This summer, Rafael Leao could leave AC Milan. Indeed, he is the furthest away from a secure position at the club that he has ever been.
There are several questions regarding Milan and the future of Leao. Put simply, he is no longer unsellable in terms of value and message. Previously, he was sellable for the right price, which was €175 million.
Now, it seems that a price of around €60-70m could be enough to take the Portuguese away from San Siro. A sentence that didn’t seem possible a while ago and it is a strange situation.
Zirkzee for Leao?
Manchester United have reportedly been very keen on the news and they sent scouts to watch his performance against Juventus. So, they could make a move. It may not be all up front, though.
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Fabio Capello has looked at the idea of a swap including Joshua Zirkzee, as MilanNews relays.
“If I were AC Milan, I would make the swap straight away . In Max’s 3-5-2, I would see the Dutchman as much more suited to Rafa. Zirkzee is someone who gets the team playing and is very good at communicating with his teammates.
“For me, the Zirkzee-Pulisic pairing would be brilliant. If Sorloth and one between Gimenez and Nkunku were available as alternatives, one could easily say that the attack is fine.
“I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I can’t consider Rafa a true centre-forward. And mind you, I’ve always been a fan of Leao. Lately, however, I’ve seen him sagging. He no longer has the blistering pace he had a few years ago, and he struggles a lot in the position he plays now.”
Yeah. Zirkzee is probably the worst possible choice. Keeping Morata would be better. Returning Giroud as well.
Purely financially speaking, this would be appropriate for us only if the other side agrees
to “Zirkzee + 15-20 million €” kind of offer, otherwise, it’s not such a great deal. Tehnically speaking, that’s an entirely different matter and that could easily be one of our best moves and one of the best transfers in recent years. Zirkzee is the only one to blame two important years of his career, of course, he made a huge mistake.
LOL. Striker with goal contribution every 3rd game. He is an average player that can’t score and has an assist every 6 games. Amazing!
The thing is Pulisic and Zirkzee aren’t the perfect pair either, one of them should be accompanied with that one pure striker a la Giroud. Baggio-Vieri, ADP-Pippo (later Trezeguet), Chiesa-Batistuta, Ortega-Batistuta, Totti-Montela, Bergamp-Kluivert, Kean/Smith-Viduka, those are the best examples that can function well. You shouldn’t look at things so one-dimensionally.
“You shouldn’t look at things so one-dimensionally.” Hahahahah. Zirkzee is a player that had good 6 months in his career. That’s it. He isn’t worth even 25M€. I wouldn’t pay over 15M€ for him. If they can get him for 15M he’ll be a good backup. He can’t be more than a backup at a top club.
Unfortunately, we are not a top club any more and we are not even close to that for a while and he has considerable potential even if you don’t want to admit it for some reason. The main problem with him is his weird head and his awful decision to turn us down two years ago which shouldn’t be forgotten. One more thing, Goretzka’s arrival isn’t so certain at all due to commissions and some other fees included, that’s the third problem with Joshua because I really don’t believe his entourage and their demands changed (at least not much if at all) and we all know about that obstacle in ’24.
Main problem with him is he is a striker that isn’t one, and he doesn’t score or assist enough. He has flashes of genius and then is below average the rest of the game. But he is not fast, can’t dribble etc. So his flashes of genius revolve around teamplay and he would be sh*t in this Milan team. Couldn’t care less about him declining Milan 2 years ago, are you 7?
“we are not a top club any more”
And I forgot. Which clubs are top clubs? Something that you evaluate? Most players when they talk about top clubs mention Juventus, Inter and Milan, and Milan actually comes before these 3. Due to history and all. So Milan is easily a top club even today. Wtf are you on about?
Zirzkee can’t dribble? I mean, this has to be some kind of candid camera, if not, there’s nothing really else to say. I’m not seven but that decline has to be taken into consideration to a certain extent, meaning, we can use that in the negotations. Milan is the biggest club in the world for me but we can’t afford world class players like we used to, we are not a top-tier enviroment in terms of quality and funds and you know that very well, why complaining about me stating the obvious? Just look at our salary cap and our expences salary wise and that overall expenditure segment, that’s almost humiliating since 2012. Sponsorships and other revenues? For a whole decade, that’s was way below standard. One more thing, please, stop swearing so much and be so intense, there’s no need for that kind of language and vocabulary, I’m sure we’re on the same side, you will find that out sooner or later.
* environment
Honestly I cannot imagine zirkzee being better than Leao. Even peak Zirkzee at Bologna was not better than peak Leao. But then, would an inform zirkze be better than current Leao? Especially in Allegri system? Potentially. Only reason I’d say no to this is because I do believe if Leao stays he can shake off this season and be better next. The optimist in me….
That won’t happen without Allegri changing the formation and there is a very slim chance we will switch to 4-3-3 or some other formation, sadly…
I like Capello but I don’t agree with that swap. I would rather swap Leao for Gyokeres if possible. The only worthy player at Manchester United is Bruno Fernandez.
The point is that Milan needs a different characteristic. And for the Allegri’s 352, I agree with Capello that Zirkzee will fit better. It’s not who’s better than who, as we’re talking about a whole different player’s characteristic. What I don’t agree is about the straight swap. Zirkzee clearly doesn’t have any place in MU’s first squad, so we have a greater bargaining power.
Just like with Theo, the whole world knows he is one of the best left backs or left wing-backs but that guy evidently suffers in defense and his defensive duties without the help of the guy in front of him and without the help of the closest center back and “mezza’la”. Even with the proper help, he doesn’t shine in the back but that can at least maybe be tolerated, those peformances of his, especially he struggles in the 4-3-3 formation. Hernandez and Leao vs Hernandez and Kvitcha? Hm.
We need players up front to score goals. Zee isn’t that. He’s like a support player for strikers, and we don’t even have those. We have struggling wingers and pathetic excuses up front.
I know he’s not a classic center forward and I really don’t know if he would fit into Allegri’s tactics and what he would say about this possible transfer, but… I know I watched him when he played against us and I was impressed!
he’s not better than Gimenez/ Nkunku.
if we give Leao (who better than both even out of pos) for him, are we gonna be garbage collector or what?
Zirkzee isn’t better than Gimenez/Nkunku? Not true.
Capello has lost his mind.
And LEAO IS TERRIBLE OUT OF POSITION (LW)
Going by Allegri garbage formation yes but a good coach will keep Leao always
Allegri Leao is A LEFT WING ATTACKER
Garbage coach with expired brain of football
Shut up Capello you been nobody for so long that you becoming Pellegati
You should be ashamed of yourself, ungrateful **ck.
Leao je ljevo krilo i to jako dobro! To mora i igrati u Milanu !!! Ako če i dogodine bit centarfor onda ga prodaj jer kao takav ne vrijedi ništa !!! Ovo znaju i djeca u vrtiću !!!