Neither Sandro Tonali nor AC Milan wanted to part ways. The young midfielder is from the outskirts of the city, has been a fan since boyhood and his dad’s an ultra. He wanted to become a Rossoneri icon like his hero Gennaro Gattuso. The top brass at Milan saw him as a future captain. Tonali was instrumental to the club winning Serie A – Italy’s top league – last year and reaching the European Champions League semi-final two months ago. Milan’s legendary manager from the 1990s, Fabio Capello, says Tonali is ‘the recipe to win’ and that he could have played in ‘the great Milan teams’ from 30 years ago. But no amount of wishful thinking could beat a £55 million offer – the highest on record for an Italian player – from Saudi-owned Newcastle, where Tonali has gone, especially when Milan is so strapped for cash.
There was a time when no Serie A club would have dared to sell a player like Tonali, a time when Italian football was king.
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