Youssouf Fofana is the man that AC Milan want to bolster the midfield but they have had an offer rejected by Monaco, according to a report.
Calciomercato.com report that Fofana is not just a player who the management feel would improve the midfield department but he is now the ‘absolute priority’. He is strong in transition, physically well built, intelligent tactically and useful in build-up.
This is why Geoffrey Moncada remains in constant contact with the agents of the 25-year-old even if the negotiations with Monaco are proving to be a bit more complicated than they expected, given that his deal expires in 11 months.
In the last few hours, Monaco made it clear to Milan that the offer of €12m plus bonuses for Fofana is still not enough. Now the management will evaluate what to do next, with the awareness that a proposal of €20m will be needed to get the green light.
An agreement in principle was reached some time ago over a five-year contract worth €3.5m net per season with Fofana, so now it is simply a case of finding a meeting point with the Ligue 1 club. However, some alternatives are also being looked into.
Milan have been following the 24-year-old Palmeiras midfielder Richard Rios for months but he has seen his value triple after an excellent Copa America campaign with Colombia. The new asking price is €30m, and the Rossoneri are pondering whether to present an offer in the coming days.
Lol so Milan don’t want to spend 20mil on Fofana but will spend 30mil on some Rios dude from south america who is valued at 5mil ? Who even comes up with this nonsense.
Fofana is in the final year of his contract, paying more than 20m is ridiculous, which is how Man City signed Haaland for only 50m.
Haaland’s situation was a bit different. It wasn’t just about how long he had left. He had a release clause in his contract, and in the summer prior to his transfer Dortmund were not happy with the way City approached the player.
City apologized, offered a huge sum to Dortmund, but Dortmund refused, knowing that City will offer the player his release clause (which was less). They said it was a “matter of principle”.
You can argue for or against Dortmund, but either way, paying the release clause meant the player could choose whatever club he wanted, regardless of the bigger offer, and Dortmund could have no say.
But they dont want to pay 20mil for Fofana, they offered 12mil. Fofana is valued at 30mil tho. And the alternative player mentioned in this article is valued at 5mil. So how does it make sense that Milan will spend 30mil for someone who is not even close to that value and also in the meantime they won’t want to spend 20mil for someone far better. This whole article is a made up joke.
Are just realizing that the article is a complete nonsense, I wonder what the writer thinks of the end finishers/consumers…..
How on earth would anyone waste their their money and resources for certain someone (cannot name him a journalist, it would be an insult to them) to write a 10 sentence report how Milan targets 30 million alternative when they are lowballing for a player valued at 20 millions?
*inserts Ryan Reynolds but why gif*
Experience tells us that if the alternative player is worth 30M€, Milan will offer 10M€. Don’t underestimate the goofy self-confidence of these guys.
I was waiting for the end of that summer to have a new look at the management’s policy. Considering they pay 13M€ for a starting striker or want to pay 10M€ for a starting midfielder, it means that 20M€ Musah was probably considered as the new Desailly and 30M€ Chukwueze as the new Ronaldinho. And they were as productive as Constant and Messias. So much money wasted already in stupid transfers…
What about the players that worked out better than Musah and Chuk? What’s your assessment of the transactions that were conducted there…?
The ol’ strawman argument. Gotta love it.
Focus on the transfers being mentioned in the comment…Musah and Chuk. Other transfers have nothing to do with them. They’re basically very very expensive backups. The irony, if I’m getting Bs comment correctly, is that we’re not willing to spend that much on starting caliber players (Fofana) yet we have even more expensive players as subs. Go figure.
“Focus on the transfers being mentioned in the comment…Musah and Chuk. Other transfers have nothing to do with them.”
I could say the same thing. Focus on the transfers being mentioned in the article. Musah and Chuk having nothing to do with them. Mentioning Musah and Chuk here is also a straw man argument.
I think the expectation was/is that Musah and Chuk would be/will be starters. If they don’t measure up, that’s another issue. We would then have to question the scouting, not the spending. Clearly, the scouting suggested that Chukwueze was a “starting calibre player”, and that Musah would become one.
We also spent 20M on each one of them, and that’s at least what we’ll have to pay to get Fofana, so it obviates the whole “we’re willing to pay more for ‘backups’ than starters” argument, if my first point didn’t already.
Finally, it also ignores the fact that we have 70M to spend on at least four positions that need to be strengthened. So, sure, we can spend 40-50M on one player, but then that’s all we’re going to be getting and no crying about the three others that we need.
Musah and Chuk were the closest examples as they’re both also on their last year of contract. We ended up in paying them with 20 mil ++ sum of money. And from all 3 players, Fofana has the highest MV.
So the summary is if we really need Fofana (God knows our desperate need of proper DM, and he’s been on our radar for quite awhile), to keep dwelling on lowballing the transfer fee is the last thing we should do. And he’ll never lack of suitors too.
Musah and Chuk were actually good points here, as I also mentioned below. As both of players also on their last contract and we paid 20 mil and 20 mil ++ for each respectively. And their MV were 20ish mil. While current Fofana’s MV is 30 mil.
If we could pay ‘em for 20 mil (especially for Musah whom we know was never a starter), why can’t we pay more or less the same amount for a player (or role) that we desperately need?
Don’t give them these hard facts man, you’re killing them🤣
Musah is worth more now than when we bought him, clubs have tried to buy him from us even recently.
Wkwkwkwk very funny . Main target 20-25m euro while alternative 30m euro wirh market value 5m euro . What a crap media
It’s pretty simple if you know how football transfers work. Fofana has 1 year left on his contract, and he’s not resigning, so anything above 20m would be an absolute rip off. Why do you think Man City only paid 50m for Haaland when he’s worth more than double .
Remember Musah and Chuk? They’re on the last year of contract and we paid each one of ‘em for 20mil. They’re absolute rip off too according you your standard. Anyway, Haaland’s case was different.
Two months of being calm and monitoring rather than actually talking to other clubs. We are the ambitious club that consider 20M€ as too expensive for a player hahaha hilarious
Calm down dude. It’s about leverage and negotiation. Monaco is not in a strong position. It’s not about what the player is worth, it’s about the fact that if they don’t sell him in less than a year he will leave and they will get nothing for him. Same way the geniuses in the prior Milan management got nothing for Donnarumma and nothing for Calhanoglu, and nothing for Kessie. The longer they wait to sell him the less value they will get for him. They will probably end up selling for 15 -18 million. But maybe Milan should let you make all the deals so we can overpay for everyone and get in massive debt again.
B probably feels the disdain more than the rest of us since he lives and Milan and has to look smug Interisti in the face. I get his anxiety. 🙂
I am calm about the fofana talks. Monaco has no leg to stand on. Sure they can ask for all the money they want, but at the end of the day it’s what Milan offer or he leaves for free next summer.
17-18 plus some bonuses should do it.
So the one who bought Musah in his last year of contract, unwilling to renew, whose MV was 20 mil, and whom we know was never a starter on our team for 20 mil is supposed to be the genius one?
If that genius was willing to pay 20 mil for that kind of profile, it’s only logical to pay Fofana for more than 20 mil. Considering his right profile, our need of DM, other teams interest, and his current MV of 30 mil.
Some players are brought in to be starters right away and others to develop into starters. Musah was 20 maybe 21 when they signed him, has a ton of potential and we may be looking back in a year or two saying that 20 mil was a very good deal.
You guys just want to hate on this ownership and management because they got rid of the Great Maldini. Do I need to list again all of the terrible signings he made ( Bakayoko, Origi, Dest, Vranckx, Ballo-Toure, Etc….) to go along with letting our most valuable players leave for free.
Last summer’s mercato was the best we’ve had in years and I expect this one will be good as well. But keep hating before you even see the results.
And you know what people conveniently forgot? Oh man this will come as a shock to many.
Chukwueze was also in his last contract year with Vilarreal yet Milan bought him for 28 millions combined.
Cant stop laughing.. alternative lol.
This management is a joke… just pay the 20million and bet quality and reliable player then going for a mediocre player.
Fofana or nothing
You talked bout muscle, physicality, strength, ball recovery and shielding the back 4 then the player they could think of as an alternative is Rios .
A player that even Diaz look more stronger than with his small stature and tiny legs and arms.. Hahahaha
Yes like when we paid that much for these: Castillejo(22m+Bacca), Conti(25m), Bertolacci(20m), CDK(36.5m), Lucas Paqueta(39m), Suso(22m), Piatek(35m), Caldara(38m), Kalinic(23m), Laxalt(20m), Bonucci(42m), Andre Silva(38m), Biglia(20m).
You don’t pay 20m for a player in the final year of his contract, that’s stupidity. Manchester United type of moves.
Fasone and mirabully masterclass
Musah & Chuk have just entered the (stupidity) chat.
Both of their MV back then didn’t even reach 30mil. While Fofana’s MV is currently 30 mil.
Ya we should just wait to save a few million bucks until someone else comes along and pays a higher fee and we lose the player and the we are stuck with scraps like Jovic.
Cause this has never happened before lol
Brilliant strategy. I mean that’s how all the big successful clubs do it. 😂😂😂😂😂
I guess we are saving that 100M transfer kitty for “Mister X”??? LOLOLOLOLO
Were all those players on the last year of their contracts when we bought them? I didn’t realize or forgot. However, I thought CDK had at least 2 years as Brugge wanted to keep him for an extra year before selling to us? I could we wrong though.
Anyway, besides that, why do u guys have to bring up these old transfers as defence for what the current management is doing? Those ones in the past have no bearing on what we’re doing now. If anything, if it was s.illy back then to do these sorts of things then it’s silly toi now, right?
The thing is: a player is flop regardless of how much we paid for him. Castillejo wasn’t a flop because he was too expensive, he was a flop period. Just like now, Origi was for free (albeit with a long contract and a big salary) and Ballo-Touré was brought for peanuts, yet they are still failures.
Similarly, a player is a success regardless of how much he costs. Theo was valued around 15M€ when we brought him for 22M€ and was basically a reject. I don’t think anyone now thinks that we paid too much for Theo.
Back to Fofana, if let’s say we manage to get him and he flops, we’re gonna regret it anyways, or do you think getting him for 10M€ will somehow amout to a consolation prize ?
Point is, at some point, if you want a player and you can pay for him, you’re gotta grab him, you can’t play this bargaining game forever.
Oh really? How come it didn’t stop them from splashing 28 millions combined for Chukwueze although he was in final year of his contract?
suso cost 1.3 mil and was instead sold for roughly the number you mentioned.
Have you actually watched Rios play? You can tell he’s a futsal player because he kept dancing around the Argentina players. His passing could improve but he’s an attacking midfielder. Not sure why he’s being touted an as alternative to Fofana.
If Fofana is the 1st choice and more importantly the right choice, get it done!
Sounds like Moncada loves him.
So if it is a matter of trying to save a mill or 2, and we end up with the 2nd choice player, is it worth it?
1.Identify the best 3 players in the position you need that are within budget.
2. Starting at the top of the list, try to get a deal done
3. Move with clarity and speed
Stop trying to bring logic to the table lol 😅
“aren’t interested in selling Rios, but have set his value at between £12.6million and £16.8million for a deal to be done during this window.” It doesn’t take much to get accurate info beyond not just reading one website. And when there is a lot of teams interested it’s pretty easy….
So it is ridiculous to get the player which will make your squad significantly better and will help compete with other stronger team. Nobody is there to give you good players for low cost. You digested milan management bate of being smart in the market by not paying more. They are just hiding the fact that they will not take risk in the market and buying the players that will make your team stronger. Bcz their project is not make Milan to win titles they are here to make Milan an assest to sell to the highest bidder.
I don’t understand how it doesn’t make sense to give fofana an offer close to 20m with some bonuses but let’s go after a guy who had a ‘good Copa america’ for 30m.
Fofana wants to come and is a strong player. Get him asap to gel with the team and be ready for the start of the season
His price is 18-22m . Both players are very good…and playing well for one of the best international teams in the world right now is a good thing probably…
Furlani what a clown…..😂😂😂😂😂 nobody respect Milan clown management…..😂😂😂😂 low ballers !!!
Rios is an absolute baller, Milan would be lucky to get him.
Rios is one tough tackler. And people need to cool it with the rumors. As far as I’m concerned, we’re still in for Fofana.
But Chuku was the fitest milan player last season and yet he saw less minutes under pioli, why do you think Fonseca is using him in his build ups, bcos he was available earlier than pulisic, this is what happened last season puli arrived before chuku and pioli fell in love with him asap,
it wont affect puli, as the time fonseca is ready for the (attack training for shot on goal) they should be available. And now he can weigh his options fairly which I believe he will pick chuku over Puli.
For me Fofana will come to Milan and we will pay 20Mil, monaco is only waiting for EPl team to step forward and they can auction.
Pal will probably follow and they will close the account shocking a move of Thaiw to newcastle😂. they fans got their players the management got a green account.