Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Mats Hummels, Deco, Alphonso Davies, Kingsley Coman and Federico Chiesa | OneFootball

Matteo Moretto gives Football España exclusive information on the latest deals dominating the papers in Spain, as revealed in Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing.

Chris Smalling exit imminent, Roma have Mats Hummels decision to make

Centre-back Chris Smalling is set to join Al-Fayha in Saudi Arabia, and they are finalising the transfer. In light of that, Roma are thinking of going for Mats Hummels, who remains a free agent. However, within the club at Roma, they need to come to decision on whether to go all out for Hummels, go for someone else, or just stick with what they have.

The Hummels matter looked as if it was going to go through, but now things have hit the buffers a bit, as reported by Sky Sport Italia. We will have to see if Roma decide in the end to get in contact with Hummels again.

Hummels was linked with move to Real Sociedad, but they have now brought in Nayef Aguerd from West Ham on loan. RCD Mallorca were also linked, but those rumours were denied by the player and the club themselves. I’m not sure it was a real option. Other clubs in Spain did enquire, but La Real were closest, and they have now settled their squad. We’ll see if Roma take a definitive step with Hummels.

Porto snap up Juventus defender after Roma miss out

Tiago Djalo was very close to joining Roma. They knew that Loic Bade wanted to stay at Sevilla, but they tried on the final day of the transfer market. After their move for Kevin Danso fell through, and then they tried for Bade.

Following the Frenchman’s decision to stay at Sevilla, Roma reached an agreement in principle with Juventus, but Djalo will go to Porto. It’s a loan deal without an option to buy, and Juventus will pay part of his salary.

No doubt Juventus will help with that, it’s not quite half and half, but Djalo in theory should leave for Portugal tomorrow, back to his home country.

Rumours of discontent between Deco and Barcelona

On Sunday, Sport reported that Deco was unhappy with how things had gone at the club since arriving, and was considering a departure. That story was not out long before Barcelona released a public statement declaring that they were very satisfied with the former agent, and denominating the story as an ‘attack on the club’.

In this matter, I think it’s important to follow the line put out by the club. The way in which the club denied the story, so strongly and so quickly, speaks for itself. I think Deco has the full confidence of President Joan Laporta. Then when it comes to what Deco thinks, I can’t speak to the details of that, but the main issue was the manager, and so far it looks like they have made a good choice. It’s a squad with quality, Ilkay Gundogan has left, Pau Victor and Dani Olmo have come in.

All in all, Barcelona’s summer was focused around Nico Williams and Dani Olmo. When Barcelona realised that Williams was not going to give them a definitive answer, they opted for Olmo.

Then they had a lot of offers of players too. I think the most real option was Marc Pubill of Almeria, the right-back whose move to Atalanta collapsed and won Olympic gold with Spain. A deal for Liverpool’s Federico Chiesa was not as close as some said it was. Barcelona enquired about Kingsley Coman, he was well-liked by Hansi Flick, but because of the salary limit, it’s something they decided not to pursue.

Real Madrid only had one name in mind after Kylian Mbappe, Endrick Felipe and Leny Yoro

I don’t think Real Madrid seriously considered another addition this summer. It’s something they were perhaps pondering until maybe August, but the only name that was really on the table from that point on was Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies.

Real Madrid know that Davies is available to agree a deal to leave on a free in just four months, and as we were saying when it came to Leny Yoro, their determination not to through money out the window holds true for Davies.

At the moment, Real Madrid were more in need of Yoro than Davies, but they had the self-assuredness to say no, to not go into the transfer market and stick with what they have in Antonio Rudiger, David Alaba and Eder Militao. In January, they know they can tie up a deal for Davies, and depending on how their players recover from injury, and how they are playing, maybe they will reconsider their in the winter transfer window.

Matteo Moretto will be back with more transfer news in the coming days, providing exclusive information on the biggest stories in Spain and Italy.