The sale of Nicolò Zaniolo to Galatasaray and Matias Vina to Bournemouth raised some serious questions over whether Jose Mourinho is growing the value of Roma players or decreasing it.
There have been several situations since Mou took over last season that sparked tension within the locker room, leading to early exits, often without raising the kind of transfer fees that would’ve been expected.
Rick Karsdorp could well be next in line, seeing as he has been frozen out since October following a row with the coach and is still not welcomed back into the squad.
Some January sales were made to remove players who either did not fit Mourinho’s vision or had a desire to leave the club because of behind the scenes tension.
With those circumstances forcing transfers, Roma did not pocket anywhere near as much as they would’ve done in calmer situations, as Zaniolo was sold for €15m plus bonuses, approximately half his value on the transfer market.
That €30m fee was only set because his contract was running down, as a few months ago Zaniolo had been valued at closer to €50m.
Uruguay international Vina went to Bournemouth on loan with option to buy for €15m, not much considering he was purchased for €13m from Palmeiras in the summer of 2021, with the Brazilian side owed a cut of the sell-on fee.
Eldor Shomurodov was bought from Genoa for €18m plus bonuses in 2021 and was sent to Spezia on loan with an option to buy.
Marash Kumbulla cost €29.5m to purchase from Hellas Verona, yet he has now become a glorified bench-warmer under Mourinho.
Some big purchases, such as €7m Zeki Celik, have seen themselves pushed down the pecking order in favour of youngsters from the academy, so Mourinho has done well to help Nicola Zalewski, Edoardo Bove and Benjamin Tahirovic flourish, but it seems to be at the expense of big investments.
In cases such as Kumbulla and Shomurodov the problem has clearly been that the original fee was way too high rather than anything Mourinho has done with the players. Not hard to see ways in which nearly £50million could have been better spent than on those 2.