Nicolo Barella has been linked with Liverpool for almost as long as he has been playing senior football.
Summer 2018 was when the number of links with a move to Anfield peaked, with the ‘next Andrea Pirlo’ said to have the pick of Liverpool, Chelsea and several clubs in Spain.
Instead, he stayed at Cagliari, his boyhood club, for another season, only signing for Inter Milan last year, initially on a season-long loan, but with an obligation to buy this summer, as is commonplace in Italy as a means of navigating Financial Fair Play concerns.
This story has been reproduced from the media.