SERIE A in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a fiercely competitive landscape with all-star line-ups comprising some of the world’s best players. Italy was a magnet for top talent, including Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Diego Maradona, Gianluca Vialli and Michael Laudrup, to name but a few. The rest of Europe just sat back and envied the Italian public, who were watching the greatest football on the planet. AC Milan had won Serie A in 1988, fighting it out with Maradona’s Napoli, who had lifted their first Scudetto in 1987. Inter Milan were struggling to keep pace, but in the summer of 1988, they followed the example set by their San Siro neighbours of acquiring two or three players from the same…