Roma After Real Fullback Fabio Coentrão

Well, so much for Roma's restricted fullback pursuit. Shortly after we spoke about Bruno Peres this morning, Torino headman Gianluca Petrachi came out and refuted reports that Roma had reached out for the 25-year-old's signature, let alone submitted an official offer. While this is mostly likely a part of the eloquent transfer dance, we have no choice but to take Petrachi at his word.

Speaking to Sky, Petrachi couched his words like a pro:

He never expressed a desire to leave. We heard from Porto a month and a half ago, but there was no formal offer. If something arrives then we'll talk about it, but we haven't heard anything from Roma.

I have an excellent rapport with Walter Sabatini, but we haven't discussed this. We already said that we'd like to keep Bruno Peres, but have to take everyone's needs into account. If the player asked to leave at all costs, we would evaluate the situation, but at the moment there's nothing official.

As we discussed earlier today, Peres fills a lot of holes for Roma but we can't simply expect them to rollover simply because we're interested, so the positive working relationship between Sabatini and Petrachi should help push this negotiation along, if indeed it actually, officially begins.

In a separate and presumably unrelated development, Roma has reportedly inquired about Real Madrid left back Fabio Coentrao. Still just 27-years-old, Coentrao has failed to live up to his €30 million move from Porto in 2011. Thanks in part to a series of minor injuries and an inability to unseat Marcelo from the starting leftback spot, Coentrao has never played more than 1,300 league minutes for Real. Considering they're the same age, Marcelo has effectively ended any chance Coentrao has at ever landing a starting gig in Madrid.

Enter Roma.

With little more than Ashley Cole on the left, Roma's leftback corps are depleted as any in existence, so whether it's Digne or Coentrao, the southpaw is in desperate need of a makeover. While Coentrao has fallen out of favor in Madrid, there is a reason why Real shelled out €30 million for him in 2011. Prior to arriving in Madrid, Coentrao was arguably on his way to becoming the best leftback in the world, possessing an equally impressive amount of attacking acumen and defensive prowess.

But, for a variety of reasons, Coentrao fell out of favor once Carlo Ancelotti came to town, making only eight league starts in Carletto's maiden season, which then fell to only five this past season. While there are claims that Coentrao's disinterest and lack of effort were complicit in his Madrid decline, this all amounts to a player in dire need of a change of scenery.

Per usual, Roma is first attempting to arrange a loan with an option to buy, but Madrid are keen to offload him for good. So, much like their pursuit of Lucas Digne and Bruno Peres, we'll have to wait and see which club is drinking the Sabatini Kool-Aid before we speculate any further.