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Roma defender Smalling blasts Man Utd: I was left in a very s*** situation

Roma defender Chris Smalling has hit out at former club Manchester United.

Smalling joined AS Roma on loan for the 2019/20 season before making a permanent move during the most recent transfer window, bringing an end to his 10-year spell at United.

"I knew that my days under Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer) were pretty much numbered," Smalling told The Telegraph. “I was just a bit frustrated. One, I would like to have been told earlier and then, secondly, I was only able to go with just a day left of the Italian window being open.

"The English window had shut. I was left in a very s*** situation. I had to decide. After I had that chat [with Solskjaer] it was a case [from him] of, 'I'm not sure when your next game will be'.

“In an ideal situation I would have known early in the summer and made plans and it almost got to the stage where I had a day left. My wife had just had a kid as well. There was a lot going on that happened at the last minute."

On waiting to see whether a permanent move to Roma would go through last month, Smalling added: “There was more than one occasion when I didn't think it was going to happen. Even in the week before. There were a couple of times when it was very close and it was pretty much off.

"It was probably 50-50 for quite a lot of it. We knew everything had gone through our side but then it hadn't been ratified. It was probably for the next hour [after the Italian transfer window had closed] we were still waiting for that confirmation."

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Paul Vegas

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