Roma Up Their Dzeko Offer to €20 Million

If you head on over to our #DaretoDzeko story stream, you'll see that all has been quite on the Edin front for nearly a week now, with the last shred of "news" coming from none other than Francesco Totti, who admitted a fondness for the Bosnian. Given that Roma and Manchester City squared off in a friendly this past week, one would have thought the rumors would have come flooding out of Melbourne, where both sides were participating in the International Champions Cup, but both sides remained tight lipped about City's €30 million useless asset.

Rather than being greeted with visions of Dzeko surreptitiously trying on Roma training gear while Raheem Sterling and David Silva ran circles around Roma's defense, Dzeko sat sullen on the bench, alongside fellow soon-to-be-former-Citizen Stevan Jovetic, presumably contemplating his future and/or dreaming about a post match kebab.

Indeed, there was little news, rumors or speculation about Dzeko's future during the ICC, apart from Manuel Pellegrini's 27-word ambiguous abstract:

Edin didn't play the last game as it's not clear if he will continue here or not, but he is still working here with the whole squad

Source: BBC

Considering how long this saga has played out, which has undoubtedly been aided by Dzeko's sole preference for Roma, Pellegrini's comments are probably based as much in frustration as they are ignorance over Dzeko's future.

Simply put, no one really knows how or when this deal will be completed. ESPN is now reporting that Roma have upped their offer to €20 million, which is some eight million off Manchester City's mark. Now, you're probably asking yourself, "Self, where in the hell is that money coming from?" If you're afraid of the answer, don't look here. Napoli are reportedly weighing up a €30 million offer for Alessio Romagnoli, which may be pure bluster, but barring a Miralem Pjanic sale, no other Roma player will fetch as much on this summer's market.

We've said it throughout the summer, Dzeko is the first domino in Roma's transfer campaign, one that has been teetering on the edge for nearly a month now, causing opinions on this move to shift by the day.

For my money, €20 million is the point of no return, past which Roma will never likely receive full value for the autumn of Dzeko's career. Twenty million in and of itself isn't a bitter pill to swallow, assuming they can spread that out over a few years, but when we get to the 25-30 million neighborhood, that's when you have to worry about the extent to which this move will limit Roma's transfer ambitions next summer and beyond. After all, look at how the Doumbia transfer in January has hampered Roma this summer, and a Doumbia Dollar is worth about half a Dzeko.

At this point, we're a month or so away from opening day and Roma's summer school grade is a resounding F. Sooner or later, they need to shit or get off the pot, either you pony up for Dzeko or you make do with Mattia Destro and Doumbia.

After all, as a great man once said, don't half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing.