Although the move has been talked about for a few days it’s still quite surprising to see Chris Smalling complete his move to Italian giants Roma. He was clearly out of favour at Old Trafford so he did look likely to move somewhere.
The BBC confirmed this evening that Smalling has completed a loan move to Roma which will see him spend the entire season in Italy. They report that Man United will receive a fee of £2.7m for the loan but there’s no indication of there being an opton to buy included in the deal.
It’s a surprising and intriguing move when you consider who highly Italian clubs value defensive and tactical discipline, so it will be very interesting to see how he gets on.
The big concern with Smalling is he always looks like he is trying to react and catch up with the play and everything seems to be a bit last ditch.
If he can improve his anticipation then a successful spell in Serie A could be the making of him.
Despite regular criticism during his time in Manchester he has made 323 appearances for United so it’s possible a good season could see him back in Solskjaer’s plans next season.