Roma increase Rios offer to total 30m, but keep El Aynaoui on track too

Roma continue their pursuit of a midfielder, as the latest offer for Richard Rios is only €5m off the Palmeiras valuation, while negotiations are also in progress for Neil El Aynaoui of RC Lens.

The Giallorossi are trying to revamp their squad to suit the tactical ideas of new coach Gian Piero Gasperini, and that means quite a few changes in midfield.

There are two main targets right now, with the club trying to keep both talks on track, waiting to see which can be completed first.

Rios remains first target for Roma

The first choice is Rios of Palmeiras, and now Sky Sport Italia suggest the latest proposal has closed the gap between offer and demand to just €5m.

This fits with the reporting on Football Italia from transfer expert Alfredo Pedullà on July 11, confirming that the next bid would be €25m plus €5m in add-ons.

Considering the asking price is €30m plus bonuses, this has reduced the difference significantly, but won’t be sufficient yet.

At the same time, Footmercato reported that Roma had agreed personal terms with El Aynaoui, but that getting RC Lens to agree a sale for under €30m was going to be difficult.

This was confirmed today when El Aynaoui played 45 minutes of a pre-season friendly against Standard Liege, with coach Pierre Sage telling reporters “if he had been ready to leave, he wouldn’t even have played a minute of football today.”