The bottom line is that it will always be extremely difficult to maintain a sustainable, successful top club without Italian players. These are necessary risks. You want to have a base of players that are stable. You can't keep buying and selling every window because eventually you will start missing on your purchases. Once Barca had to start buying foreign players, they went to shit. Gomes, Turan, Mathieu. Good night.
Economically speaking, you probably overpay on the initial fee but make it up on wages over the life of the contract. We have a proven history of keeping Italian players in a reasonable wage structure. And then you have the ancillary benefits like Italian pride and all that other blah blah that people might not believe in.
With Bernardeschi, at least you know you can have a quality, versatile attacker who will not cause shit, won't want to leave, won't need a new contract every year, etc.
There is a premium on acquiring talented Italian players because of the guarantees they offer you. Everyone in Serie A knows that at this point.