Manolas Wants Roma Stay

It’s no secret that last summer Roma center back Kostas Manolas was nearly on a one way flight to St. Petersburg to join Roberto Mancini’s Zenit. Roma needed to sell to adhere to their Financial Fair Play constraints and Manolas would’ve fetched a large sum. However, the issue of getting paid in Russian rubles rather than Euros turned the Greek off to the move and it ultimately fell apart at the last minute. In the end, Antonio Rudiger was instead shipped to London to join Chlesea to help Monchi balance the books. Meanwhile, as fate would have it, Manolas stayed and scored one of the biggest goals in Giallorossi history.

Last summer, Manolas signed a contract extension to remain in Rome until 2022, which includes a 36 million Euro transfer clause. In recent days the rumors, which are said to be fairly concrete, have begun swirling that Chelsea intend to activate that clause. New Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri is said to be a big fan of the Greek, and would love to have him and Juve’s Daniele Rugani join him in the English capital, as his starting center back duo.

However, new reports have emerged today in Corriere dello Sport, which indicate that Manolas would prefer to stay in the Italian capital. Corriere reports that Monchi made a phone call to the Greek, who is on vacation in his homeland, and received assurance that his preference is to stay. If this is true, Manolas would be turning down a hefty raise of about 1.5 million Euros. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Manolas will one hundred percent be staying, as we never can be certain, especially after the recent Nainggolan transfer. However, it seems to indicate that Manolas won’t force Roma’s hand into a sale.

The summer transfer window is a long and winding road with many twists and turns, and anything can happen. However, this report is an encouraging sign that Manolas, who has led a solid Roma rearguard since his arrival from Olympiacos in 2014, will do so yet again in the upcoming season.