The great Italian playmaker, twice the bane of England's international tournament dreams, had agreed terms for a transfer to Chelsea as recently as 2009. The Blues had recently appointed Carlo Ancelotti as the latest occupant of the Stamford Bridge hotseat and the Italian wasted no time in raiding his former club for one of their greatest talents. It was only when Milan chairman and bunga-bunga practitioner, Silvio Berlusconi, personally pleaded with Pirlo that he was pursuaded to stay, depriving the Blues of a playmaker to replace the disappointing Deco. Pirlo recounted events in his autobiography.
Ancelotti and I spoke a fair bit on the phone. He wanted to bring me to London at all costs, and cost was indeed the last hurdle still to be overcome. Insurmountable, as it transpired. Milan wanted too much cash, and they were also pushing for Branislav Ivanovic to be included in the deal. Chelsea hadn't the slightest intention of letting the defender go.
Only two years later, Berlusconi decided that Pirlo's legs had gone and sold him to Juventus instead. It would certainly have been interesting to see how Pirlo would have survived in the fast paced world of English football, though if the national team's performances against him were anything to go by, he'd probably have been given all the time and space he could ever have dreamed of.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
