EDF: ‘Nainggolan a shared choice'

By Football Italia staff

Roma Coach Eusebio Di Francesco insists selling Radja Nainggolan was “a shared choice” between himself and the club.

The Belgian fan favourite has joined Inter for €24m plus Davide Santon and Nicolò Zaniolo, but it wasn’t just sporting director Monchi who made the call.

“A shared choice was made,” Di Francesco told il Centro.

“I have a very good relationship with Radja and we spoke recently. On a personal level I wish him all the best.

“As for the transfer campaign it’s not yet finished, even if we have to say that our sporting director Monchi has got on with his work. He moved with speed.

“We may need to thin out the squad, we’re making assessments and we’ll make others during pre-season to make other decisions.

“Javier Pastore? He’s one of the few news players who I’ve spoken to and he gave me positive feelings.

“He’s come to play as a mezzala, but his versatility is important for the tactical makeup of the squad. He has characteristics which we didn’t have before.

“He has the quality and imagination to make us more penatrative, especially against teams that sit back.”

While Roma reached the Champions League semi-final last season they finished a distant third in the Scudetto race - can they challenge this year?

“We want to be there too, we want to cause problems for those who finished above us in the table.

“At Juventus there’s teamwork and that’s what I’m preaching at Roma: we need to take care of ‘us’ rather than ‘me’.”

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