Roma Makes Final Mahrez Offer

Just yesterday we discussed Roma’s renewed optimism in their dogged pursuit of Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez, a key cog in the Foxes 2016 Premiership title. After having a paltry €23 million bid shamwow’d off the face of the earth, Roma put on their big boy pants and scraped together a reported €40 million offer for the 26-year-old right winger, who may or may not be the man of EDFs dreams.

Now, €40 million is a bridge Roma has never crossed in her illustrious history, at least not since the advent of the euro, so this is no piddling matter for Monchi. Well, if you believe the papers, Leicester cares not for Roma’s financial woes and are holding firm to their €55 million valuation of Mahrez.

This, my friends, is the very definition of an impasse. With Roma stuck between a rock and a hard place, we’ll turn to Monchi:

We’re not just working on one name. It’s logical, we have different options. In the case of Mahrez it’s become public knowledge, with others it hasn’t.

We’ve made two offers, the second is fair and then we stopped. There are no percentages, the deal will get over the line or it won’t.

Mahrez is one of the options, not the only one. It’s true that this could be the last offer, we’re evaluating other options.

Credit him with this much, he doesn’t pull any punches. Monchi knows who he wants, how he’ll fit in and most importantly, how much cash he has to work with. While this may or may not be the final offer, as Friday draws to a close, word on the streets says the clubs are getting closer, with potential bonuses being the remaining sticking point in this deal.

Thus far we’ve resisted analyzing Mahrez’s worthiness of that price tag and all its concomitant hype simply because this deal still seems so far from reality, despite what today’s rumors may indicate. In sum, it’s a risk. The stark difference between Mahrez’s past two seasons is enough to give any club pause, let alone one considering breaking their transfer record for his services, and as we discussed yesterday, with Mahrez being labeled the missing piece, he won't’ be given much, if any, quarter by the Roma faithful.

As always, stay tuned.