Roma President Suggests He Had 'No Choice' in Alisson Becker's Departure to Liverpool
Roma president James Pallotta has claimed that the transfer of goalkeeper Alisson Becker to Liverpool in a £66m move was 'not an easy one', and that the club had little choice in keeping the Brazil number one in Rome.
As seen on the Serie A side's official YouTube channel, Pallotta claimed to have no choice in allowing both Alisson and Mohamed Salah to move to Anfield over the last two summers.
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The Reds have swooped for arguably the club's two best players in each of the last two summer windows, capturing Egyptian international Salah in a bargain £36.9m deal before smashing the world record fee for a keeper to bring Alisson to Merseyside (prior to Chelsea breaking that same record last night).
Speaking on the Brazilian's move to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, Pallotta said, "I think Alisson’s not an easy one. People outside think you have choices and a lot of the time you don’t so you just try to make the best of it.
"It’s not an easy thing – there’s a lot of thought that goes into that kind of stuff and a lot of the time, you’ve just got no choice.”
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The Serie A club's president elaborated on these claims, going on to discuss the manner in which Salah departed the Stadio Olimpico. Regarding the former Chelsea man's sale, Pallotta said, "“I liked Salah a lot.
"Unbeknown to a lot of people, or a lot of people don’t seem to know, is that we didn’t have a choice in him leaving."
“It was difficult. He had one year left and he asked to leave and he felt like he had something to prove back in the Premier League. It was difficult for that."
Alisson is set to make his Premier League debut for the Reds this Sunday as Liverpool welcome West Ham to Anfield, with all eyes on the former Roma duo as Salah begins his quest for the Premier League golden boot once more.
