The vice-chairman of Hull City, the Championship club based in East Yorkshire, has explained their forthcoming collaboration with Roma.
Around a month ago, news emerged that Roma were discussing a new partnership with Hull City, though there was no official confirmation at the time.
Now, the closest thing to that has happened, with the Tigers’ vice-chairman, Tan Kesler, explaining what he has discussed with Roma’s general manager, Tiago Pinto.
Speaking to Sports Talk on BBC Radio Humberside, Kesler said: “It was just, you know, Tiago is their sporting director, he’s just brilliant. I know him from Portugal and we had a sit down.
“Obviously in Italy, competition is fierce. They have to collaborate. Internally they try and collaborate with other clubs, but they still have to compete.
“The Championship is a league that you can get your players to the Premier League quicker, because if they can survive in this environment, plus where they come from is important obviously.
“So we try to collaborate in terms of the player, basically, in terms of the idea, philosophy. So we shook hands, verbally, but it was more or less because of our relationship and our chairmen’s relationship; our owners will meet eventually in person to seal it for collaboration.
“It’ll be a football collaboration mostly. But you will see, we will consider their top-level players first and they will also talk to us about their top players to be considered. We will also let some of our own, actually they have already considered some of our own to maybe bring into their first-team environment and give them a debut.”
Pressed on whether any individuals had already been earmarked for a move either way, Kesler replied: “With them, from us they identified yes. I won’t name it. From them, we also identified, but also it has to make sense because sustainability means financials as well.
“Some of the Roma players are too high a price tag, so we’re trying to do something more reasonable where we develop and benefit and where also they don’t lose money and have opportunity to develop their players.”
Kesler isn’t expecting any of these potential moves to happen before the start of the 2023-24 season.
He added: “Start of the season, no, but we will continue to look at it. The progression model, it’s just fairly new. So it’s more like a longevity than bringing right away someone and putting into pre-season to see if they fit or not.”
Local readers of Giallorossi Yorkshire will surely be eager to find out if there is a chance of a Roma friendly happening on Humberside.
On that topic, Kesler concluded: “We’ve discussed, but right now their tour is all scheduled. But I think if the schedule fits, we will be the first option. At some point we will play together, so I’m really excited about that.
“I can’t commit 100%, but we’ve discussed and said let’s do it if both of our schedules fit.”
So far, Roma are due to play Tottenham Hotspur, Wolves and Incheon United on a tour of South Korea in late July and early August.
Hull City’s campaign in the Championship will commence on 5th August, whereas Roma will get their Serie A schedule underway two weeks later.
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