A report from France has confirmed that AC Milan are in advanced talks to sign Jean-Philippe Mateta, so much so that he could arrive in Italy today.
According to L’Equipe, Mateta is set to leave Crystal Palace for Milan, where a three-and-a-half-year deal awaits him. The transfer fee is reported to be €35m and the French international – who has been capped three times – has already agreed personal terms with the Rossoneri.
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In recent hours, the striker had also been the subject of a major offer from Nottingham Forest. However, the two offers submitted by Forest failed to generate much excitement with the player, who wanted a bigger club.
At 28, Mateta’s priority was to join a side capable of competing in the Champions League, and Milan are currently second in Serie A so they are on course to get back there. He could fly to Italy as early as this evening, as per the report.
The long-term No.9?
Mateta has scored 56 goals in 186 appearances for Crystal Palace, and after a difficult start to life in south London it was the arrival of Oliver Glasner as head coach in early 2024 that saw his scoring rate increase rapidly.
He has 40 goals in 93 appearances under the Austrian’s management, including a spectacular 2024-25 campaign. The Frenchman has recorded 10 goals across all competition this season, netting a hat-trick in a 3–3 draw against Bournemouth on 18 October last year.
What kind of rough play is this
When tare bites there is no waiting
In 48 hours deal sealed
Mateta and either of Dragusin/Ake would be a good market… keep up the good work Tare!
I hope with him we can try the 3-4-2-1 formation, perks of havig 6 attackers and Rabiot who is great as CAM as well!
Another 35M January spend on a striker with questions marks over his head. This most likely means that there will be no Vlahovic in the summer. I guess it’s not surprising as Vlahovic’s salary demands are probably well over what Milan is willing to pay. I bet they sounded out his team and were given a number, and then they decided to do this. If this goes through, expect next year’s strikers to be Mateta and Gimenez.
I actually don’t understand the obssession with Vlahovic who had 1 good year in his career is slow and has 1 foot. It would be a marginal upgrade on Gimenez for 4 times the pay plus huge signature fee. I never understood why people value him.
Zlbi, I totally agree with you about Vlahovic, to me he’s not a top class striker, he don’t score enough goals in a season to be consider a top striker.
Shows seriousness of challenging for Scudetto this year.
Well that escalated quickly – hopefully he starts blowing hot for us rather than cold.. are Nkunku‘s bags already packed then?
The only downside to this deal is his age. I’m only going by what I saw on YouTube. He’s got great hold up play as others pointed out and he’s really strong. Also is a great header of the ball. Problem is that there’s not much resale value. Italy is also a new league so no one knows how he’ll fare. Also I don’t know if our problem is more a striker problem than getting proper service to the striker. Would be sad to come here and defend for the 90 minutes 😂 🤣 🤣. Hopefully they feed him great crosses
100%. I was also going to mention that our issue isn’t really the individual strikers so much as it is the system and how we play. But oh well, here is another 35M for a striker in January…
He’s big, fast, strong, good in the air and his hold up play is also great. His finishing is erratic, a bit like Giroud in that sense. He’s an absolute beast of a forward.
With Fullkrug on the pitch I see potential in our build up play, without him its been very clear to me we have a problem in the final third. I have to agree a 3 man front line is probably the best for us. Even Leao was starting to perform like a normal footballer on the wing now we probably need 6 months of him playing on the wing to get back to that again.
He’s a late bloomer anyways. Last two or three seasons his career has took off.
If we have strikers who can hold the ball, the way we play suddenly looks completely different.
Also, the fact we’re signing someone entering prime striker years, not someone with ‘resale value’ is a positive.
“Also, the fact we’re signing someone entering prime striker years, not someone with ‘resale value’ is a positive.”
EXACTLY! That is definitely a good thing!
“The only downside to this deal is his age. ”
Is it really? I mean, if Milan got a 20-25-year-old striker who performed really well, Milan couldn’t say no to richer clubs coming knocking on the door nor the player couldn’t be prevented from leaving. Even if Mateta scored 20 goals already before the summer, he’s not going to attract THAT much attention to the big(ger) boys than a younger lad would. Giroud did well and could have played 1-2 more seasons with us and he was waaay older.
Looks like a solid move to securing a Champions League spot for next year. You have to like a forward group that currently includes Fullkrug, Giminez, Leao, Mateta, Nkunku and Pulisic for a full schedule of Serie A, Champions League, Coppa Italia and Super Coppa. That said, the wage bill is high and that is before renewals that are pending.
Keep them all and play a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1? Move one or two in the current or summer window? For me, one Striker too many with Mateta addition.
If we stay with a 3-5-2, Nkunku feels like the odd man out.
Fullkrug may be kept around as he’s inexpensive cover. Gimenez and Nkunku are probably going to be sold, which means another CF has to be signed.
My feeling is Gimenez is leaving.
Definitely not what we need!!! Money thrown away again!!! Insted of spending money on one proven striker we are spending on few who are gamble!!!
Not proven? More proven than Santi & Nkunku though. 😀
That’s my point!! Why not spent the money used for all 3 (mateta, santi, nkunku) and buy one high class forward!!
Give us a name…?because we can’t afford those type of profile.. our wage structure is not up to par with those big teams like madrid psg and man city..we have to work with what we have.. ..a player like rodrigo of madrid will be good but mad expensive..
A smart move. I am not surprised really.
So, it means Nkunku’s gonna be kicked out
Not the type of striker we need, but we have to make do, subpar for the money involved, even more so than Nkunku and Gimenez.
what do you mean ‘not the striker we need’….?
Allegri has been screaming for a physical striker since he got here.
Subpar lmao. This is exactly the profile we need. He literally is the kind of physical player and center forward Allegri wanted. The one we didnt get in Nkunku, who really is a different kind of player.
Not sure Nkunku needs to be sacrificed. He’s never been a true striker and it’s no surprise he’s struggling when used in that role.
If Allegri uses a formation more closely resembling the Pioli years with Leao and Puli on the wings and a true 9 center forward Nkunku is valuable depth there. As is Alexis S.
With three competitions next year Milan will need lots of options. We’ve seen how many games RL and CP are missing this year with just one. I’d like to see Nkunku stay and be properly used in his preferred position.
Great signing. Now we have two classical strikers and two beasts in Fullkrug and Mateta.
Not surprised if we later today or tomorrow hear about Nkunku being sold. Leao, Pulisic, Fullkrug, Mateta, Nkunku and Gimenez for 2 forward spots and no European play until next year will be way to excessive this spring.
Leao, Pulisic, Fullkrug and Mateta is already a stacked forward line (with Gimenez returning in a few months).
Finally a 9 worthy of replacing Giroud.
What was the point of fullkrug then?
sign fulkjrug mateta sell kunku an giminez
It is a dry loan and most people never heard of him before he joined. He has also been long enough for the coach to see him in training. In my opinion Nkunku is already sold this window as well.
Might explain why they haven’t got another CB. With Mateta and Fullkrug we have enough forwards again to stop playing 352.
Some version of 4 at the back might be coming. Tomori perhaps playing some RB with Athekame.
Or we stick with 352 but have some forwards more suited to it.
I like the signing. We’ll have to see how it turns out, but … I think Alegri will be happy. Pioli’s 4-2-3-1 with Giroud/Ibra was the scudetto. Sure Theo was a big part then too, but Bartesaghi is a great revelation. I don’t know if Inter can be caught. But if they have another long CL run, then they may tire and Milan can start winning those games against smaller clubs now.