Why Roma are Desperate to Keep Sought After Nainggolan

Lost in the spray of champagne as Juventus were crowned champions on Monday was the result that made their fifth straight Scudetto a mathematical certainty. Roma beat Napoli at the Olimpico to go within two points of them and a third consecutive runners’ up finish and automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League. Their last minute goal was a beauty. 

Roma were almost out of time, but they were in no rush. A patient “26-27 pass move” concluded with Radja Nainggolan bending a shot around a Napoli defender and inside the post. After the game, he lamented the 1-1 draw with Bologna a week earlier. In hindsight, it represented a big missed opportunity because if Roma had won that night they would now have been level on points with Napoli but in front of them because of their favourable head-to-head record. 

Nainggolan’s goal was his fifth of the season and it matched his personal best in Serie A. Curiously, the Belgium international’s first of the campaign did not arrive until Luciano Spalletti had replaced Rudi Garcia at the beginning of the New Year. Under Spalletti, his record is five goals in 14 appearances in the league. Not bad for a midfield player and ample reason why keeping Nainggolan is a priority for Roma’s new coach. 

When Spalletti returned to Trigoria, one of the first divergences with the old regime was to experiment with Nainggolan further forward in a role associated with Simone Perrotta during his first spell in the capital. The rationale behind it was logical enough. Nainggolan is an excellent ball winner and if he recovers it higher up the pitch, closer to goal, he's more likely to make a decisive impact either by assisting his teammates or scoring himself. 

Spalletti’s intuition was spot on. After going the entire girone d’andata without a goal [20 games in total], Nainggolan found the back of the net in two of Spalletti’s first three matches. Since then Roma have changed system again. The 3-4-2-1, a useful alternative for a hitherto inflexible team to have up its sleeve, was archived for Spalletti classics like 4-3-1-2 and 4-2-3-1 with Nainggolan operating in a familiar, slightly more withdrawn role where he can still play box-to-box and break up play. 

Nainggolan has recovered the ball 233 times this season. Famous for his sliding tackles, he has won 129 of his ground duels and regained possession in the midfield third the fifth most times in Serie A (139). In Spalletti’s opinion, “the dirtier you make the game the easier it is for your defenders to win back the ball.” Nainggolan makes that possible. The picture developing is of a midfielder that can do a little bit of everything. 

There was a debate on Sky Italia on Monday which went a little something like this: if Roma had to sell one player, who would you let go? Miralem Pjanic or Nainggolan? The panel acknowledged that Pjanic is the better technician. He is in double figures for goals [11] and assists this season [11]. But Zvonimir Boban argued convincingly that, of the two, he would rather sacrifice Pjanic because Nainggolan is “a total footballer,” the more well-rounded. “He’d get into any team in the world,” Boban insisted. Nainggolan’s usefulness, the combination of goals and grinta  - that gritty determination and fighting spirit - are what make him so versatile and valuable. 

“Radja has got everything in his locker,” Spalletti told Roma TV, “giving him a fixed position is difficult because it limits him. He reads the game well, gets stuck in and never stops moving. If you hand him a free role, the team benefits from his flair, ability and understanding of the game.” 

It’s not difficult to understand then why Antonio Conte is apparently pressuring Chelsea to do everything to bring Nainggolan to Stamford Bridge this summer. Often thought of as another Arturo Vidal, although without the same sustained effectiveness as yet in front of goal, he has the all-action playing style to suit the Premier League and to implement Conte’s system. 

“Nainggolan is a universal midfielder,” Roma director of sport Walter Sabatini told Mediaset last night. “He is so strong in both phases that he is being tracked by many different clubs.” Sabatini was papped outside Stamford Bridge earlier this month, prompting speculation about Nainggolan’s future. Kevin Strootman is training regularly with the first team again and Roma might be of the opinion that they already have a replacement in-house. Remember Nainggolan was initially bought as a stand-in for Strootman. Leandro Paredes has impressed on loan at Empoli and the argument could be made that it’s time to bring him back and give him a chance too. 

FFP has been a challenge for Roma because of the situation the new owners inherited. But revenues are rising. Roma are about to eclipse Milan as Italy’s second richest team and it was interesting to hear James Pallotta admit on Roma Radio this month that, over the last couple of years, the mistake the club has made is “a mentality of trading too much.” Interpret that as the club wanting greater stability and to retain its best players. 

Roma could raise the €40m money talked about for Nainggolan in other ways, for instance, by turning the loans of Adem Ljajic, Juan Manuel Iturbe, Seydou Doumbia, Paredes and even Antonio Sanabria into permanent deals. Inter are obliged to pay €11m for Ljajic, roughly the same Roma will owe Milan for Stephan El Shaarawy. The trouble is that with the exception of Paredes and Sanabria, the others have flopped. 

Ultimately, what this will come down to is the will of the player. Other arrangements had been made for Iturbe last summer, but in the end he told Roma he wished to stay and they respected his decision. Nainggolan could do the same. But it’s one thing to refuse a move to Genoa and another entirely, in the case of Nainggolan, to turn down a club of Chelsea's standing. 

“The papers are writing a little too much about my future,” he told Il Tempo, “but I’m used to it. Every year for five years they said I was leaving Cagliari and every summer I stayed. All I am thinking about now is finishing the season well with Roma and completing our objective. I have just extended my contract [until 2020]. Not because I am about to leave. Actually I have shown that I want to stay.”  

As of a few weeks ago his reaction to transfer tittle tattle that he is Premier League-bound this summer was: “I still haven't heard from anyone [about Chelsea]. I don’t even know for sure that they want me. I’ve read that I have already told my friends I am going to Chelsea, but when did I ever do that? The truth is that I can't talk about things I don’t yet know anything about.” 

The ‘yet’ left the impression that the door is not completely closed. “If they call, should I not talk to them? Right now I am doing everything I can for Roma as I always have done. I am happy. My family are happy and if I were to stay I’d be happy all the same. But if Barcelona were to come after me, what player would say that he doesn't want to go to the most important team in the world?”  

You might say that Nainggolan established a hierarchy with that comment. An order of preference. Where exactly Chelsea stand in it is unclear but Roma can offer him something the Blues can't next season and that's the prospect of Champions League football. 

After Francesco Totti’s future, Nainggolan’s is the most spoken about in the capital. Nicknamed il Ninja, everyone is wondering what his next move will be?

Should Nainggolan trade Roma for Chelsea this summer? Let us know in the comments below