Paulo Fonseca has reiterated his desire for Roma to keep Chris Smalling on a permanent basis this summer.
Smalling has been outstanding during his loan from Manchester United this season, fitting in seamlessly in the Roma backline and establishing himself as a leader.
However, Roma may not be able to afford a permanent transfer, despite the player admitting he would be open to the move.
A number of alternatives are being considered, but head coach Fonseca hopes that Smalling can continue his adventure with Roma.
“He surprised me. He’s a defender that had never left England and he arrived in a league very demanding of tactics, where details make the difference,” Fonseca said in an interview with A Bola in his native Portugal.
“Chris adapted very quickly. He’s an extraordinary guy, very intelligent. He has characteristics that I really appreciate in the centre.
“He’s fast, nearly unbeatable in one-on-ones. He has a great ability to read the play and anticipate. He has been very important for this club.
“If possible, I would like him to stay. He’s a great professional and person, it’s a pleasure to have him here with us.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Fonseca admitted he was ‘in love’ with Roma and that he had always been interested in the job.
“I always had the ambition to coach in the biggest leagues in Europe. Italy is one of the most difficult leagues, maybe even the most difficult on a tactical level.
“When my agent, Marco Abreu, told me of the different possibilities, one of them was Roma and I was interested straight away. I had played at the Olimpico with Shakhtar the year before and had seen the incredible atmosphere of these fans and the way in which they live the club.
“It wasn’t a question of money, because I had bigger proposals from this point of view, but I wanted to test myself in a league like the Italian one, which is tactically different from the others, and I wanted Roma.”
Embed from Getty ImagesAside from the tactics – which he has responded well to – one of the biggest challenges Fonseca has faced has been the amount of injuries suffered by the squad.
“This season I experienced something new with so many traumatic injuries. It had never happened before in my career, but they are injuries that we cannot control.
“It isn’t just [Nicolo] Zaniolo, but he was in a great moment of form and we missed him so much. The absence of [Amadou] Diawara was heavy. [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan was out for two, three months.
“Then we also lost [Lorenzo] Pellegrini, [Bryan] Cristante, [Davide] Zappacosta, [Edin] Dzeko, [Diego] Perotti, [Javier] Pastore, [Justin] Kluivert, [Cengiz] Under. I have never had all these players unavailable at the same time.
“It is difficult to find stability in a team with so many injuries. There were some complicated moments when we didn’t have players for certain positions, but in those moments the squad pulled out a strong character, were united, and fought against the difficulties.”
Asked for his favourite moment of the season so far, Fonseca looked back to those moments when the team were struggling to find a fully fit lineup, but still dug out results.
“I really enjoyed our matches with Fiorentina, Milan and Napoli, at a time when our team was having great difficulties. We played some great matches.”
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