With all the talk of Kyle Walker’s arrival at Manchester City from Tottenham, one transfer went under the radar, and that was the sale of Bruno Zuculini to Hellas Verona.
Bought from Racing Club in 2014 for just over £2m, the 24-year-old midfielder spent most of his time at the Etihad away on loan at clubs like Valencia, Cordoba, Middlesbrough, AEK in Greece, Rayo Vallecano and eventually the aforementioned Italian side.
There for the second half of last season, Zuculini played in all but five of the then Serie B club’s league games, occasionally alongside his brother, Franco, who had joined from Bologna the previous summer.
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport about the move, the former Manchester City midfielder explained he had already made his mind up about leaving the Premier League side before the transfer window had already kicked off properly.
He said: “There was no space (at City). I want to play. In Cesena, on the evening of Hellas’ promotion to Serie A, I immediately called my lawyer Dario Decoud and told him ‘I’m staying here’, and that’s what happened.”
The fee taking Zuculini from the Etihad to Verona has yet to filter through, but considering the midfielder was entering the last year of his contract at Manchester City and the fact he only ever made one appearance for the Citizens, our guess is it wasn’t a lot.
