Over the past couple of weeks, talk around AS Roma’s interest in Manchester United striker Joshua Zirkzee has died away.
Previously, Il Messaggero were confident that the Rome club had offered the Red Devils a deal worth €40m. The Italian side were keen on landing the player on a loan with an option to buy.
Zirkzee was set to initially move on a loan deal, and that would be made permanent if Roma qualified for the Champions League.
Manchester United had Ruben Amorim as manager at that point. The Rome newspaper explained Zirkzee had lost trust well before the manager was sacked.
Roma have now signed Donyell Malen and Robinho Vaz. Even if those signings should improve their attack, their dream of getting the former Bologna player remains alive.
Today’s Corriere dello Sport reports Zirkzee is still a ‘very hot’ name for the Giallorossi.
According to the report, he’s removed all mentions of Manchester United from his Instagram profile. Roma are said to be well aware of that and see it as a hint about his intentions.
These social media developments are often claimed and then it turns out the mention wasn’t there in the first place. It’s unclear what the reality is on this one.
Exits before move for Manchester United player
The newspaper believe that for Zirkzee to join, one of Evan Ferguson or Artem Dovbyk will have to leave. This will hand Roma enough finances to pay for the Dutch forward.
So far, there has been no movement on the exits. Dovbyk is unlikely to return to action this month due to injury. For Ferguson, there don’t seem to be any serious suitors. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side have also exhausted a fair chunk of their finances on Vaz and Malen. Besides, Zirkzee will not be cheap.
Perhaps Corriere dello Sport are just being overly optimistic. Gasperini has been very critical about the club’s business, even refusing to attend a press conference in protest. This is probably the reason behind the club putting up a stance about players that may be out of their reach.