AS Roma are looking to remove Lorenzo Pellegrini’s €30m buy-out clause in a bid to put off potential suitors including Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

The central midfielder has made only one league appearance for Roma this season but with seven Italy caps at only 22 years old he is widely expected to become a star player and be a crucial part of the current Azzurri rebuild partnering Chelsea midfielder Jorginho in the middle of the park.

Whilst his current deal has until 2022 to run the sudden interest from City as well as their local rivals Manchester United seems to have shaken Roma into action as they look to offer Pellegrini a new contract with a wage rise and the removal of the release clause which would mean that he either remains with the club or is sold for a much higher fee.

City and United are both looking to strengthen in the centre of the pitch come January and whilst it seems that both sides are being linked to a plethora of players including Adrien Rabiot and Ruben Neves respectively, the action by Roma to secure Pellegrini suggest that maybe this is a little more than transfer gossip.

Whilst he had a good season last year, Pellegrini has been confined to the bench for most of this season playing on the first 45 minutes of the Roma vs Atalanta match, where he failed to make an impact before being replaced at halftime with the home side losing 3-1.