Daniele De Rossi's contract is a priority for Roma, says Walter Sabatini

Roma director of sport Walter Sabatini has underlined the club's desire to tie Daniele De Rossi down to a new deal.

Talks have been ongoing between Roma and the Italy midfielder, but they are yet to find an agreement extending beyond his current 2012 terms.

De Rossi stunned the club last month when he said they could be "better off" without him.

Those comments were later watered-down by general manager Franco Baldini, who said Roma were as keen as ever to keep the midfielder.

Sabatini has now moved to offer an update on the situation and said the club have not backed down from trying to reach an accord, despite De Rossi's previous links with Manchester City.

"De Rossi's deal is an absolute priority for us and for the player too," Sabatini is quoted as saying by Il Corriere dello Sport.

Staying on the subject of transfers, the Italian revealed he would speak with coach Luis Enrique and decided whether additional players are needed for the January transfer window.

"We have to see the coach about this and decide what we may need. However, the market will be just to touch up the squad, not for much else," he concluded.

Roma are currently 7th in the Serie A standings and they play Lecce after the international break.

This situation remains the only remaining dark cloud over this whole project. DDR isn't going anywhere, but the fact that it's taking such a long time to get this done has to be worrying for a lot of fans.

I hope he stays at Roma, he is an asset to the team.

I agree, the the idea that they have to take so long to work out a deal always gets fans worried... could end up affecting the player too.

He is our next captain, he must stay, roman blood!

Sabatini and uncle Tom need to sort out this, he has been our best player this season : )))

I am confident he will stay with us.Even Totti said it a few weeks back.

Roma snubbed €70m De Rossi bid
By Football Italia staff

Roma legend Bruno Conti claims that the club once rejected a €70m offer from Chelsea for Daniele De Rossi.

The 1982 World Cup winner made the revelation when asked for his thoughts on whether the midfielder would extend his contract or leave on a Bosman next summer.

“De Rossi will stay at Roma,” Conti, head of Roma’s youth system, told Radio Mana Mana Sport 24 on Monday.

“The possibility of him leaving the club really is the last thing on my mind.

“After all, I’d like to remind everyone of when Chelsea offered as much as €70m for him, a lot of money, but that was rejected by Rosella Sensi.”

Sensi is no longer in charge of the club after an American consortium bought the Italian outfit over the summer.

De Rossi is contracted to his hometown side until June 2012, but extension talks are taking some time as an agreement over his salary has yet to be reached.

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Sensi

70 MILLION! HOLY F*CK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sensi, I bow down to you for the first time.

FORZA DE ROSSI!

I think Conti had a few too many cognac's before making this statement. 70 million? Comon now...

narbeZ wrote:I think Conti had a few too many cognac's before making this statement. 70 million? Comon now...

Same here man.It just sounds so far fetched.

And you can be sure if that offer was true Sensi would've have sold him in a heartbeat.Sure she sold Aquilani for less than 20 mill...ffs..

Conti needs to lay of the booze...

The Fonz wrote:

narbeZ wrote:I think Conti had a few too many cognac's before making this statement. 70 million? Comon now...

Same here man.It just sounds so far fetched.

And you can be sure if that offer was true Sensi would've have sold him in a heartbeat.Sure she sold Aquilani for less than 20 mill...ffs..

Conti needs to lay of the booze...

Don't dismiss her that quick man. She sold Aquilani because he said he was open to it. De Rossi was/is more important than Aquilani was, she would have never gotten rid of him. She didn't even wanna let Mexes go, imagine De Rossi. And with many clubs sniffing around, I'm sure she rejected a few big offers for him.

And as for Aquilani, I'm sure that if the old management was still around this past summer, they would have tried to get Aquilani back. That was actually the plan back when we sold him.

ErPupone wrote:

The Fonz wrote:

narbeZ wrote:I think Conti had a few too many cognac's before making this statement. 70 million? Comon now...

Same here man.It just sounds so far fetched.

And you can be sure if that offer was true Sensi would've have sold him in a heartbeat.Sure she sold Aquilani for less than 20 mill...ffs..

Conti needs to lay of the booze...

Don't dismiss her that quick man. She sold Aquilani because he said he was open to it. De Rossi was/is more important than Aquilani was, she would have never gotten rid of him. She didn't even wanna let Mexes go, imagine De Rossi. And with many clubs sniffing around, I'm sure she rejected a few big offers for him.

And as for Aquilani, I'm sure that if the old management was still around this past summer, they would have tried to get Aquilani back. That was actually the plan back when we sold him.

I'm sure she did reject big offers for him,but 70 million ?

More links to why De Rossi is one of the best in the world

Ya 70 million seems pretty high, 40 million I think may have been offered at some point.