Rumour Mongering: Dejan Lovren Set to Stay at Liverpool

Last month, Dejan Lovren was meant to be Roma’s top defensive target, but Liverpool’s unwillingness to do a loan-to-buy deal pushed the Serie A side towards Juventus’ Daniele Rugani instead. Only then that deal too fell through.

As a result, reports out of Italy this week had Roma coming back for Lovren, and some claims in the Croatian press even suggested it might have been a done deal. Today, that deal again looks off—Roma are signing someone else.

Widespread reports out of Italy today from some generally reliable sources have Roma agreeing a fee and personal terms to sign Chris Smalling from Manchester United. If true, it would mean the end of Lovren as a target for them.

The deal is meant to be a €3M loan, the same amount they were trying to get Liverpool to accept to take Lovren for the season—though in Lovren’s case there was rumoured to be a mandatory €12M purchase option at the end of it.

Liverpool were said to be holding out for a fee closer to €20M and for it to be a sale with no possibility for Roma to get out of making it permanent, and it certainly appears now that was too much for them and as a result they moved on.