Emerson on standby after agreeing personal terms; Dzeko agent responds to Chelsea rumors — reports

There is good news and bad news out of Italy today as one deal nears but the other one doesn’t between Chelsea and AS Roma.

The one that doesn’t is that one that didn’t make too much common sense, Edin Dzeko. Not only is he over 30 (so Chelsea were not going to sign him to a multi-year deal), he’s still a key player at Roma (which he wasn’t necessarily going to be at Chelsea). Roma do have a younger man in the pipeline as his replacement (Patrik Schick), but he hasn’t exactly set the scoreboard on fire just yet.

Dzeko’s agent chimed in as well, saying mostly the same things as I just.

“No, I don’t know anything about this. I have no information to that effect. Dzeko is already a Roma player, you know that.

“Look, every time we talk about Dzeko the names of clubs like Chelsea, Chinese clubs, Mexican clubs come up. These are just rumours. The truth is that Dzeko wants to stay at Roma.

“Have I spoken to Conte or Chelsea? My role means I can’t reveal certain transfer market dynamics. I understand the question, but I have a very specific role. All I can say is that Conte likes Dzeko. But then who doesn’t like Edin?”

-Irfan Redzepagic, agent; source: romagiallorossa via Football Italia

Dzeko may be staying but his current teammate Emerson apparently already has his bags packed and is on “standby” to hop on a plane and fly to London. This could happen within the next 48 hours; perhaps by Monday he could be a Chelsea player. Roma meanwhile want Matteo Darmian from Manchester United as a potential replacement.

While not the greatest source, TMW are already reporting that Chelsea have agreed personal terms with the 23-year-old left back over a 4.5-year, €2.5m salary deal (so about £40k; twice as much if the figure reported is net wages rather than before taxes).

However, TMW as well as multiple other Italian sources agree that Roma and Chelsea are still haggling over the price (anywhere between €20-25-30m) and whether the move would be a straight transfer or a loan with an appearances-based buy-option in the summer instead. The latter sounds like a sweet deal; perhaps too sweet: basically an extended in-home trial period like you get with online mattress purchases.

Either way, Emerson, who is not cup-tied for the Champions League due to his injury in the first half of the season, looks to be close to happening. Dzeko, not so much.

UPDATE: Matt Law chimed in not long ago with basically the same thing as the Italian reports.