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It was quite shocking, to be honest. Just a couple of days back, Malcom looked all set to join AS Roma and the Italians were suddenly starting to look like a talent-mine of sorts with some very enterprising and young players all set to take the new season by storm.
However, things didn't exactly pan out like anyone thought it would, least of all like AS Roma would have.
Barcelona have agreed a deal for the Bordeaux winger not a long while after AS Roma had announced that they had agreed a deal for the player.
It seems like Roma has been cheesed off and Malcom got in touch with the little boy in him and opened the door when Barcelona came knocking at the 25th hour.
Monchi, Roma's sporting director, blamed Bordeaux for the mishap and stated that the club is considering legal action in a video that was tweeted out by their official Twitter handle.
A clearly disgruntled Monchi said,
“It is easy to explain, but hard to understand.”
"We reached an agreement [on Monday] with the player, his agent and Bordeaux. He was due to arrive for his medical at 11pm. Everything was done, so we were calm and confident.”
Monchi claims that Bordeaux caved in when Barcelona offered more money than the Italians did and as a result, the French club refused to let Malcom travel to Rome. He also claimed that Roma upped their offer but were asked to increase it further and as they did not want to enter into a bidding war, they pulled out of the deal.
“We’re weighing up things up at the club, to see if we can take any legal action. Although we don’t have any signed documents, I have lots of messages from [Malcom’s] agent and [Bordeaux’s] president. That’s something worth considering.”
Barcelona have already announced the signing of Malcom even though the player is only going to have his medical today.
Malcom will be Barcelona's third big money signing of the season after Clement Lenglet (Sevilla) and Arthur (Gremio).
Monchi does not seem a happy man and given the fact that he mentioned the messages he received from Malcom's agent and Bordeaux's president, it seems like he is willing to take legal recourse.
Malcom's abrupt rerouting also upsets Roma's hopes of building a strong and very young core and they have every right to feel betrayed in this scenario.
While the move makes sense for the Brazilian youngster as Barcelona would be a dream destination for any youngster who rises through the ranks in Europe or even other parts of the world, it is plain bullying on a club level.
This can be seen by how Bordeaux accepted a €41 million deal for the youngster after having already agreed a deal with Roma for just one million less.
It will be quite interesting to see how the story will pan out over the course of the next few months but as it stands, Malcom is a Barcelona player and he will share the flanks with yet another enterprising youngster Ousmane Dembele. You smell fire?
