AS Roma Have Done A Great Job This Summer Despite Malcom’s Episode

Few teams in the Serie A this summer have been as active as AS Roma have been in the transfer market. Roma were tired of playing a secondary role in the league behind Juventus, Napoli and even Inter Milan. Therefore, they wanted to change things during the current transfer window.

Sure, Roma have been all over the news during the past 48 hours for the fiasco related to Malcom. The Brazilian winger seemed set to join Roma, but Barcelona knocked on the door at the last minute and ended signing the Bordeaux star. However, that moment should not define Roma’s transfer window. In fact, the rest of their activity has been very good so far. Let’s take a look at what they have done thus far:

Notable departures

First, they decided to part ways with Radja Nainggolan. The former Belgium international became unnecessary due to the presence of similar players such as club legend Daniele De Rossi and Kevin Strootman. Plus, Lorenzo Pellegrini can become the team’s long-term answer in that position. As if that wasn’t enough, they replaced Nainggolan with Javier Pastore, who is a more technical and attacking-minded player. Mind you, Roma did not have a midfielder like Pastore last season. They lacked someone with these traits since Miralem Pjanic packed his bags and joined Juventus a few years ago.

The Giallorossi also parted ways with Alisson, who is now the most expensive goalkeeper in football history after Liverpool paid €75 million for his services. Roma were smart and only spent pennies on the dollar to find his replacement: Sweden’s international Robin Olsen, who impressed during the 2018 World Cup with a Swedish side that reached the quarterfinals.

Roma only paid €8.5 million for him, although several add-ons could potentially increase the deal up to €12M. Still, that’s not a big sum considering what they received.

What have been the team’s notable arrivals?

There is more. Roma also added Bryan Cristante from Atalanta. They acquired Davide Santon from Inter Milan on Nainggolan’s deal. And added two interesting young players in Ante Coric, from Dinamo Zagreb, and Justin Kluivert, from Ajax. Both players could be important for the squad for both the short- and long-term picture, but Kluivert is the one that grabs the most attention.

The son of former Netherlands and Barcelona legend Patrick Kluivert, the former Ajax standout chose Roma because that would have been the best next step in his career. In a way, that is what Malcom probably should have done.

Let’s be honest: it’s not like Roma were a bad team during the 2017-18 season. They reached the UEFA Champions League semifinals and among their most important player we could see Federico Fazio, Alessandro Florenzi, Kostas Manolas, De Rossi, Stephan El Shaarawy, Cengiz Under, Diego Perotti and Edin Dzeko. If we add these names to all the signings they have made during the summer, we can see Roma have increased both the depth and the quality of the squad.

It has been another masterful summer for the club’s sporting director, Monchi. Roma might have missed out on Malcom, but that should not change the fact that their transfer window so far has been excellent.