AC Milan have a number of stars at the club, but the brightest is surely Rafael Leao. However, there is a chance that he could depart in the summer.
As is always the case with Milan, no one is ever ‘off’ the market, but certain players’ values make it difficult to buy them. For example, Leao is not ‘on’ the market, but he is available. The catch here is that a club would have to pay at least €150 million for him.
Because of this, you could argue that he is ‘off’ the market. Nevertheless, clubs still try, as they have done in the past, and they will continue to do so long into the future.
Today, TBR Football reports that Chelsea are the latest to ask about the services of the Portuguese star, and it comes during a time when the Diavolo have contacted the Blues for the same reason.
As the report states, during talks for Felix, who Milan have an interest in bringing to the club permanently, the London outfit have asked for details on Leao’s situation, given they see him as ‘one of the best players in the world’.
However, their advances were quickly turned down with the Rossoneri stating that the winger is a ‘firm part of their plans’ and with a long contract, there is no pressure to sell.
Please watch terry interview of Eden Harzard, Mourinho told a whole group Harzard was better than them, and told them to work hard all for harzard, he didnt tell harzard to track back, he didnt tell him to come back to his own half and that was how pioli managed Leao and thats what brought us wins, Lets use Leao as he is , I dont care if we change theo, but leao is unique and win us games. The Santiago Bernabeau victory will forever go down in History
That was football from 10 years ago and that tactic doesn’t work anymore, otherwise players like Messi, CR7, Neymar and hazard would still be playing in Europe instead of Brazil, MLS or Saudi league, or sitting on the couch.
In todays football everyone has to run or you will lose games because one doesn’t.
But Hazard is a great example for Leao and every Leao fangirl who thinks that when Leao leaves Milan and goes to another team, he will become a great player with the same weak lazy behavior, effort, and mentality.
Hazard, a lazy but very skilled player, was pampered at Chelsea. He moves to Real Madrid, where he isn’t pampered anymore because he is at a great club and there are better players than him , and he is the worst signing in the history of the greatest club in the world.
4 seasons of absolutely nothing. 120 milion burned.
Based on price tag he was even worse than Jovic.
Retired at 32 years of age.
Wasted talent because of lazy behavior enabled by weak coaches.
Leao doesn’t have a quarter of the football talent Hazaed had, he is just 10 times better athlete Hazard was.
No coach tolerates lazy players anymore.
That’s your Opinion and you are entitled to it. But the fact remains Leao wins game and makes the difference most times, even when he is not playing well he attract 2-3 defenders so others can thrive including Pulisic
Win games and makes the difference some of the times not most, if it’s most of the time, fans, ex players, ex coaches, pundits won’t be dogging him 4 out of 5 games he plays.
The laziness and poor production won’t be tolerated at any other club.
Motta, who has been a coach for a cup of coffee told Vlahovic, who probably makes 5x more money than him that everyone at Juventus has to run, it’s not optional, or you won’t play.
Watch how much Barella and Lautaro run at Inter.
Watch how much players run at Napoli under Conte.
Watch a Lazio game and see a beautiful football played where everyone attacks and defends.
Same at Atalanta.
Real was poor in the first half of the season because they had 1 player, Mbappe, not running. He got called out by Lucas Vasquez of all people after the Milan loss and Real Madrid started playing better.
You won’t win in todays football playing 10 vs 11, especially when the player that doesn’t track back also doesn’t produce much in attack
Dont say Real wasnt good at the first half of the season, it happens to evry club and who cares if you lost, if they had won milan will there be excuses. So they make excuses for any club becos since milan lost Kessie, milan has struggled with top form and even at that struggle Leao had managed to bring result all by himself most times more than any one. Which replacement did we get for Kessie is it fofana ( not as half as good as kessie) Rather than keeping tonali we lost our DMs and since then the team has never been balance. If you cry Leao everytime it mean we are blinded to all other parts of the team. We need very strong dms like Kessie. Imagine a team with Good central players and defenders leao will constantly shine
If Leao wasn’t there, someone else would and also making the team win. And maybe more effectively. Oh he attracts 3 opponents freeing up his teammates to score? Lol. This is one I will never believe in because I’m not witnessing it more than Pavlovic attracting opponents to free up our strikers to score.
Exactly. Hadn’t Leao been there to pass the ball to Gimenez, there would have been someone else. And let’s not forget the goal came thanks to Jimenez’s brilliant ball to Leao and Leao didn’t magically conjure the goal all by himself.
” even when he is not playing well he attract 2-3 defenders so others can thrive including Pulisic”
Even when Pulisic isn’t playing well he attracts 2-3 defenders so others can thrive including Leao.
Z while I agree with you in general about Leão being lazy and that he should be tracking back, defend but also improve his shooting/passing accuracy and decision making but your examples here are really bad.
Messi is 37 and Ronaldo is 40, have done everything and simply don’t have the bodies anymore to do what they used to do, but you think them being in MLS and Saudi Arabia respectively is due to them being lazy ? You can’t be serious here. Messi won the 2022 WC displaying a great performance and Ronaldo scored 18 goals in 30 EPL games in 2021/22, but sooner or later every athlete has to retire. Sorry but you’re going to have a hard time convincing anyone that a 2012 version of Messi or Ronaldo ain’t going to wreck havoc in these poor defenses, open fields with players constantly overextended.
Neymar and Hazard are lazy, but their downfall is due to their constant injuries (which is partially due to their poor work ethic and hygiene).
Real Madrid (the fans at least) were in love with Hazard and were very patient with him. When he came he was supposed to become their best player but the man couldn’t play 7 games in a row without getting a long lasting injury that put him out of the pitch for monthes at a time and at some point they had to move from him.
As for Leão, which is our main subject anyways, to put it simply he isn’t so good that he is worth being kept out of the defensive job. 30 G+A per season isn’t that high of a threshold and Leão’s overall skillset leaves a lot to be desired. In the last game in Rotterdam, he wasn’t bad because he didn’t track back, he was bad because anyone can take the ball from him, his shots and crosses were wayward.
When players like Messi, Baggio,… lost their pace, you could still admire their skills and they could make a difference, but imagine a slow Leão…
Messi walked most of the games the last couple years at Barca and then PSG. The teams suffered because of that. He walked during the world cup. A lot of shady calls helped Argentina win the WC.
Even at 37 offensively he is still great. The problem is that he is a hole defensively.
CR7 at 36 was the top scorer in serie A with 29 goals. He was ManUtd top scorer the following season but him not running back kept him from playing, which led to the move to Saudi.
Messi can easily play in a slower pace league like serie A the last couple years than in the MLS. Sams with CR7.
Zlatan at 40 was Milan best player when healthy.
When it comes to Hazard being lazy and fat leads to injuries, same with Neymar.
Being undisciplined comes from being pampered and poor behavior being enabled.
But at least you agree that Leao without the speed is nothing.
Messi and Ronaldo walked most of their last european games because their stamina was becoming an issue because father time spares no one. If they tracked back, they probably wouldn’t be able to finish games.
There is always going to be a tradeoff whatever the tactics.
When you want a player to track back and defend, his offensive contribution is going to suffer.
When you want him to focus soly on attacking, the other 10 players have to work extra-hard to make up for that.
In the case of Messi and Ronaldo, them having so much offensive contribution (60+ goals a year and in case of Messi 100+ G+A in 2011/12) was probably worth having them not defending.
Leão simply doesn’t have the offensive contribution to justify 10 players defending for him. Pulisic has around the same G+A and defends and Frimpong has just slightly less G+A than him while being a wingback.
“Leão simply doesn’t have the offensive contribution to justify 10 players defending for him. Pulisic has around the same G+A and defends and Frimpong has just slightly less G+A than him while being a wingback.”
You should carve this to a stone. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Well done. Mic. Dropped.
“Leão simply doesn’t have the offensive contribution to justify 10 players defending for him. Pulisic has around the same G+A and defends and Frimpong has just slightly less G+A than him while being a wingback.”
Bingo!!!
When it comes to Messi and Ronaldo, my point is that if you can still get away in todays football with 1 player walking and not tracking back, as the 1st comment said, they could still be in Europe, but you can’t do that anymore.
Messi and Ronaldo even at todays age can still put up numbers offensively in some European leagues like Serie A .
Zlatan at age 38 in serie A
19/20, 18 games , 10g, 5a.
20/21, 19 games, 15g, 2a. Age 39.
21/22, scudetto season, 23 games, 1007 minutes, 8g and 3 assists. Age 40
I can’t agree less
He has mental issue and is angry at Leao. You can’t solve those by commenting.
Milan is a different team when Leao is in.
He spends some time on music so he starts the season badly.
His pressing is really really funny and rarely seen in the modern game.
He is working on his air ability.
He has improved his off the ball movement.
His shooting has been terrible lately, together with his first touch.
He is ours, and with todays prices you will hardly get something similar. So you would hope to get buy with something like Puli.
Even his song is so f bad.!
We can’t sell Leão because then we’ll have no one to scapegoat and constantly complain about
I’ve read a lot of complaints about Tijj & Theo so I think we’ve got it covered. 🙂
$50 will be too much already for a lazy boy
Watch Leao go to another club and milan struggle 2 seasons to find a good replacement
Paixao. Costs a fraction and delivers more. Problem solved.
If Leao is sold some people commenting here might lose their meaning in life.
First to come to mind is Luigi. He’ll probably kill himself when Leao leaves.
If chelsea come with €50M cash even €40M, just take it ASAP!!