AC Milan director Umberto Gandini has revealed that the Italian club were delighted to sell Mario Balotelli to Liverpool in the summer.
Balotelli signed for Liverpool in a £16 million fee, and has only managed to score once for the Reds this season, following his move from Italy.
And the quotes from Gandini suggest that the Serie A club could not wait to get the controversial 24 year old off their hands.
Balotelli spent 18 months at Milan, after a move from Manchester City in the January of 2013. His return to England has also seen him bropped from the Italian national team, with Antonio Conte refusing to select the striker for their up-coming qualification games.
Gandini said: “We all felt coming to Italy, to a place where he was loved, would have been the ideal environment for him to blossom into a star player.
“But it didn’t work out for both sides.
“Mario was not the kind of player we were looking for in order to have a better team on the pitch.
“On the other hand, he probably felt the Premier League was the best stage for him to perform on and he wanted to go back there.
“So Liverpool came at just the right time. It just made everyone happy.” Though Balotelli had an impressive record of 26 goals in 43 league games with the Italian giants, Gandini reckons being asked to play as a lone striker was to blame for a gradual decline in form.
by Ben Reardon
@BenReardon1
