AC Milan and Newcastle have reached an agreement for the transfer of Malick Thiaw, who will join the English side in a deal worth €40m including bonuses.
Although Newcastle have been linked with Thiaw for quite some time, the negotiations only took off in the last few days. An improved offer was tabled earlier today and it prompted Milan to give the green light, getting the €40m (including bonuses) that they wanted.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Fabrizio Romano tweeted the ‘Here we go!’ just a few minutes ago, with Thiaw expected to undergo his medical tests very soon. It’s perfect timing for the defender as Milan are in Dublin currently, travelling to London later today.
Details of the deal
In total, the deal is worth €40m and there have been some conflicting reports regarding the bonuses. SportItalia said €35m as the fixed base and €5m in bonuses, while Daniele Longo said €36m plus €4m in bonuses.
10% of the capital gain (most likely, rather than the transfer fee) will go to Schalke 04 as Milan agreed to include a future resale clause when they signed Thiaw in 2022. It should be around €3m in the end, but even so the Rossoneri will collect a lot of money.
It remains to be seen what Milan will do now, as a centre-back is suddenly needed to complete the defence. Pietro Comuzzo of Fiorentina and Giovanni Leoni of Parma are believed to be the targets, with negotiations set to properly begin soon.
We loose our best CB and the only one which is very good at playing from the back. His replacement is not as easy as people think.
Comuzzo is a very different player, you can’t play a defense Tomori, Comuzzo, Pavlovic. Leoni is very young. Lucumi would be the player I would go for or even better Kim from Bayern.
Agree Comuzzo for me is definitely not an upgrade. Personally I would go for Veiga or Kiwior both can also play as left backs instead of Estupinan , who also hasn’t really impressed me yet but he was 2 months injured so let’s see.
Renato Veiga and Kiwior are great shouts. 👍
Both could be interesting. Kiwior not sure is available as he played a lot with Arsenal last season. Veiga is very skilled with the ball and has high potential, but a bit more risky profile.
Thiaw was never consistent or reliable. Now we can bring someone in that fits better.
the screws in your head are definitely loose
best CB lmao
Musah next… 30M for that goldfish is crazy
Since Bondo (now I question the Frenchman’s loan) and Terracianno are going on a dry-loan to Cremonese, only Adli, Bennacer, and Chukwueze are left…
we are potentially getting 100M in August…
Oh, well. Good luck Thiaw.
They better sign someone that can be as good or better than Thiaw. Leaoni and Comuzzo are not it. They might be better than Thiaw in 2,3 years , but not now , and Milan needs a CB that can do what Thiaw did right now not in 2,3 years especially when the other CBs in the squad are Gabbia, Pavlovic and Tomori.
“fbref.com/stathead/player_comparison.cgi?request=1&sum=0&dom_lg=1&intl_cup=1&player_id1=ff5ea0bf&p1yrfrom=2024-2025&player_id2=c235e803&p2yrfrom=2024-2025&player_id3=7edfbb8a&p3yrfrom=2024-2025&player_id4=25146df0&p4yrfrom=2024-2025”
Thiaw was 3rd or worst in all of the stats… what surprised me more was that even in his “forte”, he lost to Gabbia…
meant to say in defensive stats at first, but again lost to Gabbia in the rest
For a moment I spaced out and I thought you were talking about Jürgen Kohler, but well…
What you’ve said should have been taken into account BEFORE selling Thiaw and now I’m afraid that this defender who is better than Thiaw (not a huge milestone to be honest), is going to cost north of 40M€ and might not adapt right away.
Comuzzo, Leoni, Diakite, Kiwior, Veiga…
Thiaw, whatever people think of him, was Milan’s best CB.
So if you are selling your best CB, you better replace him with at least someone as good as him, regardless if you think its a huge milestone or not, but since you think that a replacement of Thiaw’s quality would cost north of 40 mil, it doesn’t seem like its an easy milestone to replace Thiaw.
I don’t think anyone would disagree on the need of replacing Thiaw with a better CB, I’m just wondering if that is feasible in august with our current budget, giving we’re still in the hunt for a striker,… and if it wouldn’t have been wiser to just convince him to stay, especially considering that Allegri seems to like him.
Saying Thiaw is Milan’s best CB, is like saying the 19th ranked team is better than the 20th ranked team. I did like the kid back in 2022/23, but then he became mister mistimed tackles and red cards. I did prefer Gabbia at some point, but after the disaster in Zagreb he lost it as well.
I don’t think it matters that much who our CBs are as it seems Allegri is defending with 10 men behind the ball every match. I think our striker Giminez was possibly our best defender today making multiple tackles in his own box. Can’t wait for a whole bunch of 1-0 games this season.
No, he wasn’t. Gabbia was overall the best DF. Thiaw was awful in the first half of the season and showed improvement in the second.
Unless we get Leoni from Parma as a replacement this is a big step backwards. Cant believe they are selling this late in the summer.
No champions league again. Only good deffender we sell. I dont know what hapens at club but we have disaster deffense and we loan Camarda so only 1 attacker now, disaster transfer politics
You are better off to enjoy the show and stop talking. Whatever you said turn it around to yourself, as it is evident you could not manage a lemonade stand, let alone speak transfer business.
Oh and BTW if you do not like it, I eould be happy if you and likes of you support Inter
40 mil sounds nice, but our season starts in a week and theres no time to negotiate like for jashari. ffs
wtf are these clowns are doing?
Our first games are against Bari, Cremonese and Leece. After that we have 2 weeks of international break. I’m sure our defense can survive these games. No need to rush I’m sure we will get a good defender at the end.
Clowns? Are you well? They got €40 million for a €10 million player and you’re complaining? The only clown is you. Many clubs are still buying and selling. When you hold Milan to a different standard, you exposed yourself as a toxic fan. This has been a fantastic mercato.
Not sure i will ever understand this mentality. Thiaw is OK player, even at 30 million this is a killer deal ket alone ptofits from him, we almost paid for Jashari. In what planet this is not top management. Huh
Riccardo Calafiori
No brainer.
Best comment right here! Calafiori in a 3-back system with Pavolic and Gabbia/Tomori? That would be almost on-par with BBC at Juve in 2010s……DOMINANT Defensively!!!
Love iT
Don’t agree with this. Pavlovic is the weakest for me. I really don’t trust that guy. But yeah. Let’s see the replacement I guess
If we could sell him for profit i would do it in a heart bit. Pavlovic, I like his attittude but he is just to slow and to plain to be in this squad
Hmm, I thought it sounded likely to go ahead, but I did expect the replacement to be lined up already.
Pity that another player who was on such a club friendly contract is on their way out.
Thiaw won’t be an all time great but he contributed to some great games and results, I’ll always be fond of him.
Unless we get Leoni, Kiwor this will be a downgrade. Commuzo is not good enough for me. Also Tomori is on a big downfall this past two seasons so we only have Gabia and Pavlovic really.
Why was he £21m for Como and £35m for us?
Deal with Como was made before pre-season, and Allegri was impressed by his performances after that. Also Premier League tax of course.
I told an English football fan that I know that we probably has the same feellings about epl teams financial capabilities as they do in regard of the overspending Saudis so yeah premier league tax sounds fair to me 😀
superleague club with shit ton of petrodollars. that’s why
Thiaw has only 2 years of contract left. There are a lot of risk involved in here and 40mil is just a dream come true. Thiaw is good no doubt but definitely not worth of 40mil even if he had more than 2 years contract left. If Thiaw is doing bad next season then in summer 2026 Milan will desperately try to offload him just like the case of Bennacer right now. If he doing great in 25/26 season then every big clubs would try to steal him from us for heavily cut prices and surely there is no way he is willing extend the contract. In business perspective, selling him now for such amount of money is more than a dream for Milan.
Ok that’s that, now let’s get one of those 15 to 20 million Moncada’s notebook replacements!
selling all Maldini era signings. can’t wait to see Comuzzo v Lakaka
Holy moly. He’s better than Pav. Pav only has pace over him. But Thiaw has better potential and he’s younger. But I guess Rat can’t help but sell once the number is big enough
Also, in classic Milan style… we’re about to sell a player and yet we play him in a game this risking injury and the transfer itself. Classic!
To be fair Pavlovic is only 3 months older than Thiaw so I wouldn’t really put much into that here. I think both has room for improvements but if Pavlovic can become a bit more positional aware and sometimes dimmer his aggressiveness then I can see him becoming the best of the two and its not like Thiaw doesn’t has his flaws either. The Serb is a big bully type of player he just need to harness it a bit better.
Ok, fair on the age part. But I do think he has a way higher ceiling. His reading of the game is far better than Pav and that’s the part I can’t see Pav getting over. Pav is a physical specimen though but I prefer players who are positionally astute. I also think Thiaw needs a good run of games (I think we’ll see that at Newcastle) to get up to speed and be consistent..he also.has decent pace when fully fit. There’s a reason Real and now Newcastle have enquired about him imo
This probably really a last minute thing. Thiaw is fine and not injured.
Was a call back to the Emerson debacle
Because three months older is a total deal breaker in football.
Fair
36+4 for Thiaw is a fantastic deal considering how cheap of a buy he was. Thiaw wasn’t the best CB we’ve seen but he was Milan’s best ball playing CB. Had this deal been done earlier in the summer, I would have praised Tare.
The problem is it’s August and Tare will need to find a suitable replacement fast. Leoni? Okay, but he’s a project and won’t likely yield results right away, especially since he’s only had, what, like 15-17 appearances in Serie A? Comuzzo? OKay, but also young and needs time.
The problem is I don’t entirely trust these guys to spend that money wisely to replace our CB.
I don’t think Leoni would make as many mistakes as Thiaw had last season. If we were replacing Nesta or Thiago Silva I’d understand. But Thiaw was as error prone last season as Pavlovic will be this season. So replacing a 24 year old that made so many mistakes with an 18 year old top talent doesn’t sound that bad.
De Winter has more experience and has played as both CB and RB. His value is around 22 million now. He’s a little older and has more experience.
Genoa didn’t score much at all, but their defensive record was pretty solid last season with just 49 goals conceded.
How do hou know he didn’t?
I’m glad we respect a player’s wish to leave. Don’t be like Club Brugge and try to take the player hostage.
Also, I think Thiaw had hit his ceiling with Milan. He needed a fresh start somewhere else, and we need to try again with finding a defender than fits better.
Leoni can’t make that many mistakes even with 18 games or whatever. Get the kid, Allegri publicly praised him as the future of Italy. He is the one to get.
Anyone who says Thiaw was our best CB had sunglasses on the last season.
Thiaw going for 40 million is a fantastic deal for Milan. We pull another fast one over Newcastle. The player wanted the move. You can’t force a player to stay.
Move on.
Also consider this, we sold Thiaw for more than we bought Jashari. Who says we aren’t capable in selling? It’s clear as day Tare knows what he’s doing.
De Winter is my choice. Genoa had a solid defensive record last season (though they scored few goals). De Winter was part of that defense. He has 70~ games with Genoa and is 23. More experience. Can play as a CB and RB.
For 40mil, ill take that. People seem to want to hype this guy after little too much just cuz he’s gone now. If yall actually watched full matches last season, youd know he was regularly bullied by center forwards all thru out the year. What matters is getting a good replacement. We have no excuse not to now with that big a transfer fee, we need to go for someone like Leoni immediately
You are right. I think all our 4 CB are about the same level, just have different style of playing. I would sell any of them for 40m.
Best mercato over. There’s only one dud left, Musah.
He’s been at the club far too long.
Like a previous season’s fast fashion trend. He’s so 2022.
Ancient.
You ever complain too much? Oh no wait… another complaint.
2022 as in when we had a team capable of winning the league?
Niceeeee…
40m? What a steal for such a mediocre player.
Twice now Newcastle have bought mediocre players with ridiculous price from milan.
Ok but really, people are making thiaw out to be some superb player that can be a starter in any team. He wasn’t even a starter for us and while he had some good games, he was never outstanding.
40m is just too good of an offer to refuse for someone who I would never spend that much on. Bring in an Italian to start.
Kiwior should be our no 1 target. Arsenal is willing to sell and his a very good player. If not scalvini but he will cost more than 40m we get for Thiaw.
Whilst 40 M is a decent price for him, it is going to cost just as much to replace him with an equivalent player. So what is gained?
As many others have said. He’s our only current CB that is genuinely good at ball distribution. I don’t think our squad has the depth to afford replacing Thiaw with a younger cheaper version. Especially if we are going to regularly play 3 CB formations.
We paid less then that for Jashari, i dissagree it will cost us less then 20 to get a better version of Thiaw
We paid less then that for Jashari, i dissagree it will cost us less then 20 to get a better version of Thiaw.
should have sold Tomori rather than him. Oh well of course nobody would pay that amount of money for Tomori.