Monchi discusses Mahrez, Strootman

By Football Italia staff

Monchi insists “the ball is now in Leicester City’s court” regarding Riyad Mahrez and that Roma will not sell Kevin Strootman to Juventus.

Explaining his stances at Aleksandar Kolarov’s presentation on Friday, Monchi claimed Roma had made “the biggest offer in their history” for Mahrez, while his club had “no interest” in moving on Strootman.

“I’ll begin by saying that the agreement was very quick. I perceived [a desire for the transfer to happen] to be reciprocal,” began the sporting director.

“As for what he can give us, I believe the best answer to be yesterday’s game [a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla]. His performance was that in a nutshell.

“Mahrez? During Defrel’s presentation, I said that Roma had reached a point that they’d considered right for Mahrez.

“We made the biggest offer in Roma’s history, of €30m plus bonuses, and we won’t make any more offers.

“We’ve taken the right and honest steps and the ball is now in Leicester’s court. We await their answer.

“In the meantime, we’re working on other things. I’d say that Roma are 90 percent complete.

“A risk to start the season with only a few defenders? I’m not worr

ied. We have Bruno Peres on the right and plenty of cover on the left.

“As for the rest, I think we have the right players. Now we’ll evaluate whether to make any more moves. We’re pleased with yesterday’s performance, not the result.

“Worried by the rise in player prices? We’ve already addressed this issue. We’re in a situation where we can’t see the end of the tunnel. We’ll see if football is able to keep up this inflation.

“Strootman to Juve? Like I said, we have no interest in selling Kevin and that’s why I can’t say any more than that.”

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