Cagliari’s Sporting Director Marcello Carli touched on Inter midfielder Nicolo Barella and Radja Nainggolan, currently on loan with the Sardinian side from the Nerazzurri, in an interview in today’s paper edition of the Rome based newspaper Corriere dello Sport.
“Giulini held out for Nicolò, he wouldn’t have wanted to give him up. But he was deferring, deferring, debating and taking time. One day he was summoned by Atletico in Madrid. He said to me, ‘Marcello, you go, I won’t give him up anyway’. And so, it was. Then, in the long run, it was inevitable.”
He then revealed how much market interest there was in Barella and how many times Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini stopped a move.
“Last January Napoli pushed, like Atletico. Giulini said no. Chelsea would have done anything and more, Maurizio Sarri would have wanted to take him despite the transfer market ban. At a certain point we understood that we could not hold him back. But on Giulini’s terms, without discounts, and thinking about the sacrifices made in the past. I am amazed.”
