At the Giuseppe Meazza stadium tomorrow evening, Cagliari’s Nicolo Barella might be playing against his own future, Inter. Inter is one of the clubs, shortlisted to sign the young Italian midfield maestro and one of the few clubs that seems ready to go out of its way to make that signing.
Those at Inter’s helm have truly taken a liking to Nicolo Barella and according to Corriere Dello Sport, had Inter’s summer transfer market taken another turn before closing, the move we were most likely to witness would have been Inter’s attempt to acquire Barella or at least, secure his services for next season.
Gardini, Ausilio and Baccin saw it differently in the end however, what with Cagliari’s President Tommaso Giulini adamant on keeping the youngster in Sardinia for at least another year, the high transfer cost associated with the player, and above all, Financial Fair Play restrictions.
Until mid-August however, Inter did toy with the idea of acquiring Nicolo Barella on a permanent deal. Then came the Modric saga, which served to divert the club’s attention from the matter, followed by a decision to place faith in the club’s current crop of midfielders and in turn, postpone any strengthening of the department to next summer.
Nicolo Barella however, is courted by the likes of West Ham, Everton, Chelsea, Manchester United and Inter’s city-rivals AC Milan, which in turn seems to have motivated President Giulini to slap a whopping €40m price-tag on the youngster.
Spalletti has allegedly already expressed his approval of signing Barella, while Inter’s owners are reportedly keen to build a squad containing a strong Italian core. What’s more is that Inter’s new star summer signing, Radja Nainggolan, seems extremely keen to play alongside the boy from Sardinia. Nainggolan and Barella know each other well. They trained together in 2013, while both were at Cagliari. They also share the same agent, whom they both consider a friend.
And they consider each other friends too, meeting on occasion, when circumstances allow it. At the end of June for instance, they attended the Negramaro concert in San Siro together. Barella looks up to Nainggolan, who in turn holds the youngster in high esteem too. Both are versatile midfielders that can hold their own in various positions, but while the Belgian is most adapted to an offensive game, the Italian loves to play as a classic central midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
As it happens, that’s the same formation Luciano Spalletti seems to have settled for at Inter.
