Former Roma president James Pallotta says they were 'forced' to sell Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker due to financial problems.
Salah moved to Merseyside from the Serie A club in the summer of 2017 and has gone on to have a stellar career with the team so far.
Liverpool moved to sign goalkeeper Alisson from Roma a year later and both have played an integral part in the Reds' success in the last couple of years.
While they certainly didn't move for nominal fees, as Liverpool broke the record fee for a goalkeeper when they signed Alisson, Pallotta has admitted financial problems gave them little choice but to sell their star assets.
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“I look at the team we had put together and, frankly, I think that if it weren’t for Financial Fair Play that forced us to have to sell players, Roma would be in first place today,” he said during an interview with SiriusXM [via Football Italia ].
“Over the years we have had Salah, Alisson, Nainggolan, Dzeko, Pjanic, Strootman, Paredes, Emerson Palmieri, Manolas, Benatia, Marquinhos.
“No team apart from Juventus won the Scudetto [title] from 2012 to 2020. We finished second three times and we reached the Champions League semi-finals. It’s probably a better trend than any other Juve rival.
“The club that we bought in 2011 was very different from the one that we sold.
“We inherited a club with huge debts, low revenues. It was bankrupt. I don’t care about what previous owners would say.
“We negotiated the purchase with Unicredit and if I am dealing with a bank, it means that the bank owns the club.”
Roma are currently eighth in the Serie A table and haven't made the top four since the 2017/18 season when they finished third.
Pallotta's comments prompted a response from Rosella Sensi, the daughter of ex-Roma President Franco.
“I’ve read the useless and repetitive interview of Pallotta in a newspaper. I’ve read about the usual talk and excuses, but the story is told with facts, numbers, and trophies," she wrote on Instagram.
“Facts: Pallotta was the least successful president in Roma’s history, the most absent, far from a reality that deserved much more results and love.
“He talks about bankruptcy but probably doesn’t even know the meaning of the word. No more lies.”
