Roma Sporting director, Monchi revealed what happened since the last one week after the Malcom saga came to an end.
After Malcom’s agreement with Roma, Barcelona hijacked the deal.
Bordeaux announced on Monday a deal, reported to be €38 million, had been agreed with the Serie A side. But soon after the Ligue 1 side’s statement was released, Barcelona’s interest emerged. The La Liga champions moved to complete a deal worth up to €41m (£36.5m/$48m) on Tuesday.
Monchi said to RomaTV,
“I am very sorry for what has happened. But I believe that we had a complete agreement with Bordeaux. And then offered even more than that to get it done again. President Pallotta made the decision to make the best offer possible. But when the negotiation became an auction, we decided to withdraw from it. If someone wants to come to Roma that is great, but ultimately if they do not want to come to Rome, then we do not want them.”
“I want to tell our fans that we are continuing to work hard. We are working to identify a player that wants to come to our club and is the equal or even better than Malcom.”
Monchi also said that his side wants to file a legal case.
“Now, within the club, we are looking at our options and seeing if we have a legal case. It is true that nothing was signed. But there are many messages with the agents and their president that are at least worth being assessed.”
The sporting director also explained that they are unhappy with the way Bordeaux handled the deal.
“We started negotiation with Bordeaux and the player, through his agent. More or less a week ago. After three of four days of intensive negotiations, yesterday at about 17:00, we found an agreement with the agent, with the player and with Bordeaux.”
In the end, what happened,
“I called Martin. He told me that an offer had come in from Barcelona that was better than ours. And, that if we did not raise our offer we could not have the player. I told him that we had an agreement, we had made the deal, but he said that nothing had been signed and that. Despite, having exchanged some documents to be signed, nothing could be done.”