AC Milan are beginning to think about their transfer strategy in view of next season and they have ideas about Brahim Diaz’s future already.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports how the Spaniard returned to Milan on a two-year loan with option to buy from Real Madrid during the summer, with €22m the figure for the option while Real inserted a buy-back at €27m.
Obviously a two-year loan means that Brahim will not move from Milanello until summer 2023 at the earliest, but the situation is very delicate because the Rossoneri club cannot afford to reach the end of that period with the risk that the Los Blancos will simply take him back and pay essentially a €5m development fee.
The management consider the 22-year-old playmaker to be someone to invest and bet on, and therefore the idea of Milan is to try a Rebic-style coup, i.e. to buy him outright by pushing the purchase forward before the end of the loan.
Not only that but the opportunity to talk will soon come around, because there is a gentleman’s agreement between AC Milan and Real there to talk about Brahim Diaz at the end of the season.
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Not sure how buying him now vs in 2023 changes the fact that Madrid have their buy back option. They’d still be able to buy him back in 2023 or any time thereafter for 27m, so we’d still only get that 5m “development fee”. And the longer we keep Diaz the more that development fee loses its value as Diaz’s salary will eat into the profit.
It isn’t explicitly written in the Gazzetta article but it’s inferred that Real Madrid’s buy-back option is only valid in summer 2023, so if we bought him in summer 2022 somehow (and we’d have to negotiate with Real Madrid anyway to do that) then the automatic option would thus be removed as part of the negotiations. Who knows though, probably a lot of details and clauses about every loan that never come to light!
If they would negotiate to remove the clause ok, if not buying him makes no sense, as there is no money for other players.
I think that the idea is pretty clear: to buy him earlier AND remove the clause. The hope is that by paying earlier we can get rid of the buy-back clause.
It is not a bad strategy but it remains to be seen if Real will accept this. There is obviously an incentive for them (i.e. get money earlier) but they will loose the future rights.
It will come down to how much Real believes in him.
If RM rejects the offer, send him back and bank on Adli and Daniel Maldini.
Not sure he is worth 22 million…he has less than 10 really good games with us
He is good recently but more thanks to everyone being in form
€22m seems like a lot given what he’s shown, I like him and I think he would do a much better in a team that had different players, I would wait for the next season and see if he shows improvement, he has potential that’s for sure, but he’s been more miss than hit so far, if he shows more consistency next season I would say okay, but right now €22m seems like a lot.