Fans of three Premier League clubs will be kicking themselves that their chairmen didn’t break the bank for the defender in 2007.
In an extensive interview with Italian paper La Gazzatta dello Sport, Italian defender Giogio Chiellini revealed that how close he came to a Premier League move.
The centre-back, widely regarded as amongst the world’s best, was captian of the Italy U21s in 2007, and was part of the Juventus team which toured England. He caught the attention of clubs all over the country, from Sunderland to Manchester City and Liverpool.
“I could’ve gone to the Premier League in 2007,” Chillini told La Gazzetta, “which wouldn’t have been a bad thing. Quote simply (though), Juve was in my destiny.”
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With Chiellini snubbing the Premier League to stay with Juventus, clubs were forced to look elsewhere. Liverpool signed Martin Skrtel in January of that year, While Manchester City bought Javier Garrido and Vedran Corluka. Roy Keane’s Sunderland, who even at the time were a long shot for the talented Italian signed the slightly less talented Greg Halford, Phil Bardsley and Danny Higginbotham.
Liverpool fans will be dreaming of what might have been had they signed the Italy captain. With Fernando Torres also arriving that summer, they would have been a force to be reckoned with. Next season they pushed Manchester United all the way to the last few games of the season, and Reds fans will rightly say that the addition of a player of Chiellini’s quality could have pushed them over the line.