Transfer Rumour Roundup: Roma Pursue Villar, Dilrosun and Bernardeschi

A rupture to the outside meniscus wall. That is the news all Romanisti were clicking refresh on Twitter for, when it came down to how long we’d have to go without Amadou Diawara on the field.

It’s a new injury to the same knee that saw Diawara subbed off against Cagliari earlier in the season but, this time, looks like a three-month spell on the sidelines for Roma’s genius playmaker. So it’s even more understandable that rumours linking Roma with another midfield signing have ramped up this morning.

Roma Increase Their Gonzalo Villar Offer

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Il Romanista reports that Roma have finally stepped up their bid to sign Elche’s Gonzalo Villar, making a 5 million euro offer to Villar’s club as an upgrade on their opening bid a week ago. This is apparently still below Elche’s asking price but Roma are scraping every last penny of the 2019/20 budget they can find underneath James Pallotta’s couch to make things happen before the winter mercato shuts. And then there’s the matter of that very same couch being loaded up into a FedEx truck, making it’s way outta Roma’s EUR head offices for a certain Texan magnate to move in.

Ibañez Medical Pushed Back Yet Again

It’s the signing that no one has a problem with and yet it refuses to materialises. Il Tempo’s Filippo Biafora (below) reports that Ibañez’s Roma medical has, once again, been moved back to possible Villa Stuart appointment this coming Monday.

Unlike the Matteo Politano affair, this time Atalanta and Roma have deposited signed contracts at the Lega office. So it would be extremely unusual if this move didn’t happen. But we’re all left guessing as to what the hold up is here.

Roma’s Right Wing Search Ends In Dilrosun and Bernadeschi?

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The newest name popping up in Roma’s hunt for a right-wing signing is Hertha Berlin’s Javairo Dilrosun. Goal.com reports that Roma have met with the winger’s agent, and Petrachi used yesterday evening’s pre-match conference to confirm this position is priority number one for January reinforcements.

After Jurgen Klopp unequivocally shut down any chance of Xherdan Shaqiri leaving Liverpool this winter, and with Roma dallying over Real Sociedad’s requested fee for Adnan Januzaj, it really is down to watching Youtube highlights of Dilrosun and figuring out early metaphors we could use on his last name.

Elsewhere, there is the extremely speculative suggestion that Juventus would let Federico Bernardeschi go south to Rome. And sure, that rumour always come attached with the idea that the evil empire up North would demand a sacrifice like Alessio Riccardi or Alessandro Florenzi. But, at this point, I’d throw them both on the train to land Bernardeschi this January.

It’s not that I rate him as a game-changer on the world football scene, but Bernardeschi is that right mix of youth and experience that is desperately lacking along Roma’s frontline at the moment. That being said, when you see reports that Juventus have turned down player-exchange offers with Barcelona for Bernadeschi and are holding out for a 25-30 million euro offer on him, you have to admit Roma have very few cards (if any) left to play on this front.