Daniele de Rossi ‘pleads for Man Utd move as
Roma eye Dimitar Berbatov’
Roma midfielder Daniele de
Rossi is reportedly looking to secure a move to Old Trafford in the
near future, in a deal which could see striker Dimitar Berbatov go in the opposite
direction.
The Italian is considering moving his family out of the city after
his father-in-law was murdered and he is now understood to be the
victim of a blackmail campaign.
He also admitted to falling out with the Stadio Olympico
faithful: ‘They (Roma fans) used to treat me as one of their own,
they would tell me to throw in another elbow, but now the wind has
changed.’
Representatives of the central midfielder are understood to have
met officials at the club to make them aware of his availability
next summer, indicating the World Cup winner’s desire to move to
Manchester.
De Rossi still has over a year left to run on his £60,000-a-week
contract in Rome, but the opinion of the Italian media is that he
could in fact be the centre of a transfer battle in August, with a
number of clubs tracking his situation.
Real Madrid have been linked with the £20 million-rated star and
Roma have indicated they would not stand in the way of the
27-year-old if he wished to leave the club.
Roma are reported to be interested in signing Dimitar Berbatov, who
has been used sparingly in recent weeks by Sir Alex Ferguson
despite being United’s top scorer, and it is rumoured that de Rossi
could be involved in a cash-plus-player deal in the summer.
SOURCE: Metro
This move would be something of a surprise given that
Manchester United are
reportedly looking to offer Bulgarian international Dimitar
Berbatov a brand new contract in reward for his successful efforts
this season. However the former Tottenham man may consider his
options given that of late he has been left on the bench whilst
Javier Hernandez and Wayne Rooney have been forming a pretty useful
partnership.
Given that Berbatov is now 30 years of age, he won’t want to be
wasting his best years on the Old Trafford bench and may be tempted
by a new challenge but a lot would depend on whether caretaker boss
Vincenzo Montella were to stay on as Stadio Olimpico boss beyond
this season as it is unlikely a player would move to a club only to
see the boss who bought him leave, and therefore potentially leave
the purchased player hoping to be to the new boss’s liking.
Sir Alex Ferguson is known to be a fan of Daniele De Rossi so perhaps the Man United
boss would be open to some sort of swap deal, but only if Berbatov
were to push for such a deal. One has to feel for the stylish
striker, after two decent seasons where he was pilloried for
lacking an end product and lacking the ability to be a 20-25 goal a
season man, when he finally does start to become prolific, 20 goals
in 22 Premier League starts, he then finds it hard to get a regular
spot in the starting eleven.
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