The well-known agent Jonathan Barnett has responded to a question regarding why Bournemouth can afford Nicolo Zaniolo but AC Milan can’t.
Barnett started as an agent in boxing and cricket but now his client list contains some of the world’s best football players such as Jack Grealish, Gareth Bale, Saul Niguez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jordan Pickford, so he knows a lot about the inner workings of transfer.
Milan meanwhile have been trying to get a deal done for Zaniolo of Roma but were unable to satisfy their asking price whereas Bournemouth – a team currently in line to be relegated from the Premier League – could agree a fee, though the winger was not convinced as Roma director Tiago Pinto revealed.
Barnett was present at the Football Forum in Rome and he spoke about a number of topics related to the current climate of buying and selling players, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
How is it possible that Milan can’t afford a player [Zaniolo] that Bournemouth can afford instead?
“It’s simple, it’s an economic question: there’s more money in the Premier League, Serie A has to rebuild again. We need to work on it, have more sponsors and get more money from televisions.
“Serie A is improving, but it needs more investment and to become stronger thanks to the players but I think that for world football it is very important that Serie A returns to being a top-level league.”
Is your impression that the Premier League is becoming the real Super League?
“No, it’s not like that. At the moment it’s the league that everyone wants to see, they’ve done a fantastic job in terms of investments and structures. It’s the most important league, but there’s no reason why Serie A can’t come back to the role it had.”
