Roma Jones'n for Jordan Veretout

On a day in which they dispatched of a talented (or at least intriguing) young forward in the form of Ezequiel Ponce for minimum plusvalenza and lost a man they deemed not sufficient for their director of sport role (Ricky Massara) to a direct and up and coming rival, AC Milan, Roma appear to be concentrating their efforts on a 26-year-old midfielder currently on his fourth team in six seasons, one who (inexplicably) has a €25 million price tag attached to his purple kit.

In case you hadn't pieced the clues of this intricate puzzle together yet, we're talking about Fiorentina's Jordan Veretout, a 26-year-old Frenchman who has plied his trade in Florence for the past two seasons, scoring 13 goals in 69 league appearances (nice). Veretout has supposedly caught the attention of new coach Paulo Fonseca, but then again, this is Roma we're talking about, so we don't even know if the director of sport (whoever that is) even consults the coach on matters as trifling as signing players.

This rumor, floated by the Gazzetta dello Sport, would see Roma and Milan going toe to toe for Veretout, though the Rossoneri are reportedly scared off by that price tag, and for good reason. For a player who could best be describes as “Uh, I don't know, he's okay I guess” that's a lot of cheddar.

Sure, his goal scoring record is pretty impressive for a midfielder, but we lived through that nightmare this past season with Bryan Cristante, so we can't let the shiny stats blind us. Veretout isn't bad by any means, but he's not exactly lighting the world aflame. While Veretout chipped more than two key passes per 90 minutes, he underperformed his expected goals and expected assist tallies this past season, while completing only 81% of his passes and racking up an astounding 12 yellow cards in 33 league appearances.

All of which is simply to say: he's a decent player, but at that price he may not be a luxury Roma can afford, especially not when you consider the glut of players at his position currently. So while he'd be a nice addition in a vacuum, there are simply too many questionable assets in Roma's midfield already, and until they sort that out, there are other areas of the pitch in which €25 would be better spent.