For years, Romanisti have begged the club to think beyond the next balance sheet, and to shirk Financial Fair Play if possible. I’ve personally dreamed of the day where management would stop treating every promising young player as a financial asset waiting to be cashed in and instead build a squad capable of competing together over multiple seasons. If the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City can do it, why can’t the Giallorossi?
This summer finally seemed to signal that shift. While it’s come in fits
and starts, Tony D’Amico has continued pushing to reshape Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad, bringing in players who fit the manager’s demanding tactical system. After several summers defined by Financial Fair Play deadlines and last-minute sales, Roma suddenly look like a club operating with an actual sporting plan.
That’s why the latest rumors suggesting Matías Soulé and Daniele Ghilardi might leave the club feel so counterproductive to the club’s longer-term goals. Reports from Italy suggest Juventus are exploring a move for Ghilardi, potentially even proposing a swap involving Federico Gatti, while multiple outlets have linked Soulé with AC Milan as Roma continue searching for reinforcements out wide. The reported valuations (roughly €30 million for Soulé and even less for Ghilardi) should make Roma think twice before answering the phone.
To be frank, selling either player at those prices, particularly to direct Serie A rivals, would risk undermining everything D’Amico has accomplished by signing Santiago Castro and Kostantinos Koulierakis, and by keeping the wolves (well, the non-Roman wolves) at bay from grabbing the likes of Mile Svilar. Soulé’s case is especially frustrating because we’ve been here before. Roma signed the Argentine because they wanted to acquire one of Serie A’s brightest young attacking talents after a breakout season with Frosinone. The talent hasn’t disappeared simply because his first two seasons in Rome have been inconsistent. At just 23 years old, Soulé remains exactly the sort of technically gifted, left-footed attacker clubs across Europe spend years trying to identify before his value doubles. You can bet that he’ll be featuring in our top 10 U-23 list later this summer for that exact reason.
It’s important to remember that young creative players rarely develop in a straight line. They need minutes, confidence, and stability. Gasperini has built much of his reputation on taking gifted but inconsistent attacking players and turning them into superstars. If there is any manager capable of unlocking Soulé’s immense potential, it is probably the one currently standing on Roma’s touchline; we saw a good amount of that in the first half of the 2025/2026 season, and it was really only injury issues that stopped him from putting together a world-class full season. Selling him now, just before working under perhaps the best developmental coach of his career, feels like abandoning the investment right before it begins paying dividends.
The Ghilardi rumors are arguably even stranger. Roma only recently moved to bring the young Italian defender to Rome on a permanent basis because they viewed him as an ideal fit for Gasperini’s aggressive back three. At 23 years old, Ghilardi possesses precisely the profile the club has lacked in recent years: young, athletic, comfortable defending large spaces, and still improving. He’s also the exact kind of player who can replace Evan N’Dicka if and when the Ivorian moves on from the Giallorossi.
The suggestion of exchanging him for Federico Gatti is particularly puzzling. Gatti is a perfectly respectable Serie A defender, but he’s six years older than Ghilardi and likely much closer to his ceiling. Gasperini has consistently preferred molding younger defenders into exactly what he needs rather than inheriting finished products. If Roma genuinely believe Ghilardi can become that player, selling him now would be a major mistake.
None of this means Roma should refuse to sell anyone; every club has a price for every player, with maybe three exceptions in the entire world (Mbappé, Haaland, and Ousmane Dembélé, in my book). If a Premier League side like Manchester United arrived tomorrow offering €80 million or more for Manu Koné, Roma would have a genuine decision to make. Midfielders, even excellent ones, can often be replaced more readily than elite young creators or promising Italian defenders. An enormous fee for Koné could fund multiple additions while generating the kind of capital gain that transforms an entire transfer window.
That kind of fee would change the equation for Roma in a way that €30 million for Matías Soulé simply wouldn’t. The best sporting directors understand that squad-building is primarily about knowing which players should be unavailable, even if the offers appear tempting.
Roma have spent years watching clubs like Atalanta increase players’ values (under Gian Piero Gasperini’s tutelage!) through patience rather than panic. Ademola Lookman wasn’t sold after an inconsistent first season. Giorgio Scalvini wasn’t sacrificed at the first respectable bid. Gasperini’s greatest strength has always been convincing clubs to let him finish developing players before considering a sale. Now that Roma has Gasperini under their roof, Roma finally have that coach. They shouldn’t immediately take away two of his most intriguing projects, even if that allows for flashier names to come in this summer.
Perhaps these rumors are simply the inevitable noise that accompanies every Italian transfer window. Perhaps Milan and Juventus are merely testing Roma’s resolve rather than preparing concrete bids. If so, a polite no at the valuations offered is the wisest choice, particularly to Serie A rivals. It would hurt immensely for the Giallorossi to miss out on Champions League football next season; the only thing that could make it worse would be if Roma misses out because they sold their young core to a rival who then overtook them in the table.
