Roma director Walter Sabatini has reportedly flown to England for talks over the future of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
According to a report in Italian publication Corriere dello Sport, brought to our attention by the Express, Sabatini is hoping for a deal that will keep the Arsenal stopper in Serie A for at least another season.
While in England, the Roma director has also been finalising a contract for outgoing Manchester City full-back Pablo Zabaleta as the club look to strengthen their defence ahead of next season, when they will be hoping to finally end Juventus’ dominance of the division.
Regarding Szczesny, the main difficulty in the talks have been his wage demands.
That has not been a problem in his Roma stay thus far, but only because Arsenal were so desperate to get him out so they could sign Petr Cech that they offered to pay 2/3 of his salary.
Now that that burden will be shifted to Roma, the Italian side are stalling.
Szczesny will have been hoping he could convince them he was worth the money by impressing at Euro 2016, but a nasty bruise to his thigh suffered in the 0-0 draw with Germany has ruled him out of most of the tournament.
He has certainly been enjoying himself in the Italian capital, earlier this year telling Il Tempo that he “learnt more in four months under Spalletti than in 10 years in England”.
That won’t have gone down too well with Arsene Wenger, so if he wants to make his stay in Rome permanent, he may have to relent on some of his demands.
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