Roma Moves Closer to Mathieu Debuchy

It appears, for the time being at least, that the much heated Stephan El Shaarawy-Diego Perotti debate will take a back seat as Roma seeks to address their omnipresent and everlasting need at fullback. I won't rehash the list of names that have occupied that spot over the past decade, we've been over it many, many times and pouring over it again will simultaneously give me heartburn and carpal tunnel.

Nevertheless, Roma's latest stopgap solution appears to be want away Arsenal fullback and former Rudi Garcia protege, Mathieu Debuchy, who has precipitously fallen down the Gunners pecking order over the past two seasons. Debuchy, 30-years-old, has played understudy to Hector Bellerin, Arsenal's 20-year-old fullback prodigy this season, playing all of 144 league minutes thus far.

While Debuchy's debut season with Arsenal in 2013-2014 went well enough--29 appearances and approximately 2,500 minutes--he's struggled to find first team action since then, garnering only 12 league appearances in the past season-and-a-half.

This has, quite naturally, led Debuchy to seek gainful employment elsewhere, a common theme during Euro and/or World Cup seasons. Roma are reportedly vying with Aston Villa for the Frenchman's services, which may or may not come in the form of a loan, possibly with an option to buy, rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of €10 million.

Yes, you read that correctly--ten million for a 30-year-old fullback who has the stink of being a Garcia guy following him around. While this potential move frees up Alessandro Florenzi to return to his more familiar attacking role, it is yet another subpar solution to a systemic problem.

So you'll have to excuse my unmitigated antipathy (or at the very least apathy) towards this move. Ten million for an over the hill fullback is hardly progress, and even if we narrow the scope to this season's remaining goals, is he enough to help Roma close the gap? Furthermore, if Florenzi becomes a midfielder, where does he fit within Garcia's unyielding rotation?

I'm really running on fumes here, can we just fast forward to May and start fresh?