Transfer Market Recap Roundtable: Best Signings, Biggest Misses & More!

While Roma’s transfer season wasn’t as busy as the spate of rumors suggested (106 players in total), one could argue it was the most important silly season in recent memory. Fresh off a third-place finish and back in the Champions League for the first time in eight seasons, Roma finally had something to prove. Rather than arming themselves to simply survive another domestic campaign, the Giallorossi are fighting for something admittedly more ambiguous but arguably more important: prestige.

Whether it was coincidence or not, Francesco Totti’s retirement was soon followed by the club’s tailspin into European anonymity. Buoyed by Totti’s greatness, Roma had an innate cachet, a coolness that put them at the table alongside the Barcelonas and Real Madrids of the world. Without those midweek trips to the Bernabéu, Stamford Bridge, or Old Trafford, Roma almost felt second-class, as if the Europa League were the pinnacle of her existence.

Now that Roma is back where they belong, rubbing shoulders with the biggest names in the business, every transfer, real or imagined, carries added weight. Good enough is no longer good enough. Being better than Atalanta, Bologna, or Lazio no longer suffices. Tony D’Amico and Gian Piero Gasperini are working to build a squad capable of winning in Italy and competing in Europe, and of being mentioned among the truly elite sides in the game.

That puts enormous pressure on every scouting trip, every carefully calculated contract bonus, and every touchline decision—and it’s into that fraught environment that D’Amico stepped during his first summer on the job.

With that in mind, we assembled the CdT crew to review the earlier returns: Who were our favorite signings? What’s missing, and what does it all mean going forward?

Bren: The nature of transfer market journalism makes this question hard to answer. The rate at which we’re inundated with stories, with “Here We Go” and “Breaking News” alerts polluting our timelines, means we tend to take these updates as gospel, as if they’re coming directly from the club. 

In that light, it’s difficult to tell who amongst the horde of left-wingers we covered this summer were legitimate targets. Maybe Mason Greenwood really was the plan all along, and they grossly miscalculated the public reaction and spent the ensuing weeks trying to cobble together a Plan B but chose to focus on more attainable upgrades at other positions? Or maybe there was even a secret Mr X they couldn’t get over the finish line before the window closed.

I didn’t have a preferred LW target, but I was getting excited about Cacciamanni for the LWB slot;  he seemed like the perfect fit in terms of talent, cost, and potential. 

ssciavillo: I agree that it’s hard to know who Roma is truly pursuing with intent when so many rumors are flying around, especially when some of the moves in other positions materialize seemingly without any previous rumors or build up. I’m guessing cost ended up being the biggest stumbling block when you consider that almost everyone that Roma was linked with came with a rumored €50 million+ price tag. 

Cacciamani was an exciting prospect for me too, but maybe him not arriving is the reason we get to see Lulli shine. So that failed transfer may be a blessing in disguise. On the LW, the short-lived links to Gabriel Martinelli excited me a bit. 

Jimmy Miotto: Can I say something a little crazy… I don’t mind that we missed out on the left wingers that were suggested. Mason Greenwood, Cacciamani, Leweling: most of them would have demanded a spot in the starting line-up or not have been as ready for prime time as we would have hoped. I was most intrigued by Cacciamani because a young Italian footballer turning into a star while playing Roma is one of the more exhilarating things you can experience while following the Giallorossi. Yet I’m not heartbroken that Roma now has to rely on the formation it’s currently using; the more minutes players like Matías Soulé and Rodrigo Mora can get, the better.

Samuel Bannister: Like Jimmy, I’m not too bothered about one of those positions not being strengthened – although in my case, it’s at wing-back. I enjoyed Wesley on the left last season and have no qualms about that becoming his permanent role, especially with Emanuele Lulli coming through on the right.

What I can’t get my head around, though, is the failure to sign a left winger again. I could try and come up with a theory for why, but I also could have last summer, and the summer before, and…

It was puzzling that so many of the names linked for the left winger role this year had different profiles. At one point – and I wrote about this on CdT – I was optimistic they were looking to bring in players with different skillsets. Now the dust has settled and only Rodrigo Mora has come in – and, let’s face it, he’s not a winger – it just looks like neglect. The price range for most of these wingers was prohibitive, but if anywhere required a bit of spending in this squad, it’s the place Roma haven’t spent on since 2018.

JonAS: I’m kind of in the middle about the LW spot. Yeah, it sucks we didn’t get anybody. But I’m not a fan of ‘buying just for the sake of buying’ just to have a body on the bench. It needs to be an upgrade to the team. Then, IMO, there were only a couple of guys who fit that description, like Fofana (ok, he’s Belgian, I’m biased), Martinelli, or Greenwood. 

As always, we were faced with the fact that Roma ain’t Liverpool or Real and we simply can’t pay 80+ million for a player like it’s pocket change. We’re finally (almost) a financially stable club without those pesky FIFA restrictions. Let’s not do anything silly.

I’m OK with the plan to just roll with it until January comes around. We have Mora, who seems like the real deal, and someone like Pisilli can also play higher up the pitch. When necessary, just switch to a 3-5-2; problem solved.

Bren: Maybe not a failure in the strictest sense of the word, but the club still feels a bit imbalanced. Dominating two relegation-dwellers from last season was fun, but that imbalance could come home to roost later this season, especially once the Champions League begins. 

From Zirkzee and Sancho last season to Greenwood, Fofana, and Leweling this summer, Roma has failed to address the position at every turn. Either they’re completely incompetent (they’re not) or they don’t see LW/LWB as a position of need, which feels incongruent with what we’ve seen on the pitch over the past year-plus. 

Gasperini has found some workarounds for the lack of new options on the left. By rotating Dybala, Mora, and Matías Soulé behind Malen in a 3-4-2-1 setup, he sacrifices some width and pace that Fofana might provide. But as seen before, the flexibility and ball skills of these three attacking midfielders help keep defenses alert. 

ssciavillo: I definitely wouldn’t call this transfer market a failure. First off, the biggest win was not selling any of the club’s top players. I’m not sure previous Roma would’ve given Chelsea such a hard no on Kone with the window closing, nor would they have caved under FFP pressure to sell a young gem like Pisilli or the aforementioned Frenchman earlier in the summer. 

I also think Roma brought in plenty of talented pieces to fill out this squad. So, failure no. But the roster can never be considered complete for what Gian Piero Gasperini’s football demands without that LW signing. I think the workaround is what we’ve seen so far, with players like Mora and Dybala playing a bit more narrow and the wingbacks pushing the flanks. To Bren’s point, though, that has worked wonders so far against two bottom-half sides, so we’ll see if it continues against top-tier competition or if Roma will rue that lack of pace. 

Jimmy: Again, I may be cutting against the conventional wisdom here, but I see this as an absolute win of a transfer market. Castro, Koulierakis, Mora, and De Roon all strike me as the right transfer in; most importantly, there weren’t any major transfers out. Manu Kone and Evan Ndicka didn’t leave the club despite all of us thinking that was going to happen—I hope Romanisti can respect that as the win that it is. Add in the Dybala renewal and the renewal of the Senators at a lower rate, and while I know we’re disappointed by no new left wing, all in all, I’m pretty happy. 

Samuel: I’ll admit I was hoping for something a bit more exciting after becoming a Champions League club again, but we’re going step by step here. It was a 6/10 transfer window for me. I agree (how could I not?) that not making any major sales is a huge plus. As for the incomings, we seem to have improved our strength in depth in some areas. The lack of left winger does make us quite imbalanced, but the best-case scenario – when it’s not a Dybala and Soule combo – would be if we can replicate the 2016-17 season, when we sometimes had Nainggolan and Salah in behind Dzeko. Two different types of attacking midfielder, right? We don’t have a Salah these days, so will be a bit more narrow, but there could be shades of that system with a more central player like Mora or Pellegrini and a winger/#10 hybrid like Dybala or Soule.

JonAS: Like I said, 3-5-2 to the rescue! Even D’Amico admitted there’s a clear hole in the team right now, so one extra addition up front would have been the icing on the cake, especially with the CL midweek games returning. Now we’re a Dybala or Malen injury away from a crisis. Sort of.

However, a big plus in my book is that this summer we got to keep all core players like Svilar, Ndicka, Koné, Malen, Pisilli, and Soulé. Times have changed. We used to be a supermarket. Of all players who saw reasonable minutes last season, we only lost Celik and Lulli. Zeki already impressed me more than Zeki ever did in a Roma shirt. Another positive: we reduced the wage bill, which is very important in the long run.

Bren: If you viewed signing a top left-winger as the be-all, end-all of silly season, then yes, it was a bit short-sighted. The optics of spending that much money early in the summer on two positions with entrenched starters, only to end up empty-handed at LW, aren’t great. 

Maybe adding Mora shifted Gasperini’s calculus a bit, lessening the need for a left-winger and allowing more flexibility in the budget. Similarly, he may already be scheming ways to play Castro and Malen together, further reducing the need for a traditional left-winger.

ssciavillo: I don’t think those signings were short-sighted. I think Koulierakis and Castro were signed with the long term in mind while also adding some depth for the here and now. Roma desperately needed a striker behind Malen and Castro provides a young, but experienced high-ceiling player to fill that role. Maybe the signing of Koulierakis could be deemed unnecessary, but at under €20 million, it’s a relatively cheap deal these days. 

I agree that the Mora signing may have lessened the urgency to sign a left-winger for the sake of signing a left-winger despite him being a different type of profile. He has quickly shown that his characteristics fit Gasperini-ball quite well.And his ceiling could be higher than anyone Roma may have been able to land at LW.

Jimmy: Agree with Steve here. These are long-term signings with potential to impress now as well. Let’s be real, if Donyell Malen keeps on impressing in the way that he has, don’t you think some club is going to spend over €100 million to pry him away from the Giallorossi? Similarly, I don’t think the prospect of Evan Ndicka leaving Rome is gone forever. If either of those players leave in the next two seasons, it will be far better to have an in-house solution ready for more minutes and used to Gasperini’s system raring to go. 

Beyond that, there’s also the obvious fact that there are a huge number of matches Roma has to play with this current core, and it would be unwise to run someone like Malen or Gianluca Mancini into the ground in the fall to make them unavailable or out of form in the spring. Romanisti have long clamored for depth; we now have it. Let’s enjoy it.

Samuel: My gut reaction to both signings, from what I remember, did raise those kind of questions. OK, they’re doing that, then. I see the logic behind what both players will bring, but don’t think they were absolute necessities. I still think Castro can reach a new level with us, while Koulierakis could become a long-term successor to Hermoso, who is the wrong side of 30, let’s not forget. As I’ve said, I would have preferred a big signing on the left wing, maybe breaking the club record if it was for the right player, but I don’t think Castro or Koulierakis will be a waste of space by any means.

JonAS: Yeah, Castro was pretty necessary after both Dobby and Ferguson left. And I prefer young, upcoming talent like Santi over some old 34-year-old deputy. We need hungry players who can really make the difference. And those usually cost more (potential, etc.). Same for the Greek Freak. Both players arrived quite early in the mercato, so I think management thought they would still have time to bring in that LW. Hindsight is 20/20.

Bren: While this is difficult to answer this early in the season, my money is on Castro. If Gasperini intends to make him more than Malen’s midweek backup, Castro can become a bona fide secondary scoring threat for Roma; it’s not hard to imagine him getting 10 to 15 goals this season.

ssciavillo: I think Castro will play the more vital role. Malen can’t play every match in three competitions without running him into the ground, so Castro should see plenty of opportunities. Koulierakis has much more competition for minutes now that Balerdi was also brought in and now probably the sixth center back. 

Jimmy: I agree that Castro plays the more vital role, but that’s because Daniele Ghilardi is vying for minutes alongside Koulierakis. I’m hoping that Malen is rested enough that Castro is able to get to double digit goals this season despite being firmly the backup. I don’t think that’s a pipe dream.

Samuel: I’ll go against the tide and say Koulierakis. It wouldn’t surprise me if he overtakes Hermoso as the main left-sided centre-back by around the halfway point of the season. Castro will get his chances, but he’s overhitting his shots at the moment, while Malen’s much more composed. If we assume, as a left footer, Koulierakis is mainly competing with Hermoso, then the man in his way has had more of a mixed start to the season and has the easier shirt to challenge for.

JonAS:I’m going with the Castro squad on this. Koulierakis will get his chances, but I don’t see Gasp reforming his defense of Mancini-Ndicka-Hermoso anytime soon. And there’s also Ghilardi, who had a good game vs. Lecce. Castro, on the other hand, is tailor-made for Gasperini. He and Malen can also coexist when needed. Like Bren said, around 10-12 goals this season wouldn’t surprise me from the Argentinian bull.

Bren: Well, considering that he got thrown into the action already, he may be the top midfield option off the bench. He knows Gasperini’s system like the back of his hand and is versatile enough to fill a few different roles in midfield, so he should have a pretty significant role this season. He can be swapped out for Koné or Pisilli or plugged in alongside them when Gasp needs to bulk up the midfield. 

As far as one-year deals go, Roma hit a home run here; he’s the definition of a plug-and-play option.

ssciavillo: Losing El Aynaoui and bringing in De Roon as his replacement feels like a downgrade at this point in their careers. However, this signing makes tons of sense considering what he brings to the table in terms of experience and knowledge of the system. He’ll be a useful piece off the bench and as a rotational player. On a short term deal, I think this makes plenty of sense. 

Jimmy: On paper, this does seem like a downgrade, but I just think that the El Aynaoui sale is more of a reflection that he didn’t seem to fit in Roma’s tactics more than anything else, while De Roon is clearly an expert at playing Gasperini-ball. I’m not expecting De Roon to be a long-term solution for Roma in the midfield, but as a stop-gap while Niccolo Pisilli continues to develop, I’m more than happy with it. 

Samuel: Gasperini trusts De Roon possibly more than anyone else he’s ever managed. It’s fair to say he didn’t trust El Aynaoui. It’s not the most exciting signing, but it should give some substance in the midfield. I thought Pisilli came on leaps and bounds last season, so hopefully he can keep pushing as a starter and De Roon can just be useful cover. I wasn’t sure on the deal at first – I was surprised how old he is now, but he has been around a while – although seeing the terms that have been reported since, I think it’s reasonable.

JonAS: Honestly, I think many people say it’s a downgrade from NEA because of age. De Roon played 50 games for Atalanta last season. His physique is more than fine, and he’s one of Gasp’s most loyal lieutenants. His bag of Serie A and European experience will be very welcome. As the guys here already pointed out, he’s the ideal ‘plug-and-play’ option who doesn’t need weeks of preparation, whereas NEA, after one year, still felt out of place in Rome.

Bren: What’s impressed me most so far is how quickly he seems to have gelled with Dybala and Malen. It’s one thing to say that a player is “ideally suited” for a system, but until we actually see them in action, that’s just wishful thinking. But now that we’ve seen a few glimpses of Mora in action, it’s easier to see how and where he’ll excel under Gasperini. 

He’s almost a mirror to Dybala, influencing the match through intuition and timing as much as sheer talent. In that sense, I think we’ll see the overlapping and commingling of roles between Mora, Dybala, and Soulé continue. But he already feels like an important player, which says a lot.

ssciavillo: I said it on the pod this week, he feels like the more long term heir to Dybala than Soule with the way he can dictate play with his technical ability. He’s fit in rather seamlessly considering his age and arrival from another league. I think he will be a very valuable piece this season and beyond both playing with Dybala and mitigating some of what we lose when Dybala is rested. Feels like the sky’s the limit for this kid. 

Jimmy: I think his role will be somewhere between a starter and vice-Dybala. Dybala has been impressive so far to start the season, but we all know that he can’t be counted on to play every match of the season at this point in his career. So I think Mora will sometimes play alongside Dybala as a starter, sometimes replace him in the starting lineup, and sometimes will be first attacking midfielder off the bench. That’s a great spot for a 19-year-old to be in, and I can’t imagine that his role will decline from what we’ve already seen from him barring injuries or truly poor form. He’s a major investment and I think he’ll be treated as such.

Samuel: The club clearly believes in him a lot with the lengths they went to to bring him in. But Gasperini using him as a starter and then as a sub in the first two games suggests there’ll be some patience with him on the pitch. That checks out – he’s only 19 still. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t see him as a winger, but as a central player. My first impressions of him at Roma are that he seems to have good movement and, as Steve said, classy technical ability. But he’s going to be a work in progress.

JonAS: Well, the kid certainly got off to a great start with his first goal. I understand why Roma tried hard to sign Mora and was willing to break the bank for him. He’s so suave and silky with the ball. And although he’s not tall or muscular, he holds his own on the pitch. 

Still, let us not get ahead of ourselves. Remember, one day Zaniolo or Stefano Okaka also took us by storm, and look how their Roman careers went. Fiorentina and Lecce are not the same as Juve or Inter, let alone PSG and Real. I want to see what he can do vs Bremer, Marquinhos, or Akanjji first. But color me excited!

Okay, you’ve heard our take. Now it’s your turn. Did Roma hit all their marks this summer, or will the lack of an LW comeback haunt them?

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