Davide Frattesi made the move from Sassuolo to Inter last summer, but there were reports at the time suggesting AC Milan made a late push to sign him.
The midfielder ended up in the sights of half of Italy after impressing with Sassuolo, including Milan. The Nerazzurri have always had the advantage and signed him via a loan with obligation to buy deal for €27m, but Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada tried after Sandro Tonali’s sale.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported some months ago that last July the Milan management met their Sassuolo counterparts about a deal, but nothing went too far because Frattesi had chosen Inter and wanted to honour his word.
Frattesi was interviewed by Repubblica ahead of making the trip out to Germany for the start of the European Championship, which Italy will hope to defend, and he was asked about the idea that he was close to Milan.
“I never knew anything about it. My agent asked me: ‘Where do you want to go?’. Already in May last year I replied: only Inter. I decided that when I played against them. A very strong team, with a great coach and a magical audience. I didn’t want to listen to anything else,” he said (via MilanNews).
It says something if a 1st choice player would rather go and be a substitute with Inter when he could’ve walked straight into the Milan starting line up…it’s called a clearly spelled out project, something that you can see from a distance and need very little convincing about. With all our troubles with Theo and Maignan wanting out and difficulty closing deals what message are we sending to good players who are on the market. We need to work on the vibes we are sending out. Anyway good luck to you Frattessi, I can’t say you would have helped us closed the gap with Inter, it was too big.
Or it’s called preferences. Or as the article say, ‘honoring the words said’
For example, Caicedo last summer already say yes to Chelsea before the window open. Then Liverpool made a late bid, outbid even Chelsea. And the result? He choose Chelsea, out of honour of his word.
Did Chelsea better than Liverpool? No.
Did Chelsea have better project than Liverpool? No.
Did Chelsea have better vibe than Liverpool? No.
Sometimes it’s so simple and no need to look for nuances, or underlying meaning.
Why did he prefer Inter is maybe the follow up question, because he gave his word? Don’t tell me about nuances when you know damn well that there was a reason in the first place. Subjective as it may sound players have a reason behind their choices and let’s not fool ourselves, Inter has a project that is clearly spelled out hence they can attract some of the best players around. Even when Inter was not making a move at the time, Thuram took forever to make a decision on our advances…Inter closed that deal within days, was he really hoping Inter would come back when PSG was hot on his trail. We will never know, so don’t pretend as if you know the answers…we all speculate and your opinion does not make you more right than anybody else’s
for 433 he would be great but he’d be lost when Pioli turned to 4231.
Reijnders – Amrabat – Fratessi would be good and balance trio in the midfield and would not cost much more than the 60 million moneyball bunch they got.
This guy has a great potential, especially for scoring goals.
Frattesi cost Inter 27m and, more importantly, had already agreed to join Inter
Amrabat cost Man Utd 30m (if they take the buy clause)
RLC, Musah and Reijnders together cost the same as those two combined. And so far, only 21yo Musah has himself to prove of that trio and should have the time to do so.
I really hoped to get Frattesi last season, but that wasn’t ever on the table without a massive overspend, so no complaints with our business last summer from me.