Reports from Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Manchester United defender Chris Smalling is now ‘one step away’ from joining AS Roma on a permanent basis.
The potential deal has been at an impasse over the difference in valuation from both clubs.
While Roma want to pay £13.5m for the defender, the Red Devils were desperate to grasp something around £20m.
As various sources confirmed, the expected bid that United eventually have got to receive is around £18m, close to United United’s valuation for one of their long-term servants.
With Manchester United, Smalling he has had won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup, one EFL Cup, one Europa League and three Community Shields over the years.
Last season, after sensing that he would be surplus to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s requirements, the Englishman chose to leave United for Italian side AS Roma.
He flourished there, helping them attain the Europa League spot in the 2019-2020 campaign.
His contributions to the team made such a huge impact that AS Roma manager Paulo Fonseca could not resist him from saying that he wholeheartedly would want Smalling to re-join his side.
He claimed:
“I’m confident for Smalling, we’re working on it. He really wants to go back to Rome.
“I am in regular contact with Chris Smalling, I spoke to him yesterday. He wants to come back to Roma and we want to have him back. I think that there could be an update over the next few days.”
Should Smalling want to make the cut into the England squad for the upcoming EURO 2021 next summer, he needs regular game time, which he would definitely get in the Italian capital.
Smalling has himself reportedly asked the Man United board to let him leave and re-join Roma.
It now certainly seems to be a matter of time before the Mancunian club officially announces the departure of their No.12.
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