In one of the more improbable transfer stories, Sunderland's former chief scout explained how close Giorgio Chiellini came to playing for Roy Keane's Sunderland.
Mick Brown told The Mirror how the Italian stalwart came close to signing for the Black Cats in 2008, but that the move failed over a £200,000 fee.
Giorgio Chiellini at Sunderland?
“It was a day like many others when I took a call from an agent who said, ‘Would you be interested in Chiellini?’ said Brown.
“I replied, ‘Does a child like Christmas? Absolutely, we would, yes. But there’s no chance he’ll come here’.
“He said, ‘Leave it with me’, so I did. A couple of days later, he called me back and said, ‘Chiellini is up for it’.
“So, I went and saw Roy Keane and left it with them. Subsequently, I asked the boss what was going on and he said, ‘It’s all but done’. You could have knocked me down with a feather.
“A fee was agreed with Juventus – £8million – and Chiellini’s terms had been as well. We were all set to go.
“I thought, ‘If we get this over the line, we have swum the Channel’.
“But somewhere in the negotiations in the hierarchy – it was nothing to do with Roy or me, Roy wanted Chiellini to come – it fell down over £200,000. Who wanted it or what it was for, I don’t know.
“It was a real shame because I’d put my life on this kid turning out to be a cracker.
“Can you imagine what he would have been like? He would have been another Charlie Hurley for Sunderland.”
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