AC Milan are enjoying the second season explosion of Sandro Tonali but things could have been incredibly different, a journalist has revealed.
Fabrizio Biasin gave some interesting background on TMW about Tonali’s situation in the summer of 2020 when he ‘was one step away from Inter’. It was a question of finding the right formula to please Brescia president Massimo Cellino and the Nerazzurri would have secured the deal.
What ended up scuppering it was the plans of Antonio Conte who – after losing the Europa League final against Sevilla – got angry with the directors and started demanding more ready-made signings.
A meeting at Villa Bellini was staged, and the parties choose to continue together but Conte wanted more experienced players who were functional to his style, so Aleksandar Kolarov (34 years old at the time) and Arturo Vidal (33 years old at the time) arrived.
The rest is history, as Tonali – now 22 and one of the best talents Italy have – ended up at the team he supported since he was a child. He spent a year getting more up to speed, and the brace on his birthday on Sunday shows just how far he has come since.