Massara: ‘Roma will keep Malen for a long time, guarantee for Gasperini’

Ricky Massara confirms Roma intend to make Aston Villa-owned Donyell Malen ‘our centre-forward for a long time to come’ and ‘guaranteed’ Gian Piero Gasperini will remain too.

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The trip to Inter kicks off at San Siro at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s Serie A games on the Liveblog.

The fight for a top four finish looks like it could go down to the wire, as three points separate Como, Roma and Juventus going into the last eight rounds.

Massara reassuring on Roma future

Malen has been an astonishing signing from Aston Villa in January, scoring eight goals with one assist in 12 competitive matches, so will Roma activate the €25m option to make it permanent?

“There is an option for Roma to buy, so Malen is doing very well, had an incredible impact on Serie A, and we hope he can be the Roma centre-forward for a long time to come,” Massara told DAZN Italia.

“Evidently, we regret the Europa League elimination, but we never set any specific targets for this season. We have started a brand new project with an exceptional coach who is doing great things, we are glad to be challenging for fourth place and hope to stay in that race to the end.”

So is Gasperini sure he will remain next season?

“It is guaranteed,” assured Massara.

Matias Soulé returns for the first time since February 15, but Wesley picked up a muscular injury on international duty with Brazil and will be out for a month.

He joins long-term absentees Paulo Dybala, Manu Koné, Artem Dovbyk and Evan Ferguson on the treatment table.

Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive edition of the World Cup, so what does Roma director Massara suggest to fix Italian football?

“During critical moments like this, there are always ideas put forward. All I will say is that football has changed a great deal in recent years, so if we can understand those changes and take action, then we can see progress. If we don’t take those changes into account, we will find ourselves back here in four years having the same conversations.”