Reports in Turkey are claiming that Fenerbahce have put forward an official offer for Christopher Nkunku, but below the asking price.
MilanNews relay the latest from Sports Digitale and Now TV Türkiye journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu. They state that Fenerbahçe are willing to put forward a maximum of €25m to sign Nkunku, compared to Milan’s asking price which is around the €35m mark.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
The negotiation, as the journalist reports, is still ongoing. Nkunku’s name is reportedly a specific request from the Fenerbahçe coach Domenico Tedesco, who had the forward at RB Leipzig when he was in terrific form in the Bundesliga.
Nkunku was bought by Milan from Chelsea in the summer for €37.5m plus bonuses, and is coming off a brace in the league against Verona which gave him his first two goals in Serie A. Despite this, however, the rumours that he could depart the club after just a few months aren’t subsiding.
In Italy, however, several prominent journalists are reporting that the Frenchman has openly told his entourage that he doesn’t want to leave Milan in January. He wants to focus on building on the last performance, to try and boost his hopes of being at the 2026 World Cup with France.
sell
25M and Skriniar for Nkunku
use that money for Mateta, add 5-10M
He’s not making the world cup squad.
*35m we want
He is not gonna make the World Cup squad no matter what he does now, stay or leave. France has too many quality options up front.
The news that Fenerbahçe were offering 35 Million for Nkunku had to be fake news. NOBODY who is even mildly competent would want to buy a HAS-BEEN like Nkunku for close to 37.5 Million like our thoroughly incompetent managers spent.
Yes, he had a good game against Verona (by the way, a relegation-bound very weak team; still, yes, he was helpful then, because it was actually the first time we crushed a bottom-feeder, this season). I even gave him the MOTM label in my ratings.
But ONE good performance against a weak team, out of the MANY disastrous performances he had so far, is the exception rather than the rule, and I frankly doubt he’ll be able to repeat it.
Even very mediocre players from time to time have a good game. This ONE good game proves nothing. Even Emerson Royal, one of the worst players who ever played for AC Milan, had the occasional good game.
Keeping Nkunku is just sunken costs. His value will just go down or will go to zero if he collects an injury, and he is notoriously injury-prone.
At this point if I were a Milan manager, I’d take the 25 M before Fenerbahçe change their minds, realizing what a terrible deal this is for them, even for just 25 M.
Yes, Milan would post a capital loss, but it will be a bigger loss in the future as his market value inevitably drops, or else nobody will sign him and we’ll be just stuck with him until the end of his contract, like an Origi 2.0. Attempts to negotiate up from 25 M, incur the risk that Fenerbahçe will just drop the offer entirely. Take it while we can!
When you make a hiring mistake like this one was, it’s best to try to recover what you can, and move on.
Now, poor Nkunku. He must be delusional if he thinks that the powerful French National Team, full of attacking stars, will call him up to the World Cup. Dream on!