It has been a conspicuous transfer market so far for Roma. There was a lot of excitement and intrigue to see how their new sporting director, a “transfer wizard”, Monchi would conduct this summer’s mercato. When the former Sevilla man took the job, he affirmed that Roma were not a supermarket and were not looking to sell their stars. 

 

Fast forward a few weeks and Roma have sold a few of their key players; Mohamed Salah, Leandro Paredes, and Antonio Rudiger. Some Roma fans have grown upset about these sales. Roma finished in 2nd place last season, they should be aiming to reinforce the team in order to catch Juventus. Instead, they have sold key players to widen the gap. Monchi did fetch Roma a significant amount of money by selling Salah to Liverpool and Rudiger to Chelsea. Giallorossi fans now want to see Monchi reinvest that money and work his magic. 

 

It hasn’t all been sell, sell, sell. Roma have made some additions, and some of them are promising. THe Giallorossi have added two defenders; Hector Moreno and Rick Karsdorp. They’ve also signed two midfielders; Lorenzo Pellegrini and Maxime Gonalons. Pellegrini is the most promising of these signings. The former Sassuolo man is coming off a strong season and was a key part of Italy’s U-21 Euro team this summer. Of course, Roma’s new coach, Eusebio Di Francesco, is very familiar with Pellegrini and that chemistry should help the young Italian transition to life at Roma. 

 

One of Roma’s latest signing is a 20-year old from Turkey; Cengiz Under. Most Serie A fans know nothing about Cengiz Under, so they don’t know what to expect. In Turkey, he is known as the “Turkish Dybala”, that has to appeal to Roma fans. Roma have long been after a backup striker for Edin Dzeko, last season’s top goal scorer. It appears they have found their man, another former Sassuolo player; Gregoire Defrel. The benefit to signing Defrel is, not only can he serve as a backup to Dzeko, Di Francesco can also deploy him out on the wings. The Giallorossi are working on giving Radja Nainggolan a new contract, which will make Roma fans happy. Roma are also targeting Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez, however, if you ask their president James Pallotta, he will tell you he doesn't’t even know who Mahrez is.

 

Here’s why Roma may have decided to sell players like Salah and Rudiger despite having finished in 2nd place last season. Monchi took a realistic assessment of the situation. Yes, Roma have been a top three team in Serie A for the past four seasons. However, they have never been legitimate threat to catch Juventus for first place.  Monchi sees Juventus being strong again this season and the heavy favourites to win the scudetto. Juventus are just 1-3 years away from undergoing a bit of a transition period. Monchi’s plan is to build up this Roma team with young, promising players that will help Roma become an even stronger side 2-3 years from now, when Juve are in transition.

Monchi sees no value in battling Napoli to finish in 2nd or 3rd place. His goal is to take a step back now, in order to take two steps forward in the near future. This is the perfect time to start building a “New Roma”. Totti has retired, Spalletti is gone, new sporting director, and a new stadium in the works. Accepting this reality may be hard for Roma fans to accept, but it might just be the right approach to build a more sustainable product. 

Raffaele Gatti
@ItalianoCalcio