The rumours regarding interest from Newcastle United in AC Milan’s centre-back pair of Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw will not go away, and they have popped up again today.
According to this morning’s edition of Corriere della Sera (via Radio Rossonera), Newcastle want to strengthen their defence further after the signing of Lloyd Kelly on a free transfer and – after spending over €70m last summer on Sandro Tonali – they want to do more business with Milan.
Thiaw and Tomori are the two profiles in their sights, but the German and the Englishman are currently considered Milan’s starting central defenders after Simon Kjaer also left at the end of his contract.
Sky reported that Milan have a concrete interest in signing Strahinja Pavlovic from RB Salzburg. There are ongoing contacts with the player’s entourage to try and first reach a verbal agreement over personal terms and then the management will negotiate with the Austrian club.
However, it seems more likely that the Serbia international would be a replacement for Kjaer rather than for Tomori and Thiaw. The idea will be to strengthen a rearguard that struggled last season rather than to potentially weaken it, though as the Tonali saga showed everyone has a price.
Swap for Tonali
I’d take that.
Pavlovic-Gabbia, promote Simic, go after Scalvini in Jan.
Won’t happen but nice to dream 🙂
Too good to happen i guess, and i think tomori is overrated.
If swap happens 2+1 and cash i would be very happy. 10/10 deal right there
Tomori is one of the best in the world , most of you fans are clueless if you think Tomori is not good
i played defender and defensive midfielder my whole life at semi professional level so i think i could judge those positions better then most people and believe me we are lucky to have quality center backs in Tomori and Malick Thiaw the problem always lack of real defensive midfielders since kessie and tonali left the club , our only good defensive midfielder was bennacer and he was having injury season and all our other midfielders they are not good defensively and our wingers are lazy at pressing , great defense are built in system were everyone doing their role defensively other then that you can’t just change your center backs and you think your problem will be solve
I agree that Tomori is an amazing defender and is well on his way to becoming world class, but the same can’t be said for Those. He lacks focus in most games and gets exposed because of it. He makes many mistakes and gives his teammates extra work to do. Hopefully we can get a proper defensive mid to alleviate some pressure on our back line in this window.
Funny idea: 30 million+ Tonali back and next year they ban Tomori and Thiaw for gambling 😀
Lol
Baseless rumours fueled on by the media
“However, it seems more likely that the Serbia international would be a replacement for Kjaer rather than for Tomori and Thiaw”
20 millions for 4th choice CB? Sure thing.
Hardly fourth choice. He’s the tallest drink of water there and would compete with Tomori and Thiaw for starting spots, especially since he’s left footed.
Gabbia is unfortunately back to the bench, which sucks, because he was reliable last season and missed the least days with injuries.
Let’s not forget about Simic. He has already proven he can be valuable in rotations.
Gabbia has also improved. I think getting a left footed CB and cash in with Tomori or Thiaw is not a bad idea. I would sell Tomori as I believe he is the one with the least potential upside. And he is very poor in ball playing, which is important to Fonseca.
Do you even watch football? Tomori not good with the ball? Who the f started most of our attacks last season? And why does fonseca want to build his def around tomori if he Isn’t good at what is important to fonsz?
I swear you people just talk what you want to be true and not what it actually is true and is right in front of you nose
Yep. A lot of these guys don’t have a clue. Tomori is a definite starter for Milan. I don’t have a problem losing Thiaw because I think Simic is better than him. Unfortunately Pioli didn’t give Simic a fair chance.
As for Calabria and Florenzi. They both can leave this summer. I think Fonseca should start Emerson Royal if we sign him and use Kalulu as his backup.
My issue with Tomori is his over-aggressiveness and the idiotic challenges he makes when he over-commits. I want to say it’s because he felt like he needed to make those since defensive phase was terrible last season. But he made those back even when Kessie was here.
I hope Fonseca can calm him down and iron out the defensive coverage.
That is correct. He does do that and needs to be aware of when to back away and just hoover over his mark. No need to tackle for the sake of tackling.
Tomori is our best CB we can’t afford to sell him
Tomori needs to stay. We can sell them Thiaw for some overpriced fee.
Last 2 years: midfielder total overhaul, So this year: defender total overhaul?
I am not the type who like total overhaul, but I also can’t blame the idea, considering on how much we conceed last year, although defenders can’t be blamed solely, since we basically didn’t have proper DM, plus Pioli’s stubborn choice regardless the players’ performance, such as prefer on Krunic during first half of season, or when Chuk, Jovic, Okafor were on fire during some period or Simic’s dream debut, but Pioli still didn’t trust them (His famous reason: “they are not ready”, or since didn’t attend pre-season). He was often “forced” to use youngster, not because he trusted them, but due to injury crisis.
And also, even though Tomori is arguably our current best CB, but he is so inconsistent (unlike during scudetto season), and not rarely he did stupid mistakes.
Anyway, I can only hope, even if defender total overhaul happens, the replacements should be better, not “betting purchase”, and simultaneously start trusting great potential like Simic or Jimenez.
Hope milan send newcastle to hell. Tomori and Thiaw should both stay at milan next year.
We need to add CB’s, not sell them. No way they pull the plug on Thiaw this soon.