The world of football in 2018 is a strange place at times. This is one of those times...
AS Roma, as you'll know by now, came mighty close to signing Brazilian winger Malcom earlier this summer.
A fee was agreed with Bordeaux for the player, who was expected to take a flight to Rome to conduct his medical and sign his contract.
This, however, didn't happen. Instead, an eleventh-hour intervention from
Barcelona saw Malcom end up at the Camp Nou, much to the annoyance of Roma's owner.
Remember this bit. It's important for what follows.
It was announced on Tuesday that Kevin Strootman had left Roma for Marseille, the
French club announcing the transfer with a Fortnite-inspired video.
With Roma's English language Twitter account
known to be one of the more entertaining official club accounts on the social media platform, Marseille's Twitter sought approval from the Italian club for their specially made announcement video.
https://twitter.com/OM_English/status/1034452836942106624
Roma's account soon replied, using the opportunity to poke fun at Serie A rivals Inter's player announcements.
https://twitter.com/ASRomaEN/status/1034457975824502784
But of course, that wasn't ever going to be the end of it.
Inter swiftly fired back with a dig about Roma's failed attempts to sign Malcom.
https://twitter.com/Inter_en/status/1034463700537802754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1034463700537802754&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fas.com%2Fepik%2F2018%2F08%2F28%2Fportada%2F1535472027_034608.html
Roma hit back with reference to Inter's hopes of signing Luka Modric from Real Madrid...
https://twitter.com/ASRomaEN/status/1034464857058430980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1034464857058430980&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fas.com%2Fepik%2F2018%2F08%2F28%2Fportada%2F1535472027_034608.html
Only for Inter to strike back again with another Malcom jibe - this time in meme form.
https://twitter.com/Inter_en/status/1034467651018522630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1034467651018522630&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fas.com%2Fepik%2F2018%2F08%2F28%2Fportada%2F1535472027_034608.html
Like we said: football in 2018 is a strange, strange place.
Malcom played against Roma for Barcelona in the United States in the summer. The two teams met in a friendly in Dallas days after the transfer had been finalised. The Brazilian went on to score in the game - giving Barca a 2-1 lead in what proved to be a 4-2 victory.
