Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa Set For €10M Lyon Move

Call it a slow news day, but the pending sale of Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is our lead story of the day, but with the club's open day celebration/friendly with Sevilla tomorrow, today was always bound to be quiet. However, with Sabatini's patented last minute wheeling and dealing, you never know, he may coax Zlatan to Rome before I finish this sentence.

Anyway, on to the heart of the matter, Roma shedding themselves of the man we called MB. We talked about this rumor briefly last week, but it now seems that Mbiwa remains a Giallorossi player in name only, as Lyon and Roma are a hair's breadth away from completing a transfer potentially worth €10 million.

Mbiwa, as you well know, was brought to Roma on loan last summer, a move which was later made permanent, making Mbiwa an approximate €8 million investment, so Roma should, at the very worst, break even on this deal. It's reported that Lyon are offering €8 million upfront for the 26-year-old defender with an additiona €2 million in potential bonuses.

In other words, Roma will most likely make a tidy €2 million profit off Mbiwa, which is all well and good until you look at our depth charts. Truth be told, Mbiwa wasn't that bad during his lone year in Roma, but his departure means Roma has now lost two central defenders over the past week, with no hint of a replacement for either.

It's hard to believe the season starts in less than 10 days, and despite all the acclaim over Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah, Roma has a lot of holes left to fill and precious little time.