Roma are considering legal action after missing out on the signing of Bordeaux’s Brazilian winger Malcom to Barcelona.
Barcelona announced on Tuesday they had agreed the €42m (£37.3m) signing of the 21-year-old, just a day after Roma said they had a deal of their own.
Malcom has agreed a five-year contract at the Nou Camp and is set to undergo a medical on Wednesday.
“We are looking at our options and seeing if we have a legal case,” Roma sporting director Monchi told the club’s official website.
“It is true that nothing was signed, but there are many messages with the agents and their president that are at least worth being assessed.”
Monchi said Roma only went public with the deal on Monday after he received a phone call from Bordeaux president Stephane Martin telling him the French side were going to make an official announcement because of rumours surrounding the transfer.
Monchi claimed Bordeaux then reneged on their €40m (£35.5m) deal with Roma after receiving the higher offer from Barcelona.
He said: “It is true that, a few days ago, I was aware that a lot of squads were keen on Malcom – Barcelona among them. Because of this we got the deal agreed as quickly as we could: it was done.
“So I was very surprised when one of the representatives of the player called me to tell me that Bordeaux had withdrawn permission for the player to travel to Rome. I called Martin and he told me that an offer had come in from Barcelona that was better than ours and that if we did not raise our offer we could not have the player.
“I informed our president (James Pallotta), telling him of the change – and he gave me the green light to push forward and make a new offer that was better than Barcelona’s. That was against my opinion, but he insisted he was willing and said, ‘Go for it’.
“I informed the Bordeaux president and his agents that Roma were ready to beat Barcelona’s offer. Their president told me that we needed to send it in officially. At 11pm we submitted a formal document with the offer president Pallotta was willing to make.”
Monchi said that Malcom had been expected to travel to Rome on Tuesday evening, but that, after a midday meeting between the Brazilian’s representatives and Bordeaux, he was told “that the agents and Bordeaux wanted another offer as Barcelona were still pushing for a deal”.
Monchi added: “I told them enough, because we did not want to enter an auction. We could not continue like that. And yesterday we had only raised our offer because of the willingness and desire of our president. So that was how everything ended.
“If someone wants to come to Roma that is great, but ultimately if they do not want to come to Rome then we do not want them.”
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