Roma Pursuing Godfred Donsah

With a mere five days remaining in the January transfer window it appears Roma have set their sights on Bologna midfielder, Godfred Donsah, or so his agent has claimed. This isn’t the first time Roma has reportedly been interested in Donsah. Back in 2014 the lad had some trials with the Giallorossi, but apparently he didn’t cut the mustard, or he wasn’t the apple of Sabatini’s eye, or [insert some other idiom here]. The twenty-year old Ghanaian will cost Roma somewhere between eight or ten million euros. What? Let me put this plainly: Roma is looking at an unproven player with an inflated price tag who plays for a midtable team to help support a run against Juventus. What the hell is our transfer strategy here?

While it is true that any midfielder will add to Roma’s lack of depth, especially one with Serie A experience, there are several aspects to this potential signing that are perplexing. Firstly, Spalletti’s history hasn’t been kind to young players. Yes, Donsah has been playing for two years in topflight football, and he has already earned international caps, but he can hardly be considered an experienced player. Furthermore, he’s only tallied three games this season and his past has indicated that he is injury prone. If Roma are truly “serious” about their Scudetto challenge why not sign a proven midfielder who will have an instant impact on the team?

There is nothing special about Donsah’s game. He is an adequate dribbler, physical, and he likes to move forward. Perhaps he could be a decent substitution for Strootman in a more advanced position, or maybe slot in for DDR as a holding midfielder, but there has to be other candidates with more vision, more creativity, someone like him, or him, or him. If you want to waste three minutes of your life you can watch some yawn-inducing highlights here, I am not even going to embed it.

So, say these reports are true, and Roma are really considering Godfred, at least we will have someone to stand in after injuries and suspensions, but all in all this move would likely prove lackluster. Something tells me there is panic at the offices in the capital. Remember last time when we hit the panic button? Screw it, I’ll tell you, we got the bozo twins, Ibarbo and D(o)umbia.

If we wake up next Wednesday morning with Drefel and Donsah as our only recruits how will we rate this mercato? I recall most of us weren’t necessarily ecstatic about Perotti and SES at first, but boy, were we wrong! However, there is something unsettling about the thought of Donsah being our only midfield addition. Maybe he could prove his worth in the future, but he is a gamble. I’ll just leave you with these financial possibilities: 15-25m for Drefel, 8-10m for Donsah. Do the math. Consider their worth. Speculate the outcome.