Roma Sporting Director Monchi Explains How Club Lost Malcom to Barcelona
AS Roma sporting director Monchi has detailed the events which led to the Serie A side losing target Malcom to Barcelonaeven after an agreement with his former club Bordeaux.
I Giallorossi announced having reached a deal with the French side via their Twitter account on Monday, minutes after Bordeaux had made a similar announcement. However, the deal was subsequently called off, with Barca having swooped through with a better offer, and the player has since signed a five-year-deal to represent the Catalan giants.
“What happened with Malcom is easy to explain, but perhaps a bit harder to fully understand," Monchi said via Roma's official website. "He is a player that we liked a lot from a footballing perspective, he had the attributes that we were looking for.
“We started a negotiation with Bordeaux and the player, through his agent, more or less a week ago. After three of four days of intensive negotiations, yesterday at about 5pm [Italian time] we found an agreement; with the agent, with the player and with Bordeaux.
“The deal was done, and we had permission for the player to travel to Rome for a medical. There was a plane scheduled to leave at 9pm that would arrive at 11pm; everything was sorted. Because of this we were calm and collected."
Monchi also explained the club's premature tweet, claiming that a call from Bordeaux's president, as well as the French side's own tweet, prompted Roma to make the announcement via Twitter.
“Once we found the agreement with Bordeaux, about 30 minutes later their president, Stephane Martin, called me to tell me that there were a lot of rumors surrounding the deal, and for them it would be better to make an official statement," he continued.
"I told him that, for us, it would not be ideal – as we are listed on the stock exchange and have to respect certain rules – but he insisted, and they ultimately did a tweet to announce the agreement.
“Because of this, we also followed up with the same statement. Everything was done, but about an hour after the announcement, there started to be suggestions of a new interest from Barcelona.
Monchi has also apologized to Roma fans. The director insists the club did all that was necessary to secure the deal and even raised their offer after Barca interfered, but they withdrew after it "became an auction".
“I am very sorry for what has happened, but I believe that we had a complete agreement with Bordeaux – and then offered even more than that to get it done again," he said in conclusion.
"President Pallotta made the decision to make the best offer possible, but when the negotiation became an auction we decided to withdraw from it. If someone wants to come to Roma that is great, but ultimately if they do not want to come to Rome then we do not want them.
“I want to tell our fans that we are continuing to work hard, working to identify a player that wants to come to Roma and is the equal or even better than Malcom.”
