Chelsea are targeting a €120 million deal for AC Milan forward Rafael Leao after failing to sign Raphinha, a report claims.
As has been reported in the UK by The Guardian, Chelsea have had to turn their attentions elsewhere after it became clear that Leeds United forward Raphinha is likely to join Barcelona instead.
One of their two main targets is Rossoneri forward Leao who was expected to attract a lot of attention this summer after being the best player in Serie A last season.
Milan are reluctant to sell Leao and are still working to try and tie the Portuguese down to a long-term contract as he has one year left on his current deal. They would likely demand €120 million.
The 23-year-old is not expected to push through a move to another club this summer but the interest of Chelsea will certainly be a concern for the Rossoneri as the Premier League side will be able to offer a lucrative contract.
If this is true, there is literally no way Leao will sign an exstension for under 7M.
Nah if they activate his 150 mil clause as much as I love Leão I’m not going to be mad
Oké ciao, take the money and find a good replacement. He will not renew that’s for sure, Milan wants to take the money for sure. But I’m gonna say he’s gonna flop, he got 3 good months, not really special
Yep.
Sell him now. It’s mid July not mid June. Leao Will repeat what kessie have done. Just sell $70-80M will do. Rebecca will take his place easily
150m clause lets GOOOOO
then we buy back at 20m in 3 years KEK
Good idea. 150M would be f enough to replace what the fee we should get from selling dollarumma, cashanoglu, cashie, and rafael leuro.
Just like another Lukaku lol?
If there is a chance of getting 120m in then it needs to be taken and reinvested. Opportunities to make that sort of money don’t come along often. Reputable source, but I have some doubts about the story still, he doesn’t seem like an obvious alternative to Raphinha’s style.
not even the same post
After watching most of our prior prize assets suffocate us from transfer money owing to expired contract extensions, I’d suggest we should cash in on Leao before we lose another player for free.
Yep. If he’s not sold now, we all know how the story ends. We’ve seen it happen too many times lately.
Yes, and it is only because of the club policy. Just sell everyone, Theo could get us 60-80M easy, you can buy 4 players that can maybe one day become as good as Theo. Maybe Tonali at the end of season, when he is 100% grown into the team. Incredible how low your standards have got. The made up story that players are the issue, and not the club.
Such a drama queen act again. They’re not running out of contracts anytime soon and their agents aren’t asking for the moon from the sky.
Well said @crorossonero
Leao has 2 years left on his contract as things stands but if he havent signed a new contract around early august id be willing to listen to offers as we cant drag it out to next season. Getting us 120 mil or more would help the team more than having 1 single player as we could do several major moves instantly but losing him would nevertheless also be a shame as he has lots of room to keep developing.
small add on, not really sure how barca would be able to afford raphinia with their lousy economy
Barcelona knows that if you want to get back to the top you have to invest. They are not idiots. Their previous president created this situation, but Laporta is not an idiot. And how? They sold a part of their TV rights to be able to afford transfers. If they bring Raphina and Lewandowski you can be certain they will be back because they already have a super talented young core. Something like Milan, but we aren’t looking for top players, but selling them. LOL
the article has 2 flaws, stop believing everything you reads and then blame our management accordingly to that notion that the media is correct in their speculations.
as i said leao has a 2 year contract not a 1 year one as the article says.
barca cant afford raphinia and even had issues registering free players so ill believe ithem buying raphinia when i see it and not a second before.
Why do you reply with nonsense? What did I mention from the article exactly? You mean the part about selling top players? And how will we keep them when we can’t offer Leao what Mariano Diaz or Odriozola earns at Madrid? Who said he had a 1 year contract? Where did you read that? Stop using your imagination to put words in my mouth. Laporta said publicily what will they do and how, if you don’t follow enough it isn’t my problem. But he is a person that created the last big Barcelona, he knows what he is doing.
Yes, and what did I reference to from that so you would mention it to me? I mentioned that Barcelona is showing you how to get back to the top and you reply that I shouldn’t believe what I read. What does that have to do with what I wrote? Wow.
sorry crorossonero i forgot to mention why i brought up the article part, an article with two obvious flaws in it should be questioned because exactly of that reason.
both the contract part of stìpulating it to be 1 year instead of the actual two years remaining and then because raphinia doesnt really seem realistic currently for barca. as someone mentioned further down apparently he is not even playing the same position as leao so why would these things not make people question the entire article
Liverpool pretty much build their team by selling coutinho and suarez so i dont believe your statement will stand up to much scrutiny at least if the money is wisely reinvested.
HAHAHAH. You mean when they bought Caroll for Torres money or Benteke for Sterling money (you forgot about him)? Sure, they have built a team because they sold 2-3 players. From Suarez money they bough Balotelli and Lazar Marković for almost 50M€, both huge fails. So, which team did they build from purchases after those sales? Yes, they had a few good transfers as well, but they DID NOT BUILD THEIR TEAM FROM THAT MONEY.
Ill agree suarez was propably not the right example BUT these transfers has nevertheless helped the club financially also helping the club making moves down the road and liverpool is actually a club that has made lots of great affordable moves while having a great economy.
The proof is there you can capitalize on sales overall improving your squad by selling 1 player getting in more players of quality and you simply cant deny that with liverpool they did sell marguee players while turning out better in the end..
Yes, but they did not build their team from that money. It isn’t true. That is it.
so selling a player like coutinho in 2018 for 135 mil euros to barcalona hasnt helped their economics in building a premier league winning title squad ? please explain me that because it clearly has.
But they did not, they brought in 3 quality players in 3 years and 8 crap players they lost money on. How did they actually do anything with most of the sales?
The only difference is Coutinho but they DID NOT WANT TO SELL him. Even Klopp asked him to stay publicly, so why would that be an example? A club losing the player to a bigger club, a player that wanted to leave? And you are writing like that was planned, OMG. Do you see how meaningless is what you wrote?
coutinhos deal happened in january 2018 and the following summer they spend 185 mil are you saying the coutinho deal seriously didnt affect that summers aquisitions ?
that following summer they invested 185 mil into the squad which is quite a high sum for them to invest compared to other epl teams and they got allison, keita, fabinho and shaquiri so not really sure how you would argue otherwise.
I never said anything about a planned sale by the way but i did say that it could still improve a club selling 1 player getting several players of quality. you do realize that just because a player might be hyped in the moment of time his sale value or the offers arriving doesnt necessarily correspond with an actual value right ? 135 mil for coutinho turned out to be a great sale in the end and most liverpool fans would agree so as well.
I think mendez will push him go free transfer to pay his debt to mendez via commission. Sell him now will be tough too because mendez will reject all offer and wait 2 years for free transfer ( because his client will be guaranteed starter as LW) . Unless paolo maldini and pioli dare to bench him if he is not renew contract . 70-80m euro already good price for leao . He is not worth 100m euro yet
If the player simply wanted to run his contract down id bench him for 2 years no discusion there and i would make it absolutely clear that the club would not allow itself to be held at ransom and the cost for the player would be to become a bench player while we would add an extra left wing like lang for example. That should make the player realize that he had no barganing chip with us.
I doubt its the case though.
“Unless paolo maldini and pioli dare to bench him if he is not renew contract .”
Milan don’t bench players for that reason. That has been made very clear recent years.
He has two years, in his contract… At least, do some research before writing..
And, to those people, who are saying that we should sell him.. If we sell him? Then who will exactly replace him? He was a protagonist, in our Scudetto win… You guys need to chill, and let Maldini and Massara do their job…
They would say the same for Theo or Tonali tomorrow if they asked 6.5 or 7M salary. Something that bench warmers at top clubs earn today. Like Mariano Diaz or Odriozola.
Hope that we would be competing, for major trophies by then.. So that, we can give Theo and Tonali, a more lucrative contract! We can’t expect, that they will forever be happy with a salary of €3M…
Im so tired of clueless people commenting here.
You are comparing 7M GROSS salary (in case of EPL players) with 7M NET salary (in case of Leao contrat extension rummors). You are off by roughlt a factor of 2.
There’s like 15 players in the whole EPL that get 7M or more NET.
Barcelona knows that if you want to get back to the top you have to invest. They are not idiots. Their previous president created this situation, but Laporta is not an idiot. And how? They sold a part of their TV rights to be able to afford transfers. If they bring Raphina and Lewandowski you can be certain they will be back because they already have a super talented young core. Something like Milan, but we aren’t looking for top players, but selling them. LOL
“They are not idiots.”
1B€ debts tend to point to the other direction though.
I think the fact that they changed leadership to a new one, that brought them all the latest titles proves that you are the idi*t. If you had some brain you’d understand that there is a difference to Barcelona now and 2 years ago. It would be the same to claim that Eliott is horrible in financial business because Milan had debts when they took over. Genius!
If Milan does what Barcelona is doing, UEFA will immediately ban us from the competition and Milan will be back to where it was a few years ago.
Lol. Actually, we’re still under an FFP agreement. Nobody seems to realize this (or is ignoring it somehow). There is a simple answer here. If you want a club that spends 200m every summer then go support City, PSG, Madrid or whatever. Stop coming on here and bashing the club after every article. If one year ago someone had said Milan would be the champion at the end of the season, most people would have laughed at them. Crorossonero would have called them stupid. Now suddenly we need to be spending 100m on a single player, or 10m salary on a single player. Try this: spend a few days without looking at transfer “news”. Maybe like a week. Then check in, then another week without looking, etc. It will be better for your mental health.
PREACH!!
cash in. cash in. cash in. he won’t extend whatsover.
I doubt that this is true. They just bought a left winger (Sterling). If it is true, and they are will to pay 150 mill euros, then renew or sell asap.
He can’t make in English premiere league. He is too weak for that league all year.
So if they offer 120 million no thinking
Sell him and bye Noa Lang before it’s too late.
milan cannot keep a player like Leao, intresting would be why we keept him on bench for a YEAR after his arrivel. Anyhow one more year we need him, otherwise UCL in spring and scudetto are gone for 150% this guy has covered the complete milan offensive last season, and i have a yersey.
One question left from my side, seems to be that M&M have ralized how cool i can be to invest 30mio in a teenager, right?
Ziyech, Acerbi, Origi and so on…
If its true, just take that fresh money + ziyech and pulisic.. both will shine like a sun in serie A.
Probably Chelsea is not the right club (Raphinha afaik plays mostly as a right winger and Leao is a left winger), so I don’t think the two operations are related.
The only explanation is that Chelsea didn’t spend money so they are trying to get someone else in a different position.
Leao asking for 7 mill a year is extortion considering he has a salary of 1.5 mill per year for the next TWO years, and even Dybala is not able to get 7 mill per year in the current situation (he was MVP of Serie A and played in a team that also had Ronaldo), and usually scores more than 10 goals per season (Leao-s last season goals).
This request from Mendes is the same as the one from Raiola asking 12 mill for Donnaruma, it’s a request that we cannot agree, he’s not a Kaka, Shevchenko or Weah. Heck, I don’t think he’s reached even the heights of Pato yet. He’s not even a regular starter in Portugal team. Agents asking ridiculous salaries for “future” potential of the clients is how clubs are going bankrupt. Imagine if we had paid Donnaruma 10+ million and he had made the same mistakes that he’s making elsewhere. We’d be stuck with that salary.
If Leao wants to sell his soul, Leao can go to PSG or some other team and dance for a rich sheikh. I’d say sell him if he doesn’t want to be part of the team. I enjoy trophies as much as the next person, but I enjoy much more seeing a good game from my team, and I say “my team” and not “my favorite player”
I personally have lost quite a bit the enjoyment of seeing some big teams with a lot of talented but selfish players that put themselves above the rest of the team. If I want to see a person play tricks by themselves with the ball, I go to the circus.
Not often i agree completely with a post i read online. Yours is spot on though!
Knowing our current owners, any significant money being made on transfers will probably be split 75% down their pockets and then we get the remaining to reinvent in the squad. That’s our reality with the Americans, so that’s why I hope we keep all the best players even if that means sacrificing higher wages. Maldini will never be allowed to go out and find proper replacements for players like Leao, Theo & Tonali. Owners will ask Maldini to look for another hidden gem in French youth football and then we will take another 2-3 years before we are contenders for anything again…. DON’T SELL SHIT!!!!
It’s comical as I read some of these comments. @crorossonero is correct. It’s the club policy that is forcing us to sell players and will continue to do so. As I have been saying – wait a few years when Theo, Tomori, Tonali, Kalulu all ask for more money as clubs circle offering double and triple their wages. They may extend now but in a few years and more development they are gone because the club has a wage cap of 4.5M. Youn players may stay for a while but eventually by the time they hit their true prime they are gone. Ya sure hopefully this time we will actually make $ on their sales (unlike Kessie, Gigio etc…) but the point is – what kind of club does that make us? Answer: a feeder club. Is that what us fans aspire to be? Wow how our standards have fallen. Do you think we can attract top talent w a wage cap of 4.5M?? Lol. We will get young players then sell just when they start to become great. And you are all ASSUMING ownership will reinvest the money we make LOL. What makes you believe that? What makes you believe based on this ownerships track record if we sell Leao for 150M we will invest that entire 150m into new players???? We made 60M from CL; 40M fro league title for example and were told our transfer budget was 100M. Now it’s 40M lol. So ya sure, of course Redbird is gonna spend that 150M and buy all kinds of players! LOLOLO. You guys are delusional. No they will pocket the majority and spend on a young prospect – but wait – isn’t Leao a young prospect??? Lol. And just when that young prospect evolves and starts to become great they will sell and start all over again. Wake up ppl. This is the Elliot/Redbird model. Profit not titles. Yes we won last year when no one expected us to – but can we sustain it when we lose talent every year? I don’t think so and I think we are all in for a rude awakening this season. For those that think Leao is that easily replaceable I think will be in for a surprise. He didn’t ask to leave. Smart think to do is sign him to 7M w a new 5 year extension and then as he continues to develop and become even better you can then consider selling if he wants to leave. You know like we probably shouldn’t have done with Donnaruma? In a few years he has the potential to be worth much more. Too many Redbird sheep buying the spin it’s always the players fault that they want to be paid market value lol.
we have ONLY been told through the media speculation that we would have a small ammount available but if you want to read it as facts fine still no proof that is the actual case and repeating it over and over again doesnt make it correct either even if you fellas believe it to be so.
Mate just stop, you are just scared for the facts.. the media is right, just accept that we will probably be third the next years bc Juve and inter pay higher wages, and don’t come with “ we where better than them last season” inter played with a oldie Dzeko and not Lukaku and Lautaro, Asslani is a big talent aswell, Juve also got good players with Di Maria pogba and maybe Molina. I just hope that we extend Leao but it’s kinda sad.. and don’t come now with “support inter and Juve then” I will never. I’m just realistic unlike most of these fans here
Ha! Nah mate. I just acknowledge those that speak truth and are grounded in reality. I unlike others will not give ownership the benefit of the doubt that they will re-invest all the $ from player sales back into the team. Most ASSUME that is the case. I do not based on ownership’s track record. I hope they prove me wrong. Time will tell. But I don’t think it’s wise to buy the spin that it’s always the player who is greedy and doesn’t love the club because he wants more than what we can offer in salary compared to other teams and wants to be paid fair market value. That IMO is foolish
“Do you think we can attract top talent w a wage cap of 4.5M?? ”
Of course. Talents haven’t yet proven anything and VERY rarely get over 5M€. I’d say CDK is a PERFECT example of “top talent” and he has already agreed to 2.5M€/y with Milan. So there goes your theory down the toilet.
And did Milan/RedBird/Cardinale say “we have a 100M€ budget for player transfers this summer”? Nope. Hell no. All those figures were assumed by the media (or so-called-media).
Funny how you people KNOW everything that’s going to happen and what the owners think. Yet you can’t get a single small thing right. Especially the crossdressingrossonero. You both have the same vibe. Both are awful with understand facts. But that’s fine. Nothing you can do about it.
Success brings success. Money follows money. If Milan can make it to the 2nd round in UCL and finishes in TOP-3 in Serie A, things are looking good for the future. But not to your type of fearmongers who think they have it all figured out and Milan is ruined. Well… No one is forcing you to support the team.
Just remember what Juve did back when they sold Zidane to Real Madrid and got Buffon, Nedved, and Thuram …. at the end you can say it was a win-win deal
If Leao doesn’t renew and since he has a 120M release clause, give us Colwill, Gallagher and Werner and we’ve got a deal 😜