Roma Loan Seydou Doumbia to Basel

When making qualitative judgements—or really anything that includes the words ‘best’ or ‘worst’—be it fashion, music or sports, the exercise is inherently subjective People have different thoughts, feelings and opinions, but on this there can be no equivocation; Seydou Doumbia was among the worst transfers in club history.

Brought in a mere 24 hours after Roma offloaded the incredibly popular and incredibly productive Mattia Destro to AC Milan, Doumbia was, despite his lack of acclaim, a seemingly fit replacement. After all, we were talking about a guy who scored over 60 goals for CSKA Moscow, including several in the Champions League. He wasn’t an A-List player, but he certainly seemed serviceable.

Until we saw him play...oye

All told Doumbia scored two goals in 13 appearances in a Roma shirt. Any way you slice it, this was an utter failure, and one that cost the club over €14 million in transfer fees and four years in contractual obligations.

Considering his lack of performance, his relatively hefty transfer fee and a deal that runs through 2019, it should come as no surprise that Roma has had a difficult time conning anyway into taking this Albatross off their necks.

After two subsequent loans—first back to CSKA and then to Newcastle—Roma are once more searching for a sucker, and it appears they’ve found one, albeit a temporary one.

It seems as though Roma and Swiss club Basel have agreed to a season long loan, one in which Basel will pay all of his salary, and will have an option to buy at the end of the season, one which we can safely presume they’ll decline.

There’s no way to take the stink off this; Roma will be saddled with this guy for three more years unless some gullible MLS team decides he’s worthy of a designated player spot.

But hey, at least Gervinho had a friend for a few months.