.
Serie A Clubs' Summer Strategies
00:00:41
Speaker
We will be beginning our deep dives into the big clubs in Serie A, going over what may be in store for each of them in the summer, discussing the latest transfer rumors pertaining to them.
00:00:57
Speaker
and debating what they need to or should be doing and focusing on as far as reinforcement sales in the summer. So, since you are hearing my voice you can probably guess as to where we are going to start.
Mkhitaryan's Transfer to Inter
00:01:13
Speaker
It is just me today. Originally, Nima was going to come on and then I got tied up with some of this Henrik Mikutari and stuff which
00:01:24
Speaker
will be old news to you by now as you are listening to this. Very unsurprising, so if perhaps you did miss it. As I mentioned on the Monday episode earlier this week, Henrik Mikutarian, he will be joining INCTAR. He will be signing a two years contract with the club. He turned down a contract renewal extension today. He informed Roma
Roma's Market Activity Analysis
00:01:53
Speaker
that he will not be signing the deal that they offer to him. Again, very unsurprising, so just a brief background on it. There's, at this moment at least, there's not a whole lot of activity pertaining to Roma's market, so I'm hoping I can squeeze out at least 10 to 15 minutes out of this episode because, honestly, it's very, very quiet at the moment, and I've had two different agents of players at Roma say,
00:02:22
Speaker
say the same thing to me. Now, interestingly enough, I was trying to get one of them to go on the record and just do an interview with me. In fact, it was actually the agent of Nikola Zalewski. His agent, Giovanni Ferro, he works for the same agency as the agent of Lorenzo Pellegrini, a guy who I know relatively well.
00:02:48
Speaker
Whenever I decide to leave the world of football, I am going to post, without a doubt, the voicemail that he left to me some years ago when he got very pissed off about something I wrote about Gregoire de Frelle when he was leaving Roma. Very funny. At some point, I'm going to have to play it. This guy doesn't speak English, so he won't know if I were to post it. But anyway,
Mkhitaryan's Role and Future at Inter
00:03:17
Speaker
Interestingly enough, yeah, the agent of Zalewski informed me that Roma have asked too many of the agents this summer not to do interviews, which I thought was kind of interesting. The first time I have heard that, but knowing this new group of owners, the freaking group with Roma, not surprising. If you...
00:03:42
Speaker
But anyway, let's start with Henrik Mcguitarian, so 33 years old.
Transfer Information Leaks
00:03:47
Speaker
He was without a doubt one of the most important players for Roma, particularly in the second half of the season. When Roma, they switched from the preferred formation of Jose Mourinho 4-2-3-1, they switched to a three-man defense.
00:04:04
Speaker
They go 3-4-2-1, 3-5-2, variations of it. And Morino has a foresight to switch Mikutarian to this hybrid midfield roll where he's allowed to pull the strings really from midfield both with his passing and dribbling. It was this new position for Mikutarian really was, in my opinion, tailor-made for him.
00:04:32
Speaker
And he was extremely effective in this role, which undoubtedly Simon and Zaghi will be fully aware of, and I think that's where we're going to obviously see him when he begins to play for Inter, but it's, again,
00:04:49
Speaker
The fact that he turned down this renewal offer is very unsurprising. Roma have been, as I'm sure you can guess, the way you know something, the way you know when a club leaks something, go look at the time when
Financial Comparison: Inter vs Roma
00:05:05
Speaker
when everybody tweeted this news of Mikutarian. I think all of the major news outlets, and then I did it for Roma Press within the same time frame, I think everybody had the news with the exact figure that he was offered from Inter. I think everybody had the exact same details within a 15 to 20 minutes time span.
00:05:30
Speaker
That is a very, as if I needed to make this clear, because it's of course obvious, but very clear sign that something is coming directly from a club when you have all of the major publications.
00:05:44
Speaker
more or less publishing the same news with all the same details at the exact same time or within a very similar timeframe. So as again, as I'm sure you can guess, Roma, they informed all of us today in the, we have a media WhatsApp group, they leaked it to us that again, Mikitarians entourage, which consists of a friend of his and a cousin that Mikitarians would not be accepting
00:06:14
Speaker
the one year plus the option for an additional season contract offer that Roma had made to him.
Roma's Midfield Strategy
00:06:23
Speaker
Again, unsurprising. The offer that he received from Inter is worth about four and a half million euros net per season for Roma just to give some context. That would make him alongside Tammy Abraham and Lorenzo Pellegrini. That would make him the highest earner
00:06:43
Speaker
at Roma if they were to offer him the exact same figure Roma they were only up to 4 million euros net but that was including bonuses the figure that they were sticking to was three three and a half so this is not surprising
00:07:02
Speaker
It really was sort of a foregone conclusion when Mikutarian's entourage started leaking things about Inter, less than 24 hours after Roma captured the conference league title trophy. That's again a pretty clear indication that somebody is leaking something. So this isn't a surprise at all. Now, I know Jose Mourinho loved Henrik Mikutarian, particularly in this new midfield role of his.
00:07:30
Speaker
it's going to be interesting to see what they do. Because right now at Roma there is nobody in the squad who has these types of characteristics. Mikutarian was a very unique character in terms of footballing profile and they don't have anybody close.
00:07:49
Speaker
or anywhere near in the squad currently with similar characteristics. Now, does that mean that perhaps Jose Mourinho decides to go back to the 4-2-3-1 system? Because certainly without Mikutarian now,
00:08:06
Speaker
You would assume that that makes a bit more sense, however, I would argue, and I'm sure most would agree, that they don't have the midfield, the mediano, so to speak, the type of defensive midfield presence whose physical can intercept and recover the ball. They don't have that in the squad either.
00:08:25
Speaker
And for this transfer focus of Roma, that's more or less the theme, the midfield. That is where we are going to see Roma heavily fixed on improving and upgrading this summer. We can go down very quickly the list of who's in, who's out at Roma.
00:08:46
Speaker
And I think you'll see pretty clearly that the midfield will be the theme that you'll see reoccurring again and again as to where I expect and where I can say that they've been holding talks for certain guys for some time now. But as far as advanced talks, in this very moment there is nothing imminent. There is nothing close.
Roma's Defensive Lineup
00:09:13
Speaker
And it will be interesting to see how this progresses because Roma, they finish outside of Champions League plays. And you're going to have to entice particularly top players, right? You're going to have to find a way to entice them in different ways.
00:09:31
Speaker
So it's going to be interesting to see how this progresses, but very quickly, let's go down the list. Who's in, who's out? We'll just make this very quick, very easy, no need for a full explanation on everybody. So defense, this is very straightforward. I'm looking at the squad list of Roma right now. So let's start with goalkeeper, Luis Patricio. Obviously, he's staying, he's not going anywhere.
00:09:59
Speaker
Daniel Fusato, the Brazilian Italian, he will be going out. Right now, it appears to be alone, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a permanent deal. His agent has told anybody willing to listen that.
00:10:15
Speaker
He needs to leave and he needs to play. It's been a few years now since he joined Roma. His contract expires next June. So what I would expect to happen is he signs a contract renewal with Roma because obviously Roma will not let him go out on loan with his contract expiring in one year.
00:10:39
Speaker
So what I expect is he would sign a new deal, and then he goes out on loan somewhere, probably in St. Ia, or perhaps even Portugal. And then with him out, Roma already, well, I guess technically, I should watch my tongue. I said there's not a lot going on for the market of Roma. They don't have really anything imminent, but I should take that back.
00:11:06
Speaker
because Miles Filar from Benfica is joining Roma he will be coming as the new backup to Luis Patricio for those of you who don't know admittedly I really did not know much about him other than the fact that he was the youngest goalkeeper and I believe this was still this is still current even after this past season
00:11:32
Speaker
He was the youngest goalkeeper to feature in the Champions League. Beyond that, I can't really attest much to him. People I've talked to, they rate him highly. I do think, obviously, him learning from Patricio is a great thing. You can't really find a better role model, I guess, as a goalkeeper to learn from.
00:11:59
Speaker
So he will, he will again, he will be the new vice goalkeeper of Roma, and that's how things are going to shake out in the goal for Roma. As for the defense, let's start with the preferred three, Gianluca Machini, Chris Smalling, and then Roger Ibanez. Nothing's happening to those three. All of them will stay.
00:12:22
Speaker
Marashkumbula, he's going to remain as well. There have been whispers that there are some smaller sites in Serjana. Looking at him, he's been linked with everybody, it seems like. Sampdoria, Balonia. He's going to remain though, in my opinion.
00:12:38
Speaker
Though, I do think Roma will try to acquire one central defender, particularly one who is left-footed. At the moment, the name that we absolutely, unequivocally, have to keep our eyes on, Marco Senezi of Feynord, left-footed, fits the role perfectly, plays, I mean, the ideal, the ideal way that Mourinho would prefer,
Midfield Evaluation and Changes
00:13:07
Speaker
I don't know if Roma were to purchase him, if he comes in and he arrives. Who does he replace? Does he replace Ibanez? Does he replace Machini? My instincts would say if they were to acquire an ASC,
00:13:22
Speaker
He would probably step in for Ibanez, but we have to wait and see. Beyond that, too, Roma, they have a very, very, very, very good relationship with Sennese's agent, Pablo Savag.
00:13:40
Speaker
very, I mean, Sabag is a very well-known guy in Argentina. He, I mean, he goes back to the days of Sabatini and Baldini. He's very, very close with some figures at Roma, so I think this is a deal they will be able to see out without really any issue. And beyond that, that's really all I expect at the back.
00:14:01
Speaker
Very, very boring, honestly. Not a whole lot going on. Now, as for the midfield, obviously, this is where things get pretty interesting. So, I'm not going to go through all of the names, like some of the Primavera guys, guys who have only featured once or twice. We're not worried about that, so...
00:14:21
Speaker
Let's just go down the list. Brian Cristante, he's going to be staying. You want to talk about a guy that changed his fortunes at Roma. Jose Mourinho loves him. He'll sign a new deal. Peperiso, who represents Cristante, as well as Gianluca Machini. They're going to sign new deals. It won't be a problem whatsoever.
00:14:40
Speaker
Then next we have ones that are, this is the ones to keep your eyes on, this sort of, this trio, okay? So we have Amadu, Diamora, Brima, Darbo, Jordan, Verdu. Now, all three, in my opinion, will leave this summer. Diamora, in my opinion, will be sold permanently. Verdu will be sold permanently. Darbo, I have a very strong suspicion that it would be on loan. However,
00:15:10
Speaker
Should Roma receive an important offer for him, I think then a permanent deal would be on the table. But that is not something I envision happening. So, Veritu, Diamora, these are the guys that they're absolutely going to move now. Veritu, after winning conference league, he said he wants to remain.
00:15:27
Speaker
I think there's very little chance of that happening. He is on the books still for... It's under 10 million, so Roma, they will be able to do a plus Valenza by selling him. The issue is, how much of a hit did his stock take this season? That's a big question mark because Roma, they paid right around 20 million euros for this guy a few years ago. I have a very difficult time believing a club like, you know...
00:15:56
Speaker
Marseille, for instance, Lyon. I just don't envision them paying that level of price for Veratou. But Marseille in particular, they surprised me last season by bailing Roma out on the deals for Paul Lopez. So maybe they can do Roma another solid and help them out in this regard.
00:16:20
Speaker
Another guy with some question marks Sergio Oliveira now he comes in January does phenomenal early on in the middle he has a bit of a drop off and then he slightly picks it back up towards the latter stages of the season now he came to Roma loan with option to buy for right around 16 million euros now this one is a very big head scratcher because
00:16:48
Speaker
Within the first two weeks of Oliveira coming to Roma, Roma were insistent that this deal was done to keep Oliveira at the club permanently. And if you go back and read some of the interviews,
00:17:07
Speaker
Jose Mourinho, he was raving about this guy,
Douglas Luiz Acquisition Interest
00:17:10
Speaker
allowing his character, his temperament within the dressing room, so some of the calm that he brings to the team on the pitch, and that is something they desperately needed in January to help them, and I don't think anybody at the time would disagree with that. However, the drop-off we saw from him in March and April was
00:17:33
Speaker
Very curious because really that's when Brian Christante started to really pick things up and became, you could almost say, indispensable for Roma. So do I think it's possible that Roma re-approach Porto and try to get only Vena once more?
00:17:53
Speaker
Yes. However, there's just no way it's going to be at the figures at which they agreed to in January. So he came on loan. Roma, they paid a loan fee of 1 million euros. The option to buy, it was 13 and a half. And for a guy who's going to be 32, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, see, I'm wrong.
00:18:16
Speaker
He just turned 30. Actually, yesterday. Auguri, said Gio. Anyway, for a guy who's going to be 30 years old in less than one year, it's difficult to see, for me to see Roma spending such an important figure on a guy at that age, which is kind of weird to say that 30 is old in football, but I guess it's where we're at, huh?
00:18:41
Speaker
But do I think that is possible that Roma re-approach Porto and try and find a way to re-acquire him? Absolutely 100%. You talk to Olivera, he loved it Roma, he wanted to stay. Roma, of course, they weren't going to pay that 13.5 million euros.
00:19:02
Speaker
So, I do think that something will get worked out here with him, and I do think he will return, actually. Now, is he the solution to the midfield? Of course not, but... Oliveira is represented by Giesztefut, who is the agency of George Mendez, so I think something will get resolved, because obviously his ties to...
00:19:24
Speaker
Porto and obviously now with Jose Mourinho Roma very very strong. I actually do think Sadio Rivera will return and I do think Ultimately, it will be on a very advantageous operation for Roma That's just my suspicion and I know I don't have to say this because I echo it so often on the podcast But it's 3rd of June the transfer market is extremely fluid what I say or what any journalist
00:19:54
Speaker
like myself or the other club says on this podcast. It could literally be deemed null and void within the hour. Just a forewarning. I know people, because I complained on Monday about people retweeting old tweets.
00:20:09
Speaker
This is my disclosure in regards to that, so yes, please just keep that in mind. On top of that, for the midfield of Roma, I do think we're going to see an important investment now.
00:20:24
Speaker
This is where the big name in my opinion is going to arrive. I have been pretty adamant as to who I think Roma would want it to be is Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa. Now this is a guy that Roma and Jose Mourinho, they have had their eyes on for months. For months. They tried to originally acquire him in January. They were trying to get him
00:20:49
Speaker
alone with obligation. However, Gerard obviously had no interest in doing so, but I do think he's going to be the one that Roma take a very, very, very, very, very, very, very strong run at. It's going to be a difficult operation. You're going to need a couple of things to happen obviously.
00:21:08
Speaker
I do think that the player is going to leave. Now, if you haven't been following it, another player that Roma really, really wanted in January, even though Tiago Pinto said it was bullshit, I can tell you they unequivocally had talks for this guy, is the former, well now former, Marseille midfielder Bruno Camara, who has agreed to go to Villa.
00:21:33
Speaker
He is going there on a free transfer, and I do think his acquisition at least gives the opportunity to acquire Louise. It makes it more feasible. It's still going to be very, very, very expensive to pry him away from Villa.
00:21:54
Speaker
Now, one of the things that I think Roma have on their side, obviously, is yes, it's not Champions League football, but you're playing Europa League football. Look, we did, you know, Douglas come here with me. I just won a trophy in my first year at Roma. You come here, you're going to be central to the project. You are going to be the undisputed number one
00:22:21
Speaker
midfielder, the cornerstone of the team for years to come. He's only 24 years old. And you more or less need Jose Mourinho to really, really, really, really lay it on thick. Because, I mean, this guy is no secret. Everybody loves this guy from
00:22:43
Speaker
from Serie A, La Liga, everywhere. It's not as if he's some hidden gem that you found in a football manager that nobody really knows about.
Fullbacks and Attack Adjustments
00:22:55
Speaker
So if Roma can put together an offer, 40 million euros, I think at that point, especially if you get the player asking to leave, I think that is something that maybe Roma will try to do. They want to make a big acquisition in midfield. They're going to do it.
00:23:13
Speaker
If you had to ask me right now, the 3rd of June, who would that be? I'd place a fairly heavy bet on Douglas Luiz. Now, this time last summer, even though again, Tiago Pinto, he will deny it,
00:23:28
Speaker
They were really pushing for co-op miners who, as we know, eventually ended up joining Atalanta. That just goes to show you these things change. But as of today, the 3rd of June, I would put my bed on him if it were me.
00:23:45
Speaker
Okay, wow, we're going on like 25 minutes. I can't believe I made it this far. Alright, going quickly now to the full back situation. I don't know how I bypassed them with the defense. This is going to be very easy as well. You have on the left, Spina Zola, Zalevsky, pretty straightforward. Nothing used to be done there.
00:24:07
Speaker
Now, Ainsley made on the Niles, he returns to Arsenal. Roma, of course, he will have no interest in wanting to reacquire him. That's, you know, he was brought in as sort of an emergency player. Maybe that's the best way to put it. Certainly, I guess you could have done worse, but yeah, not impressive. On the right side, though, they're going to get somebody. At the moment, they are in talks, but again, this is, it's not close.
00:24:36
Speaker
They're in talks for the Turkish international Zeki Chelek of Leo, a guy who, again, they are acquiring him explicitly to be the vice right back to Rick Karlsdorp. I do think, again, this is a deal that can get done. Now, is it going to raise the level of Roma?
00:25:00
Speaker
No, but depth was undoubtedly one of Roma's weaknesses of this past season. So, that's the type of acquisition that, um, bolsters the depth. Does it make the overall level better? No, but it makes it deeper, of course. And then I also forgot to mention Monte Azvinia, who Roma acquired last summer after they found out that Spinazzola would be out for the majority of the season. Roma, they paid, they paid a very, very, very heavy fee for him.
00:25:29
Speaker
of 13 million euros roma they'll do all they can to try and find a replacement for him now they're not going to make their money back now he signed a five years contract so i'm trying to do the math in my head what's 13 divided by 5 2.6 so 13 minus 2.6
00:25:53
Speaker
So he is on the books for 10.4 million. Now, is that attainable? Perhaps. But I think the route for Vinya is going to be alone, allow him to move away from the club on loan and regain some of his value and then try and sell him next summer.
00:26:12
Speaker
And then, everything else is pretty straightforward. Pellegrini's not going anywhere. Do we want to put Zaniolo in the midfield? I'm not even going to discuss that, even though Sky Sport, they mentioned today, Zaniolo is on the market. I'm just going to say, and this is not to disparage the individual at Sky Sport that reported it, but I am calling bullshit on this one because Roma have not even held a meeting yet with Zaniolo's agent to discuss how they're going to move forward.
00:26:41
Speaker
I said that they will, in my opinion, I do think that they're going to reach an agreement on a contract renewal. I still maintain that that is the case. I would be very surprised if he left Roma this summer. But who knows? I've been wrong before. It's possible. But again, this is my opinion on the 3rd of June.
00:27:02
Speaker
Even if he does ultimately leave the club, and it turns out that he is ultimately sold, that doesn't make on the 3rd of June Sky spotted correct by saying at this very moment he is on the market because Tiago Pinto has not even met
00:27:22
Speaker
with, uh, Zanielo's agent yet, which you're going to do in the next week and a half to two weeks, I am told. So, uh, I'm not putting anything in that, uh, in that just yet. And then as for the attack, we will see, um, who will we still leave? Perez?
00:27:40
Speaker
I think he's likely to go. Carlos Perez. I also think Roma will try to do all they can to see Stefan El-Sharaoui go. He's earning very heavy wage, three and a half, four million euros. Here's another one. Eldor Shomuradov. He's not going anywhere either. He's going to remain at Roma, as is Tammy Abraham.
00:28:01
Speaker
And that's that. I'm going to leave it there for now. It's all very straightforward, you see. No need to discuss Paolo Dibala. No need to discuss Cristiano Ronaldo, who we've seen in the rumors.
00:28:13
Speaker
No need to even discuss somebody like Juan Visaca. That's not going to happen. Once you go through the market, it doesn't even matter who your club is. Once you find balance and you can kind of calibrate all of the nonsense that you see printed out there, you really
Transfer Rumors and Final Thoughts
00:28:31
Speaker
You begin to see a lot clearer. You breathe a lot easier. There is so much nonsense that gets printed and typed up. And this is the part that drives me crazy. I talk about this all the time with... I've mentioned it on here before. That's why it drives me mad when newspapers like Coriere del Spard, Cazate del Spard,
00:28:53
Speaker
You know, when they nick my interviews that I do and don't correctly attribute it to me having conducted it, it literally takes, whether it's an interview, transfer room, or okay, one or two messages to the correct people and you can dispel a lot of the nonsense that gets printed.
00:29:11
Speaker
That's why I hate this time of year. I know I'm a boomer when it comes to, uh, when it comes to really despising the transfer market. I know people love it. I know, I know these, uh, these transfer rumors are like a drug to all of us. It's like, you know, hook it up and put more of them in my vein.
00:29:30
Speaker
I don't even care if they're true or not. I just like seeing it printed. I have a much different outlook on the market than most I know. But of course, anything pertaining to Roma or any of the other clubs that I come across or anybody I speak to.
00:29:47
Speaker
Of course, I will publish it on the Patreon and keep you all updated, whether it's with a brief podcast episode like this, even though I said I'd be happy with 12 minutes and we're at nearly half an hour. Or a write-up on the Patreon, just be sure to tune in, or to keep an eye on both of those places. Last summer, I think we did an interview with one of the German agents that I know relatively well when
00:30:13
Speaker
one of his clients moved to Spets, yeah. So it's things like that, those one-offs. You know, as much as I love Roma, I really do enjoy writing about and doing some of these other digging for stories and transfer stuff about some of the other clubs. It lets me spread my wings a little bit, but
00:30:35
Speaker
Whether it's Roma or, again, any other club where we have anything here for you, of course we will keep you updated in regards to that. But in summation, very quickly, I think one big acquisition this summer for Roma, there to out, Tiabura out, Zagnolo staying, Mikotarian obviously already out.
00:30:57
Speaker
early vote for who the big name or the big splash that Roma could make, who it could be. Again, my money is on Aston Villa's Douglas Lewis. All right, thank you so much for tuning in, everyone. Chat with you once more on Monday. Have a fantastic weekend. Stay safe. And until Monday, bye bye.