Roma midfielder Radja Nainggolan. (Photo : Getty Images)
It looks like Radja Nainggolan is set to remain in Italy next season as his mother club, AS Roma, reportedly turned down a recent £23 million bid from dethroned English Premier League champions Chelsea FC.
Roma said to have rejected the said offer, "plus performance-related bonuses", as the Italian Serie A side's club president James Pallotta wants at least £32 million for the Belgian midfielder, according to The Guardian.
The report also said that it was Pallotta's top priority to keep Nainggolan and his other in-demand player, winger Miralem Pjanic, at the Stadio Olimpico next season to have another shot at the Scudetto and Champions League glory once again.
"I have already said that we will not sell Pjanic and Nainggolan," said Pallotta. "I would like to see them continue playing for Roma."
Aside from Nainggolan and Pjanic, incoming Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is said to be also interested in acquiring Greek defender Kostas Manolas, who is a part of I Giallorossi head coach Luciano Spalletti's starting eleven as well.
Manolas still has three years left in his contract with the Wolves, but it is anticipated that the Blues will make another major move for him at season's end just like what they did last summer. Chelsea had been close to signing the Greece international last year but the Italian capital city squad backed out at the last minute as they were not able to find a replacement for him.
Meanwhile, Nainggolan publicly declared his hopes for Roma's chances in the Champions League next season, indicating that he really intends to stay with La Maggica moving forward.
"I think we can be satisfied with third-place, given how things turned out," said Nainggolan, via Caught Offside. "We had a nice run, and in the end we deserved third place for how we played in the second half of the season."
"The Champions League? If you come up against a great team in the group, sooner or later you have to beat them to qualify. I think we have to play the way we're doing now. Now there are the holidays, but we need to prepare well as we have to qualify for the Champions League," he added.
With Nainggolan's recent comments, it is clear that the 5-foot-9 Antwerp, Belgium native is focused on taking Roma to the next level in 2016-2017 and that Conte might have to put his attention on someone else if he wants to improve his midfield for next season's English first division competitions.
