{"id":564640,"date":"2020-09-04T20:12:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T00:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=564640"},"modified":"2020-09-04T20:12:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T00:12:26","slug":"report-roma-close-to-signing-chris-smalling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/04\/report-roma-close-to-signing-chris-smalling\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: AS Roma Close to Signing Chris Smalling From Manchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/angelomangiante\/status\/1301228358580285443\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angelo Mangiante<\/a>, of Sky Sport, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/manchester-united\" target=\"_self\">Manchester United<\/a> centre-back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.co.uk\/chris-smalling\/profil\/spieler\/103427\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Smalling<\/a> is very close to a permanent move to Italian side <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/search\/AS+Roma\" target=\"_self\">AS Roma<\/a>. The English club want \u20ac20 million + \u20ac5 million in add-ons.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Roma Closing on Smalling Signing<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Smalling is so close to Roma now<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1301587444425543686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Manchester United Keen to Raise Funds<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smalling made 323 appearances for the Red Devils after making his debut 10 years ago. Becoming a regular starter in a strong and competitive squad. He achieved many titles along the way: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/premier-league\/\" target=\"_self\">Premier League<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/search\/Europa+League\" target=\"_self\">Europa League<\/a> to name a few.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/02\/manchester-united-confirm-donny-van-de-beek-signing\/\" target=\"_self\">securing the services<\/a> of midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/50dc94ce\/Donny-van-de-Beek\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donny van de Beek<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/search\/ajax\" target=\"_self\">Ajax<\/a>, Manchester United look keen to offload Smalling and build funds to continue their summer spending. Defence is a position that they could look to strengthen if the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1300584678769000449\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8216;right opportunity&#8217;<\/a> arises.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manutd.com\/en\/news\/detail\/ole-gunnar-solskjaer-update-on-chris-smalling-situation\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">admitted<\/a> Smalling left the club for &#8216;regular&#8217; football in the last campaign, something he may have to do again.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Successful Loan Spell in Rome<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smalling completed a successful loan in Italy last year. Becoming a favourite at Stadio Olimpico. Making 37 appearances and chipping in with 3 goals. He helped guide them to a fifth-place finish in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/serie-a\/\" target=\"_self\">Serie A<\/a>. Gazette Dello Sport <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetfootball.com\/quick-reads\/an-absolute-totem-of-the-defence-11-quotes-on-chris-smalling-at-roma\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">brandished<\/a> Smalling \u201can absolute totem of the defence\u201d. Before his loan move, Smalling found himself falling out of favour and destined for the door at Old Trafford. His inspiring performances have given him a new lease of life, potentially forcing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/search\/England\" target=\"_self\">England<\/a> manager Gareth Southgate to reconsider Smalling&#8217;s current non-existent role in the national team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rumoured transfer fee for Chris Smalling would surely represent a good deal. Accordingly, there is <a href=\"https:\/\/gianlucadimarzio.com\/it\/calciomercato-ultime-news-e-trattative-di-oggi-2-settembre-2020\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">confidence<\/a> in the transfer going ahead, with both parties seemingly keen to make it happen. Smalling decided he wanted to return to Roma &#8216;long ago&#8217;. Signing Smalling, a player with bags of experience. would further enhance Roma&#8217;s strong squad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"GgAum4O1T35JqVhnETEfqw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1227830882\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'GgAum4O1T35JqVhnETEfqw',sig:'PN4ZfjsXBDS8lFrUDevp_feMdC3y1C5JIPdg005z80Y=',w:'594px',h:'369px',items:'1227830882',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Angelo Mangiante, of Sky Sport, Manchester United centre-back Chris Smalling is very close to a permanent move to Italian side AS Roma. The English club want \u20ac20 million + \u20ac5 million in add-ons. Roma Closing on Smalling Signing Smalling is so close to Roma now \u2014 Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 3, 2020 Manchester [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3641,"featured_media":564787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18,3,5,28],"tags":[997,718,443,36,3197,48,136],"class_list":["post-564640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","category-serie-a","category-transfers","tag-as-roma","tag-chris-smalling","tag-gareth-southgate","tag-manchester-united","tag-ole-gunnar-solskjaer","tag-serie-a","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Jordan Hackett, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}