Roma Look to Yarmolenko as Salah Substitute

As we discussed earlier today, much of Roma’s transfer dealings, concrete or otherwise, have focused on who has or soon will be leaving. The most recent headlines have been dedicated to Kostas Manolas and Antonio Rüdiger, the latter of whom is taking his Chelsea medical exam in Los Angeles, while the former may be bound for Paris. However, lost among all that speculation was the fact that Roma still hasn’t lined up a suitable replacement, in either form or function, for Mohamed Salah, he of 15 goals and 11 assists in league play last season.

While we’ve been party to a set of Sassuolo players—Gregoire Defrel and Domenico Berardi—as a Salah substitute, today we’ll add another name to the list, Dinamo Kiev’s Andriy Yarmolenko. If that name sounds familiar it should, Yarmolenko has been connected with Roma at varying points over the past four years, first as an up and coming star in the making, and now as a possible third option behind Berardi and Defrel.

Yarmolenko, 27-years-old, is coming off a pretty solid campaign in 2016-2017. When you include his duties with the Ukrainian national team, Yarmolenko tallied 19 goals in 31 appearances, 10 of which came with Kiev. Yarmolenko features on the right flank and is known for his awkward but agile legs, his speed and playmaking ability.

However, coming at a cost of €17 million he wouldn’t be cheap, but based on everything we’ve read this summer, that seems to be the going rate for a reserve wide player nowadays, though it is several million cheaper than he would have cost several years ago.

Not the sexiest option to replace Salah, but at some eight to nine million cheaper than Defrel, he might be the smarter buy of the two.

Of course, Bernardeschi is now available...hmm.