Ripping Apart the Rumor: Manchester United Interested in Alessandro Florenzi

Due to a lack of concrete updates or developments, today we'll turn our attention away from the Francesco Totti-James Pallotta quagmire, and quite simply because I think we're all sick of discussing it. Instead we turn our attention to the club's third ranking Roman, Alessandro Florenzi.

For many years we have had to couch our discussion about Florenzi's place in Roman lore due to his relative lack of experiences, constantly reminding that, due to the continued excellence of Totti and Daniele De Rossi, Florenzi must bide his time before he assumes the mantle of Roma's favorite son.

Well, given recent events and rumors that both Totti and De Rossi may opt for soccer's senior tour, Florenzi's standing with the club and fan base is quickly on the rise; no longer is he "next up", his time may have already come, and with each successive performance and wonder goal he scores, soon his name and image may be the one we clutch to in the face of ever increasing globalization of our beloved provincial club.

So, we can and must consider it quite telling that the lords of the free market, Manchester United, have reportedly expressed an interest in Roma's jack of all trades midfielder...err fullback. This rumor popped up a couple days ago, so while we're not covering much new territory, lets do a quick dissection of this rumor.

Why it Makes Sense

This is two-fold. On the Manc side of things, the equation is simple: Florenzi is young, athletic and extremely gifted and given his relative lack of accomplishments, shouldn't cost them a ton in terms of wages. Furthermore, given what a mess Van Gaal has made of Manchester United, they need help in virtually every avenue, so Florenzi's ostensible lack of a position might actually be a boon instead of a hindrance. And really, thats the only possible rationale I could find for Roma making this move; they simply don't know what to make him him (this would assume that they've found reliable replacements at rightback and midfield, Florenzi's nominal positions)

Why it Doesn't Make Sense

Do I really have to elaborate? Take the reasons we just mentioned and flip them around. Florenzi has meant so, so much to this team over the past few seasons. While constantly shuffling him all over the field has probably been detrimental to his overall development, where would we be without his positional and tactical versatility; he's saved the club a lot of headaches and probably a lot of money on the transfer market.

The sticky wicket in this situation is the cost. With an offer supposedly in the neighborhood of 28 million euros, Roma may be hard pressed to turn that down, particularly if it escalates north of 30 million. Now for years, we could find solace in the fact that the club wouldn't sell its most iconic players, or that they'd somehow (out of loyalty) resist those beckon calls. So whether it was Madrid coming after Totti or Chelsea admiring DDR, we didn't really have to worry.

But now, I'm not so sure. And I don't mean that as a knock against the ownership because there's just as good a chance Florenzi has seen whats been going on with Totti and is starting to reconsider spending 20 years in this cauldron. We simply don't know, nor can we.

Likelihood: 1/10

Set aside the emotional and historical aspects of this dissection, and it simply doesn't make tactical sense. Florenzi is a nearly unrivaled security blanket, one who can cover several positions and one who has a proven ability to rise to the occasion. So no matter how high the price tag may soar, for the good of Roma and for the good of Serie A, this is one Italian that must be kept away from Manchester.