Tension between Barcelona and Roma escalates after apology

James Pallotta slammed Barcelona’s apology

After Monchi gave Barcelona a piece of his mind regarding the hijacking of Malcom’s transfer, Roma president James Pallotta has jumped into the mix regarding the issue, despite head coach Eusebio di Francesco’s acceptance of the situation.

After the deal was successfully hijacked and Malcom joined Barcelona, Roma sporting director Monchi threatened Bordeaux with legal action. These threats were soon dismissed by Malcom’s representatives, who confirmed that there was nothing illegal about the move.

Then, manager Eusebio di Francesco said that he was ‘sorry’ for how things went, but he was sure that Monchi would be able to sign a better player in Malcom’s place. And after that, Barcelona issued an official apology to Roma for hijacking the transfer.

But James Pallotta refused to accept the apology, and went on a rant about how the entire operation was highly unethical. And now, the relations between the two clubs are in a very poor state, and there is doubt as to whether any future transactions will occur between the two.

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"Pallotta said, “Malcom? Barcelona jumped into the mix, no question they did so unethically. Monchi was on a video conference the following morning with Malcom’s agent, who said, ‘Look Monchi, I’m wearing red, the deal is done.’ But we’ve gotten legal advice on the situation and it looks like Bordeaux will be testifying.Even yesterday, Barcelona called us to apologise, but I don’t accept their apology. The only way I accept their apology is if they send us Messi. Malcom wanted to come to us, there were other clubs interested such as Leicester and Everton but they weren’t having formal talks.We had already agreed to a buyout clause of €120 million. Nothing was signed? That’s bullshit. Every club knows how things work. Forget about the legality, it’s unethical and immoral. His agent? Maybe he’s a moron.”"

Pallotta refuses to accept that the sporting project at his club is not appealing enough to attract the top youngsters in Europe. He insists on slandering other clubs and agents in order to promote his own club.

This makes Barcelona unfriendly with two of Europe’s rising clubs, Paris Saint-Germain and Roma. They have been climbing the ladder of European football for quite some time, and the club has done everything to thwart them.

But it is unimportant, considering that clubs like Sevilla, Atlético, Valencia and Ajax maintain healthy relationships with the club, especially since they are the best producers of young talent.