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Late yesterday, the Transfer Oracle of Italy, Gianluca Di Marzio broke the news that Chelsea had made an inquiry about left wing-back Emerson Palmieri. There wasn’t much detail to the report beyond that, though it surmised that Roma might be willing to sell due to their ever-present FFP concerns.
Those reports have now been followed by similar reporting in English outlets, including Sky Sports, the Evening Standard, and the Telegraph, with the latter finally putting a price on this potential transfer. Unsurprisingly, the £22-26m range (i.e. €25-30m) is right in the wheelhouse of other recent wing-back signings of the Conte Era, including Marcos Alonso and Davide Zappacosta, both of whom got done around £23m.
Despite that, Chelsea are apparently reluctant to spend that much right away given Emerson’s recent injury history. The 23-year-old had just returned from a knee ligament issue, though like fellow former Roma defender Antonio Rudiger, he recovered from it rather quickly in just half a season.
Chelsea would thus prefer a loan first, which is a very Italian-style transfer move, but would thus perhaps be an agreeable solution for Roma as well.
Update on left-back Emerson Palmieri. Chelsea want to take him on an initial loan because of injury problems. Roma want between £22m and £26m. Negotiating to be done... #cfc
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 17, 2018
There’s no guarantee that Chelsea would be able to negotiate a deal, but it looks like our interest is real and the prospects of the transfer might just be more realistic than spending record amounts on Alex Sandro.