Plans across the footballing world are being made ahead of the summer mercato, and with that, AC Milan could be expecting the arrival of a bumper bid sent from an elite European club for one of their prized assets.
La Repubblica (via Football Italia) have revealed that the French Giants are preparing to bid for Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Milan’s prized asset, Rafael Leao. News of interest in the Portuguese winger does not come as a shock, but the plans to invest in both might.
The report suggests that the French club are set on sending a bid for the Nigerian striker in the summer and will send a bid that matches his release clause of €120million. But, the bid for Leao is not expected to equal his release clause of €175m.
Instead, the French club will look to pay a similar fee for Leao, who they would like to replace Kylian Mbappe, and bid somewhere in the region of €120m. However, if a bid arrives and it is substantially less than the Rossoneri’s asking price, they will not entertain talks.
120M? nope…. 150M? maybe….,175M yes!
150-160m take it or leave it
Selling Leao would be dumb. Yes he is not scoring, but for a winger scoring is not the most important valuation aspect. He is creating and assisting. Sooner or later he will return to scoring again. Maybe the coach should do his part for that.
What should the coach do to teach him how to score 1 on 1 with the GKer. Pioli was a defender. He also had Zlatan as his teammate and couldn’t learn how to score from him either.
He is having self-esteem issues in front of goal, and the coach could probably help with better attacking strategies. Leao and Theo are the main attacking force of the team and the opponents put most focus on them.
I am not a Pioli fan at all, but what better attacking strategy than being 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper?
And this isn’t just this season. Leao has never been good in finishing scoring opportunities. Has nothing to do with drop of form or low self-esteem.
Where would inter be if Lautaro misses chances like Leao does? Right on the same level as Milan.
He was 1 vs 1 but the position was hard to score. Normally either Giroud or Pulisic should have been in a more central position to get the ball and score. The fact that the only player there to whom Leao could pass the ball was Theo, a defender, speaks volumes.
@Inter Fan
The hell are you talking about? He is 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper in a very good position. He suppose to finish that not look for teammate to pass the ball to.
Instead of thinking how much money he can bring, let’s think about who is gonna replace him ?
Let’s suppose he is gone for 175M, is our management really gonna bring a new superstar ? Or rather a cheap one from an unkown league with a dubious record who’s gonna take ages to adapt before we lose him for less money to another team who’s gonna develop him better ?
Big teams don’t let their best players go easily. And we’re starting to act/talk like Dortmund or Atalanta or Bilbao,… (with all my respect to these teams) whose end goal is to sell their stars to bigger clubs and who themselves only win few titles here and there each decade or so.
If we want titles, we’re gonna start respecting our heritage and not let go of our best players and in our case it will be Leao and Theo.
Kvaratskhelia
Wow that’s good thought. But Kvara would be extreme expensive and difficult to reach because he is in club of direct competition
If leao is sold for 120 mil, that’s the same money Napoli will ask for Kvara. They have the same contributions over the last 2 years. Why would Kvara be cheaper?
Give PSG a package deal of Leao + Mike for 200m
Then offer Napoli 200m for Kvara + Osimehn
Your thinking is too linear. We don’t have to ,and probably won’t be able to, replace like for like (otherwise, what’s the point). I don’t want to sell Leao, but if he brings in 175m, and from that we can get a good replacement (who yes, might not be equal to Leao), but also a 50m striker, a top CDM to finally replace Kessie and perhaps a top CB, the overall quality of the squad takes a big step up. It is a team sport, afterall.
In any case, I think it’s unlikely the club will accept an offer lower than the release because it seems likely that Maignan will be sold as his wage demands are too high for us. So fund will be generated there, plus the usual money, plus another ~40m from selling CDK, Saelemaekers and a couple of other fringe stars, so we could still have a good 120-140m to spend without selling Leao.
It’s not about replacing like for like. A club who wants to compete for titles tries to keep its best players. It’s one thing to let go of Saelemakers, Messias but Leao is one of the best players in the world in his position (despite this season) and you simply don’t let go of your best players just for money. Also think about the consistency, a big club should have some core players that it maintains for many seasons. If we overhaul the squad each 2 seasons because we got some good money, we’ll never get anywhere.
Real Madrid, the most successfull club of the last decade, pretty much kept all their best players even when they’re old. We should aim to be like Real Madrid, not like Dortmund
Also, about improving the squad, right wing aside, most of the time we didn’t fill a position with a better player. We didn’t get a defensive midfielder and all our new midfielders are technically inferior to Tonali or Hakan (but this one is old new). Compare our current midfield to the 21/22 one and tell me which one is better ?
Inferior to Tonali? LOL
RLC alone pocketed Tonali when he is in Chelsea and Milan, why you are talking about 21/22 thats Maldini job to upgarde the squad last season not Furlani, you need to compare this season squad to last season squad because we have 2 different “team” that manage the club
Mbappe lol
Kvara/ Wirtz/ Mitoma or ask PSG to include Lee Kang-In in the deal (he great against us)
Can we get Kvaratskhelia for that money?
I think he is better than Leao, marginally though.
I really like Leao and he is essential to us. But I expect him to be sold for 120M, which given his performances is plenty – 25 year old with 3 league goals.
If we did, I’d move Theo to that position were he used to play for France. Few are better there.
They’re paying for the flashy stuff the player can pull off. Real did the same with Bale. 100m and the most memorable moment is skinning Bartra on the touchline….that’s 100m well worth it lol 😂
We paid Kaka to pretty much do the same, it why Real took him from us too. Some players have those moments in them and Leao does. It is what it is. Right now, the most explosive player on the wing is Leao (barring MBappe playing on the wing) and we have the upper hand if we’re selling. It’s just up to us to figure out what to do
For me Bale will always be remembered for the bicycle kick in the CL-final. It’s pretty hard to beat.
Big Leao fan but on the left wing he doesnt shine Vinny’s shoes
Vinny’s performance last weekend v Girona was just sensational!
All this talk how Leao is essential/irreplaceable isn’t the whole truth. When Leao leaves Milan is forced to make changes. Their attack tactics cannot anymore be
1) pass the ball to Leao and hope for the best and/or
2) pray for a penalty or a lucky mistake by the opponent.
Having Leao on the team also breaks the team as he’s doing his thing and the rest are playing as a team. Or trying to (as they’re still lacking creativity). With Leao money we can get more complete players and the whole team working as a one.
Which do you think is the better option in the long run:
1) Build a team with better-than-average players in every position and where there is competition for each starting role (or at least have a strong backup). Get 2-3 different tactics and use/choose them based on the opponent and play as a unit (a true team)
or
2) Get average players around one or two superstars who have a season-ticket to starting 11 and rely on them for goals no matter what. Also build the tactics to highlight their importance.
I’d rather have option one.
Ha ha, have a season ticket to starting 11! Ain’t that the truth.
I think the management wants to oscillate between your option 1 and 2 by continuously building the value of the team over time.
The management doesn’t think that way. Their modus operandi is to increase the value of the team, then sell the most expensive players to generate money, get some cheap players and start over. It’s more about money for them rather than a competitive squad.
“1) Build a team with better-than-average players in every position and where there is competition for each starting role (or at least have a strong backup). Get 2-3 different tactics and use/choose them based on the opponent and play as a unit (a true team)”
How do you want to play like a “unit” if you sell core players each summers and replace them with cheaper players that don’t even know serie A.
At this point we’re just overhauling the team, we’re not really improving it.
I think the fact that this is our 3rd best season in the league by points in 30 years or whatever doesn’t agree with your point on foreign players not knowing how to play in Serie A. Either they know how to integrate easily, Serie A sucks, or both are true – but the point remains the same.
Where did I say anything about foreign players ? You can be a foreign player and already playing in serie A.
I don’t care about this being 3rd best season in 30 years or whatever in terms of points. 30 years ago we used to play 30 games per season, heck Ancelotti’s scudetto with us was with 34 games so 4 to 8 games less against weak teams.
If a team is already 10 or so points behind the leader, it doesn’t get to tap itself on the shoulder with some meaningless stat.
Look I agree that the difference between the leaders is the biggest stat anyone should look at, no doubt. But to all the Pioli detractors, he is doing quite well, and doing certainly more than enough to remain coach as evidenced by the historic points obtained this season with a young team with players from all over. What Inter is doing is historic on its own and makes it almost impossible to compete.
“Look I agree that the difference between the leaders is the biggest stat anyone should look at, no doubt. But to all the Pioli detractors, he is doing quite well, and doing certainly more than enough to remain coach as evidenced by the historic points obtained this season with a young team with players from all over. What Inter is doing is historic on its own and makes it almost impossible to compete.”
Lots of good points etc. and while the stats say Pioli is doing extraordinary work here you couldn’t tell that by watching the matches. There is no game plan, there is only one attacking tactic (if you even can call it that) and the Capello’s & Sacchi’s Milans would trash the current squad. So… While stats say Pioli is amazing, it’s hard for me to accept that when I watch Milan play the way the play these days.
And yes, we’re in the scudetto-winning pace with points but Inter is still doing waaaay better. They have everything on their side: luck (no injuries), good form of stars (Lautaro, Thuram etc.) and most of all… ALL the VAR-decisions favor them. Remember the two concurrent wins they got about a month ago where Inter-players were CLEARLY fouling opponents only seconds before their winning goals and even the VAR decided it’s ok to punch the opponents in the face if you are wearing a nerazzurri-shirt. They’d have 4 points less now if the VAR-refs had done their job.
@James Hornby:
Pioli got eliminated from every title race, and he did so by december. You can pull as much data as you want but fact is we’re now playing for nothing.
Sorry if I seem negative, but the team and pioli don’t get a pass just because things didn’t keep getting worse. Yes we’re third, but third is not a title.
You say we have players from all over ? Inter brought as much as we did, lost Brozovic and Skriniar and even brought old men like Sanchez, Arnautovic and Cuadrado. Many laughed at their summer window. They’re doing so well because of their team play, their tactics, and individual brillances and that’s on the coach as much as the players.
Again this historic points thing means nothing, teams who used to compete for UCL spots like Napoli, Roma and Lazio are utter garbage this season. The reason we have so many points it’s because everyone else is bad and the only few stable teams actually schooled us pretty well.
Barcelona got a 100pts in 2012/13 and got spanked 7-0 by Bayern. In 2014/15 they got 94 points (and won everything). Did they got weaker ? No, teams like Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla improved and made it harder to get more points.
if Leao leaves for 120M + then we should go to a 3-5-2.
No need to replace him and rebuild the team accordingly.
if Leao leaves and we use a 3-5-2.
BUY: Reece James and Sesko
———————-Maignan————————–
——-Thiaw——-Gabbia——Tomori————
James—–RLC–Reijnders—Bennacer–Theo
——————-Sesko—-Jovic———————–
Not convinced with RLC
Reece James!!!! Ha,ha that is hilarious
It is not just up to ACM, at is also up to Leao, despite the contract. But it gives ACM an advantages and will obviously drive the price up.
Selling Leao does not make ACM a selling club, only a well driven club. If, of course, the money from the transfer is used for re-enforcement in the squad, or perhaps partly invested in the NextGen squad. IMHO.
Anybody for FFP 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
no seriously anyone?
FFP is aimed at teams not owned by oil-billionaires.
It’s time to sell him, till his price drop down, I like him but to be honest lazy player. 150 million will be god deal for Milan.
Leao to psg mbappe to RM Vini Jr to Milan