We’ve trawled through tabloid archives and ghost-written autobiographies to find the mouth-watering British-Italian transfers that never quite happened. Our previous forays into the 1980s unearthed the tales of nearly-transfers such as Paul McGrath to Napoli and Ally McCoist to Pisa (Volume I) and then Gordon Strachan to Verona and Tony Cottee to Fiorentina in Volume II.
Let’s find out about the others…
Glenn Hoddle (Tottenham) and Norman Whiteside (Manchester United) to AC Milan 1982
In late 1982, AC Milan sat at the summit of the Serie B table, beginning to look ahead to their anticipated return to Serie A. Following demotion as a consequence of the Totonero match-fixing scandal, they had held on to stars such as Franco Baresi and Mauro Tassotti, but were under no illusions that the team would need to strengthened in order to be competitive in the top flight. In particular, they sought a creative midfield talent to build their team around.
Over in England, Glenn Hoddle was just entering the peak of his powers. He made his debut aged 17 and went on to establish himself as the fulcrum of the Spurs team, winning the PFA Young Player of the Year Award in 1979/80, and helping Spurs to back-to-back FA Cup victories in 1981 and 1982. Hoddle’s vision, poise and elegance in possession made him particularly well-suited to the continental game. Milan spent a month in negotiations with Spurs to capture 25-year-old Hoddle, but it came to nothing.
Around the same time Milan were also in discussions with Manchester United regarding Norman Whiteside, a younger, but no less exciting prospect than Hoddle. The Belfast-man made his debut for United aged 16 in 1982 and became the youngest player to feature in a World Cup when he went to Spain with Northern Ireland. Whiteside established himself as a first team regular at United in the 1982/83 season, winning both the League Cup and FA Cup, scoring in both finals. Manchester United accepted a £1.5 million offer for Whiteside from A.C. Milan, who offered him a £100,000 signing on fee to accept the transfer. However, Whiteside turned down the offer in order to continue his development at Old Trafford.
Milan instead turned their attentions to forward Luther Blissett (Watford) and full back Eric Gerets (Standard Liege). The silver lining of Milan’s failure to land their midfield targets was the emergence of Alberico Evani as a driving force in the Rossoneri midfield.
Paul McStay – Celtic to Inter, Juventus and Fiorentina (1984-88)
Midfielder maestro Paul McStay was a prodigious young talent who helped Scotland to the 1982 Under-18 European Championships. The following season he was an ever-present for Celtic, winning admirers for the presence and vision he brought to the Celtic midfield. He went on to become the archetypal one-club-man; born into a Celtic family, making over 500 appearances during fifteen years at the club and spurning numerous opportunities to leave during some of Celtic’s darkest days.
But it could all have been very different. McStay was beginning look like the complete midfield player; he allied technical superiority with tireless running and tenacity in the tackle. As early as 1984, Inter Milan were readying a £2 million bid for the then-20-year-old. Later in the decade it was Dino Zoff’s Juventus showing an interest in the Celtic maestro, then it was Fiorentina. La Viola coach Sven Goran Eriksson spotted McStay playing for Celtic in the 1988 pre-season Viareggio tournament against Porto and Ajax and made enquiries with The Hoops.
But McStay’s destiny was to stay in Glasgow. After helping Celtic to their last title of the decade in 1988, he became a stoic symbol of Celtic’s struggles through the 1990s, retiring shortly before Celtic’s title drought ended in 1998
Nigel Clough – Nottingham Forest to Pisa (1988)
Nigel Clough first broke into his father’s Nottingham Forest team as a teenager. He issued a swift and emphatic rebuttal to any suggestions of favouritism by becoming Forest’s top scorer in the 1985/86 season, a feat which he repeated in four consecutive campaigns. It was this form that prompted Pisa to make a £1.5 million bid for the England Under-21 star; a bid that was flatly refused by Forest.
Serie A-newcomers Pisa had achieved survival in 1987/88 with another Englishman, Paull Elliott, in their ranks. The star of that team was the Brazilian midfield general Dunga, who was prised away by their Tuscan rivals Fiorentina in the summer of 1988. That transfer left a free berth for a foreign signing, which Pisa wanted Clough to fill. In light of Forest’s refusal, Pisa instead signed attacking midfielder Mario Been from Feyenoord.
The rumours of a move to the peninsula persisted for Clough with Torino, another newly-promoted club, also making enquiries for him in summer 1990. However, the closest Clough came to Italy was signing a £100,000 deal with boot manufacturer Lotto in 1989.
Paul Ince – West Ham to Sampdoria 1989
Several years before securing his 1995 move in Inter Milan, Ince was being courted by Sampdoria. He had established himself as a regular in the West Ham team at the age of 20, impressing with his tough tackling and passing range. Ince was the shining light in a struggling West Ham team; as they succumbed to relegation at the end of the 1988/89, it became clear that the England Under-21 man would be moving on to pastures new.
A bevvy of clubs were chasing Ince’s signature; Manchester United were in the driving seat, but Sampdoria, Everton and Spurs were jostling for position. Sampdoria, armed with the attacking trident of Vialli, Lombardo and Mancini, were beginning to make their imprint on Italian football and had just won the Coppa Italia. Ince was being eyed as a long-term successor to 34-year-old Brazilian midfielder Toninho Cerezo. Unsuccessful in their wooing of Ince, the Blucerchiati instead opted for Yugoslav Srecko Katanec from Stuttgart who helped them to lift the European Cup Winners Cup in 1990.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, check out our 1990s transfers that never happened.
Calcio England 