Roma and Leipzig Continue Patrik Schick Talks

I suspect it will take a long time to really digest what went wrong in the Patrik Schick-Roma experiment, but it appears as though someone else is ready to tinker with the tall Czech petri dish for the time being. Despite Roma's clamoring for a new attacker, their soon to be €42 million man has languished on the bench all summer long, looking every bit the man without a country under Paulo Fonseca as he did under Eusebio Di Francesco and Claudio Ranieri.

There may have been a brief moment in which Schick’s second chance seemed like it would come under Roma's new manager—Schick is agile and skilled enough to excel in the uptempo passing game—but as soon as July rolled around the Schick transfer rumors came with it. There were brief mentions of a reunion with Marco Giampaolo at Milan, under whom he experienced his greatest success at Sampdoria, but the focus of the rumors soon shifted towards the Bundesliga, notably Borussia Dortmund.

Well, it appears as though Schick may be headed for the land of chocolate but he won't be wearing black and yellow.

What started as a drizzle is turning into a deluge. For much of the past week or so we've heard intermittent stories of Schick joining RB Leipzig, who presumably were looking for attacking reinforcements in case Timo Werner left. And while the presumed Bayern striker surprisingly re-upped with Leipzig, they're still in the market for another forward.

According to Goal, Leipzig and Roma are hammering out the final details of a season long loan with an option to buy, reportedly set at €28 million. Considering that Roma will owe Sampdoria €20 million or 50% of a future sale (whichever is greater) by February, it comes as no surprise that they'd rather shed themselves of Schick in one go, an apparent sticking point for Leipzig who prefer a loan with an option to buy.

Either way, it seems as though their exuberance to sign Schick has bitten Roma firmly in the ass. Sensing an opportunity to strike once he failed his Juventus medical, Roma snapped up Schick without really assessing whether or not they could properly utilize his skill set, and in the ensuing two seasons have done little to further his cause; the sum total of Schick's 24 months in Roma is little more than 3,000 minutes.

Schick is not without blame of course—talent tends to rise to the top no matter the circumstance—but can we honestly say Roma properly incubated their most expensive signing ever?

With Leipzig unlikely to offer Roma any concessions, I think it's safe to say this isn't the last we'll see of Schick in a Roma shirt.

Roma deserves better and so does he.