Mercato

Di Marzio: Fofana, Kone, Rios – Man Utd complicate Milan’s midfielder pursuit

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan are now just 10 days away from their first game of the season against Torino and the management are still working on giving Paulo Fonseca a new midfielder.

According to the latest from Gianluca Di Marzio, the gap between Milan and Monaco remains significant as talks continue for Youssouf Fofana, with the Ligue 1 club wanting a fair bit more than what has been offered so far.

Manchester United have entered the race, but Fofana has made it clear that Milan are his preference. If he were to open up to the idea of joining United – who have not yet made an official offer – this could be a problem for Milan.

Any club providing competition destabilises the negotiation and above all gives strength to Monaco, who have a much higher request for the player compared to what the Rossoneri have put forward up to this point.

The management will insist for a few more days for Fofana, but there are a couple of alternative targets in mind so as not to be caught unprepared in the last week of the window.

The main name is Manu Koné of Borussia Monchengladbach, and he is more of a target than Richard Ríos of Palmeiras, given the issue related to the limited slots for non-EU players with one already taken by Strahinja Pavlovic.

Tags AC Milan Manu Kone Richard Rios Youssouf Fofana

50 Comments

    1. I don’t understand what you like so much in Koné. From what I saw he is good at dribbling, carrying the ball and creating threats in the opposition box. That might be good in general, but it’s not the profile we need.
      We need an ugly player who pushes people, tackles, breaks legs,…

      1. Admittedly all I am going off is YouTube videos… but my god he puts in some big tackles!

        I’ll take that.

        A midfield general would be better but there’s not many of those about.

        I wanted Kross (and I don’t care if he’s not technically a DM his presence would’ve made a huge difference).

        1. Wow, YouTube. Actually watch a game and not highlights. Kone is not a DM, we already have enough ball carriers.

          At least we all know you just talk out of your ass and know nothing now. Back to YouTube…

          1. I have a young family so how much time do you think I have to watch games of teams I don’t support, in leagues I don’t follow, on the other side of the world?

            I prioritise Milan.

            But his YouTube highlights reel looked good….(as I am sure do most YouTube highlights reels…).

            I am more interested in characteristics and he seems to have the right characteristics.

          3. Bro not sure why you are so shocked about YouTube being ppls to to for analyzing a player…most commenters here based the excitement around Pavlovic for instance exactly on yt highlights. Baffles me but if that’s the only way to go then 🤷‍♂️

        2. A midfielder can be a great tackler but bad at pressuring, positioning,… that’s why we need to verify the player’s actual role in his team.
          Kroos needed Camavinga, Tchouaméni (and Casemiro in the past) to be able to do what he does. So even if we got someone like Kroos, we will still need the uglier players I mentioned.

          1. Well none of our current midfield can tackle so that would be an improvement.

            Yes positioning is important but that’s why I didn’t want to get rid of Krunic….

    2. Don’t you mean Pobega? He came from our academy. If we just gave Pobega a chance, he’d become one of the best Milan DMs ever.😉

  2. Schouten,
    Locatelli (will Juve sell?),
    Florentino,
    Frendrup (might be 1 season wonder),
    Cardoso,
    Sangare,
    Schlager,
    Hugo Larsson (might be too $$),
    Danilo (not Juve RB),
    Varela (might be too $$),
    Stiller (might be too $$),
    Endo (quick fix, since Liverpool will sign N6)…

      2. Locatelli is a flop, a never good player. In one of the worst Juventus midfields, he does not even look good. Please, have a nap

  3. Considering how swift the management was last season in getting players, I’m a bit surprised that with 10days to go, we still haven’t addressed the DM issue.

    Sure, it’s a slow market this season, I meant, even the likes of Liverpool hasn’t even bought anyone the last time I checked – I just hope that this won’t undermine Fonseca’s work before he even get started.

    1. we need 2-3 signings and management/Fonseca pushing for Emerson, so that’s max 4 (3 if we keep Adli). plus we need to get rid of players: Traore, Nasti, Pellegrino on loan, while Pobega, Adli(?), Origi, Ballo all need to be sold.

    2. They had money and got trigger happy. That’s why lol 😂. No one wanted the players they were after so it was much easier. The targets this year are complete opposite. Zirkzee had a market and Monaco, unlike Chelsea, doesn’t need or want to sell. Plus they overpaid for some players who were in their last year of contract. Somehow this year’s it’s not a thing to do.

  4. The DM is the most important position after we got Morata. The lack of a DM so far speaks volume about the lack of competencies and ambitions among the managers of the club.

    Which DM that fits ACM and are realistic for us, I don’t know. I only know the importance of this position when we play 4231, and the importance of such a player to join as early in the pre-season as possible.

    I’ve posted this several times; it cost money to earn money.

      1. i guess we are really banking on Bennie not getting injured and Musah learning the craft. I wouldnt bet on any of them. Bennie will get injured and Musah is 21, which means he’s still an idiot with tons of potential and tons to learn. (i was at 21).
        A crazy thought is, get a RB and put Calabria as DM. (Pioli did it once or twice and i think it went as good as it could)

  5. No one complicated the pursuit but themselves. This was a summer to make or break as many reports suggested before mercato opened. And this management have failed once again. We are in a dire need of a defensive minded midfielder since Kessie left and they haven’t addressed it properly. Now we’re two weeks from the start of the new season, with a coach who’s system is based on a mobile DM and suddenly everyone else is at fault for not bringing one? First Moncao for raising the pricetag and now other clubs coming in to compete for the player’s signature? Gtfo with such nonsense.

    Juventus booked Luiz Douglas and Thuram in span of two weeks and that was even before mercato opened.

    A complete and utter sh*thousery of our management.

    2. Juventus has also sold 91M worth of players, including the jewels of the primavera. So they’ve mortgaged their long term future for this short term revolution, without guarantees. They even sold Kaio Jorge. Remember three seasons ago when everyone was crying about how Juventus got Kaio Jorge and not us? There is a long list in this regard. “We should have gotten this guy or that guy, management sucks”, and a couple of seasons later they’re washing out of wherever they went.

      The point is there is always more than meets the eye AND there is no such thing as a transfer that is guaranteed to pan out. We could very well spend 25M on Fofana and he could flop with us, just like we can spend 15M on a GK who turned to be one of the best in the world, there are many variables that influence the success or failure of any given player at a particular club.

      1. You are right about transfers and how they never turn out the way one might expect.
        But and a big but it’s the failure of the management to plug the much needed gap of DM in the team. Or are we gonna exempt them from blame, because juve had external circumstances in thier Mercato??

        And also if this DM position becomes another issue this season, who will be to blame. Fonseca or the management who are inept.

      2. I’m not talking about names and who to buy, I am talking about the dire need of a DM since two seasons ago and these clowns are wasting time lowballing for Fofana. There were so many reports before mercato opened, Milan don’t need to sell and how they have a healthy budget etc. I didn’t buy it but this cheap PR cr*p kept many naive fans in line.

        1. That’s fine but it still ignores the financial situation. You could have said Juventus bought Bert and Ernie before the transfer market opened and my comment would have been the same. They have sold 91M worth of players. Just because the sales came after, makes no difference. If we’d sold Leao for 100M then we’d also probably have made a bunch of signing by now, but…it would have meant selling Leao. None of our starters or top prospects have been sold. They’re adding to the squad purely on positive cash flow and selling deadwood. This is not easy when you’re trying to bring in a starting CM, a starting striker and a starting CB, since most starting calibre players in those positions that we would want should cost 40-50M each. So again, we are constrained by the realities of Milan and Serie A’s financial limitations. It sucks, but it’s just the reality.

        1. You must be too young to have seen him live, and fair enough. Youtube or wherever you get your information from, doesn’t serve him justice.

          1. Dude, I was surprised you didn’t get the sarcasm in the post you replied to.
            Everyone in the world knows Cafu is one of, if not the best RB of all time

  8. Andre or Pablo Maia. but I’m afraid that Ibra doesn’t look for a bit of risky movements. but these Brasilians are really could be something fresh for Milan.

  10. I think Milan should look elsewhere anyway. Either another club pays Monaco’s demands (unlikely) or we can get him for free next season or another club (most likely)

  11. Fofana is a nice to have but no point spending silly money when we can negotiate a free deal with him in Jan. In the interim to bolster our midfield we should sign Arambat who is proper CDM to shield the back 4 to either partner Bennacer as double pivot against stronger sides and/or be rotated with him against weaker teams. We also have Aldi, Musah, RLC to play in double pivot + Zeroli to bring up from reserve. I think we are fine to start the season with we’ve got.

  12. Don’t think there will be as simple as waiting and signing on free, many things can change and more economically impressive clubs can come knocking if he is free. Also if he goes on free he will demand a significantly bigger salary and there will be commissions. Two big obstacles for us

  13. Let’s NOT get our hopes high.

    We all know we are NOT getting Fofana nor Kone nor Rios. All smoke and mirrors

    We will stay as we are with the following double pivots: RLC, Benny, Musah and Reinjders. Pobega if he stays (hopefully not – but maybe because nobody wants him and he’s Italian for squad lists) is your 5th mid. That is all.

    Pulisic is our #10/CAM now – so RLC moves back – to DM and perhaps (assuming we don’t sell) Adli (in his natural position) he will get an opportunity to back up Pulisic as a CAM.

    We will be told at the end of August, after RLC starts a few games in the double pivot, against weaker teams like Torino and Parma – that we no longer need a new DM since we have Ruben there and Benny is now healthy. By that time players like Fofana (who won’t wait forever and will be gobbled up by United) or Konè (who isn’t really a DM anyways) – will be deemed too expensive as well – and we will stay as we are. Why?? $$$$$$$$$$.

    Once we purchase Emerson Royal for 15M – Royal plus Morata (13M) + Pavlovic (20M) is already a spend of 48M….minus the 22M we will receive in January for CDK and that is a net spend of $26M. Close to our transfer cap of 35M per season.

    So that leaves a little $$ for a paid loan of an Abraham w option to buy – and that is our transfer market: Morata, Pavlovic, Emerson and Abraham. Average Mercato IMO.

    The rest is just PR noise. Nothing else will happen.

    Now let’s see if Georgie Boy can prove me wrong. Fingers crossed!!!!!

  14. Let’s NOT get our hopes high. We seen this play out before.

    We all know we are NOT getting Fofana nor Kone nor Rios. All smoke and mirrors

    We will stay as we are with the following double pivots: RLC, Benny, Musah and Reinjders. Pobega if he stays (hopefully not – but maybe because nobody wants him and he’s Italian for squad lists) is your 5th mid. That is all.

    Pulisic is our #10/CAM now – so RLC moves back – to DM and perhaps (assuming we don’t sell) Adli (in his natural position) he will get an opportunity to back up Pulisic as a CAM.

    We will be told at the end of August, after RLC starts a few games in the double pivot, against weaker teams like Torino and Parma – that we no longer need a new DM since we have Ruben there and Benny is now healthy. By that time players like Fofana (who won’t wait forever and will be gobbled up by United) or Konè (who isn’t really a DM anyways) – will be deemed too expensive as well – and we will stay as we are. Why?? $$$$$$$$$$.

    Once we purchase Emerson Royal for 15M – Royal plus Morata (13M) + Pavlovic (20M) is already a spend of 48M….minus the 22M we will receive in January for CDK and that is a net spend of $26M. Close to our transfer cap of 35M per season.

    So that leaves a little $$ for a paid loan of an Abraham w option to buy – and that is our transfer market: Morata, Pavlovic, Emerson and Abraham. Average Mercato IMO.

    The rest is just PR noise. Nothing else will happen.

    Now let’s see if Georgie Boy can prove me wrong. Fingers crossed!!!!!

    1. Juro, I think you are very right in your analysis, unfortunately.

      For Jerryboy a 4th place is sufficient as we then will play Cl and that is where the money is. Our best hope is, that Fonseca can pull a miracle, but IMHO Inter and Juventus are favourites, god damn it.

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