If a few days ago it seemed like Malick Thiaw could be following Sandro Tonali to Newcastle United, it now feels like a stay at AC Milan is almost certain.
According to Calciomercato.com, contrary to reports from other sources there has ‘never been the feeling’ that Newcastle wanted to tempt Milan into selling Thiaw, by placing a big offer for the German defender.
Eddie Howe, the Magpies’ head coach, admitted that he likes Thiaw but there is ‘not even a shadow of a concrete offer’ to this point. Milan wants at least €35m for the former Schalke talent, otherwise they will gladly keep him.
The player himself would be happy to stay too because he is happy at Milan, while there is also a time issue. The 22-year-old is not the type of player who can be sold at the end of the window for two reasons: firstly he is considered a starter, and secondly time is needed to find a replacement.
In recent days, several sources have reported Newcastle’s attempts to sign Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace, who shares the same agency with Thiaw: Unique Sports Group. This begs the question about whether they really wanted Thiaw or if it was just a way to open talks with his entourage.
We need to sell as we’e signed Pavlović.
How so? We’ve already lost Kjaer & Simic.
You are too fast for me bb 😀
to add to this, Tomori, Kalulu, and even Gabbia are certain to be injured at one point during the season. These guys arent Maldinis or Zanetti’s of old time who never miss a game.
Did u watch last season? We need to plan for it.
Exactly.
Caldara also left (on paper a big salary, but just a paper player lol). Still, three out, one in.
LOL. Everyone has always forgotten about him. 😀
We also lost Kjær and Simic so I’m not really sure that we need to sell any cbs at the moment. Pellegrino will probably be loaned out and then we will have 5 cbs, that is pretty much standards for a 2 man cb defense.
Is Pellegrino still with us?
We need to put him out of his misery too.
Nah just loan him out and see if he developes with some minutes in his legs. Even if he isn’t deemed good enough for us now or next year he could probably still be sold for a better price by then. The guy at least was called up to the argentine national team last year even if he hasn’t gotten his debut there yet and he also holds an italian passport which might also come handy.
We have Kalulu (and we’re trying to sign a RB apparently), Gabbia, Tomori and now Pavlović.
The inn is full.
Why do people insist on such a massive squad?
Is it so you can insult more of our players?
We cut Simic, Caldara, and Kjaer. We signed Pavlovic. This is standard. Pavlovic has a relatively low wage (I believe it was 1.7m) why are you hating on the guy this morning?
This is not about salary, this is about players and game time.
Truth is, our squad needs to be trimmed, regardless of whom we sign next.
Central defenders need many games together in order to do well and we have too many of them.
Honestly even 30M€ for Thiaw would be a huge deal.
You need 5 cbs. That’s just smart to have. Like 3 gk. You need the extra man in case something unforseen happens. And in this club the unforseen happens seasonally.
Thiaw, gabbia, tomori, pavlo and kalulu. 5.
So don’t go whining about a massive squad in the department where it’s smart to have an extra man.. whine about wingers, we have 2 many of those.
Pretty sure I was replying to whining heir. My bad
Gvardiol is originally a cb. Like pavard but a lefty. So shíthy has 5 cbs.
I don’t know what barca is doing and I don’t even care. They lost their thread years ago.
What’s the plan? I don’t know it. But I’d imagine the plan is to sell one of the cbs, eventually (tomori, thiaw, or gabbia) and integrate a youth player.
It’s not like we have a line of prospective cbs in futuro. Simic was it and even he was bought from Germany, wasn’t “our” product
Even if the season goes smooth as butter and I tell you you’ve bewb wrong you’d never admit it. 2 big ego you got there
Why do we need 5 CBs?
Why do we need more CBs than Man City and Barcelona?
What is the plan for integrating any of our youth players when there are 5 players in front of them?
And we’ll see who is doing the whining and moaning and insulting once the season starts and you lot turn up each week insulting our players and manager when they don’t meet your lofty expectations, and then refuse to recognise that players struggle because they have limited game time and a lack of understanding.
This. 100%
Thiaw’s a starter? If he’s hanging around this season he should be behind Tomori Pavlovic and Gabbia.
For sure. For sure.
Pavlovic and Tomori starters, backed by Thiaw and Gabbia. Hopefully that will be enough, and it should be assuming Tomori returns to his former self, and Pavlovic lives up to the hype (and no serious injuries) Kalulu needs to fight for his place, as he will likely be third choice RB and CB as well.
I don’t care who we get or don’t get as CB or RB. What we REALLY need is a DM and we are badly botching the Fofana situation. Time to move on and get an alternative DM.
We are much weaker regarding the DM position than the CB or RB positions.
Sure, maybe we should upgrade those positions too (and I’m afraid Emerson Royal is NOT an upgrade over Calabria; I have a friend who is a big Tottenham fan and said that Royal is slow, unaware of what is going on around him, and a poor defender; that doesn’t sound like an upgrade) but only AFTER we secure a good DM which at this point should be our absolute priority.
How are we botching the Fofana situation? 20 million is a fair reasonable offer for a player in his last season.
We are botching it because we are expecting that Monaco will fold at the end of the mercato, not to lose him for free. We are not taking into account that Monaco’s owner is a multi-billionaire who couldn’t care less if they lose 20M Euro, and is hugely offended and upset at Milan for lowballing Fofana at 12M and dealing with the player before dealing with him.
So, the way I see it, is that out of spite and revenge, this guy will be ambiguous and will drag this negotiation until the very end, then will say no, by which point we’ll be left with no viable DM alternatives, just like what happened in the last mercato when we took too long to address the ST position while negotiating with Taremi, and had to sign Jovic at the last moment. We did get lucky that Jovic after all wasn’t horrible (and Taremi wasn’t that good), but it was a very risky move, and we are repeating it now.
We could have signed Fofana weeks ago if we had talked first to Monaco’s owner, then offered 20M. He probably would have green-lighted the deal. Since we offended him, he pulled back.
Agree with everything you said.
Fofana isn’t even a true DM.
We could have gotten Hojbjerg or Amrabat for cheaper.