Roma transfers can often seem long and dragged out. While that may be true of every club to some extent, fans have watched impatiently as the club negotiated back and forth for the permanent transfer of Radja Nainggolan from Cagliari.
This was an affair that should have been settled sooner than it was last week because the importance of keeping the Belgian at the club was simply unquestionable.
The second part of his registration fee from Cagliari cost Roma €9 million, exactly half of what the first part cost last January. Therefore the consolidated transfer figure is lower than the rumoured €20 million it could have taken to pry the midfielder to the capital permanently as his reputation grew.
A day before Nainggolan's permanent transfer was announced, Roma took another co-owned player back: Andrea Bertolacci from Genoa for a fee of €8.5 million.
The two moves in quick succession were understandable -- the deals needed to be resolved before the June co-ownership deadline in Italy. But the fees were so similar that some eyebrows were raised.
Is half of Nainggolan, Roma's best player from last season, really worth just half a million more than half of Bertolacci?
The Italian is a fine midfielder in his own right but had never made a single senior appearance for the club. Were Roma getting a great deal for the Belgian and overpaying for the Italian? Or was it just a matter of having a better relationship with Cagliari than Genoa, due to Davide Astori and Victor Ibarbo's loans?
However, the puzzle has now become clearer: Bertolacci has just been sold to Milan for €20 million. In essence, selling the Italian has paid for all of Nainggolan with €2 million left over, which surely is one of Walter Sabatini's greatest coups given how good the Belgian is.
Sceptics may explain the low transfer fee for Nainggolan by claiming that any imminent sale would then drive Roma's profits higher if a big enough bid comes in. Instead, the truth might just be that by buying Nainggolan at a very fair price and selling Bertolacci high, the club will now have some extra money to splash during the summer.
That's very welcome news for a team that is yet to address the elephants in the room: the striker and full-back situations. In fact, the latter has only become more pressing, as Federico Balzaretti's contract expires on Wednesday with no indication that an extension will be signed.
The Italian had, of course, just recovered from a long-standing hernia injury at the end of last season. But the 33-year-old now seems likely to head out to look for regular playing time, or perhaps a role as a coach somewhere.
With Jose Holebas rumored to be off to Watford, the need to spend at the back is only growing. The other need, for a top-notch striker, might just be ending with Roma reported to have agreed to personal terms with Edin Dzeko on Tuesday.
Should a fee be negotiated with City, the club will have signed its highest profile striker in quite some time. The Bosnian's impact won't just be at the tip of the attack, however, but should reverberate further back on the pitch the way few others can.
Miralem Pjanic, his countryman, has been incredibly vocal to get the Manchester City man to Roma suggesting earlier this week that he would run to the club in order to complete a move.
Pjanic's form dipped over the course of the last season and should only improve with a striker with whom he has an excellent professional relationship and friendship.
Then again, given the dizzying turns that the summer market almost always makes, and the dragged out affairs that many recent Roma transfers have been, maybe not even Sabatini himself knows if that move will pan out.