Cagliari President Tommaso Giulini reveals the remarkable details of the Kevin Strootman deal with Olympique Marseille and there are ‘no concrete offers’ for Nahitan Nandez.
The Sardinians brought in Strootman on loan from Marseille, after his six-month spell with Genoa.
“We’ve got to be creative on the transfer market and we grabbed the Strootman opportunity with both hands,” Giulini said in a press conference.
“It was pretty incredible, seeing as we got him on a two-year loan, with Marseille covering 70 per cent of his salary. He is highly-motivated and would like to end his career here.”
There could still be a reunion with Strootman’s former Roma teammate Radja Nainggolan, as negotiations continue with Inter to make that loan permanent.
“Such big contracts are today anachronistic, especially after the losses everyone made over the last year with COVID. The negotiations are continuing, it would’ve been nice to have Radja at the start of pre-season training, but we hope he can still be part of the squad.”
Cagliari have players targeted by other clubs, above all Uruguay international midfielder Nandez, who has been heavily linked with Inter and Leeds United.
“There are no concrete offers, nobody contacted us for Nandez,” continued President Giulini.
“Not being able to sell one of our big names is penalising us on the transfer market on the one hand, but on the other it’s good to think we have players like that.
“We are prepared to sell in case of big offers, but with the work of our last seven years, we’ve been able to keep the books balanced even after this difficult period.”