The bigwigs of AC Milan met up with BarcelonaâÂÂs decision makers yesterday at a restaurant that Woody Allen frequented during his stay in the city filming Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
No doubt the one-liners were flying back and forth between Adriano Galliani and Barca president Sandro Rosell before an attack of neurosis set in as the diners failed to get past ordering the hors dâÂÂoeuvres.
On the face of it Milan are back in the realms of flights of fancy as they attempt to dupe - sorry - persuade the Catalans to give hand over Zlatan Ibrahimovic and continue to pay the bulk of his wallet-busting â¬12 million-a-year salary.
However, just like one of AllenâÂÂs main characters, do not underestimate GallianiâÂÂs ability to get what he wants: he after all apparently convinced RosellâÂÂs predecessor Joan Laporte to cut Manchester City out of the equation and then drop the asking price for Ronaldinho by simply refusing to leave the presidentâÂÂs villa until the deal was done.
Conveniently enough, this time around Milan have been in town to play Barcelona in the Gamper Trophy so Galliani had a ready excuse for claiming he just happened to be in the neighbourhood and thought he would drop in for a chat â not that he really does chats; more like a monologue.
So, Rosell will have to accept that Silvio BerlusconiâÂÂs right-hand man will tough it out until he gets what he wants â and that is a big Swede on a flight back to Milan.
Not only that, someone is going to be lighter in pocket and chances are it wonâÂÂt be the Italians who seem to have a knack of ensuring the figures always add up in their favour.
The move for Ibra has all the makings of a sequel to the Ronaldinho saga where it started with a plea of poverty and ended up with a firework-extravagance unveiling at the San Siro.
No one will be that concerned about the pyrotechnics this time around but Berlusconi will have kept good on his promise to the Rossoneri fans to always bring in a big-name at least once every two seasons â sorry âÂÂPrinceâ it wasnâÂÂt you.
Of course, there is a third corner in this âÂÂwho stands to gainâ triangle and that is the playerâÂÂs agent Mino Raiola who seems to be doing everything possible to drive a wedge between his client and Barca coach Pep Guardiola although Ibra has been weighing in as well, claiming he hasnâÂÂt spoken to his coach for six months.
Even though he has ruled out a loan deal, Raiola may have to accept that in the long term it is the only way he is going to beat the house with what will be a weaker hand with every passing year.
There is still some more filthy lucre to be wrung out of the situation as Milan will have some readies available next summer when nine mega-contracts at the club come to an end.
If Ibra produces the goods this season then his 30s can still be lucrative years with a four-year contract waiting to be signed.
Then, of course, there is overcoming the thorny issue of that giant elephant in the room â 12m big ones â and no one in their right mind is going to take a massive pay-cut when they have no reason to do so.
Galliani will be standing there cap in hand claiming fiscal woes in the hope that Barcelona will continue to pay half of the playerâÂÂs salary with the promise of a âÂÂgood priceâ in the offing when it comes to making the move permanent.
Maybe Barcelona will be thinking that Milan will want them to carry the player all the way to Italy as well â and you never know they may end up doing so just to get rid of Galliani.
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