Patrick Cutrone has lifted the lid on how his time with Milan came to be, and why he wanted to leave Wolves after just six months.
The young striker departed his boyhood club earlier in the summer, moving to Premier League side Wolves in a deal widely reported to be worth €18m.
However, he struggled to settle in England and was subsequently loaned back to Italy, where Rocco Commiso’s Fiorentina were willing to take him.
The 22-year-old will square off against his former club for the first time on Saturday night as the Rossoneri visit the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Cutrone spoke to Sportweek about his past, and also about a current Rossoneri star in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and his words were transcribed by MilanLive.
“Initially I auditioned for Inter, they told me they would call me but they didn’t. So I tried with Monza, I was fine with that too. But when the AC Milan call came I didn’t think for a moment. At the trial I scored 4 goals, so they had practically chosen me.”
Cutrone also spoke about his departure from Milan and his experiences with Wolves.
“With ifs and buts history is not made. Not even mine. If it went like this, it means it had to go like this. I can’t know what would have happened if I had stayed in Milan. I certainly don’t care to look back.
“Wolves? I grew up on a human and professional level. I have known a new culture, I have improved my English a lot, which I now speak fairly well. On a football level, I learned a new way to play, with different, more intense rhythms, where you attack much more, without fear.
“In Premier League you don’t go back, you move forward. Why didn’t it go well? Many say I didn’t settle in. False. The truth is that the coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, had his group of loyalists from whom he did not derogate, those with whom he had won promotion from the Championship.
“He was fixed with his eleven, always the same, and the others did not see playing time: not just me, everyone. I played three games as a starter and scored two goals, but nothing had changed. At that point I wanted to leave.”
On today’s match between Fiorentina and Milan: “Maybe it’s better for it to happen in Florence than in San Siro. It’s a team I still care about a lot. It will be nice to meet my old friends and the fans, who have always made me feel their affection.
“Will I ask Ibrahimovic for his shirt ? It would be nice. It’s Ibra, there’s no need to say anything else. He is out of class, he knows and can do everything.”
Finally, a joke about his relationship with Rino Gattuso: “We are two direct people, who say things to each other. Once, in Bologna, he replaced me and I mumbled: the next day I apologised. He showed he cared for me, in training he was behind me, he told me where to improve. I can’t say anything about this.”
