Sunderland fans have seen some brilliant players at the Stadium of Light over the years, but if this transfer had come off, it may have been the biggest of them all.
It’s been a topsy-turvy few years for Sunderland. In fact, in the last three decades we have seen the Black Cats get promoted to the top flight, achieve a seventh-placed finish in the Premier League, and get relegated with a dismal 15-point haul.
Since then, they’ve even dropped as low as League One, but Sunderland are back and flying high in the Championship now.
Still, it’s fascinating to think where they would have been had one tantalising transfer been completed way back in 2007 for a player who would surely have gone on to become one of the club’s best-ever players.
Giorgio Chiellini agreed to wages at Sunderland but move fell through
It is well-known that former Sunderland manager, Roy Keane, and Italian legend, Giorgio Chiellini, have a great mutual respect for one another.
That friendship has blossomed over their years on the pitch doing battle against one another, and now the pair have been discussing their careers on The Overlap podcast, with Keane offering a surprising revelation about how close Chiellini came to signing for Sunderland.
Keane said: “You played for Juventus against Sunderland in 2007, just a pre-season friendly, and after the game, people who were working with Sunderland were saying that you could be available, you were a young player. I think there were definitely chats.”
Chiellini quickly chimed in to confirm this, adding: “I said yes. I said yes to wages. Not to Sunderland but to him [Keane].”
Things didn’t quite go to plan for Sunderland, though, with Keane citing financial obstacles as the cause for the deal collapsing. “There was of course issues with money and transfer,” he said. “I think they were saying about £10m or £12m at the time but you were just young.”
Chiellini clarified the deal could have been as much as £15m, to which Jamie Carragher joked that figure was purely for the Italian defender’s wages, while Roy Keane added that was simply his agent fee at the time.
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Chiellini’s career would have gone a very different way at Sunderland
Of course, we all know now that Chiellini went on to become a Juventus great, and he also won major honours with his country, at the expense of England.
If he had joined Sunderland in 2007, with the Black Cats just heading back into the Premier League, he would have enjoyed a ten-year stay in the top flight.
But, after that, he would have witnessed a very drastic demise with the club slipping into League One just a year after being relegated from the Premier League.
Suffice it to say, Chiellini’s career probably turned out for the better for having stayed at Juventus. But, who’s to say he wouldn’t have transformed Sunderland’s fortunes, too?
Either way, it’s obvious he would have been one of Sunderland’s best-ever signings had he joined.