Roma boss’ absurd demand from Barcelona

FC Barcelona hijacked AS Roma’s deal for Brazilian winger Malcom and this certainly hasn’t gone down well with the Italian club. Their president, Jim Pallotta, spoke to radio station Sirius XM in depth regarding this issue.

Malcom, 21, was subjected to move away from Bordeaux from long. There were many potential suitors for him, but Roma seemed to have struck a deal with the French team in order to lure the lad to Serie A. They even tweeted from their official account, saying that the player and the club had agreed to conduct a medical. Hence, the transfer seemed to have taken place, with a medical being a mere formality of sorts.

Malcom was set to board a jet to Italy, but amidst all this, FC Barcelona entered into the mix. They upped the transfer fee, and this apparently put Bordeaux in the driving position. The negotiations with Roma soured after this, as the UCL semifinalists believed that they had already struck a deal and Barcelona’s meddling was immoral.

Pallotta reportedly said, “There’s no question that we had a deal with Malcom, then Barca jumped into the mix unethically and immorally. They knew this was done.

“I have zero problem battling it out for a player with Inter or Bayern or whoever and all of us going through the same process. That’s the way it works.

“Sure some people say ‘it wasn’t signed’. That’s bull****. We all know how it works. The kid comes in for the medical and the signing is done.”

He was particularly annoyed with the situation, and did not refrain from reflecting his thoughts in the interview. Pallotta said, “Other teams know not to come in and do what Barca did. Bordeaux should have never been doing what they did. Their actions were ridiculous.

“For Bordeaux to come back and say ‘Oh well, we didn’t sign it…’, well, they asked if they could put it on their website and tweet that he’s going to Rome.

“Barcelona apologised about their actions and how they did things. I don’t accept the apology at all.

“The only way I’ll accept Barca’s apology is if they send the player to us, and that’s not going to happen. “Maybe, as a goodwill gesture, the very least they could do is send us Messi.”

Well, asking for Messi as an apologetic gesture is quite impractical, but it surely portrays that Barcelona’s actions have tormented the relations amongst all parties involved in this transfer saga.