The exclusion of Rafael Leao from the starting eleven by Stefano Pioli yesterday raised some eyebrows, especially when Sassuolo ran out 5-2 winners at San Siro.
Calciomercato.com write that leaving Leao out of the line-up during a period of crisis such as the one the Rossoneri are going through right now suggests that Pioli sees the Portuguese talent as important but not essential, something that opens up reflections on a future yet to be resolved.
The long-awaited acceleration after the offer of €7m net per season including bonuses was presented to the former Lille star by Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara has not yet taken place.
There are the now well-known obstacles relating to Leao’s complicated situation with Sporting CP and the fine he owes to them plus the commissions that would be owed to lawyer Ted Dimvula – who holds power of attorney – and agent Jorge Mendes.
Now a new problem has arisen and it is the league table: Milan cannot afford to miss out on qualifying for the Champions League if they want to reach an agreement with Leao, and that is why this pause for reflection has come.
The parties will meet again later, with Milan hoping to find a better league position and with Leao hoping to have got his smile back.
The renewal ship has sailed. They should have sold him this window – they will now get much less in the summer, or nothing at all if he leaves on a free (which, knowing Milan’s incompetent management, is also very possible).
yep
Probably 70 mil max and 15% or 20% of that will go to Lille
70 mil max?
The highest offer Milan has received so far for Leao was 70 million this past summer, with 2 years left on his contract. Only a desperate club would offer Milan 70 mil this upcoming summer with Leao having only 12 months left on his contract, being very inconsistent and in some game flat-out bad.
The people that criticize Maldini and this management when it comes to negotiations is that everything is dragged out. There has to be a set deadline until when this players have to give the club a final answer, positive or negative, so the club can sell them when they can get the highest value in return.
It seems that in Milan the players are in charge not the club.
Set a damn deadline. They are your employees.
If the rest of us don’t have a deadline to pay bills we won’t be paying them at all.
If you don’t have a set time when you gotta show up at work, or school, you’d show up whenever you want.
Everything is working in proper order because of deadlines.
Except when it comes to Maldini and his negotiations skills and strategy
Rookie management at its finest… again.
This is getting ridiculous. Either be here or don’t be. His Sporting issue will be there no matter what, whether he is at Milan or not. A great player, yes, but we have needs at Milan and we can’t trust that he will want to be here.
I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to be part of a club owned by Gerry Cardinale either
Any point of new but better beginning is better, than always do the same thing over and over again. So this is the case with sales of players and contract handling. There is still time in summer to sell Leao for any fee, than again leave it for free. There is unwritten law in relationship that you can’t keep the marriage if one party is not happy or doesn’t want to stay. 20 million is far greater then 0 in summer 2024.
If Leao is not happy in Milan – move on dude. It is same thing with many other player.
When you have team, you don’t need names, but squad who fight for result.
So still Leao can be begging of properly squad handling, and he should be first sold if in summer we don’t reach Champions League spot or he don’t sign new contract.
The problem is not formation or anything like that. But it’s related. It’s pioli making two mistakes: insisting players can’t play different positions, and not rotating enough. About the first, he always from the beginning said cdk can’t play on the wing. He said it in the beginning of the season and he hasn’t changed. Good coaches r more flexible, they don’t stick with bullheaded ideas when things r going wrong, and I would say the formation not changing is part of this bullheadedness. Why not play cdk or adli or brahim on the right? I remember brahim being effective once or twice there, and surely it will be better than Messias/saele. Dest as right winger would make sense as well as someone mentioned. The second is rotation and I know u guys will talk about injuries, but a smarter coach would have thrown on adli or vrancks on in the first half of the season and give them a continuous run, to at least give them a shot and see what they can do, becuz as much as people argue that pioli sees the training and knows better than we do we’ve all seen adli and just him playing crappy defense and at least getting good crosses in from the right or through balls which I know he can do even tho i haven’t watched the training, would be better than what’s going on on the right, or even better than Tonali at this point who is offering little. Giving these guys a run would motivate our starters, at least a little, keep things fresh. If everything isn’t working try something else is the bottom line. We have short memories indeed and pioli was so good. He would always make the right decisions with what he had. Now he doesn’t do that anymore, and if he can’t, he should leave, because he’s sticking with two ideas he had at the beginning of the season (don’t have certain players change position, and don’t play the new signings until they r 100 percent ready) and will continue with them as Milan continues to disintegrate
Honestly I hate hearing the argument of Pioli seeing the players in training. I’m guessing he sees Tata in training too. And just how impressive can Pobega or Krunic be that he plays them a lot? I’d like to imagine a coach benching Messi because Messi didn’t slalom past his team mates in training. How complicated can the goalkeeping role be that Tata is more ready than any other keeper? It’s not like he plays long balls or plays the sweeper keeper role. He’s just a poor man’s Zeljko Kalac and I hate the fact that I’m picking on my favourite teams goalkeeper. As for Leao, we’re his best bet because I don’t see any other club fans tolerating him strutting on the wing instead of helping out the defence but if he wants to go, I’m ready to sell even now. At this point I don’t even see anyone in this team as indispensable especially with the way we’re playing.
Over the big Boss of Milan. Do you dare to bench him for 1 year to make him a rotten apple to prove a point to other players. Either renew or go out. If no renewal, last year of contract will be ball picker in San Siro.
Very stupid guy, his renewal talks have distracted everybody including the management. They spent almost whole season discussing this garbage renewal.
No club saw him before he came to Milan in the first place but Milan made him popular and he is holding us hostage with this rubbish.
They improved the wages and met his demands in the last meeting yet this guy refused all efforts have been shifted to his side only making everyone lose concentration.
Let him go to wherever he wants. No one is bigger than Milan and he’s never a legend
God will bless you for this comment
What a disaster this past month has been.
Trebalo ga je več prodat i kupit nova osvježenja. Oni na ljeto za njega neče dobit ni trečinu otpusne klauzule !!
Profiting from talented players is not milan policy. He can leave for free. Rookie menagment. Between leaos price tag and 1000 scouts around the world, this team will have enough funds to find a proper replacement. Plus extra funds for a better coach or player
Clearly, Leao’s mind is elsewhere and dreaming of how much money he can earn elsewhere. Let him go. He is not offering much up front and other clubs in Serie A have not got the fastest forwards and are beating AC Milan with ease. AC needs quality players that want to play for this club if not don’t bother chasing. Look for South American players who can make their physical presence felt on the pitch and get rid of soft players. It’s a hard task for any club to fulfil, however it has to happen …. presto.
Dear god…..I am saying this for 6 monzhs already…SELL THAT GUY BOYS!!!!PAOLO,RICKY,PLEASE SELL HIM!!!!!!!!!!You know why,right?