AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi completely ruled out a move for Mario Balotelli, calling the Manchester City forward a "rotten apple."
Milan, along with Inter were deemed to be the two most likely destinations for the volatile 22-year-old, with Manchester City reportedly keen on selling their player as soon as possible.
However, Berlusconi, not one to hold back his comments, said there was absolutely no chance of Balotelli representing Milan in the near future.
"The name of Balotelli never came into my thoughts, he is a rotten apple and could infect every group where he goes, even Milan," he told reporters.
"I'm sorry to say this, but in Milan it is very important to the human aspect. If you put a rotten apple in the locker room can infect all the others."
Berlusconi also played down the chances of Pep Guardiola taking over as manager of Milan in the summer, saying the team weren't strong enough to entice the Spaniard to join.
"I always tried to bring him (Guardiola) to Milan, because over the last years Barcelona played the best football.
"Until last year our team had high class champions that could play football in Guardiola's style, but now the chances that he can come here are very low."
A team that could, however, hold an interest in Balotelli, though, is Napoli, after the club president Aurelio de Laurentiis said he would like to pair Balotelli with the prolific Edinson Cavani, who has incidentally been heavily linked with a move to City.
"City are considering letting Balotelli go so they can move for Cavani? I would prefer to see Balotelli playing with Cavani here at Napoli.
"Teams tend to hold onto their best players in January. You take a big risk making big investments now.
"There is still time for us to bring in new faces but we must be cautious. On January 31 you will see what moves Napoli have made."
