Roma are enjoying a productive start to the transfer window after agreeing deals with Juventus and Rennes for Matias Soule and Enzo Le Fee, and are now pushing to complete a deal with Girona for Artem Dovbyk, which would bring the Giallorossi’s summer spending close to the €100m mark.
Roma had, however, been held back by various financial fair play restrictions this time last summer, so here’s why they are able to fork out so much less than 12 months later.
How Roma can spend close to €100m this summer
In short, wage cuts and a massively improved balance sheet are the reasons why Roma are able to invest more heavily this summer.
The club were impacted by FFP limits over the past few seasons, which effectively meant that they had to raise more money than they were able to spend during the transfer windows.
Roma’s accounts are now starting to improve. Significantly, in fact, as they closed the most recent financial year with losses of €115.5m, compared to the €229.1m they lost the year before, according to figures from Calciomercato.com.
Several player departures have helped to improve the situation even further. Romelu Lukaku, who was earning a €7m wage during his loan spell last season, is no longer on the books. Neither is Rui Patricio or Leonardo Spinazzola, both of whom were reportedly earning around €3m in wages per season.
Renato Sanches and his €3.6m salary are gone now as well. The same can also be said for Diego Llorente (€2.7m), Rasmus Kristiansen (€2m) and Houssem Aouar (€2m).
Calciomercato estimate that those departures will save Roma around €50m per season.
Additionally, the permanent departures of Aouar and Andrea Belotti have brought in at least another €16m in fees, while Riccardo Calafiori’s move to Arsenal is set to add around €8m more to the club’s coffers.
Tammy Abraham and Nicola Zalewski could also still be moved on this summer, which could bring in a further €30m.
Da #Soulé a #Dovbyk e Le Fée: ecco come la #Roma riesce a spendere 100 milioni sul #calciomercato https://t.co/f09UZPq2mb pic.twitter.com/ulNF7tahOn
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) July 27, 2024
Only 115 million euros lost eh? Sounds really sustainable.
Check everyone else’s balance sheets… Football is not the right business to make money in.
The only properly run team in Serie A from a business perspective is Atalanta. No wonder the Celtics invested in them. Genius management. Turnkey buy low sell high, while raising profitable youth players.