Roma deny Nkoulou interest

By Football Italia staff

Roma have denied reports linking them with Nicolas Nkoulou after Torino President Urbano Cairo warned they would be liable for a €900,000 penalty.

Roma remain keen on reinforcing their options in central defence, and speculation intensified over the weekend that they had turned their attentions back towards Nkoulou.

However, the capital club announced in an official statement: “In reference to the recent comments made by the president of Torino FC, Urbano Cairo, and reported by a number of media outlets, the club would like to clarify that it has never made contact with any Torino player and is not interested in any member of the Granata squad.”

There has been bad blood between the two sides ever since Gianluca Petrachi left the Granata to become the Giallorossi’s sporting director earlier in the summer.

“Nkoulou’s staying with us,” asserted Cairo after Toro’s 2-1 win against Sassuolo on Sunday.

“Maybe he has other ideas, but he’s contracted to Torino for two more years and everyone must respect their contracts.

“Now it depends on him. He must apologise to the club and team.After the game against Wolves, where Nkoulou didn’t put in an exceptional performance, the Coach called him to analyse the mistakes he made.

“He replied, ‘there’s no need, I already know them. My head wasn’t there.’ He could’ve told us that the day before so Bonifazi could’ve played or Bremer and Izzo could’ve played as a pair. Maybe we could’ve conceded a goal or two less.

“With the Giallorossi, there’s a written undertaking:for every contact with one of our players, they must pay a penalty of €900,000.

“I met his agent at Forte dei Marmi on 17 August. We talked for four hours and I offered to extend his contract with a pay rise, and this is the thanks I get...”

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