Sabatini said the club wanted to sign the Uruguayan this winter but could not afford to pay the transfer fee required by PSG – said to be £50 million – and the player’s wages as it totalled an entire season’s operations. The club’s annual revenue, according to Forbes magazine, is £94 million.
Arsenal and Manchester United are both in the running for the player but Roma appear to be out of the race for the PSG striker as they are, sensibly, refusing to blow their budget on Cavani. ‘I Giallarossi’ are currently still under investigation over possible Financial Fair Play breaches made it 2012 and 2013.
Roma did strengthen in January with the signing of Seydou Doumbia from CSKA Moskow who signed a four-and-a-half year deal following the agreement of an initial €14.4 million transfer fee.
“We can’t buy the players, Jim Pallotta wants to win the Scudetto, and if we don’t do it this year then we’ll do it next year, because this is Roma’s target and Pallotta is doing some incredible work to always win it,” Sabatini said.
“What am I supposed to tell people? I’m buying a player that costs like a year’s worth of operations.
“A few years from now it’s not going to be like this because Roma will have many sources of revenue. Now things aren’t like that, but Roma exists. One day they’re going to tell you of all the work that the club is doing.”
