Roma are considering allowing summer signing Houssem Aouar to leave the club as early as January after a tricky start to life at the Stadio Olimpico according to reports on Friday afternoon.
The Algeria international was the Giallorossi’s first recruit of the summer transfer window, signing a five year contract in June after leaving Ligue 1 side Lyon upon the expiry of his contract.
Thought to be a major coup at the time, Aouar has since struggled with his fitness, as had been the case in France, and at the time of writing, ahs only managed to play the full 90 minutes on two occasions across Serie A and the Europa League.
There had been concerning comments from coach Jose Mourinho following the 1-1 draw with Servette in Europe on Thursday evening, accusing Aouar of coming across as “a bit nervous.”
According to reports from Calciomercato.com on Friday afternoon, sporting director Tiago Pinto is considering allowing Aouar to leave the club in January.
This could be on loan to regain confidence, or even on a permanent transfer if a suitable offer were to come in.
Convincing clubs to take Aouar on in January could be tricky though, as he is expected to miss up to a month of club action when Algeria take part in the Africa Cup of Nations in February.
There are suggestions that Roma could be better off waiting until the summer to assess Aouar’s future. The club could make a decent capital gain if he were to be sold permanently, given that he arrived for free just over six months ago.
Nobody will take this donkey off Roma!