The sale of Sandro Tonali to Newcastle United was certainly met with opposition, but AC Milan have now tripled their transfer budget as per a report.
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According the The Athletic – who published a long and detailed background on exactly how Newcastle landed Tonali – the Premier League side were a bit surprised when their enquiries suggested the player had a genuine enthusiasm about moving there.
They recall how Tonali’s sale was viewed in a certain way by the Italian media, who pitted it as a battle of ‘heart vs. algorithms’. However, no algorithm could know that ‘Tonali’s loyalty to Milan would melt in the face of Newcastle’s offer’.
The 23-year-old was ‘every bit as pragmatic as the club in seeing this opportunity for what it is’ as per the source. The Rossoneri are getting a record fee for an Italian player, but they have also ‘tripled their transfer budget’.
CEO Giorgio Furlani was the chief negotiator of the deal and chief scout Geoffrey Moncada had a say too. The duo helped build Milan’s last Scudetto-winning team, a title that came about after a summer in which Gianluigi Donnarumma walked away for free and was replaced by Mike Maignan.
Therefore, there could be an argument that Milan fans should ‘trust the process’ at least until they, like the rest of the clubs in Serie A’ are able to build ‘revenue-boosting stadiums’ and ‘negotiates bigger and better television deals’.
Selling players for high sums and then spreading the money around on various upgrades of the team is ‘the only way clubs like Milan can get better, unless a sovereign wealth fund were to one day come in and buy them’.
