Nicolò Zaniolo of AS Roma

Pedulla: Maldini in talks with Zaniolo’s agent – deal could be done for less than €25m

AC Milan director Paolo Maldini has initiated talks with the entourage of Nicolo Zaniolo over a potential move, a report claims.

Alfredo Pedulla reports that ‘decisive days’ are upcoming regarding the future of Zaniolo. Tomorrow Tottenham will decide whether to change the formula of their bid because Roma are demanding that the obligation to buy as part of the loan deal is guaranteed, while the winger himself has given the green light to join the London club.

However, Milan are at the window too and they have been for some time. Back in April, Maldini probed with curiosity before deciding to go for Charles De Ketelaere when the summer window did open.

Juventus were also keen, but the problem for both clubs was represented by Roma’s €40m asking price, an amount that the Rossoneri would not have been able to spend. Yet the interest has remained, from Maldini and Massara too, but now the price has dropped to €25m plus bonuses.

There was direct contact between Maldini and Claudio Vigorelli – Zaniolo’s agent – while Milan have expressed their interest in signing the forward in July when he will be one year from his contract deadline.

However, they could also test the water over a January deal, perhaps guaranteeing an obligation to buy under certain conditions. The Rossoneri’s request was to talk about it again after Lazio-Milan on Tuesday, when Tottenham’s position will be clearer.

Tags AC Milan Nicolo Zaniolo

32 Comments

  1. Zaniolo, in my opinion would be better in Serie A than in Premier league. But, his decision. Milan spending 25 mil next summer plus bonuses, would be decent signing in contract 5 years. Salary round 3-5 mil net is worth risk for Milan. He is still young and that would make space for Rebic departure round 15 million and Messias departure for his half price. Possible Tottenham next year is not in Champions League, and we still have chances to reach top 4. Nicolo would be decent signing but…what would management do

    1. Look at all our players and how many times they have been injured. Then look at Zaniolo and realize he already had a knee surgery and gets injured getting out of bed. Pioli’s trainings will kill him or at very least end his career. He is not worth the trouble.

      1. Yes. That’s why we need to sell Rebic and risk with young Nicolo. Also, in year or to to sell Origi. This squad will be forming due longer period of time.

    2. 25 mil for a talent like Zaniolo is a bargain. Even after those couple of heavy injuries, he still got the flair. He missed around 10 matches last season due to injury, while Rebic? 20 matches. Rebic has missed 10 matches so far this season as well. Messias? Missed 13 matches last season. So far, he has missed 6. So, really, Zaniolo is not worse off.

      And he’s only 23. Only 2 years apart from the invisible kid CdK. And surely we don’t have to play that patience card all over again with Zaniolo, one of the advantages in getting player in the same league.

      Lastly, get Aouar free for the next season. With Zaniolo, Aouar, that’s a real squad upgrade.

      1. To be fair even when Mesias is on the pitch it is like he is injured there are CB in this league that have a better expected assist per game % than him… That is almost impressive how non existent he is …

          1. Yeah. That transfer window was coming to an end and they panicked and just went for the guy that was available. Gamble that didn’t pay off.

  2. If Milan gets Zaniolo, where is he going to be played because he is not a winger. He is an attacking midfielder/second striker.
    He made his name prior to the injuries as an attacking midfielder.
    Even in Roma over the last 2 years he played as a second striker next to Tammy with Pelegrini last season as a 10 and Dybala this season as a 10.
    IMO, Milan switches to 4312 with a front 3 of Leao, CDK and Zaniolo interchanging between the 3 roles.

  3. Let’s put it this way. In the summer everyone was saying that dybala was injury prone and past his best and he went to a new team and rediscovered his form. Why can’t zaniolo do that? Once again, I’d take zaniolo over what we have. What’s the alternative? Play saelemaekers? Makes me sick

  4. Zaniolo deal will be acceptable if it is a loan with obligation to buy under ‘certain conditions’. Those certain conditions are they key here. It must be something like playing a certain amount of matches from the start.

    If the 25 mil means 20 mil + bonuses, i think it’s a deal worth the value specially since we can actually get a test ride before we spend the money. If he cant meet the conditions… then the obligations must turn to option.

  5. Reading how Zaniolo – a player who could solve right wing problems in our squad significantly – is available for less than 30 million, yet, we can’t get him, I was thinking to myself: “What a shame it is that Milan have fallen to a level, to be owned by people who are so cheap & not interested in investing in the club, to bring it back to its greatest days! Just look at new owners like Tod Boyle of Chelsea, and I won’t even mention the Oil-Arabs in City even PSG, a trivial club with only 50 year history, and playing in by far the weakest league in Top 5 in Europe, and you can see what it means to have serious owners, who truly want to make your club the best in the world, regardless of the true reasons why they bought it! And what did we get? Red Bird – a company that gives a club like Milan – a club that’s 2nd only to Real Madrid in historical success and stardom reputation – only 40 million to spend through the whole summer! We couldn’t afford even a player who was ready to come to play for us, like Botman (imagine how much stronger our defense would’ve been with him this season), missing him out to a club like New Castle! What a shame….”

    Everyone involved in football in Italy should ask themselves, why is it that no real football fan billionaire from anywhere in the world, isn’t coming to Italy, to buy a club and do something significant with it, the way it happens with clubs like Chelsea, Man-City, Man-U, Liverpool, etc… And why is it that FIGC is interested only in destroying the clubs on several different levels. I mean, just look at all the irregularities Man-City and Chelsea have done in the last years, the insane money spending they’re doing, fake sponsorships, etc… yet, they’re not being destroyed by FA, the way FIGC is doing to Serie A clubs, because they know UEFA’s FFP is a joke and a law that’s used only towards certain teams, while it completely ignores the ones who are breaking it the most! But they don’t destroy their teams. Because they are aware of the importance it has to England as a country & a culture,regarding its popularity in the world, and then from economic angle as well!

    I mean, I don’t wanna defend Juventus (far from it. Those who know me, know how I feel about Rubentino – but this thing, paying players below table 3 wages, is truly such a huge thing, is it really affecting the table look?!? Won’t even mention what other cubs in the world are doing with the money they pay to the players, agents, lawyers, etc, etc…) , but seeing what PSG is doing, and the abovementioned, and no one touches them, yet FIGC keeps on tormenting its own clubs, the country’s law are pushing clubs down with their insane & stupid laws, not allowing them to own and build stadiums…NO WONDER SERIE A is constantly behind!

    I hear that after Juve, they’re now preparing to go after Napoli for Oshimen transfer, and other clubs too. Now, imagine they ruin this great Napoli side now, when they’re about to win a historic Scudetto, for something all the abovementioned clubs in the other countries are doing on a regular basis! That’ll be a blow from which another European (not just Italian) historic giant of a football club, won’t be able to recover for years and years!
    Its simply terrible how they’re ruining all what’s left from Serie A reputation! The future doesn’t seem to be bright for us, the true Serie A & AC Milan lovers!

    What do you think about this?! Especially the ones amongst you, who are actually Italians…..

    1. you are right and its so sad i fell in love with milan because of shevchenko and despite living in england and being born in ghana it hurts so deep

    2. Can morons like you do some research and use your brain for a second?

      This isn’t about “cheap owners” who don’t want to spend their money to buy some expensive players. But it’s about Milan financial who still in the RED every single year and they also still not have their own stadium that can bring income around 100 million euro /year.

      So, in order to get financial balance aka get out from the red and don’t get punish by FFP aka got banned from UCL / UEL, Milan owner needs to spend money efficiently in the transfer market until Milan have their own stadium. Even if Milan owner is big oil sultan, i’m sure they will do the same like Elliot and Redbird.

      Also, you already talked about Serie-A is far behind from other top european league. Now you add that to the fact Milan doesn’t have their own stadium, low prize money from winning scudetto, low income from TV rights and you expect Milan owner to spend a lot of money like PSG or EPL clubs? Lmao.

      1. Another unnecessarily rude reply from you, to a well considered post.

        Btw as stated in the post above, rich owners have all sorts of ways of pumping money into their teams if they wish.
        Over inflated sponsorship being the most obvious and common.
        Also when a new owner buys a team, there are usually 3 elements to it.
        Clear debt, inject capital, pay shareholders. So it is possible, legal and common for part of the takeover money to go into the clubs coffers.
        How do you think when teams like Newcastle get taken over, they all of a sudden can spend fortunes?
        It’s not like they always had that liquidity.

        So do your own research and quit being such a tool

    3. One three-letter acronym for you: FFP. Milan MUST(!!!) fix their budget deficit or they’ll be banned from UCL/EL. AGAIN.

      Milan owners simply cannot come and transfer 100M€ on their bank account and buy a player or two with the money. They need to comply with the rules and be cleared by the UEFA before Milan can (in theory) splash out cash.

      It’s not that hard to understand.

  6. Noooo! Someone stop Maldini from destroying this team. Does anyone watch this guy play? He is not good. They must need to have a certain number of Italians on the team, I can’t think of any other reason they would be looking at this guy.

    1. I tried to watch that guy play a few weeks ago but couldn’t find him on the pitch against Milan. The stats say he was on but he was so invisible that I failed to see him.

      He’s THAT good. 😀

      1. bb dude, you think that career benchwarmer Giroud is a top striker because he scored most goals for France while at club level he scored on the level of a midfielder. I think Gerard and Lampard both scored more goals from midfield than Giroud did. You know THAT much!

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