Paper talk: AS Roma track Store City star, Pjanic names Juventus’ Serie A title challengers
The departure of Iturbe will force AS Roma to find a back up to Mohammed Salah and, according to Il Corriere dello Sport, they’re number one target is Stoke City ace Xerdan Shaqiri.
Signing the Swiss International, however, will be nothing easy as Shaqiri moved to Stoke in a € 17 million deal back in 2015 and his price-tag as risen since his arrival in the Premier League. Massara has already made contact with the player’s entourage, but if the signing of the 24-year-old would turn out being too expensive, AS Roma could consider to make a January bid for current Serie A top scorer Ladislav Krejci or Hakim Ziyech who has recently moved from Twente to Ajax.
Meantime, Miralem Pjanic, a former AS Roma player has released an interview with Gazzetta and Tuttosport talking about his first months as a player of Juventus.
“I am settling in well”, the player said while on International duty with Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.
“We are the Serie A leaders and we are also on top of our Champions League group. That’s what we wanted but we can still improve in terms of quality.”
“I struggled a bit at the beginning because the pre-season training was tough, very different from what I was used to at Roma.”
“Winning the Serie A title will be nothing easy. The season is very long and there are many clubs that will be battling till the very end. Napoli and Roma are our rivals, but I wouldn't forget also include Inter as they have many quality players.”
AND THE REST
Alex Sandro is the Juventus player with the most minutes played so far in Serie A (Gazzetta dello Sport)
Inter can win the scudetto according to Portuguese midfielder Joao Mario who joined the San Siro outfit last summer (Gazzetta)
Alessio Romagnoli, Marco Verratti, Mattia De Sciglio and Andrea Belotti are all set to start for Italy against Macedonia tonight (Gazzetta)
Gianluig Buffon has claimed that whistles against Riccardo Montolivo in his last Italy game when he picked up a knee injury were ‘scandalous’ (Various)
Roberto Mancini could be appointed as next England boss as the former Inter manager was spotted at Wembley during England-Malta yesterday (various)
Napoli star Arkadiusz Milik could remain out of action up to six months after an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament (various)
Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola claims that the Frenchman’s return to high standard is just a matter of time (Corriere dello Sport)
