Claudio Ranieri Reveals Why Roma Did Not Sign Jadon Sancho As Giallorossi End Pursuit For ‘Expensive’ Englishman

Claudio Ranieri has revealed why AS Roma did not sign Jadon Sancho, despite heavy rumors during the summer transfer window.

Why Did Roma Not Sign Jadon Sancho?

The Giallorossi were looking to make an impact in the most recent transfer window, as Gian Piero Gasperini enters his debut season in the Italian capital.

Roma brought in Wesley Franca, Neil El Aynaoui, Jan Ziolkowski, Leon Bailey, Evan Ferguson, Daniele Ghilardi, Devis Vasquez, Radoslaw Zelezny and Konstantinos Tsimikas – but failed to complete the signing of Jadon Sancho.

Gasperini was desperate to strengthen the squad, especially after Roma found out about their Europa League opponents, but the Giallorossi could not complete the signing of Jadon Sancho.

After a horrible few years in Manchester, which saw Sancho leave on loan to Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea, the Red Devils were desperate to sell the Englishman.

However, the 25-year-old could not complete a permanent move from Old Trafford and decided to join Aston Villa on loan for the 2025/26 season.

According to reports, Sancho turned down the opportunity to join Roma in a loan-to-buy deal, despite United accepting a $25 million buy-option from the Serie A side.

Another issue for Roma when negotiating with Sancho was the difference in salary expectations, as the Englishman is reportedly earning around $250,000 per week.

This was something that Roma were not willing to offer and former Giallorossi manager, Claudio Ranieri, revealed that the deal would have needed to sell a valuable player to fund such an expensive operation.

Ranieri said: “It was a very expensive operation economically, but the Friedkins would have done it to please the coach. Of course, someone needed to be sold.

“Until a valuable player was sold, it couldn’t be done. I don’t think that a valuable player would have ever been sold, because we want to keep them at the moment.

“We had to bring in young players with the hope that the coach makes the most out of them so that we can resell them to fall within the parameters of financial fair play.”

Could Roma Breach FFP Rules?

Finacial Fair Play has become a common term across soccer in recent years, with multiple sides breaching FFP rules and facing a range of penalties from fines to points deductions.

One club that has received a fine for FFP breaches is Roma, who slightly exceeded an intermediate target for the 2024 financial year and are now under a microscope until 2027 to avoid more punishment.

Roma fans have been highly critical over the clubs’ recruitment and expenditure in recent years, ranking quite low in the list for biggest spenders in Serie A during the summer.

Adhering to the FFP regulations was one of Roma’s primary objectives during the summer and Ranieri revealed that financial stability is vital as the club cannot afford a major punishment.

Ranieri said: “First of all, we have to be in line with the accounts. We’ll see how the league goes, where we end up and how it goes in the Europa League. This is all income that brings us additional value.

“Then, at the very worst, we will have someone to sell. We can’t afford to take a ‘red card’, or exclusion from any competitions. So we have to keep our accounts in order.”