Roma Place €45 M Price Tag on Radja Nainggolan

We have discussed it here many times, but one of the perils of being a moderately successful club like Roma is that sooner or later larger clubs start to view your indispensable pieces as luxury items they simply cannot live without. As Roma fans we endured this saga quite literally for decades with Francesco Totti, and then Daniele De Rossi and more recently Miralem Pjanic. Well, we can add another name to that list, everyone's favorite purveyor of neck art, Radja Nainggolan.

Nainggolan's transition from an athletic enforcer with a curious haircut during his Cagliari days to a well rounded, hard charging boss of the midfield with Roma certainly hasn't gone unnoticed. With Antonio Conte keen to translate his Serie A success with Chelsea next season, he seems to be taking the familiar route; looking to his former adversaries for help, planning a peninsular raid for any footballer worth his salt.

With his incredible array of skills, durability and intelligence, it's no wonder Conte has an eye for Nainggolan. Sensing the prying eyes of the Premiership, Roma has come out and set a price; a hefty one. According to Tuttosport, Roma has placed a €45 million price point on Nainggolan, which, given the absurd sums we see every summer, particularly from England, could be a bargain for a player just entering his prime.

Recent history has shown that Roma's artificial price points have been successful at keeping clubs at bay. Whether it was due to their valuations or simply supply and demand economics, Roma was/has been able to hang onto players like Pjanic and De Rossi, who was an object of Chelsea's affection not that long ago.

So what do we think? Is this enough to keep Conte's claws away? Is Nainggolan essential to Roma's success?