Roma interest in Chelsea star confirmed amid rumours that Alonso wants Garnacho out | OneFootball

Roma are interested in signing Chelsea winger Alejandro Garnacho this summer but it won’t impact their move for Mason Greenwood, according to reports.

The Blues finished tenth in the Premier League last season after sacking Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior, with new head coach Xabi Alonso taking over without any European football.

Chelsea have already managed to attract some new signings, despite their poor showing in the Premier League, but there is also going to be a focus on moving out some of their bloated squad.

Garnacho, who signed from Manchester United for £40m last summer, had a poor first campaign at Stamford Bridge with the Argentina international contributing four goals and one assist in 24 Premier League appearances.

There were rumours recently that Alonso is looking to offload Garnacho as he looks to take his team in a different direction next season.

After interest from Napoli last summer, Italian journalist Alfredo Pedulla has revealed that Roma are interested in signing Garnacho from Chelsea.

Pedulla wrote on X: ‘Exclusive: #Roma, in the last few hours poll with #Chelsea for #Garnacho. Request for information.’

Before later adding details and insisting it would not impact their pursuit of former Man Utd striker Greenwood: ‘#Garnacho: the #Roma poll is confirmed. For now, just like this, stop. The profile is very much liked.

‘#Chelsea will decide (not in these days) whether to loan him out or transfer him. And Roma might be open to any solution. Garnacho plays on the left, he shouldn’t be confused with any potential developments for #Greenwood’

Former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino reckons Garnacho got caught up in the lure of London rather than thinking what could have been best for his career when he moved to Stamford Bridge.

Cascarino told Goal: “Concerns about the way he left Manchester United. I always like looking back at the period of why he left Manchester United. He clearly made it evident that he wanted to go and there was [Erik] ten Hag who had a bit of an issue and then Ruben Amorim and it was just all mixed about Garnacho.

“I didn’t think, only by the way he acted, that he acted like a lad that wanted to stay at Old Trafford and I think he thought the grass was greener elsewhere and the opportunity to go to Chelsea.

“And whatever we say, whether people like it or not, a lot of foreign players like living in London. They just do. You try and persuade a lad to go to Sunderland or Newcastle instead of coming to London where they can travel freely in and out and be closer to whether it’s France or Spain. Of course you can get from Newcastle to Spain and France, but it’s just different. They see it as just more comfortable.

“I’m saying that, I was in Marseille and I went to Nancy and ended up living in Paris. I didn’t stay in Nancy after I finished playing. I went to Paris because I wanted to experience Paris. That’s what you do with capital cities, don’t you? You end up being lured to them. So I think he got caught with that, but he’s been poor.”

Cascarino also likened Garnacho to new Barcelona signing Anthony Gordon: “I think he’s so one dimensional. He’s got a little bit of Anthony Gordon in him. The only thing he wants to do is literally run at a defender. And if he doesn’t get the better of him very quickly, it feels like he hasn’t got anything else to his game.

“Anthony Gordon’s a bit like that to me. We saw in the second game with England, when the right-back literally stopped him at every opportunity. It was the Ghana right-back and he couldn’t get the better of him. And that was it.

“I think Garnacho actually was a little bit like that. I’ve watched him a good few times at Chelsea and I’ve seen him come up and get some good right-backs. And he’s never sort of altered his game slightly, which I think as a winger you have to do.”

Former Man Utd midfielder Nicky Butt thinks Garnacho was given superstar status too quickly with the 22-year-old needing to learn how to be humble.

Butt told The Good, The Bad & The Football: “When he got into the first team, I will just say what I think because I was there, and he got above his station way too quick. He got superstar status way too quick.

“And that’s not a former player saying they get paid too much, I hope young players get paid millions, but he got superstar status too quick and he obviously scored the bicycle kick which was phenomenal.

“Someone in that club or team at the time should have been swatting him down, and they might have been, and he ignored them.

“But the best thing Man United did was sell him because, forget his ability, and I don’t think he is that great anyway, but I thought his attitude was a disgrace when he was at Man United.”

On the way he acted after joining Chelsea, Butt added: “More importantly when he left, and if you completely disrespect your teammates and the football club when you leave, then that’s it.

“He was 21 or whatever when he left the club but you can’t be up your own backside thinking you are as big or bigger than Man United.

“In an interview recently I watched it and he said ‘I thought I should have played every game…’

“I was thinking number one, you weren’t even that good, and number two you are young, be humble.”