Torino president Urbano Cairo spoke to Tuttomercatoweb following the Granata’s victory against Sassuolo and was asked about the situation of Nicolas Nkoulou, who asked to be held out of the match as he continues to be linked to Roma. These are his words:
“Nkoulou? He has a performance like the one against Wolverhampton, which wasn’t exceptional – you saw him on the third goal, and then he tells the manager he’s not mentally prepared after being called up. He should’ve told us a day sooner so we could play someone else. I said at the beginning of the transfer window that I will keep everyone, so he will also remain. Maybe he has other ideas, but he has a contract for another two years. Nkoulou must apologize to the club and to his teammates. Will he stay? For me, yes, I want to keep everyone. And as I said, he has a contract for another two years. I even met with his agent at Forte dei Marmi: we were talking all afternoon and even talked about adding a buyout clause. Is this a low blow from Petrachi? No, I don’t know this, but Roma aren’t even able to contact our players: there is a written agreement, if they do, they have to pay a penalty of €900,000”.