Romano lifts lid on fall-out after Mateta deal collapse: “Unrest among all parties”

Fabrizio Romano has shed a bit more light on the fall-out after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s move to AC Milan collapsed on deadline day.

It has been nothing short of a chaotic last 24 hours for Mateta, Milan and Crystal Palace. On Sunday evening, it emerged that the Rossoneri had agreed a deal worth ‘in excess of €30m’ to sign the French striker from the Premier League club.

However, within a few hours there were already doubts beginning to surface. Reports claimed that the Milan directors wanted to do further medical tests on the striker’s knee, and then on deadline day it came out that they did not get satisfactory results, so the deal is now off.

‘A bit of unrest’

In his latest video on his YouTube channel, Fabrizio Romano spoke alongside his colleague Matteo Moretto and he lifted the lid on how things have been left after Mateta’s move was called off.

“There’s a bit of unrest among all parties involved, because this is a deal that was tied to another, Strand Larsen. In England, they’re wondering if Palace can close for Larsen: no, because these two deals are connected,” he said.

Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

If the English club decides to invest 50 million pounds in the next few hours without having received a single euro from Mateta, I can’t tell you that. What I understand is that Mendes, who is overseeing the Strand Larsen deal, doesn’t have the feeling that it will happen anyway.

“Palace are stuck, Mateta has come forward publicly and clearly and ferociously wanted Milan. But Milan can’t risk spending so much money on a player who doesn’t offer any physical guarantees.

“On the other hand, Palace aren’t very happy with the situation because Larsen is stuck and Armstrong, who was signed from Wolverhampton to replace him, is also out.”