Roma must sell Daniele De Rossi Now

Daniele De Rossi is one of Roma’s best players.

He is absolutely essential to the success of his club and almost irreplaceable as a holding midfielder.

Still, Roma must sell him in order to improve.

He is known as ‘Capitan Futuro’ among his faithful followers, because he is widely recognized as the heir to Francesco Totti’s throne. Many expect the homegrown De Rossi to be the next captain of the Roman squad when Totti retires.

At 29-years of age, De Rossi is in the prime of his career, knocking out fantastic performances with consistency. He is coming off of a superb Confederation’s Cup campaign in Brazil, where he shone on the international stage yet again as one of Italy’s most valuable players.

While he would be a gigantic loss for Roma if he were sold, he is at least currently still worth a lot of money. But like a depreciating automobile, the longer they wait to sell him, the less he will be worth.

De Rossi’s career will soon wind itself down. The holding midfielder role is a physically demanding one that requires stamina, health, and oftentimes, youth.

Realistically, De Rossi may have another three or four solid years left in him before his body begins to succumb to the wears of time. If the Roman project is to succeed, at least half of this time will be spent in the rebuilding stages and De Rossi’s depleting youth will be wasted just waiting for his team to catch up to him.

Another dimension of De Rossi’s limitations at Roma is simply Totti. The Roman skipper will be around another couple years to be the leader of the squad and De Rossi will be forced to live in that shadow until it is too late for him to properly develop into and enjoy his role as captain when he finally becomes that for Roma.

Manchester City of the English Premiership offered to purchase De Rossi’s talents for more than €20 million two years ago, and again last winter, but the Romans desperately hung on. To convince him to stay, Roma drew up a contract worth €10m per season in salary, which made De Rossi the highest paid player in Serie A.

Having missed out on UEFA Champion’s League qualification – and its related bonuses – for the second time in the two years since Roma changed ownership, De Rossi’s extremely high salary can prove to be draining for a club that continues to struggle to get itself back into title contention.

After Roma president James Pallotta declared that “everyone is on the market” last week, other top clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid have reportedly expressed interest in the international holding midfielder. Both have the financial stability to make substantial bids for De Rossi.

This all despite that Chelsea’s initial offer was reportedly a mere €10m – far from an acceptable number to make the transaction worthwhile.

If a much larger number is offered for the midfielder, and as long as it does not come from another major Serie A competitor, Roma must welcome it and capitalize on De Rossi’s worth now while they are still in their rebuilding stages.

No matter how painful it will be to see him go, doing so will benefit the club doubly as it will relieve them of the burden of his salary, as well as generate extra funds for recruiting new talent.

In De Rossi’s stead, Roma should focus on growing a young player – like Alessandro Florenzi – into the ‘Capitan Futuro’ role and allow De Rossi to reach his highest potential with a big club outside of Italy.

He has earned this chance and he will nevertheless be respected among the Roman faithful, because when he was faced with the option to leave last year, he ultimately chose Roma.

Follow Riccardo Lo Monaco on Twitter: @kicknut