Fiorentina executive President Mario Cognigni says they received “many” offers for Federico Chiesa but “we never even negotiated”.
The winger is seen as one of the emerging talents of Italian football, and has been linked with the likes of Napoli, Inter and Juventus.
“Two years ago we turned the page,” Cognigni explained to Sky.
Fiorentina executive President Mario Cognigni says they received “many” offers for Federico Chiesa but “we never even negotiated”.
The winger is seen as one of the emerging talents of Italian football, and has been linked with the likes of Napoli, Inter and Juventus.
“Two years ago we turned the page,” Cognigni explained to Sky.
“We decided to start again by creating champions at home. For example, Chiesa is a product of our youth system, as well as other important players – look at [Federico] Bernardeschi and [Khouma] Babacar.
“We had many offers for Chiesa, but we never even negotiated over any offer. Youngsters are an important basis for the project we have.
“Nikola Milenkovic? In the final days of the transfer window we rejected a €40m offer.”
The Viola had to deal with a tragedy earlier this year, as captain Davide Astori was found dead in his hotel room ahead of a match with Udinese.
“He’s still with us. I’ll never forget the meeting with him and [Pantaleo] Corvino when we were selling so many champions.
“He told us that he’d stay with us, and that’s the biggest memory I have of him.
“We have to go on together, I’m glad that [German] Pezzela got the armband, he’s a true leader and knew how to be a reference point in the dressing room.”