Chelsea have a concrete interest in signing Rafael Leao but AC Milan have a big ally in their attempts to keep him: the will of the player himself.
According to a report from La Gazzetta dello Sport (via PianetaMilan), Chelsea have Leao at the top of their list of attacking targets but Milan for their part have clear ideas and are determined to refuse all offers that are not nine figures (€100m+).
The situation would be different if a club put on the table a figure close to the €150m release clause, one which is not valid in the latter stages of the window but still provides a benchmark for valuation.
However, Chelsea have another battle even if they agree a deal with Milan and that is to convince Leao, who recently said he feels good at Milan and wants to stay. A big offer salary wise could of course tempt any player as continues to happen in football, but for the moment there is no danger of him pushing for the move.
Those who see Leao at Milanello affirm that the former Lille star is calm and has plenty of stimuli, as there is a league title to defend and a Champions League group stage to overcome.
Should Leao remain at Milan, there will be talk of renewal in September and the discussions will be led by Gerry Cardinale after the closing of the takeover which will take place by the end of September.
There are some complications though such as the €16.5m owed to Sporting CP for the unilateral termination of the contract in 2018, which will be nearer €20m with additional costs like interest.
The powerful agent Jorge Mendes and a lawyer very close to his father look after the interests of Leao which means there are many parties that have to be in agreement. Renewing Leao though would be a big early statement from Cardinale.
Does he really? In one video clip where he was asked about the renewal he only replied “we’ll see”. Even Cashie PROMISED to sign and where is he now? Leao won’t sign. Mendes wants him elsewhere and that’s where he’ll end up.
It’s like a deja vu.
Donnarumma, Kessie, Hakan all were saying the same thing, that they wanna stay at Milan, fooled everyone including Maldini, who still hasn’t learned from his mistakes. At least Romagnoli publicly never said anything
How many of us will actually be surprised if Leao and Bennacer leave for free in 20 months time? If we follow the patterns that’s exactly what’s going to happen. The more time passes , the players leverage grows.
Either they renew by new years or both need to be sold. Whatever they are worth now, they ll be worth half that next summer with 1 year left on their contracts
Exactly.
Maldini and Massara are that person you know who keeps taking back their cheating partner and saying “this time it’ll be different”.
Leao, to be fair, has huge incentive to wait for a free transfer and a huge sign on fee for moving clubs – if he starts earning more, he’ll have to pay a larger amount to Sporting whereas by moving on a free he could get the majority of that debt wiped off in one go. I just wish we’d all say “that’s how it is” and enjoy two years of his output rather than have daily articles about being super close to a contract extension for the next 24 months.
But the thing is that his performances would be MUCH better if he had a new contract. The uncertain future will definitely put its weight on the lad’s shoulders and we’ve already seen his not that strong mentally. Look at the two Serie A matches this season. Does he look like the MVP from last season? No. Definitely not.
The more time passes by, the more distracted he will be. In two years he’s not even starting 11 -material anymore with this path he’s on ATM.
Players react to it differently, a lot of times players have a superb ‘contract year’ and then fade out a bit once they have a longer deal. I’m not going to read too much into his first couple of games of this season.
If a 70-80m offer came from Chelsea or someone else though, I’d snap their hand off for it, but I’ve said that since the end of last season. Would get rid of the FFP debt and have spare to invest in a replacement or two. Scouting team should have a good list of wingers drawn up.
Indeed.
120 million! I would accept it with my eyes closed, he can leave in 5 mins. What bothers me is that we wouldn’t have time to buy other players, transfer window closes in 7days
go see how much other big clubs pay in salary then go ahead blame the players if you have the audacity ,
i won’t blame players who choose financial security for their family over clubs ,
i blame the f owner for not given them their worth ,
if the club doesn’t change their policy nothing will change and players will keep leaving every time ,
insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results
So basically you’d prefer the club go bankrupt just so the players’ families can eat caviar for breakfast, lunch and dinner instead of just lunch and dinner, eh? And instead of going to the grocery store (as if they ever even did that) with a different Maserati every day instead of driving the same model twice or even three times a week?
Yeah, let’s give ALL the players ALL the money they want. I’m sure that will turn out “just fine”. UEFA/FFP can’t touch us, right?
Who can support their family with 4M€/y anyway? Not me or anyone else here on this site. We DEMAND 7M€!! Per year. Obviously.
you bb imagine you are football player and you play for porto and your agent told you have 2 offers your current club are ready to give you 4 million and other teams like chelsea want to give you 14 million salary ,
i ask Jorge Nuno for 7 million you want but the owner of porto don’t want to give you that , so you have three options 1 _ got 4 million per years per year and renew with porto
2 force your wayout and get 14 million or 200 k per week salary from chelsea
3 – and this my favorite stay with your current team and keep developing until your contract run out i promise you i will make you earn 270 K per week from some english team like manchester united and with big singing bonuses
what would you choose mister bb a world class winger and be f honest
7 million per years is not big money in today game
milan can make billion in marketing revenue if you have real investor like psg go see how much they make from sponsorship Deals and how much revenue they make with their business strategy yeah we can cry about how its not fair but that’s how football work now days
FFP is made to stop other teams in europe from competing with english team if you follow them you already lost son
“7 million per years is not big money in today game”
For most clubs is it. To some clubs it’s huge. For maybe 10-20 clubs in the world it’s not. And how many clubs are there?
“if you have real investor like psg go see how much they make from sponsorship Deals and how much revenue they make with their business strategy”
PSG is an exception as they bend the rules by getting insane sponsor money from the firms that the club owner owns or is financially involved in. They were under investigation about it but the investigators were paid to give a “favorable” decision to the club.
Tôn trọng anh chàng này và cảm nhận anh ấy đang phải đối mặt. Nhưng đừng biến chúng tôi thành Kessie 2.0. Hãy là người đàn ông chân chính. Forza Milan.