Late on Monday, it emerged AC Milan’s deal for Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta had fallen through.
Over the weekend, doubts emerged about the condition of the striker’s knee. This caused Milan to send a doctor to London for another medical.
Later, Tuttomercatoweb suspected the delay in the move could also be because of commission demands from the player’s agent. He had flown to Milan on Monday to iron out the financials, which probably hinted at a financial gulf in the agreement.
However, the official word from Italy is that the deal for the Crystal Palace player fell through due to medical reasons.
As a result, this has become a topic of discussion. Journalist Gianfranco Teotino spoke to Sky Sport 24 about it. He clarified that clubs in England are less transparent about injuries.
Teotino said – relayed by MilanNews: “AC Milan did very well. In England, they’re much less transparent than us when it comes to medical issues. They don’t always give accurate diagnoses.”
The journalist also appeared to criticise Crystal Palace for hiding Mateta’s knee problems over the last two months.
“In December, Mateta was suddenly not called up for a Conference [League] match. In the subsequent press conference, the Crystal Palace manager said it was a minor knee problem. However, evidently, in this month and a half, in which Mateta has played every game except the last one, the situation hasn’t been resolved, and fortunately, AC Milan’s doctors discovered it.”
Teotino also appears to praise the Rossoneri for moving on from the Frenchman at the right time. If they hadn’t, they could have fallen right into the Eagles’ trap.
Indeed, the talk of a knee injury did come from out of nowhere. The 28-year-old has played in all but one Premier League game and had started every single time. There had never been an indication of any major fitness problem.
The fact that Crystal Palace hid the details constantly shows that they didn’t want to reduce their player’s value. If the knee injury became public knowledge, no clubs would have come forward for the France international.
Milan should feel lucky they figured everything out. Otherwise, the deal would’ve hit their finances quite significantly.