AC Milan's Massimiliano Allegri: I never said I wanted to sell Alexandre Pato

Posted Monday, January 16, 2012 by YAHOO Sport

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has claimed that he never wanted to sell Alexandre Pato and that the club wanted Carlos Tevez to replace Antonio Cassano – and not the young Brazilian forward.

Rossoneri CEO Adriano Galliani announced on Thursday that the club were abandoning their pursuit of Tevez because Pato had rejected the chance to move to Paris Saint-Germain.

However, Milan president Silvio Berlusconi has since claimed that it was he who decided to retain the services of the former Internacional striker.

Allegri has now explained that while he did not really have a say in the issue, at no point did he want to offload Pato, with whom he was rumored to have fallen out. Tevez would have replaced Cassano, out until the end of the season after undergoing heart surgery.

“I didn’t make the decision on Pato,” the former Cagliari boss told Sky Sport Italia after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Inter. “It was a club decision to keep the boy.

“But I never said that I wanted to sell Pato because Tevez would have replaced Cassano and not Pato.

“I cannot tell you if Tevez could still arrive. Now we must stick together and pick up the pieces of a center midfield which now has fewer players seeing that [Kevin-Prince] Boateng is now suspended for the next game [against Novara].”

Turning his attention to the Derby della Madonnina, Allegri said that he does not believe that there is any reason for Milan to panic after suffering a defeat by its city rival.

"Things remain almost unchanged - except that Inter have re-entered the Scudetto race,” he mused.

“They did well, waited and stayed deep and we were not able to create much. We needed to unlock them by drawing them out to play because they had 10 men behind the ball but we could not do it.”

Milan remains second in the standings, one point adrift of leader Juve but five clear of fifth-placed Inter.