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Chris Smalling insists he has not taken the easy route by trading Manchester United for Roma.
The English defender arrived at Roma on loan over the summer to plug a gap at centre-back, but is yet to feature for his new side due to injury. Despite his tenure in the Italian capital only being a temporary one, the 29-year-old has confirmed he will be making the maximum effort to settle in with his teammates. He will be hoping to have better fortunes than Roma's only other previous English player, Ashley Cole - and Smalling has told The Telegraph how he hopes to achieve that. “You do see very few English players going abroad and those that do are largely good players otherwise they wouldn’t have gone,” he said. “But I feel a lot of their downfall is in the language. On the pitch you can learn the different basics of ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘behind you’ but off the pitch you want to have that influence around the team. “We will be traveling together as a team so it is important to communicate as much as I can. That helps me be more comfortable around my teammates. It makes the experience a lot better. “Maybe where some English players are not fully committed to the language, off the pitch it is a big divide. By learning I can bring us closer and get to know them as soon as I can.” Smalling had been pushed down the pecking order at Manchester United due to their high-profile signing of Harry Maguire, but the former Fulham man insists coming to Roma is just as big a challenge as staying at Old Trafford and fighting for his place would have been. “I love a challenge and when a new centre-back comes in it makes you raise your game. You have to show more, you have to be more consistent. “If I had stayed I would have taken on that challenge and I would have been very confident that I would have played the number of games that I was worthy of. “Equally I have a challenge here at Roma. Going back [at the end of the season] I will have an added element that some of the centre-backs won’t have. “The easy decision was to stay. This is the perfect opportunity to try and live in a different culture. In that respect it is like a total change, although football is still the same football.” Smalling's hint that he will return to Manchester at the end of the season goes against previous comments, where he had talked of a "longer-term future" in Serie A.
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