Roma Looks For Youth in A Romelu Lukaku Replacement

The fanfare that surrounded Romelu Lukaku’s move to Roma last season was intense. Maybe not on the scale of the José Mourinho or Paulo Dybala signings, but still, Lukaku is a proven champion and was at one point sconsidered one of the best strikers on the planet. During his one season in Rome, he put in a more than serviceable effort, scoring twenty-one and assisting four across all competitions and acting as an attacking fulcrum that at its best balanced creativity and offensive firepower in a way the Giallorossi had not showcased since the days of Francesco Totti. Even better, it was reported that Lukaku was truly enjoying his time in Rome and hoped that the Giallorossi could qualify for the Champions League and thus have the money necessary to make him a permanent resident at the Stadio Olimpico.

Regrettably, that path forward for Roma and Romelu has been closed, as the Giallorossi just missed Champions League qualification and are therefore operating with a tighter budget than they would have if they placed in the top five or Atalanta had placed fifth. With that, Lukaku looks set to head to Napoli and reunite with Antonio Conte, while new Roma technical director Florent Ghisolfi has to find another attacker to pair with Paulo Dybala up front.

A top club like Roma hunting for a new starting striker is the stuff that football rumor mills are made of, and the Italian media has already started churning out what feels like dozens of links to strikers throughout Europe. There’s one trendline that’s unifying a bunch of those rumors, though, and it’s youth. Instead of finding a striker at the peak of their powers and in their late twenties, Roma looks as if they will be thinking young for their next striker. Names like Jonathan David (valuation: €30 million), Thijs Dallinga (valuation: €20 million), Matias Soulé (valuation: €25 million), and Samuel Omorodion (valuation: €30 million) may play in different leagues and have different profiles as attackers, but their youth is what unites them.

What does that mean for Roma’s plans for next season? What does it say about their view of their current star players, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Paulo Dybala, that Roma are looking to bring in a striker several years younger than them and make him a focal point of the offense? Well, it is likely at least in part an acknowledgement that Roma simply cannot depend on Paulo Dybala week in and week out to be the fulcrum of Roma’s offense. Dybala is only 30, but even at what is arguably his peak, he is injury-prone. He can’t be depended on to play in three competitions for an entire season; the Tommaso Baldanzi signing practically confirms that Roma both values Dybala and recognizes this fact.

On Lolo’s side, the past few seasons have shown a regular trend of Lorenzo Pellegrini playing at a world class level only to fall back to earth due to being run into the ground by overuse. Add in the fact that Pellegrini is Italy’s #10 for the Euros this summer (congratulations to our captain, by the way) and it’s clear that the Giallorossi need to give him more time to breathe than he normally gets. While a young starting striker won’t be replacing either Dybala or Pellegrini in the starting lineup, bringing in a starter with that kind of energy and ability to play more matches without falling apart might make it so that sitting either of them won’t be as fatal moving forward.

I always think that looking at specific rumors for Roma’s transfer market and thinking that the specific players mentioned will be Roma players by September is a fool’s errand, particularly at the beginning of silly season. But the rumored signings can tell you a lot about where the club is and how the club wants to move forward. A move for an exciting young striker who can start now may not have the same oomph as bringing Romelu Lukaku to the Eternal City on a permanent basis, but it is arguably the smarter move for the Giallorossi moving forward.