AS Roma set asking price for Chelsea transfer target Emerson

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.

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.