Walter Sabatini explains he can never stop looking for the next opportunity, which for Roma he admits may well be Adrien Rabiot.
The sporting director has today sat down with the media to discuss a number of topics, including his work for the Giallorossi in the summer transfer window.
Walter Sabatini explains he can never stop looking for the next opportunity, which for Roma he admits may well be Adrien Rabiot.
The sporting director has today sat down with the media to discuss a number of topics, including his work for the Giallorossi in the summer transfer window.
Despite bringing in a number of new faces, it was put to the director that the best bit of business was in keeping Kevin Strootman.
“A great buy…we lost him and it caused us great difficulty,” Sabatini has considered on the player recovering from knee ligament damage.
“He is an extraordinary player, and these rumours [of his sale] have been based on the desires of other clubs.
“We want to keep him, he is our point of strength. We hope to see him back in the field with all his powers. He played an exemplary role last season.
“Of course he is unsellable, but we must contextualise that I do not say he is for sale. We receive offers, protect him and defend him, but I do not know what will happen.
“For now we enjoy him even whilst he is injured. We are not thinking in any way of selling him, we hope to have him return. We must have patience and wait, he is a decisive player.”
Sabatini was asked if he really considered the market to be closed.
“In my mind I am looking every day, sometimes I do not find anything, but I am always in a state of restlessness, and have never totally relaxed or satisfied.
“Of course I am sure that this is a competitive group, but this does not rest my anxiety, my desire to work.
“It is a charge that I cannot give up. I am never totally at peace, and this gives me the strength to search, to poke my nose into the affairs of others. It will always be like that for me.”
The Lupi were seen as close to signing Adrien Rabiot from Paris Saint-Germain in the closing hours of the market and have been expected to make a move either in January or at the end of his current contract next June.
“He is an exceptional player, who has forged ahead. We cannot but follow him, we like him very much,” Sabatini has confirmed.
“He is a player that we would like and we will discuss him through correct behaviour, we will not wait for a solution to acquire him on a free transfer.
“We do not want to make strategic choices – remember that we could have signed a strong guy like Sanabria [on a free] but we signed him in agreement with Barcelona.
“If we have the privilege and the desire to negotiate for Rabiot, we will do so in agreement with Paris Saint-Germain.
“But I believe it will be difficult, as his contract situation is unknown. We will try to work on this as something between clubs of great prestige.
“Perhaps at this moment they are slightly ahead of us as they can make massive investments, we want to work with all the true greats of Europe in the same manner, because we are a big club and that is how we behave.”