Former Roma president James Pallotta has revealed the reasoning behind why the club had to sell the likes of both Liverpool stars Alisson Becker and Mohamed Salah.
The American has claimed he bought a 'bankrupt club' when acquiring a majority stake in the Giallorossi from the Sensi family back in 2011.
Pallotta, 63, remained in charge for nearly 10 years, until he parted ways with the football club in August 2020 after selling it to the Friedkin family.
Many world class players joined the club and were eventually moved on with the likes of: Salah, Alisson, Radja Nainggolan, Marquinhos and Edin Dzeko all previously plying their trade in the Italian capital.
'I look at the team we had put together and, frankly, I think that if it weren't for Financial Fair Play that forced us to have to sell players, Roma would be in first place today,' he said during an interview with SiriusXM.
'Over the years we have had Salah, Alisson, Nainggolan, Dzeko, [Miralem] Pjanic, [Kevin] Strootman, [Leandro] Paredes, Emerson Palmieri, [Kostas] Manolas, [Mehdi] Benatia and Marquinhos.
'No team apart from Juventus won the Scudetto from 2012 to 2020. We finished second three times and we reached the Champions League semi-finals. It's probably a better trend than any other Juve rival.
'The club that we bought in 2011 was very different from the one that we sold,' he continued.
'We inherited a club with huge debts, low revenues. It was bankrupt. I don't care about what previous owners would say.
'We negotiated the purchase with Unicredit and if I am dealing with a bank, it means that the bank owns the club', Pallotta added.
The club failed to win anything under Pallotta during his reign at the Stadio Olimpico, and his comments did not impress former owner Rosella Sensi, the daughter of ex-Roma President Franco.
'It is true that shame knows no depths,' she wrote on Instagram.
'I've read the useless and repetitive interview of Pallotta in a newspaper. I've read about the usual talk and excuses, but the story is told with facts, numbers, and trophies.
'Roma's debt today is huge and does not allow a club that was constantly among the top ones to compete for the goals that the new owners would like.
'Facts: Pallotta was the least successful president in Roma's history, the most absent, far from a reality that deserved much more results and love. He talks about bankruptcy but probably doesn't even know the meaning of the word. No more lies.'
LIVERPOOLIAN_INTER
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It was on this day I found out that Marquinhos played for Roma💀