We have zero imagination with transfers most of the time.Always few years too late to catch Gvardiol and similar players when they are cheap.
Incidentally, Bastoni is the one example you could point to of the opposite - a young, inexperienced player who wasn't even established at Atalanta, who we actually made quite an expensive chance on, then loaned him out to a relative minnow in Parma, where he ultimately played regular minutes. Then he returned and was promptly trusted - by Conte of all people - when we had an injury crisis. And delivered from day one.
It's the exact opposite of the typical 'Inter buys young player'-story that we've been so used to for twenty years.
And by all means, by all measurable variables, it has been a massive succes and a massive succes story. He's here, he's a starter, he's one of our most important players, he's one of our best players, he's got a skill set that's pretty much unique, he's young, he bleeds black and blue, he's a locker room leader, he's a potential future captain, he has said he wants to be here for life which you almost never see in modern football...
Even if we could afford Gvardiol (hah), there's about a 5% chance he'd turn out as well for us as Basto has...
And the latter will ultimately be showed the door for a relatively measly sum because a Chinese retail chain's endeavor into football has, for them, turned into a financial catastrophe which they can't invest in, and, for whatever reason, they will not let go off untill they've bled the asset dry and the loan sharks are literally at the door.
That's what makes this so extremely disheartening in a way that Hakimi and Lukaku leaving can't even begin to compare to.