Promes Latest Name Connected to Roma’s Right Wing

We shift the focus from Roma’s woeful performance against Celta Vigo today to discuss, what else, their continuing search for a right winger, one made even more urgent by their languid summer tour. With Roma’s self-mandated Riyad Mahrez deadline less than 48 hours away, and with opening day only 160 some odd hours in the future, time is quickly running short for Monchi and Eusebio Di Francesco to find a suitable starter.

We’ve thrown so many names at the wall in this pursuit of an inverted right winger, that it’s hard to tell how many of them have been legitimate targets and how many were smokescreens and/or media fabrications. The latest name connected to Roma’s right flank is one that has been bandied about on our message board but has yet to appear in any actual headlines.

Well, wait no more. According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Spartak Moscow’s Dutch winger, Quincy Promes, has now warranted Roma’s attention. Promes, 25-years-old, has been plying his trade in the Russian Premier League for four seasons now, having moved to Spartak in the summer of 2014 for €15 million, a fee Spartak has more than recouped.

In four seasons for The People’s Team (great name), Promes has amassed 47 goals and dished out 17 assists in league play. What’s more, Promes is off to a blazing start this season, scoring four goals and contributing one assist in six league matches. Promes, much like many of the Mahrez stand-ins, is a winger in name only, having made his name as more of an advanced attacking midfielder, though one who can certainly push out wide in a pinch given his ambidexterity.

As you can see, Promes, though not statuesque, is a pretty quick and pretty technical player, one equipped with highlight worthy dribbling skills which he uses to create for himself and others. Through the season’s first six matches, Promes is averaging a solid 1.2 dribbles per match, while doling out an impressive 3.5 key passes and 2.2 accurate crosses per match. So if nothing else, they’d be catching Promes at the exact right moment.

Given that ability to create space on his own and set up teammates in the penalty area, the attraction to Promes is quite obvious. However, the enormous caveat, one Roma learned the hard way with Seydou Doumbia, is to never trust statistics from the Russian league.

Would Promes be destined to follow Doumbia’s path? Of course not, but at a reported €25 million this is a gamble Roma can’t afford to take lightly.