Bologna CEO Claudio Fenucci has admitted that it will be hard for the club to keep head coach Thiago Motta and striker Joshua Zirkzee, who have both been linked with AC Milan and Juventus.
Back in November, we reported on Substack that Milan had sent scouts to watch Zirkzee in action on several occasions, while we have also repeatedly reported that Motta is held in very high esteem and could be a managerial candidate.
Fenucci was present at an event called ‘The transfer market in the time of artificial intelligence’ organised by the USSI in Coverciano, and he spoke about the futures of Motta and Zirkzee, with his comments relayed by Calciomercato.com.
“We have a game and a third place to conquer. I arrived 10 years ago and we were in Serie B, our work led us to an unthinkable result, no one would have predicted the Champions League,” he said.
“Improving will be difficult but we want to maintain our strong presence in Italian football, We have a shareholder who allows us to invest and therefore there are all the conditions to be able to move forward. My journey has been long and my relationship with the press has evolved over time.
“Motta? I would like to tie him to a chair, but it’s not easy. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we’ll talk to him about the future and see what he tells us. Our wish would be to continue together, we’ll see.
“We hope it can remain a red and blue film. As with all the players we have who are linked to other clubs. In reality we have such a strong shareholder that he will allow us to continue without selling anyone and we will try to keep them all.
“The only one who is the arbiter of his destiny is Zikzee who has some clauses, but who we will try to retain in the coming weeks.”
Earlier today, Fabrizio Romano confirmed that Milan are working on the signing of Zirkzee given that the Dutchman has a €40m release clause that makes him more appealing than Benjamin Sesko, who would cost a fair bit more.