It appears that Thomas Vermaelen is about to sign for Roma on a two-year loan.

Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol, as well as the Italian media, revealed on Friday that the former Arsenal skipper would be joining the Serie A side after making just seven appearances for Barcelona since signing for them in 2014.

Sure enough, Roma coach, Luciano Spalletti, soon confirmed that negotiations are currently going ahead.

“Vermaelen is a player with experience and quality,” he said.

“You can start the action from behind and has great character thickness. These players here are used to playing this type of games. Walter is ahead with this deal though for now you do not it can be said to be done.”

The centre-back managed to get injured almost as soon as he signed for the Catalans and spent almost his entire first season in Spain sidelined. Now, despite being fit, he still finds it hard to get into the team and it looks as if they’re looking to offload him.

A few teams have been linked, including Liverpool. However, Roma was perhaps the most likely. I figured something was probably in the works when their official website asked Wojciech Szczesny about the potential signing as soon as the goalkeeper returned on loan.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting Vermaelen to just go out on loan. He’s 30 years old so you’d think, at least from his point of view, a more permanent arrangement would be on the cards. Then again, Barca did pay £15m for him (lol) so I guess they’re trying to save face while simultaneously making room in their team.

If it goes ahead, good luck to him.