I’m a bit worried about the transfer speculation surrounding Destro and Benatia. Destro has been chased by Spurs and Chelsea and now Milan have apparentlty made him no.1 target to replace Balotelli while Benatia is widely expected to sign for Bayern. I think these two guys are almost irreplaceable.
I think we’ve targeted Manolas to replace Benatia but Arsenal have a strong interest there too. Benatia would be a huge loss. On the other hand, I don’t particularly rate Destro and I trust Rudi’s judgement - he seems happy to let him go.
I don’t think we will let Destro leave for the money being touted. We paid about €16m for him and he had one of the highest goals per mins in domestic leagues across Europe last season as well as representing our future at only 23. I’d imagine given the shortage of top strikers across Europe it would take €30m at an absolute minimum.
Reports emerged yesterday that Sabatini was in London and has agreed a deal for Chiriches.
This deal is being finalised at present.
Manolas is in Rome to sign as Benatia’s replacement.
Benatia has gone, bit disappointed in this but Manolas is a class act and a good replacement for half the price. I do think we need another centre back, preferably someone with a little bit more presence. Basa has been mentioned but signs would suggest we will go with what we have for now. The fee we got for Benatia is €26m + add ons which I don’t think is a great deal considering what other centre backs have gone for this summer.
Milan have named Soldado, Torres, Mitroglou and Borini as their targets to replace Balotelli so thankfully it looks like Destro will be staying which is a huge relief.
Our defence is the most worrying aspect for the coming season, we’ve lost our best defender and our two first choice full backs are coming into their mid 30s now.
[QUOTE=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 1006965, member: 2533”]Benatia has gone, bit disappointed in this but Manolas is a class act and a good replacement for half the price. I do think we need another centre back, preferably someone with a little bit more presence. Basa has been mentioned but signs would suggest we will go with what we have for now. The fee we got for Benatia is €26m + add ons which I don’t think is a great deal considering what other centre backs have gone for this summer.
Milan have named Soldado, Torres, Mitroglou and Borini as their targets to replace Balotelli so thankfully it looks like Destro will be staying which is a huge relief.
Our defence is the most worrying aspect for the coming season, we’ve lost our best defender and our two first choice full backs are coming into their mid 30s now.[/QUOTE]
5 yr contract.
Joel Holebas looks set to sign for €3m from Olympiakos. He’s a left back.
1-0
Nainggolan
2-0
Gervinho
We’re top of the league - just try and move us.
Yanga-Mbwia looks set to join on loan. Also talk about Rabin coming in. I would expect to see Borriello, Romagnoli and Sanabria to leave on loan deals.
How did we play on Saturday, pal? I missed the game unfortunately. First Roma season opener I’ve missed since 1989.
Decent display pal. Deserved winners but we had an iffy period in the mid part of the second half at 1-0 and De Sancton had to make some great saves. New boys settled in well and Nainggolan was terrific.
Yanga-Mbwia is in Rome at the moment and his move should go through before tonight. Rabiot doesn’t look like it will happen in this window, he might come in in January in as a replacement for Strootman who I expect will join Man Utd when he’s back fit. Overall it’s been a very good window - I’d have a few questions about us defensively but we’ll see how that pans out.
Romagnoli has left for a loan deal with Sampdoria. Balzaretti expected to announce his retirement from football shortly.
A Nainggolan goal gave us victory over Empoli earlier. 
Important three points but it was not a good performance, struggled to keep the ball in midfield, Pjanic was very quiet. The attack looked disjointed and never really created any opportunities. Defensively we were solid, Castan had to go off injured at half time but Manolas had a very solid game. Nainggolan was immense once again, Strootman will find it tough to regain his place when he comes back.
I was very impressed with young Rugani who played centre back for Empoli last night, he is on loan at Juventus and I’d expect him to be back there next season.
Roma: De Sanctis; Maicon, Manolas, Astori, Torosidis; Pjanic, Keita, Nainggolan; Iturbe, Totti, Gervinho
Roma bench: Skorupski, Yanga-Mbiwa, Cole, Florenzi, Paredes, Ljajic, Destro
CSKA Moscow: Akinfeev; Mario Fernandes, V Berezutski, Ignashevich, Nababkin; Z Tosic, Natcho, Eremenko, G Milanov; Doumbia, Musa
CSKA bench: Chepchugov, A Berezutski, Schennikov, Chernov, Efremov, Panchenko, Bazelyuk
Iturbe!!!
Gervinho!!!
We are tearing them to pieces!
This is splendid. That was a lovely first goal. Iturbe has serious pace.
Gervinho is ripping them apart. Arsenal selling Gervinho for £7m and buying Ozil for €50m must be the biggest mugging off in transfer history. Is that the correct context of fx rates, @Tabby ?