CM: Roma pushing to beat Milan to another mutual target after N’Dicka

By Oliver Fisher -

Roma have already beaten AC Milan to the signing of Evan N’Dicka and are now looking to win the race for another target, a report claims.

According to Calciomercato.com, Roma are aiming to close the signing of Gianluca Scamacca with director Tiago Pinto expected in London by the weekend to hold talks over the potential arrival of the striker.

Scamacca has put the Giallorossi top of his list of preferences despite the fact Milan and Inter are in the running too and can boast Champions League football next season.

West Ham are willing to let him leave will have to discuss the conditions with Roma including the amount for the loan and a possible option/obligation to buy.

Pinto would like a loan with a simple option to buy or an obligation linked to qualifying for the Champions League, while the London club want an obligation with no conditions attached to it.

The will of Scamacca should also be key, given he is enthusiastic about the idea of returning to Roma where he spent time as a youth player and potentially reuniting with his friend Davide Frattesi there.

Tags AC Milan Gianluca Scamacca

42 Comments

  1. I’ve never been a particularly big fan of this guy, I don’t think he’s a solution to our problems upfront or a huge quality upgrade for the team overall. Therefore, I do not regret this ‘lost opportunity’.

    1. Why not? Who else fits our profile? He is still young, has the ability needed to perform, has played in Italy before and scored goals, what is there not to like, provided he stays fit? He is the most logical option to go for if we are able to go for him.

      Who are we going for instead, then? Some random African kid from Ligue 1? Or another Belgian flop from somewhere? Or another old man like Arnautovic? Scamacca is a better fit for Milan thann all of the other potential strikers we could buy. I would also like to see Okafor, if I am honest.

      1. In his WHOLE CAREER as an adult (Serie A, Serie B, Eredivise A, Eredivisie B, Premier League, European Cups, Senior Italy Team, U23 Italy team, U21 Italy Team), he has scored LESS THAN 50 goals!

        A Center Forward of 24,5 years of age..

        If you think this is the solution to our problems, and this is a Milan-caliber Striker, apologies, but I dissagree…

        1. You need to put it into context.

          He’s a very tall player at 195cm. Tall players mature late, especially forwards who have to deal with mature 190cm defenders. So they start out with no real physical advantage (until they mature and get stronger).

          Halland is a freak of nature so don’t bother mentioning him. Have a look at:

          – where Luca Toni was pre his 26th year; and
          – the numbers Zlatan put up in the Serie A in his first seasons (and his age).

          Scamacca starts life as a kid striker in Serie A. How many kids score goals, let alone 195cm 20 year olds? What would he score as a 20 – 22 year old starting striker in Holland or France?

          We’re always comparing apples and oranges in this regard. The young Italians are at a big disadvantage having to start in Italy, that’s assuming they get played and often they do not (unless they play for Empoli, Sassuolo or Atalanta).

          Even then, Scamacca hits 22 and has a break out season, scoring 16 goals. He doesn’t consolidate because he goes to the EPL and spends half the season under an injury cloud (not having set the world on fire in the first half).

          We’re at year 2 of his maturity. He’ll be a star for the next 6 to 8 years.

          He is so far and away the best option we could sign for the #9 it isn’t funny. Thankfully it looks like we’re going to **** it up completely to sign a player an algorithm says is good.

          Stats mean nothing without context.

          1. “In his WHOLE CAREER as an adult (Serie A, Serie B, Eredivise A, Eredivisie B, Premier League, European Cups, Senior Italy Team, U23 Italy team, U21 Italy Team), he has scored LESS THAN 50 goals!”

            For comparison with Scamacca, between 18-24 years old, Zlatan had score 91 goals at multipe leagues, european competitions, and national team (including 6 goals for U-21).

            “the numbers Zlatan put up in the Serie A in his first seasons (and his age)”

            16 goals (23 years old).

        2. Doesn’t matter how many goals he has scored..what matters is how many goals he will score. Some people are just late bloomers. And boy has potential

        3. “In his WHOLE CAREER as an adult (Serie A, Serie B, Eredivise A, Eredivisie B, Premier League, European Cups, Senior Italy Team, U23 Italy team, U21 Italy Team), he has scored LESS THAN 50 goals!”

          When you tell stats like that you always have to consider the minutes played and matches played too. Without those things numbers can be meaningless.

          And “LESS THAN 50 goals!” is still almost as many as e.g. Origi has during his whole career and he is consider as “a Liverpool legend”. How about that?!! 😀

  2. People act like we weren’t getting beat left and right for transfer targets while we had a technical and sporting director in place.
    At least these new guys have been in place only for a week and are trying to hijack already agreed deals from 6 months ago.
    Why weren’t Aouar and Nd!cka locked in by the Technical and Sporting directors in place since January is the bigger issue here.
    And all these people laughing that we get beat by Roma for transfer targets, don’t forget that M&M were getting beat by Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Monchengladbach. Leipzig, etc ona regular basis, even got beat by Tigres in the Mexican league for Florian Thauvin..
    Maldini’s pull and ability to attract players to Milan is nothing but a myth. Look at our squad. Not that hard to attract those level of players

    1. Yeah you’re right at least we’re back to square one. Why not change for the sake of change with no improvement. Makes sense.

      No offense but I think I’ll take Theo’s words over yours.

    2. – Why weren’t Aouar and Nd!cka locked in by the Technical and Sporting directors in place since January is the bigger issue here. –

      that’s easy, because redbird doesn’t have the money back then & doesn’t have the money right now, to pay their asking salary.
      the same thing with signing Botman last year

      1. Aouar reported salary with Roma is just about over 2 mil,
        Nd!cka reported salary with Roma is 3.5, which went up because Milan tried to hijack his deal.
        Aouar salary is less than the salary Maldini gave that bum Florenzi.
        Nd!cka salary is less than the salary Maldini gave to that other bum Origi.
        What else are we going to blame Elliott for?

          1. Sporting Director work within margin (transfer and salary budget) set by CEO, Furlani only informed Maldini of the margin for 2023-2024 season few days before his sacking.

        1. You are wasting your time explaining facts to these people. They have their mind set on something and they will continue to ignore anything that dosen’t fit with what they belive in. As for the new managment it is to early to juge them. Nothing is clear at the moment. Who knows if we even target some of this players, it could be just media writing about something for the sake of having something to write about.

    3. Aour and Ndka weren’t locked in by any other director for that matter so why only blame M&M???
      Players even if on their last year of contract sometimes don’t sign in January because things can change between then and June. Milan changed, Roma didn’t. Also other clubs can offer more money on a salary basis than us..not to mention that signing players on a free is extremely difficult in general because everyone wants to sign them. Alot of ppl on this site thinks we can sign them like it’s Fifa, but in reality we cant. Whoever has a bigger budget or guarantees are more likely to sign said player.
      Btw you’re telling me Theo wouldn’t be here if weren’t for Maldini? Tomori too..so they’re lying in their interviews is what you’re saying? Smh
      PS Tigres offered more money than us for Thauvin.

  3. The way we’re going there won’t be any free transfers left. Like what are we waiting for. Already been linked to 18283553 players and none have arrived

    1. “Already been linked to 18283553 players and none have arrived”

      Are you sure bro? We have been linked, to that many players? If all of them, were to arrive, we should reserve 60% of seats in stadium for those players..

  4. Okafor, as you mentioned, could be a good option. I would look also for availability of Hlozek, Isak or maybe someone like Samed Bazdar. Rasmus Hojlund I guess is very out of reach nowadays, unfortunatelly.

  5. Previously, Roman had also officially signed Houssem Aouar, the Lyon star, who was actually one of Milan’s targets for a long time, it was great that Roma got him for free. Milan is just talk.

      1. Yes he was 🙂
        Between January-April
        M&M was assessing feasibility incl commission and other fees but other Italian clubs (assuming Roma) were also looking

        1. Bro a lot of things, have changed between then and now.. In January-April Maldini and Massara, were our directors! You remember? As per media sources; they were targetting Loftus Cheek, Arnautovic and Berardi.. Now they are, no more our targets! Perhaps it’s same, with Aouar as well? Or it could be that, Maldini decided to abandon his pursuit? Hence: Loftus Cheek, rumours?🤔

          1. I dunno. I was just replying to Yelnats that he was indeed a rumoured target as far back as Jan🤔. I’m not sure what happened with him or if he was still being considered. There’s so many things that can be going on and with what happened post season not sure if that played a role either 🤷‍♂️

  6. To be honest I don’t really know whether Milan is really interested in Ndicka or it was just rumour.Same as Auroar.
    If the requested salary not too high, how can the players chose roma instead of playing in CL with milan
    1.the players are not convinced with the club incl. the coach (Pioli < Mourinho)
    2.the club didn’t want to match the requested salary.
    3.Pioli is not interesred in players
    4.milan never approach the players

    1. I believe it has to be the first two but most likely 1. And I’d throw the club looking environment being less stable than at Roma. Also Mou can say “hey if you were in my team I wouldn’t have lost the final of a major cup”.

  7. I like him. Quite good in Serie A when he was here and at Genoa looked head and shoulders above his teamates. I think he’d be a good fit

  8. @Yalnats24

    That was my whole point re Zlatan. Look at the first point at which his career is comparable with Scamacca. At the ages we are talking about, differences in physical maturity are crucial – look how long it took Luca Toni (nothing more than a Serie B player until 25/26!). I would go as far as saying that what happened before the comparable point is not relevant – though that is dangerous with Zlatan because he is an all time great.

    As a 23 to 24 year old in his first season of Serie A, with Juventus, Zlatan scored 16 goals with 8 assists for Juventus from 35 appearances totalling 2,763 minutes (i.e. 79 minutes per appearance). He scored 7 goals with 8 assists from 35 appearances for 2,396 minutes in his second campaign with Juventus (i.e. 68 minutes per appearance).

    As a 22 to 23 year old, Scamacca scored 16 goals for Sassuolo from 36 appearances for 2,150 minutes (i.e. 60 minutes per appearance). That’s 6 to 7 matches of game time less than Zlatan in his first year. It is 2 games less than Zlatan had in his second campaign. Not to mention that Sassuolo is hardly Juventus.

    Notice how Zlatan’s goal involvements drop just below Scamacca as the game time drops?

    That doesn’t mean Scamacca was or can be better than Zlatan, by the way. It is a contextually relevant comparison of their numbers.

    Let’s look at Thuram of 3 seasons ago. This is when Thuram was the same age as Scamacca last season – Thuram is 2 years older. 8 goals and 7 assists from 29 appearances for 1,739 minutes (i.e. 60 minutes per appearance). We’re not talking about a gap here. M’gladbach was playing UCL 3 seasons ago, by the way. This season Thuram is 13 goals and 6 assists from 30 appearances for 2,518 minutes (i.e. 84 minutes per appearance).

    I use the numbers to query why it is that we are expecting Scamacca to do something even Zlatan couldn’t. What a ridiculous standard to which we hold a player. He is clearly on par with Thuram because the goal involvements are almost directly proportionate to the number of games started.

    Italy has had a big problem developing talent in the last 20 years. My hypothesis is that too much is expected of the kids (i.e. 22 and under) and that historically until these players get a gig at Sassuolo or Atalanta, the only 2 clubs consistently playing top flight which actually play young talent to develop it, Italian kids languish at lower table teams on loan and top teams both of which are filled with coaches who are too scared to pick kids consistently (because jobs are on the line). Empoli did a good job this season playing kids.

    Italian kids are not playing enough at a young age. The kids don’t get the luxury of taking apart the Belgian, French or Dutch leagues and they don’t grow. Then we compare the goal tallies of guys like David, Openda and Balogun who are scoring goals as 22 to 24 year olds in France. The Italian does not get that luxury.

    What Scamacca did at that age last season blows Openda, Balogun and David out of the water. Not to mention mature guys scoring 12 goals in Spain who we are supposedly interested in.

    What fans of and professionals involved in Italian soccer can’t seem to overcome is the tyranny of expectation. It cripples the whole system.

    1. Playing as striker for Juventus and for Sassuolo is different. Playing for big teams, you have to face low block defense often, which is harder to break, this is something Scammaca has to adapt.

    2. But he played a lot of games for a player his age. He just doesn’t score. Ok? 3 games per 1 goal and will be 25. Stop talking about this fake player. Fake. Beto is better than him, why would Milan overpay for him? His wages are already x3 then he is worth. You want Italian players, sign the good ones, Baldanzi, Orsolini, Berardi, Frattesi etc. Not this forever talent.
      Yes, it is a fair assessment of a guy that played that much and has only 49 goals in his career. He was bad even in Serie B. And he got a lot of game time for his age. A lot. That guy is just crap and you will see how right I am. It is visible if you just watch 2 games of him. Pick any, even where he scored 2 goals.

      1. Beto?

        This is precisely what I am talking about when I talk about expectations or other emotional reactions.

        I suspect it is the same prejudice I had against Del Piero many years ago. He was terrible in Euros and World Cups for Italy. Thinking about the amount of clear chances he missed still makes me shudder. But that’s all I saw (being Australian watching Serie A was not really an option). I had no idea how good he was for Juve.

        There is simply no way you can be suggesting Beto based on any reasoned analysis.

        He’s a year older. Not relevant because he is ‘old’, its relevant because he is another tall player who has been in his productive years for at least 3 seasons. 2 season in Italy for 11 and 10 goals. He was playing with Delofeu who was amazing last season. This season not much Beto but Samardzic, Success, Udogie and ors. It’s a solid attacking group Udinese.

        What have you seen of Beto that would warrant the investment?

        He’s not a technical player. He’s a giant poacher with the speed to hit on the counter. I doubt he is that much quicker than Scamacca anyway.

        1. Wow You seem to spot the same players I spot. Udogie is seemingly flying under the radar .maybe it’s because of his lack of physical I’m not sure but I think he’s good. I think he might be better as a winger than left back tbh.
          Also Bladanzi is so overrated

          1. I’m happy to claim Udogie because I didn’t even realise he was Italian until I heard it a few weeks ago.

            I think he’s actually looking like something in the fine tradition of the Italian winger. Guys like Grosso, Zambrotta, Spinnazola who can defend but also provide attacking width. I know at least Zambrotta started life in attack. The defensive solidity will always come a bit later.

    3. @Bruno I completely agree with your take. To me, Scamacca, just looking at what he did in Sassuolo and Genoa, is enough for me. I saw him needing to be in a big club after the way he dominated on the field. And he had a lack of service especially in Genoa. His goals to me are decent esp in Serie A. But beyond that he seems to have that extra which if teased out he can become one of the best imo

  9. But he played a lot of games for a player his age. He just doesn’t score. Ok? 3 games per 1 goal and will be 25. Stop talking about this fake player. Fake. Beto is better than him, why would Milan overpay for him? His wages are already x3 then he is worth. You want Italian players, sign the good ones, Baldanzi, Orsolini, Berardi, Frattesi etc. Not this forever talent.
    Yes, it is a fair assessment of a guy that played that much and has only 49 goals in his career. He was bad even in Serie B. And he got a lot of game time for his age. A lot.

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