Romano on speed dial? Man Utd, Chelsea stars *definitely* among six of the transfer expert’s ‘sources’

Lewis Oldham
Romano, Man Utd, Chelsea
Fabrizio Romano, Marc Cucurella and Sofyan Amrabat.

Fabrizio Romano is many people’s go-to transfer reporter, but he would not be anywhere without his inside sources and these players have *definitely* helped him along.

Romano has built up a massive following on social media and he certainly makes the lives of news aggregators a lot easier with his non-stop coverage of transfers around the globe.

While David Ornstein is – and always will be – our GOAT in the transfer reporting game, Romano also deserves immense credit as he is very rarely off the mark with his information.

And as Romano’s audience has grown, the amount of high-profile footballer’s phone numbers in his contacts will have increased tenfold. If you read between the lines, you can have a pretty solid guess at which players are closer than most to the reporter.

His one-sided defence of Nottingham Forest loanee Andrey Santos over a lack of game time inspired us to pick out six more of Romano’s mates. And it’s worth pointing out – especially in case the main man reads this – that this article is only a bit of fun. So with that… HERE. WE. GO!

 

Sofyan Amrabat
You can get a pretty clear picture of which footballers actually want a move by the amount of information obtained by Romano (and others) on the individual’s transfer prospects.

Heading into a transfer window, there are certain players you just know are going to be switching clubs and this was the case with Amrabat this time around.

After his stunning performances for Morocco and Fiorentina in 2022/23, the defensive midfielder was linked with clubs all around Europe and it was made clear from the get-go that his heart was set on signing for Manchester United.

Unfortunately for Amrabat, United’s financial constraints made it so that a deal could not be finalised until deadline day and even then it was constructed as an initial loan.

While waiting for Erik ten Hag’s side to sort themselves out, Amrabat was left twiddling his thumbs in Florence and he (maybe) kept the interest in him kicking over by drip-feeding Romano transfer details before he could live out his dream of being a Man Utd midfielder left-back.

Man Utd players slammed

 

Donny van de Beek
Before United could sign Amrabat, they needed to reduce the wage bill by offloading some unwanted talents and Van de Beek requires a fresh start more than most.

During the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, a transfer to Man Utd is the breaking of players more than it is the making of them and Van de Beek has endured a nightmare couple of years at Old Trafford.

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It was made evident by Romano’s Twitter (it’s not called X, Elon) activity that Van de Beek was playing the field while searching for a new home this summer.

Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, Lorient and Real Sociedad were supposedly among the Dutchman’s potential destinations, but he is stuck in Manchester until January after playing hardball over his exit.

Van de Beek is currently not getting a sniff at Man Utd but he (with the help of Romano) will sell himself to possible suitors in the weeks leading up to the winter transfer window.

 

Marc Cucurella
As mentioned above, Romano gets very little wrong so on the odd occasion when he is proven to be incorrect, he is swiftly thrown to the wolves.

This was the case with the Cucurella-Chelsea saga last year. For those who can’t remember, Romano appeared to jump the gun and prematurely reveal that the £60m defender – who we reckon was at fault for making the reporter look daft at first – had ‘fully agreed’ to join the Blues from Brighton after the London outfit moved ahead of Manchester City in the race to sign him.

Remarkably, Brighton subsequently tweeted: “Contrary to inaccurate reports from numerous media outlets this evening, no agreement has been reached with any club to sell Marc Cucurella.”

But it was not long until Romano’s inside information of the deal resulted in a correct ‘Here We Go’ call as Cucurella’s big-money move to Stamford Bridge was confirmed a couple of days later.

 

Mykhaylo Mudryk
Six months before the majority of transfer talk diverted to Harry Kane and Moises Caicedo, the Ukrainian winger was the belle of the ball during this year’s winter transfer window.

After revelling in a Shakhtar Donetsk shirt, a January move to Arsenal was lined up before Chelsea’s dramatic late hijack saw them snatch Mikel Arteta’s top transfer target.

(Un)luckily for us, every minor development of this saga was jumped on by Romano, who must have spoken more to Mudryk during that window than he did his own family.

Shakhtar’s extortionate £87m+ asking price for Mudryk put off Arsenal, who eventually settled for a cushty bargain with Brighton’s Leandro Trossard. Mudryk meanwhile – despite the Gunners initially being his “dream” destination – was swayed by the lure of Todd Boehly’s big bucks.

READ MORE: Mudryk forces break in Chelsea clouds to glimpse bright future under Pochettino

 

Victor Osimhen
If you are already bored of reading Osimhen’s name on this website (which in case you didn’t know, used to be a great site), you better strap yourselves in for even more speculation following that TikTok video drama.

A move to the Premier League for Osimhen was already being heavily mooted before this controversy and reports should gather pace ahead of the upcoming January window.

World-class goalscorers are few and far between in the modern game, so when one is up for a transfer, reporters will tend to lean on these players to forge clicky headlines. And with Premier League clubs in for the Napoli standout, this is the case with Osimhen – just as it was with Bayern Munich newbie Kane in the summer.

Osimhen is already at the centre of Romano’s reporting and this will continue as the transfer guru ‘exclusively’ reveals his ‘preferred destination’ and ‘Napoli’s exit stance’.

 

Adrien Rabiot
It feels like Rabiot has constantly been on Man Utd’s radar over the past 18 months as his dramatic upturn in form for Juventus in 2022/23 coincided with an expiring contract. Read into that what you will…

Amid Juventus’ ongoing financial troubles, the word coming out of Rabiot’s camp (via Romano) was that he was leaning towards a move to the Premier League this summer before he penned a one-year deal extension.

This short new deal silenced transfer talk for only a couple of weeks as he is now firmly back on the radar of clubs around Europe ahead of his contract expiry in 2024.

As he steps up his efforts to secure himself another mega-money contract, Romano will be called upon to spread the midfielder’s message to interested parties.

READ MORE: Manchester United are an absolute joke and Rasmus Hojlund already deserves far better

F365 Features Adrien Rabiot

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