It feels like Chris Smalling has been on the verge of signing for Roma on a permanent basis about 40 times already this summer, so you would be forgiven for thinking that the move had actually happened.
It turns out he is still a Man United player and that move has dragged on for months, but there’s some good news as Calciomercato have reported that a breakthrough could be on the way.
They confirm that Roma thought they had this done and a fee of €14m was agreed, but that didn’t happen and Man United are sticking to their €20m valuation.
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It’s suggested that Inter Milan are now in a position to pay that fee and they are very interested in Smalling, so Roma could miss out after all.
They also point out that relations between United and Inter are solid after the deals were done for Sanchez, Young and Lukaku recently, so that could also play a part in this.
You have to think that United are getting a bit fed up of Roma dragging this out so any reasonable bit from Inter will probably be accepted, and Smalling will finally get his long term future sorted.