The statement from AS Roma president, James Pallotta, “everyone is for sale” is obviously going to turn a lot of attention to Daniele De Rossi, with Chelsea probably being the first team to react to the news.
Even after adding Marco van Ginkel. who had some fears about not getting a lot of playing time at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho would prefer to have a stronger presence in the middle of the pitch, next, or instead of Jon Obi Mikel, who is wanted in Turkey by Galatasaray.
According to the Mirror, De Rossi has no longer been Il Futuro Captiano for quite some time. His relationship with the Roma fans hasn’t been as good as in the past with some of the team’s fans, and De Rossi himself has said more than once that it’s sometimes hard handling the pressure of playing for Roma, and prefers putting on the Italy shirt, where not everything he does is analyzed and criticized under a microscope.
De Rossi had problems last season with Zdenek Zeman, who eventually got sacked. De Rossi was far from his best for most of last season, not scoring a single goal in 25 league matches, as Roma crashed out of Europe, finishing sixth, missing out on the European competition once again.
De Rossi has expressed his interest in playing for a Premier League club before he retires more than once. Now, turning 30, and with his future in the only club he’s ever played for and grew up being a fan of put in doubt, the Premier League seems a lot more tempting.
Not that playing for Chelsea doesn’t come with a lot of pressure, but it has once been said that no one has it harder than Rome born players who have to put on an AS Roma shirt. De Rossi is comfortable in blue, and would welcome the change in atmosphere and expectations from him.
How much will he cost? He has a contract until 2017, but with Roma doing some sort of clearance sale, it might be enough for Chelsea to put up £10 million to secure his signing, which would also help Roma get rid of De Rossi’s huge salary. Always in the shadow of Francesco Totti, who simply refuses to retire or stop scoring goals, everyone might benefit from seeing De Rossi move to Chelsea.