Last summer for Manchester United was as much about getting rid of players who didn't fit as it was about attracting the players needed to rebuild Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad, and Chris Smalling was deemed to be in the former category.
Loaned out to Roma for the 2019/20 season, the centre-back’s attachment to Old Trafford might have been kept intact, but United must have thought they’d seen the last of Smalling.
But Italy is the home of the Renaissance, after all, and in Serie A the 30-year-old has revived his career. So much so, in fact, that Roma hope an agreement for the permanent signing of Smalling can be reached.
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