"It was hard to say no, even though I am a Roma fan and would have gladly stayed with them throughout my career.
"United have offered my father Stefano a job as a gardener and he will accompany me.
"I will go over on 30th June and start in United's academy the next day."
Petrucci added: "A month ago Roma offered me a contract on the minimum wage and they did not say how long it was for.
"I asked for a bit of time to consider it, as United's offer had already been made, but they gave me just three days.
"Roma closed the door on me while United opened another. They could have valued me more highly."


Surely, Roma could've found a vacancy for gardener?

Another reason to hate Man. U. .   And tell the kid to quit being so freakin' greedy!

And still we havent bought anyone.... this is insane...everyone under the sun linked to us but still nothing.  Anlother group of Americans apparently after us. I wish someone would buy us as we obviously have no money!
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FORZA ROMA...SEMPRE, COMUNQUE E DOVUNQUE

Loria -- yes   Silvestre-    

Spurs v Roma, Sun Aug 10, £20.. Could be quite a weekend that, Charlton v Swansea the day before. Apparently tickets are going pretty quickly.

Not liking these Riise rumours.
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We are the pride of all London, the kings of the south, we hate the Palace 'cos they are all mouth, the Addicks will rise and the Eagles will fall, 'cos we are the Charlton, the greatest of all.

diatribe wrote:

Not liking these Riise rumours.

Seconded.

It seems more than rumours though as Liverpool have given him permission to speak to Roma this afternoon. Hopefully he'll ask for huge wages and the deal will fall through.

the rumours have become reality...fantastic
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Forza Roma!

So Liverpool buy Dossena  and you guys get Riise  

The sc$m Liverpoop should be paying US to take Riise.   I can;t believe we got that pile of crap.   While other teams are gearing up with big signings, we get a Liverpoop reject.

At this rate, we will be behind Napoli [who I like] and Palermo as well

[Roma assistant Coach Bruno Conti has accused Manchester United of double standards over their capture of Giallorossi junior Davide Petrucci. “They complain about Cristiano Ronaldo and then did the same thing with Davide,” said Conti.]

My thoughts exactly.

Van Basten wrote:

My thoughts exactly.

And how have both Mr. Conti and yourself come to this conclusion?

Petrucci was not under contract at Roma and therefore free to talk to whichever club he wanted. This is the complete opposite of Ronaldo's situation.

United didn't go on a fully fledged media assault with the sole intention of unsettling Petrucci as Real Madrid have done with Ronaldo. In fact, most of as didn't even know that Petrucci had become a United player until after the contract was signed.

If Roma's problem is that they brought Petrucci through their youth system only to see him leave for a nominal fee, this again isn't at all similar to Ronaldo's situation at United as we bought him after he had established himself in Sporting's first team and paid over £12M for his signature.

Someone is going to have to explain this 'United have done the same thing' bollocks, because I just ain't getting it...
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ACF FIORENTINA : FORZA LA VIOLA

Ok, they did a very similar thing thing with Owen Hargreaves courting him for two seasons with a similar ploy to that of Madrid, of course its unfair them stealing youngsters from abroad all because they can't produce their own, look at Rossi basically none if any games but now thriving elsewhere this may ruin Petruccis career.

You’re right about Petrucci not being under ‘professional contract’. And the lack of a ‘fully fledged media assault’ etc… I’ll admit that I was a little ignorant (to say the least) with my agreement to the comment above.

I suppose I’m just peeved off, I mean, I love the way Roma field home-grown/nurtured players. They usually show great loyalty and often put more into their performances. You hear reports of young talented youngsters who are ‘the next Totti’ etc. Many fade or never really live up to expectations. Much hype was built around this young lad - probably the best product of Roma’s youth system in years. And so I can fully understand Roma’s frustration because they have helped develop the young lad over the years only for him to walk.

I suppose at the end of the day, Petrucci stalled with Roma’s offer and accepted Man Utd’s. It was the player’s decision.

Roma’s debt has also added to my sympathy for them. Unlike United, who can go out and buy a player for £15m plus, Roma are nearing a position where they may have to sell before they buy. One could say that if Roma truly valued the player as highly as reports suggest they did, then they should have done more (earlier) to ensure he stayed.

The funniest thing I’ve read about this was a report on a Man Utd blog site which basically said that main factor that influenced Petricci’s decision to join Man Utd was that his Father was also offered a job as a grounds-man at Old Trafford! Are you aware of there being any truth to this, Mezz?

It's the absolute truth as far as I'm aware.

Petrucci wanted/required a guardian to come over with him, but his wage wouldn't have been enough to support an entire family so the club offered his Dad a job as a gardener (not groundsman, as far as I know) so he could earn an income while United sized up young Petrucci. Personally, I think that's a nice touch but others could see it as something a bit more sinister.

I'm a big fan of Roma's policy of giving youth a chance, and I want them to do well because of it, but if you can't secure your assets in this game then someone else will.

At the same time though, every £15M+ player that United buys adds to the debt we have which is closely approaching £1 billion.

Welcome to the 'beautiful game' as it is now...
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ACF FIORENTINA : FORZA LA VIOLA

It's funny, I have a Roma magazine that is about 4 years old now and it talks about how Roma's youth system is modelled on man utd...it didn't mention that this would lead to man utd signing any of the youth players though
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Forza Roma!

I thought Roma couldn;t give him a pro contract due to Italian Law?

What load of crap.  Giving his dad a job to "bribe" him to England.

I hope that wuss Ronaldo p!sses off M U and goes to real and flops.    

I am sorry Mezz, but this is a load of crap.  And I don;t blame it all on Manchester .  The kid and his family, Italian Law, even Roma are to blame but it just doesn't smell right

Kewell is being mentioned now as a possibilty for Roma.

From Bad to Worse already.

And today we wasted 12 million on Vucinic....   Are we insane?!  Next year will be a disaster.
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FORZA ROMA...SEMPRE, COMUNQUE E DOVUNQUE

12 mil for Vucinic????   Sell him now when we have the chance.  Yes, he came on at the end of the season, but 12 mill?????

Its 12mil Euros...which is around £7m right?

Not too bad...