Director Tiago Pinto confirms Granit Xhaka ‘wanted’ to join them and some players refused to leave, but Roma have brought in ‘best coach in the world’ Jose Mourinho and built ‘a stronger squad.’
Mourinho had already stated that their plans were rather ruined by the injury to Leonardo Spinazzola and Edin Dzeko’s transfer to Inter, forcing them to fill those gaps rather than other areas that were already lacking.
“This was the most difficult transfer window in the history of football and I think at the end of the day we did well,” said Tiago Pinto in his press conference.
“We brought in the best coach in the world and built a stronger squad. You will certainly talk about all we weren’t able to do, but we did good work.
“We invested more than Dan and Ryan Friedkin had originally planned, but wanted to accelerate the growth process at Roma.
“It’s not about the budget, everyone knows we were interested in Granit Xhaka, but the negotiations could not continue and we had to focus on what was more urgent for this team.
“Xhaka wanted to come to Roma, Arsenal didn’t have any intention of selling at that moment, so that was a regret at the time.”
Another issue is the number of players who are still on the books and no longer required, such as Federico Fazio, Steven Nzonzi and Davide Santon.
“Don’t forget when we arrived Roma had over 60 players under contract and that’s not easy to deal with. We found clubs for over 30 players and only failed to do so for those who didn’t want to leave. We brought good offers for all the players, but I cannot get inside the minds of players.
“That is the real regret, that we worked so hard to bring good proposals to them that were respectful for the players. I thank 95 per cent of the players and agents who really did make an effort to find a solution.”
If you truly had that many players and got rid of 95% of them you can’t cry.