Liverpool and Real Madrid have been warned by Roma president James Pallotta that “a sack of money” will not be enough to land in-demand goalkeeper Alisson.
The Brazil international has become a much sought-after commodity on the back of his consistent showings for club and country.
So impressive has he been that he has earned the nickname ‘the Messi of goalkeepers’ .
It is that ability which has attracted the attention of Liverpool and Real , among others, but Roma have maintained throughout the regular rounds of transfer talk that they have no intention of selling .
That remains the stance coming out of Stadio Olimpico, with Pallotta telling Sky Sport Italia : “Alisson? I don’t have any intention of selling Alisson. I know that several clubs have said that they want him, Liverpool being one of them, but he has a contract with us.
“I’m sure some team will come up with a sack of money to sign him, but for now the decision lies with the coach and Monchi, and we don’t want to sell him.
“He’s an important pillar, with whom we want to build. We want players like him. Sales? If we thought about selling [Miralem] Pjanic and [Mohamed] Salah, it was because we didn’t have a choice.
“We didn’t suddenly say ‘we want to sell Pjanic’, it wasn’t like that.
“If I’d spent more time with him and if he’d said that he wanted to stay, I’d have tried to convince him to stay, although maybe we’d have sold him anyway.
“Salah wanted to go to test himself in the Premier League. We’ve sold a lot of players in recent seasons, but it’s not something I want us to do now.”
Alisson has made 48 appearances for Roma and Brazil across the 2017-18 campaign, keeping 23 clean sheets.