Chelsea have reignited their interest in Rafael Leao, enquiring about the situation through the winger’s entourage. As AC Milan are more willing to sell their star this summer, per a report, an exit cannot be ruled out.
While it can be said for many Milan players, the season has been far from great for Leao as he has failed to lead by example on the left flank. The numbers are still decent, with 10 goals and 7 assists across all competitions, but everyone knows that he can do a lot better.
As reported by Daniele Longo of Calciomercato.com, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is convinced that Leao could become one of the best in the world and Chelsea, who have reignited their interest, feel the same. In fact, they have inquired about Leao’s situation through his entourage.
The pursuit is still at its infancy, it should be noted, but Milan are more willing to sell their No.10 than ever. With no Champions League football, the Rossoneri will inevitably have to collect money somewhere to strengthen the team and Leao hasn’t been a difference-maker as of late.
Leao has a hefty release clause of €175m and even though his numbers aren’t terrible this season, as said, Milan will certainly have to accept less in order to get a sale through. The lack of UCL would also weaken their stance in potential negotiations.
As the report concludes, Joao Felix is also expected to return to Chelsea at the end of the season, especially since Sergio Conceicao isn’t expected to stay at Milan.
Problem is next:
Temporary fans will be delighted to see Leao leave, for one season Red Bird would have capital gain because sale of 70 Million would shoved 50 million of capital gain, and they would make again profit even without champions league.
And than what ?
You don’t have money for new left winger, because you are now on 0. Even if you bring someone new, how much are you going to pay him and would he produce same amount as Leao ?
Comparing Okafor as cheap option, that dude couldn’t even place the ball well this year. And Joao Felix cost yearly 20 million and in 550 minutes he scored one goal.
Selling Theo and Leao next year could be easy but what’s next ?
I agree. But only because this management wouldn’t know how to properly replace Leao or Theo.
They never found alternatives.
I don’t think the issue is with the players but the management.
Look at the stats of players when Maldini was in charge.
Wanna save milan , then bring him back
With red birds and new arrivals, they are 50% – 50% that the transfer will be good or disaster. But good and not sensational. So this year good arrivals are Fofaana, Pavlovic, and it could be Kyle Walker. But Emerson ROYAL, Morata, and Felix for example are disastrous.
Last year Ruben Loftus was good this year – disastrous. Chukwueze and Okafor stayed as flops and Reijnders and Pulisic very good.
So 50-50%
You should watch HITC Sevens piece on youtube about transfers. Good analysis that actually concludes that 50% of transfers (in general) don’t work out. So if we’re 50/50, we’re par for the course.
Every club gets players who succeed and players who fail. That’s not the issue here I think. I only fully blame them for getting Emerson Royal.
At this point the squad is just missing leadership (maybe italians, I don’t know), and diversity at the midfield.
Save Milan…..?….. Then get rid of the Yanks and their lackey’s.
The management of this club is on balance with their foreign policy.
Addition by subtraction.
Reset team play like they did when pioli come to Milan. Milan primavera players isn’t that bad i guess. Give some minutes, They already to the next big stages. Stop buy some random players from french / Belgium league or EPL benches like RLC. With no UCL football next season and also have no money. These method should be the good option…
If they sell Leao, Theo can be move forward to left wing, hes aggressive and I think more dangerous than leao. So LB can be bartesaghi/ Alex Jimenez..
And then good luck replacing him. Take away how many times Leao solo runs saved us this year and see where we would be without him. Hint, it’s not looking good.
With a team player they would have played as a team and not rely on one individual doing (or not doing as most times) making successful solo runs. So there’s also that.
They never found alternatives.
I don’t think the issue is with the players but the management.
Look at the stats of players when Maldini was in charge.
Wanna save milan , then bring him back
If we do sell him can’t wait to inevitably see him flourish wherever we goes while we flounder even harder back into the banter era.
Just don’t put any money on him flourishing anywhere. He’d be playing in Turkey or SA before you know it.
How delusional can you be? 🤣🤣
Time will tell who is delusional.
The only offer for Leao came from Saudi Arabia.
People like you would have said last season that a person is delusional to think that Osimhen would be playing in Turkey ans yet Osimhen is playing in Turkey.
Leads prices dropped. From 150 million of club asking to even start communication about sale to now we can read about 70 or 80 mil.
That amount is average for Premier League clubs. They can easily splash that amount if necessary. So for Leao as far as he is not injured 50 – to 70 million is average price that can be offered by many clubs.
It’s not easy to replace players like Theo and Leao. I still think there is a coaching problem at Milan.
Pioli got the best out of them because he’s a good man manager. If Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid this summer which is more than likely then Milan should keep both Theo and Leao but sell Maignan instead.
I love Rafa but we haven’t been able to unlock his full potential… Didn’t Pioli recently say there wasn’t a single day where he didn’t have to motivate Leão? Breaking up is hard… But do we really want to go through 25/26 with these same tired questions about how to fix him? It has been deja vu all over again since the scudetto… And it distracts from everything else. The same old puzzle that no one can fully solve…. If we can get €70-80m for him we can surely get another reference point to replace his production (City paid €75m for Marmoush)
No need to sell Leao. If Milan sell all players who are currently on loan and the deadwood (RLC, Chuk, Tomori, Terraciano, Royal), they can earn around 200 mln euros. That is where selling should start.
They’d be lucky to get half that. Your valuations are way off. RLC Is injury prone. Chuck is a fraud. Tomori is the only one with real value.
Their first offer is bound to be Felix and money. Then they’ll offer their other junk like Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Badiashile, Chukwuemeka etc. And knowing our cheap and incompetent management, there’s high probability at least one of them will come. Cause we just love Chelsea’s junk.
When Moncada was running the show, he was happy to take rejects, but that won’t happen with a sporting director.
We need hard workers that don’t worry about how they appear to the crowd or about being embarrassed now and then. As Gattuso put it, players that are willing to be “ugly”. It’s that simple. We have too many primadonnas with this group. We need a team built around players such as Pulisic, Saelemaekers, Latauro Martinez, frank Kessie, Sandro tonali, etc. Players who are 100% bulldogs the entire game and don’t worry about eating grass now and then.
Theo and Leao need to go, as a starting point.
This.
If a player is lazy at least he should be productive.
Leao is lazy and unproductive.
Bring me a hard worker who will be as productive as Leao since that isn’t hard to accomplish. 6 goals and 5 assists. Oh how will we ever be able to replace that production.😂
No, we don’t. You’ve just described the crap dinosaurs like Conte, Mourinho and Allegri value. Successful clubs don’t need or have ‘hard workers’, they have players that do their job, that are disciplined. They don’t have players that run more than anyone else. They have players that win the right to play and are then successful due to superior technique.
“Ibrahimovic is convinced that Leao could become one of the best in the world and Chelsea, who have reignited their interest, feel the same.”
Whether or not Leao can become one of the best in the world, it sure wouldn’t happen at Chelsea. That’s where attackers go to fail.
Leao doesn’t want to be the best in the world otherwise he would have already done it. He’s in a comfort zone. Milan aren’t challenging him to improve so he won’t.
What about selling the monyball players like Chuk, Rojal, RLC. Naah, Theo and Leao need to leave. To be honest, I would sell Rejnders as well. This guy is selfish and no good!
They’re not moneyball players, which analytics did they top? None.
No coach has done any damage to leao’s potential. He is a lazy player without stamina. Compare the work rate of Pulisic n u would notice that the better you are involved in the game, the more unpredictable u become. Those who play football know this. Every coach wants him to improve n yet he simply won’t. It’s like Milan has fallen so much that we entertain such attitudes. Florentino Perez of Madrid won’t give a sh*t about leao. Milan have seen way better players to pamper such a one in a month game changer. Sell him, but before, ship out the incompetent management. A novice like ibra can’t help matters.
The management is so cheap that players like lobokta won’t even be considered. Such a wildcard imo
This would surprise me. CFC already have two high priced wingers and a third that is suspend for drug use. Yeah, they would love to dump Felix.
With leao around milan are playing for 80 minutes with a man less. The question is: do his goals + assists make up for this continued absence from play?
Quite often he dribbles 4 players then slips or hits the ball wide out in the stand or passes the ball to an opponent or overruns the bye line or shoots tamely. Lately he seems to like passing the ball back to maignan from mid-pitch!!!!
Considering these plusses and minuses, i think he should go BUT NOT BEFORE HAVING MADE SURE OF AN ADEQUATE REPLACEMENT OTHERWISE THE PRICE OF THIS REPLACEMENT WILL SHOOT UP LIKE HELL.
I expect he’d fetch around €80 million. Pulisic plays on the left. A right sided midfielder would then be needed – Orsolini would be perfect.
Yes Milan should sell leao and Theo the 2 are not for Milan there are better players. I would bring tonali back
Do they need a Left Back?
I’d be selling Theo as first priority.
I smell a 50M€ offer coming in.