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Roma dispatched defenders this week at an alarming rate, it's almost as if Walter Sabatini was having a rummage sale, pushing his useless knickknacks on anyone who passed by his front lawn. The problem is that, once you remember the value of those chotchkies--for the sake of this analogy let's assume they were holiday decorations--you're left scrambling and might actually end up paying more for the same item on the open market.
In less than a week, Roma parted ways with Alessio Romagnoli, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Ashley Cole, leaving the Giallorossi's defensive line woefully thin and in desperate need of reinforcements ahead of Saturday's season opener against Verona.
Yes, that's right, the season is less than a week away and Roma has, what, five defenders on its roster? One of whom, Alessandro Florenzi, is really a forward while the other, Maicon, is a Big Mac and a Netflix binge away from being useless.
While Walter Sabatini deserves the highest of praises for finding that Groupon for 50% off Edin Dzeko, his haphazard approach to building a backline should frighten us all. Sabatini has, it appears, landed his first reinforcement, reaching into foreign territory for Roma, the Bundesliga.
Antonio Rudiger, Stuttgart's 22-year-old hulking central defender, appears headed Rome on an initial one year loan with an option to buy, which, per usual, may or may not be mandatory. Our newest contributor gave you the gritty details about Rudiger, so I won't necessarily rehash them, but any way you slice it, this move is a gamble. Not only is Rudiger young and plagued with bouts of inconsistency, but he's fresh off knee surgery, the recovery from which will keep him sidelined through late September at the earliest.
But, if he can pull it together and blossom under Garcia's tutelage, we might see plenty of this:
What? Come on, like I'm not going to call him Rudy Rudiger? (For our non-American readership, that's from the film Rudy, a story about a plucky young football player named Daniel Ruettiger)