There is still a large gap between AC Milan and AS Monaco regarding Youssouf Fofana and the first offer was surprisingly low, according to a report.
Among Milan’s priorities in this summer mercato is also to strengthen the midfield with the addition of a more physical profile and for weeks now the management have been in negotiations with Monaco over Fofana.
However, for the moment the deal has not been unblocked as there is still too much distance between offer and demand. As reported by Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews), Milan have offeredjust €10m compared to an asking price of €25m set by the Ligue 1 club.
Given the difficulties in finding a meeting point over the France international and with a €15m gap to be bridged, Milan are looking at alternative ideas, such as Lazar Samardzic of Udinese who is admittedly a very different profile.
The most recent report from Fabrizio Romano claimed that Fofana has already agreed terms with the Rossoneri implying that he wants the move, but he too stated that there is a gap between the offer that has been put forward and what Monaco want to receive, especially given the presence of itnerest from other clubs.
That is insulting. If i were Monaco, I’ll put Milan on blacklist, not ever to do business with.
I swear I don’t even understand what sort of management is this …. Okay let’s say zirkzee transfer collapsed due to high commission demand what excuse would it be now !
It can be as insulting as it needs to be since his in his final year with a clear desire to move to Milan. All the leverage is with Milan. Transfers 101.
If you’re insulted, go support Monaco instead…
🤦 10 million? Good lord 😳
LOL. There is starting low and negotiating, and negotiating in bad faith. In FIFA they would shut down negotiations after a bid like this. What a joke this management is. Just offer 18 plus bonuses. Then bridge the gap. Dont lowball them.
Add to that they have tried to get players to force their club to let them move.
Why would you give Milan permission to negotiate with your player now?
CDK…. No one can justify us agreeing to just 22M
Is it your money??? That’s what I thought…. Easier to spend someone else’s millions…
Let’s pay more than we have to just so it sits right with some fans. LOL!!!
it literally is our money!
Money I spend on tv subscription, Jerseys and going to games.
Fans get charged through the nose for everything, that is why they expect the owners to show some ambition.
Let’s not forget Redbird are in huge debt to Elliot, so it’s not exactly their money either
Damn, I never think this way. It is our money! All of our money combined!! All those jersey we bought, all those subscription we made. And game ticket is keep rising too.
I promise, if they didn’t care for the 100 you spent on a kit and 20 on a TV subscription to watch Milan, management wouldn’t have spent 100mil+ last summer.
It’s gonna be ok.
I’d sell to anyone else but Milan if this story is true
That’s not lowball, it’s Moneyball LOL 🤣🤣🤣🤣
WHAT 10 Million ????, first news came said 12 Milliom and then 15 Million, then this crap tell 10 Million. Just rebuy Krunic
I don’t know if it’s true, could be another hoax at this point but this is insulting.
I like Fofana but at this point I’d wish Monaco would blacklist us or that another club would hijack him just so our management would be thaught a good lesson.
I’m not against getting a discount, but at least start with a bid that could be accepted.
So our transfer budget of 100m or whatever was speculated, based on our good finances must actually be ZERO.
13m for Morata
Similar for DM
Similar for CB
thats gonna be between 35 – 40m = what we will receive from sales of CDK, Krunic, Alexis etc etc
Exactly. And it is what I have been saying all along.
We have a yearly budget of approx: 35M that will not change. Player sales will be added on top of that – so CDK added 22M thus far.
So currently our budget is 57M. Which explains why we haggling like beggars in the street over every penny.
These stories about 100M budget plus players sales were more Redbird BS. That will never happen. That is not the moneyball way. Embarassing
We were told well we have to wait to be profitable in order to spend. Ok so for 2 years straight we are profitable. Now the excuse is – well we have to wait for our new stadium to be built lol. Always kicking the can down the road as I am sure when that’s done they will come up with another excuse.
They have a policy and will not deviate from that no matter what and that is what will prevent us from becoming a truly elite club again.
I deep down hope this is not true. If so we are inviting serious competition for the player. Will we get bumped off the table again by some midtier EPL team.
This should be eye-opening for all the fans who are content with Morata. We are owned by someone who only cares about making a “decent” profit without being willing to take risks or invest. The people reporting to him are just a bunch of a++kissers and yes-men. (It’s really disappointing to see Ibra like this.)
The only criteria for a player is that he must be cheap. He might have Serie A experience (even with poor goal-scoring stats), or he could be young (Fonseca is really good at developing talent). We look for a poacher striker one day, and the next day we want someone who can link up with the wingers. The inconsistencies in our player search are endless. As long as the player is cheap, they will spin the narrative to sell it as the move the team needed. Meanwhile, a large portion of brain-dead fans confuse being critical and demanding accountability with being negative and whiny. How on earth do you go from Fofana to Lazar?
Excellent post Chris, says it all
😂 🤣
A very large portion.
At this point, it’s clear there is no massive transfer war chest. Neither does is there are there any specifications for transfers.
You sound like a dumba#*. How much money did Milan spend last summer? Cardinale has spent more money on transfers than Elliott combined in 1 season. Smh
Well, this is what I meant with fans who can’t put 2+2. Did Cardinale really spent that much if you consider the 70+m from Tonali? What was he also gonna do after sacking Maldini and selling Tonali? Of course he had to spend, again mostly from Tonali’s sale.
Also some overly senstive people here take an attack to Cardinale as an attack to USA or its population.
We sold tonali for 64M. Don’t make numbers up. And we spend 121. So even if we add a 35M budget to that, redt*rd gave 22M from “their” pocket for transfers.. not an earth moving number but a number nonetheless.
Guess people just aren’t happy unless it’s 200M being pumped in every season and ffp sanctions after. Do you have 200M lying around?
People do not expect 200M every transfer market, boot licker. People expect the management not to act like beggars almost all the time, to pay higher salaries to attract players and keep the best we have, so we don’t have to sell our Tonalis to afford a Pulisic, to sign at least 1 (one) 45M player ever to take quality to higher, all of which we should be more than capable of at this point. If you were less focused on riding Redbird’s d* ck, you’ll be able to see that
Because Berlusconi never pocketed money from the sales? Ibra? Thiago Silva? Kaka? Was that money ever reinvested into the club? NO.
Did Cardinale do that? NO. He not only spend the money from Tonali on player acquisition but added another, what, 60mil into it?
Critical thinking my @$$. If you’re not understanding what you’re writing, don’t mask it as a lack of “critical thinking and demanding accountability” as you put it…
Nobody is going to Lazar, don’t get bent out of shape. There is nothing new to report, so Corriere is throwing sh|t at the wall.
They will continue to spin names until Fofana signs.
“confuse being critical and demanding” – that’s you believing every rumor you read? Asking for a friend…
I already wrote that it seems to me that our transfer budget is set very low. Without selling another player, the club’s management will try their luck with offers like this or buy mediocre players who will not bring us any progress! Disappointing..
I also wrote that yesterday although many didn’t agree and pointed out how our budget is made.
I don’t say I’m right (I hope I’m not) but it seems our budget is lower than what many articles speculated.
We were prepared to pay 40M€ for Zirkzee alone and Ibra said we were targeting several players, so what you saying doesn’t make much sense since we bought Morata for only 13Mil
You prove exactly my point below🤦♂️
Please read the context before judging, I was saying that on the budget transfer and not the offer to Monaco which could be true, but it has been confirmed by Fabrizio that Milan informed Bologna of the willingness to pay the release clause… So I’m afraid you just prove you’re an arrogant idiot
Fabrizion wrote it so it must be true. Yeah you confirmed my point below👍
Ok, then why aren’t lowballing (even if we assume this article is wrong, we were reported to have started with 12M€-15M€ which don’t make sense either) ? Why are we also far from meeting Salzburg’s demands for Pavlovic which are only 30M€ ?
We could LITERALLY get both deals done today, yet we set oursevles for failure because for some reason we don’t want to pay the actual value of the player.
Not having money could actually be an explanation.
We were never paying Tim – not unless the commissions were dropped significantly – which were never going to happen.
So either our management are complete idiots not knowing what those commissions were before entering into the negotiation OR complete arrogance thinking they could get the player and agent (who had other offers for more $$) to submit to the will of Redbird and take less. Either way it’s delusional thinking in todays market.
He’s a player with 1 year left on his contract. Even if another team wanted to buy him, he has made it clear that he wants to go to Milan.
At this point, Milan has all the leverage and they should be lowballing Monaco because they have no leverage. Lose the player for free or get something for him.
This is how you conduct a transfer market. Why the heck should we pay $25 million when we can get him for $10-$15 million?
This is the kind of management that I want, where they dictate the terms.”
Yeah that certainly went very well for us in the past.
“he has made it clear that he wants to go to Milan.”, players can change their mind you know, Zirkzee also did have an agreement with us ? If a mid-table EPL team offers him a higher salary and pays 25M€ to Monaco, guess where he is most likely to go.
“Why the heck should we pay $25 million when we can get him for $10-$15 million?” Why the heck would we want the player to come in a week and start training with us and go to the summer friendlies when we can have him 2 days before the start of the 2024/25 season ?
I’m with you here. If there is a deal to be made for much cheaper, why not try it? If the other party is acting all primadonnas then f*** it, plenty of fish in the water.
It’s not Monaco who is holding the aces here.
Players need time to adapt and in order to do well in a club, need to start as soon as possible to benefit from training camp, summer friendly games and allow the coach to test them to see how and where they work best and thus make the necessary adjustments to his system and tactics and, if necessary, request an additional player or decide to exclude one or many players from his project.
So I think it’s clear that the sooner we get those players the better, and dragging the deal because we don’t want to pay an extra 5M€ isn’t in our favor because it will AT BEST delay the arrival of said player or players and in some cases (as it already happened) will see us lose our targets to a higher bidder, forces us back to square 1.
He’s a professional player in the prime of his career. This isn’t the 20-year-old CDK who played in the Belgian league. He is a relatively proven player. He’ll be alright lol.
In order for us to be a top team, we have to be tough to deal with. All top teams exploit situations to their best interest. Why? Because they are winners at everything they do.
I loved that Maldini was at the club, but he mishandled like 3 players we should’ve made at least $150 million on. Imagine how much better we would’ve been with that money.
Not sure what Maldini’s mishandeling of Donnaruma, Kessie and Hakan’s situations have to do with us not paying an extra 5M€ or 10M€, since we’re supposedly financially healthy and saved money thanks to Morata.
Top clubs like Real Madrid, Liverpool,… often go for players as soon as they can and sometimes overpay by a factor of 2 to secure the deal, they don’t waste an entire summer trying to close a gap of 3-5M€.
I am unable to respond to your comment, Giga. I don’t know why, but it just goes to show how we missed out on potential player sales, and we were in the same situation as Monaco is with Fofana. Top teams used this strategy against us, so it would be wise for us to do the same.
I’ve never seen Real Madrid and Liverpool overpay for a player in the last year of their contract who has told the team, “it’s here or I’m running down my contract.”
Real Madrid literally refused to pay PSG for Mbappe. Real Madrid, and more specifically Liverpool, are like hounds; they sniff out opportunities and weaknesses and use them to their advantage because that’s what winners do lol. Real Madrid’s whole history of buying top players is essentially about exploiting situations lol.
“Top clubs like Real Madrid, Liverpool,… often go for players as soon as they can and sometimes overpay by a factor of 2 to secure the deal, they don’t waste an entire summer trying to close a gap of 3-5M€.”
Top clubs like Real Madrid, Liverpool,… have waaaaaaaaaaaay better finances than we do. Their owners aren’t preparing to sell the club in a few years either. Unrealistic to expect Milan to act like the toppest of the “top clubs”.
@bb and @Flo
I’m not saying we should do like Real Madrid who paid 80M€ for Tchouameni who was valued 60M€ at the time or Liverpool who paid 85M€ for Nunez who paid 55M€, far from that, but when Monaco is asking for 25M€ you can’t realistically expect to have him for 10M€ even if it’s his last year with them. Clubs DO sometimes see their players leave for free and 10M€ isn’t that big of a deal. It will be one thing if we started with 18M€ or 20M€ but 10M€ (assuming the reports are true of course) is insulting.
So one of 2 things, if we can pay 25M€, we should do it, get this deal done already so the player can start training with us, if our ceiling is 15M€, go for 15M€ (I think Hojbjerg is valued around 18M€) and stop wasting time.
Also on a side note for @flo, I know Real Madrid do exploit situations like those, but their bid is so high to begin with that pretty much no one else is gonna outbid them anyways, so the club and the player know it’s either Real Madrid or nowhere else. We don’t have that luxury, we have been outbid before and lost players to other clubs.
Fofana isn’t going into training camp with anyone. The Euros just ended, and he’s going on vacation. If Milan signs him tomorrow or in two weeks it won’t matter at all, he will not join any team until August at the earliest. So there is plenty of time to try to find a deal if Milan actually wants him. 99.99% of what is written during transfer windows is made up clickbait, only the people in the boardrooms know the real targets and amounts offered.
Totally agree.
Ya until another team comes in and takes him because we wait and wait and wait and training camp will start soon – and they player wants to be settled – and another club comes in offers more to the club and player and they leave and then we end up with the scraps like we did at the striker position last summer w Jovic.
Ya I have never seen his happen before lol
Because a premier league will put 20MM without thinking too long about it and will offer the player twice the salary Easily, that’s why! Don’t get confused with the player wants to go to Milan, that will only matter as long as he is not being offered to go to a really bad team. The moment the money is better and the team is kind a good the player is going right away!
Zirkzee want it Milan, and he did nothing about the Agent asking for crazy money, when the agent is his employee, no the other way around and where is he now?
Every time Milan try to low ball clubs, another team enter the negotiations and we can lose the player, it’s happening with Pavlovich, as Chelsea is offering more money now!
People here will believe the reports Milan were ready to activate Zirkzee’s clause of 40 millions but will rejected the reports of lowball, straight insulting offer of 10-12 millions for Fofana calling it media fabrication or defend it with an excuse like “it’s called negotiations fellas, chill”.
How do Milan expect to win anything if they don’t want to buy actual good players
after Milan continuously offered low prices and was rejected. Inter will come with an offer of a little more and accept it.
What a bastard
Let’s be honest 10 million is too low but I don’t think he is worth 25 million either. Only Milan and Atletico are after him the rest are bottom premier league teams. 18 million fair price
If true this is insulting to Monaco and to Fofana who is a French international. You ain’t going to sign him for that price.
Lol I honestly hate the people handling Milan’s transfer they are stupid ffools tf?? Annoying stories every damn day
Do you want my grandmum to join milan? She is only 55 and is prepared to accept €50,000 –
Milan will start by proposing 25,000€
and asking her to knit all the kits for fans around the world at 2 cents an hour as a bonus…
We will hear on this site about how we made a capital gain on her jersey per minute output and generated profits by employing her instead of factory workers in China in a bid to win the Sustainability Cup Cheapskate Sweepstakes Leagues of Honours.
For 10M I’d rather keep the player and let him help you qualify for UCL – that UCL qualification is worth way more than 10M lol. Hilarious
If the asking price is 25M, they offer 10M, if the asking price is 10M they offer 4M, if the asking price is 1M they offer a grilled cheese sandwich, it’s not even about the financial situation, it’s ridiculous, it’s like a pathological obsession to bargain for every single player they intend to sign. Absolutely bonkers.
You survived the banter era. I’m sure you’I’ll find it marginally easier to survive this summer transfer window too.
Just make sure to use enough “boot l!cker” and “riding d|ck” references to make your arguments stand out. Very intelligent use and makes you look really forceful, like you know what you’re talking about.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I think we also need to consider the PERCEPTION this creates for players who we are trying to attract to come to Milan
When players constantly read we make low ball offers, won’t pay an agents commissions, have wage caps, struggle to re-sign our own star players because we won’t pay them market value, etc…that would give any player pause into asking why they want to come here is they don’t feel wanted or appreciated??
Unfortunately appreciation is shown by decisiveness and swift action. When you really want something you go and get it. Period. You don’t try and pick up the girl your in love with by constantly saying you will take her out then don’t then say you will again then don’t, then when you finally decide to do it – take her to a trip to McDonalds then ask her to pay for her happy meal – when there is competition for that girl with a line of dudes willing to pick her up in a Ferrari and take her for caviar, steak and lobster and you expect her to choose you lol????? I mean god bless if you can find a girl like that but if one exists it’s one out of a a few hundred million lol – especially when we are talking footballers. Because this isn’t about love it’s about $$$. This is a job for 95% of the players and they just wanna be appreciated and paid. If they see us constantly being cheap then what do you think they will believe will happen to them when it comes time for their renewal or them wanting to win titles and they see we can’t afford to buy a single player to help the team lol.
Ahhh…but this is Redbird! Good times!!
Juro, pal, you sang the same song last summer. Yet, they made enough purchases last summer.
Your taste in music hasn’t changed 😂 But I see you listen to a lot of love songs. I dig that you’re trying to equate romantic advances to signing players.
The difference is hopefully in your experience you don’t wine and dine the pimp to get your girl.
@ACM1899
you are speaking too much,please open your eyes.
We paid 25m for a bullshit guy with no head last year,but for a good player we want to purchase for 10m? We can propose atleast 18/20m for this player
Remember he should be very good to play in France national team. Where there is tchoumeni, kante etc.,
Stop replying to everyone, atleast think before you reply
Great analogy!
Funny thing is Juro, this is how we ended up with CDK. Management (the real ones) didn’t want to give Maldini the money for Botman and our reputation took a huge hit. Ppl were laughing at us saying we don’t have any swing in the transfer market. So our next best target via Moncada was CDK and that’s why we went all out for him. Because the action of showing you mean business days alot.
Us cheaping out on transfers will have an impact in the long run. It happened to us before when Galliani low balled ADL for Hamsik (bid of 15m) and then ADL hilariously says we can’t afford bread … publicly. And then never made deals with us thereafter. Also on the players side as u mentioned, if targets see us lacking in ambition in our signings they’ll go somewhere else even if they are fans of Milan due to history and whatnot.
Players care about their paycheque, not what their employer makes for them.
Zirkzee is not a Milan player because he wanted to pocket an extra $5m for choosing to come to Milan. That’s not a champion; you don’t want that culture on your team. BIGGEST EXAMPLE IS MANCHESTER UNITED. For years, we read about the garbage ass culture that the team has.
Why is this management playing with.our hearts..u identify the player pay for him…then we will loose all the first options and go for half baked players…I wish someone buys Milan of them
I’m tired of management offers…..Furlani fart is an idiot with papers….
Can we just fast forward to when a newly-promoted EPL team blows our bid out of the water?
Don’t say we didn’t tell you so..
these management people sre pure idiots and first class jerks…
Man U will swoop in again soon if we don’t wrap this up. mark m words
Quels types de supporters sommes-nous ??
Je me pose parfois la question quand je lis certains commentaires. Je ne pas toujours d’accord avec ce que je lis mais sur le cas Fofana je suis en phase avec la direction du club. Pourquoi payer 25 ou 30 millions à un joueur à qui il reste un an de contrat, qui refuse de prolonger et qui l’année prochaine partira comme agent libre. Monaco veut simplement gagner et en fixant un tel prix c’est une façon de faire monter les enchères faire trainer le transfert en longueur et espérer que d’autres clubs se signalent. Chers amis ne soyons pas dupes car à l’heure actuelle Monaco n’est pas en position de force à nous de rester fermes.
Pour ma part je pense que cette histoire se réglera autour de 13, 15 ou 18 millions pas plus dans le cas contraire faudrait viser d’autres cibles
Simple solution
Put an offer of 17.5m on the table, tell them the offer expires in 1 week.
If that fails move on.
At least you don’t get a reputation as time wasters.
Treat people with respect and they will do the same