Vincenzo Montella’s AC Milan have reportedly opened talks with Barcelona regarding a move for on-loan Fiorentina winger Cristian Tello.
According to a report in Transfermarketweb, the Rossoneri have gotten in touch with the Catalan giants to discuss a possible summer move for Tello, who is currently seeing out the remaining 4 months of his season long loan spell with Serie A rivals Fiorentina.
The report states that Tello has 16 months left on his his current contract with Barcelona, meaning that the defending La Liga Champions will be willing to negotiate a price with any interested parties or even take him back to the Nou Camp, but that doesn’t seem likely at this point in time.
The Spanish international last played for Barcelona 3 years ago in the 2013/14 season, after which he was loaned out to FC Porto in 2014. The arrival of Neymar in 2013 had already reduced Tello’s chances considerably and after the arrival of Luis Suarez, opportunities would come few and far in between.
His loan spell with the Portuguese giants was initially meant to be for 2 seasons, but it was cut short in January 2016. After having made 57 appearances and scoring 10 goals for the Dragões, the Spaniard was loaned out to Fiorentina for the remainder of the 2015/16 campaign.
The 25-year-old enjoyed a good first spell in the Italian top flight, making 15 Serie A appearances, scoring 2 goals and getting 5 assists and his promising performances was enough to make Fiorentina take him back on loan for the entirety of the 2016/17 campaign.
So far this season, he has made 32 appearances in all competitions, scoring 3 goals and getting 6 assists in the process. His versatility has been on full display this season and he has been deployed on the left and right wing by Paulo Sousa, as well as a striker on a few occasions.
The former La Masia student has started only 20 of those games and it is yet to be seen whether the Viola will choose to exercise their option to buy the former Espanyol player at the end of the season. However, their loss could be AC Milan’s gain.
Vincenzo Montella’s young side have shown a lot of promise this season and they are constantly getting linked with some of the best young talent in the world. Money won’t be an issue for them post their take-over by the Sino-Europe Sports Group and they will certainly look to build on this season with a lot of heavy investment.
The chance to be a part of a great project will surely appeal to the Spaniard. The Rossoneri still have an outside chance of qualifying for European competition and should they qualify for next season’s edition of the Europa League, Tello would surely consider any offer put forth by the Milan side.
