Roma Continue to Covet Manchester United’s Matteo Darmian

I suppose it’s somewhat ironic since we started off the week discussing Bruno Peres’ brief but strange tenure with Roma that we now shift the midweek focus to Matteo Darmian. This isn’t to compare them as players, merely that they’re both wing/fullbacks whom Roma have craved for years, or at least have made multiple appearances in the Roma rumor rags. Further adding to that irony is the simple fact that, had Peres’ assimilation to Roma gone as planned, Roma wouldn’t find themselves pining after Darmian once more. Birds of a feather flock together, right?

With Roma’s big wigs reported heading to London for their semi-annual pow-wow, the topic of discussion seems two-fold: One, how to obtain that ever elusive shirt sponsor, and two, rescuing Darmian from his Manchester nightmare, though I’m not sure which one is more likely to occur.

By now, you’re no doubt familiar with Darmian’s tale: hero for Torino, flop for United. For a variety of reasons Darmian’s Manchester move just hasn’t panned out, leading to the constant cycle of “Darmian Returning to Serie A” headlines over the past 18 months or so, the latest of which sees Darmian as the protagonist behind the aforementioned Roma conclave.

Just how bad have things gotten for Darmian at the Theater of Dreams? Well, Darmian has logged only 398 in all competitions for United this season; injuries aside, that doesn’t exactly paint a pretty picture, does it? But this is United we’re talking about, so snapping up Darmian won’t be as easy as all that.

The Gazzetta dello Sport (via Football Italia) claims that Darmian could be had on loan with an option to buy. It’s a far cry from his days delighting the Toro faithful, but Darmian’s versatility and experience would enable Eusebio Di Francesco to mix and match his lineups to a greater degree than he current can, for no other reason that it would enable him in turn to play with Alessandro Florenzi’s role.

The transfer hype seldom fits the bill during the winter, but Peres going out one door while Darmian walks through the other might actually be a decent bit of business for Roma.