Roma chief Tiago Pinto claims that his biggest regret of the summer was missing out on Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka.
The Giallorossi were strongly linked with the Swiss international throughout the summer before he eventually signed new terms in North London included an extended contract.
Much of the reports claim that we stood firm on our fair asking price for his signature, only for Roma to try and undercut us, before they showed their financial might to sign Tammy Abraham for a sizeable fee, proving that they simply didn’t value Xhaka as highly as we did, and not that they were hard done-by with their budget.
The transfer windows are now closed, and Granit started the new campaign as captain against Brentford in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who had suffered a positive Covid-test, before starting the next three of our competitive matches also, and is now set to play a key role once again this season.
Pinto claims that he regrets not getting the deal over the line however, despite having a positive transfer window.
“The market is closed and today I have fun, because we bought so many players but everyone asks me about the midfielder,” Tiago said after the window’s deadline(via Goal.com).
“Everyone knows we were after Xhaka, he wanted to come to Roma, but Arsenal didn’t release him. It’s my regret for this transfer market.”
It remains to be seen whether Roma were eventually willing to pay our asking price or not, but it will likely be another 12 months of Xhaka playing a key role in our side, but I wouldn’t rule out an exit for him next summer despite his new deal.
Patrick