The Milan management are hoping to get the renewal of at least three key players done during the summer transfer window, according to a report.
Starting with Rafael Leao, MilanNews confirms that the demands of the Portuguese winger through his agent Jorge Mendes have gone up after a fantastic season in which he helped lead Milan to the Scudetto.
Leao wants to be paid the same as Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic which is around €7m net per season, so Milan’s first offer of €4.5m per year must be raised, though the management feel he is the player on which they should make the sacrifice to break their internal wage ceiling.
Ismael Bennacer asked for time after finding a basic agreement in the spring over a renewal, because the new ownership arrived and players starting thinking they could get more money with a new owner in charge.
There will be new updates between the parties at the end of the month, just as there will be with Pierre Kalulu with whom the goal is to renew and significantly raise the salary to €2m net per season.
If there’s an option to sell Leao for big money, I hope it’s seriously considered – looks like the requests will get bigger and bigger and mean everyone’s expectations are raised. His value’s at it’s highest now, it’ll plummet over the next year.
There’s no shortage of good right-footed left-wingers in the world and I’d trust the management to find that replacement.
This guy «R» with the dumbest comment of the year. This isn’t a fifa game. Leao is an exceptional player, you can’t just sell him and buy someone else. He wants to stay, he has proved he can play in the team, and don’t forget, he’s currently the best player in the league. 21/22 Serie A MVP. You can’t expect Milan to keep winning, while paying the players less than pretty much all the other top teams. They’ll all eventually leave. Imagine Milan getting through the CL group stage, only for the whole squad to realize they could get paid DOUBLE in another team. Half the team would leave. As I said, this isn’t fifa 22, players need to have actual chemistry on the pitch, so keeping good players together for a long time is better than replacing them with players who have never played together.
Usually it’s me making the “it’s not FIFA” comment and I agree with your general logic about player chemistry and keeping a team; replacing him wouldn’t be easy.
But the point is, if Milan can’t afford to keep him, then a decision needs to be made about keeping him for two seasons and losing him on a free or selling whilst he’s at peak value. Far from ‘FIFA’ reasons, it’s the best opportunity Milan will have for a long time to cancel out their entire FFP deficit and allow for reinvestment into the next iteration of the team.
And, as others have said, he’s had one exceptional year, it’s not like he’s been destroying the league for sustained periods to earn a league leading salary. Maybe he will go on to do that, maybe the gamble is that by keeping him he’ll be the difference in UCL qualification or teaching the knock out phases and so that 80-100m is a price worth paying. It was probably worth keeping Kessie rather than selling a year ago.
Oh, but don’t fool yourself with another “he wants to stay” belief; if you’ve not learned that that means nothing in football, I don’t know if you ever will. He’s got a long term contract in front of him to make millions of Euros playing for Milan – if he doesn’t want to sign it that’s his right, but don’t pretend he’s negotiating for an extra 2.5 per year out of love for the club.
R is right. You all are making of Leao like he is Maradona. He played good not exceptional, just one season. He just start to nake a name in football World. He is still young, but he wants imidiatelly millions. If he is extra, money will come. He must prove, game after game. He score 11 goals in Italian liga, and you treat him like he is untouchable. Please, come to the earth.
Come on you all..!! Leao is not even good in the whole 1 season.. he is only good in a few games + the last 2.. And it’s not enough to get rid the fact that he is far from consistency.. So, 5m per season is more than enough..!!
He think we overhype him a bit, ofc he had a good season but it’s his first one, but players like Caputo Insigne and Barak scored the same amount as him. Players like Caprari had the same g/a as him. Sell when a bid of 90M is coming. You can’t compare Vlahovic with Leao, 1 Vlahovic is a striker and 2 Vlahovic stats are much better
Vlahovic produced world class numbers at a club like fiorentina for 2 seasons before getting that salary at
juve.
leao had 1 good season so far….
But he didn’t win the season with fiorentina did he, leao deserves it all, just pay him
If milan do as you think then this club will be join bankruptlona soon..!!
they will agree on 6 eventually.
But the clause should be 200 M
Great season at Fiorentina ended with mid table position at the ens of season??? While Leao prove a masterclass skill with CHAMPION for the club,, 7mil is worth,
What? You are trying to say that Leao would win the Serie A for Fiorentina? Send us some of your drugs, please.
yes.
DEF.
Vlahovic could be the new Piatek
With Allegri’s defense focused tactics, Vlahovic is almost useless. So it is hard to say if Vlahovic made a good choice. Even Leao would become a garbage if he played under Allegri’s management. lol
Unfortunately, problems might start pretty soon. You have players that after covid and some wager reductions want a bit more money from the new owners. But seems like there is no money to spend, we have exactly the same as with Elliot, they didn’t push in even 50M to buy 1 player or offer proper renewals to our key players. Of course you can offer Kalulu x3 of his wage when he didn’t earn anything when you consider he is a professional footballer.
1. Does it occur to you that maybe it’s difficult to spend money in the middle of a transition? The deal isn’t done until the ink is dry. Literally. So while the deal is closing the seller (Elliott) is going to be loathe to spend money because it won’t be their club in two months, and the buyer (RedBird) is loathe to spend money because it’s not their club yet.
2. It’s June 14th. Not August 14th. Let’s give the club a chance to work in the market, point 1 notwithstanding.
3. Leao is asking for almost TRIPLE his salary. He’s great, but unlike some other people here I don’t think he is irreplaceable. As a matter of fact, if someone is willing to pay 100m for him I would seriously consider selling him, as we’d be able to get all of those targets people keep wishful thinking about. AND we already have his replacement in Origi, who technically is originally a LW. Yes, not as good individually, but with the 100m from Leao plus maybe 60-100m from the new ownership we’d be able to strengthen 4-5 positions as opposed to keeping Leao and strengthening 1-2 positions. Overall better. I’m talking Nkunku, CDK, Antony/Asensio, Sanches, Botman/Bremer all being able to arrive.
3. Leao is asking for almost TRIPLE his salary.
Not true. He’s asking for over 4 times more! FOUR.
Yeah, they won’t spend their money on anything but the purchase. This is my point, we can wait 2 months and then conclude if what I said was true.
And if it is true that Pioli asked for the full team in July, then there is not even 3 weeks.
You can’t buy those players, this isn’t football manager. You think ther are waiting to join Milan when we offer lower wages than some middle English clubs? I mean Danny Ings is paid more than anyone at Milan, more than Leao is asking now. Nkunku, I don’t think he’d join, same for Antony. Botman, we won’t pay over 30M and I don’t see Lille accepting that if they received a 45M offer, why would they even if the players wants something. Realistically we can sign Sanches and CDK, and we are offering 10M less for CDK and even under his estimated market value. Like I’ve said a few times, we need to conclude the deals right away or get blown out by the demands of players or the club. Asensio ask for the same money Leao is asking now. So, you are saying we should pay Asensio 7M per year but not Leao who was the main attacker last season? LOL X 100
“Realistically we can sign Sanches and CDK, and we are offering 10M less for CDK and even under his estimated market value. ”
IF Maldini is able to get away with lower price than estimate is, it’s a masterpiece. Why the heck not try it? Estimated market value isn’t THE price tag. We don’t know what happens in the background. Everything isn’t black and white and like people here keep saying, this isn’t Football Manager either.
“So, you are saying we should pay Asensio 7M per year but not Leao who was the main attacker last season? LOL X 100”
That’s a pretty darn good point. I wouldn’t want Asensio even for 5M€ as I think he would be too expensive for what we’d get. With Leao and 7M€? Well… Maybe. That decision has its pros and cons. Definite con would be that EVERYONE ELSE would want more money too. Milan needs the new stadium (decision) before we can start paying astronomical wages.
Because the guy above wrote that we will sign those players for the amount he mentioned, impossible. I would give Leao 4.5M and he would accept. But the difference is that I would pay him 16.5M for a signing fee and leave him without debt.
best option man city, psg want him, sell him after one good season, use the money and the budget to invest on lang, zaniolo, CDK, milenkovic keep rebic, if botman cannot confront his team that no milan no transfer,milan should not go for him he wanted to use milan for transfer
If you don’t want give him 6-7m nett / season just sell him to highest bid on summer. Don’t be stupid tp use him 2 years until his contract expire . Bennacer already follow his path too
Leao only played half of this season good, the other half he was lost and many times he looked lazy and uninterested. He is very good player but definitely not worth 7 milion per year, yet. Maybe he will be worth that much in the future but he just turned 23 years few days ago. 7 million is waaaay too much for any 23 year old person doing anything in the world, not to mention that he is just hitting the ball.
Too much for a 23 year old uhn? How hold is mbappe?
Ehmm… So you’re putting Leao on the same level as Mbappe? Oooooookay…
There are exceptions to all rules. Mbappe would be the one here. Or Håland.
Leao – 5m net or sell
Bena – 3.5m net or sell
Deadline 7 July
Replacements
O. Dembele
Kehrer (PSG / Venezia)
Dembele has a 2.5 more higher wage than Leao is asking. Can you at least give something that is possible? 😀 So your suggestion is to sell Leao because he is asking for 7M and sign Dembele who asks for 15-20M? Makes sense.
Well, we used to pay Romagnoli 6 million (and Higuain lol). Alessio is leaving now, so, just give Leao his money. But the problem is that it may cause troubles with other players demanding more money. And we will become another Juventus. I think stopping around 5 million makes sense. Otherwise, it is probably better to sell him for a huge amount of cash and sign another player.
Its all about the money, anyone who kisses the badge and asks for a triple salary was never a fan. The idea of sacking Mendes still has to be explained: did he feel Mendes was too soft with Milan and he wanted more OR Mendes was pushing him to Madrid against his wishes to stay? Time will tell. when you have a good scouting network, no player is irreplaceable.
Certain players make sure you never question their loyalty others make you worry and have plans A-F.
If I was maldini, and these requests for 7m are true, then 100m is the fee: selling him straight up!. He scored some goals, made assists, true, BUT it took the whole team to cross the line as champions.
If he starts to think at ANY time, Milan could not have done it without him, then he needs to be reminded, he would still be at lille if we did not take a gamble on his rookie self and bring him to Milan.
No player is greater than the club.
Bennacer has paused his renewal too. No stress, Adli, Sanches, pobega are coming in, a few friendlies and we will all see who exactly is dispensable.
He is not worth 7m. He is lazy unless heading towards goal. Talented? Without a doubt. Ibra was worth the money as he not only scored but took a team of misfits and scared them straight. Also I think most of his worth is his speed with the ball. Most his goals were 1 on 1 with the keeper. When he tried being fancy he usually lost the ball, looked up and slowly walks back. Would hate to lose him but 100+ mil can get a lot more depth and lower wage bills.
But I am sitting in my recliner and not doing this for a living so what do I know
LOL. It’s comical to read posts from our own fans (allegedly) that Leao doesn’t deserve 7M (same salary as Vlahovic) or we should sell him now because he’s “lazy”. Yet these same people have dreams of us signing young players like Lang, CDK, Nukunu, etc…LOL. And what do you think will happen when they fulfill their potential and become stars? You think they will accept 4m a season lol. How much do you think Nukunu is worth per season right now? Surely more than 7M he will definitely make. This chat is becoming a clown show. Most ppl on here know nothing about the game or the impact a player like Leao has on it. Giroud doesn’t score 11 goals this season without Leao drawing 2 players constantly marking him. Some ppl are clueless. The Market dictates players salaries (supply and demand) – not amateur fans opinions on what is enough $. Yes there is a limit of what clubs will pay. But what kind of club do we aspire to be if we cannot pay our most talented player who after years of patient development has finally started to fulfill his potential? What does that say to players we are trying to recruit? Leao is on pace to become a top 5 player in the world.. And some want to sell him even though he has never indicated a desire to leave and is still under contract for another 2 seasons. As I said before, he is asking for more $$ because at 4.5M he is essentially playing the next 4 years with us for FREE – considering he owns 16.5M back to his Portuguese club. Who would do that? Would you? Lol. I don’t think so. If Milan pays the 16.5M fee – he will sign for 4.5M. Otherwise he needs 7M to offset the penalty he owes. It’s Simple math some of you cannot understand. It’s a unique situation that we as a club should support him in. Pay the 16.5M for him and in exchange lock him down to a new 5 year deal with a huge (200M+) release clause. We broke the wage limit for Ibra – so we can and should do it for Leao IMO.
LOL. SO you’re not a fan if you don’t approve Leao’s 7M€ wage demands? You guys are cracking me up with your BS.
” As I said before, he is asking for more $$ because at 4.5M he is essentially playing the next 4 years with us for FREE – considering he owns 16.5M back to his Portuguese club.”
Not true (either). He’ll be paying 1/3 of his monthly salary to Sporting. So he’s definitely NOT playing 4 years “for free” as you claim.
“But what kind of club do we aspire to be if we cannot pay our most talented player who after years of patient development has finally started to fulfill his potential?”
You’re making it sound if it was Leao who was the patient one and not the club while it was the other way around. It was Milan who had the patience to wait for Leao to mature as his first seasons were pretty darn awful and most fans wanted him out already due to lack of – oh yes, you guesssed it – patience.
It should be Leao who should be grateful for Milan to have had patience with him – not the other way around. Now it’s time to repay the faith the club had in him.
Dude, Danny Ings is paid more than Leao is asking. You have a similar example at any club in PL and I can even find players in France outside of PSG paid those amounts. Clubs are paying players 10-20M and we are supposed to go back to the top in CL with what exactly? Selling every player that asks for more than 5M? And your math is wrong, he needs to pay 16.5M, if he gets a 5M contract he will be left with 12.5M to pay after 4 years. It said his repayment plan is 20% of his yearly wages. I would rather sign with another club that will cover that payment. If the club was really standing next to him they could have added 10M to the contract signing fee to help him out, that is how you get players to stay forever. Not get him into a position where he could leave after 4 years with 12.5M debt left.
Oh yeah, I forgot. He will actually pay over 20M this way because there is always legal yearly interest. So, he would leave Milan with about the same debt he initally had, just paying interest. Like I said, if the club paid that there would be 0 interest, he would have his mind at ease and would definitely accept a lower contract considering they paid the 16M.
Leao has great talent; but I don’t think he’s earned the right to get what Vlahovic is getting. Leao would NOT have taken Fiorentina to win the Scudetto because Fiorentina didn’t have a defense and GK who could keep 9 clean sheets in final 11 games so please stop talking BS w/ that comparison and Leao is no Haaland or Mbappe. He deserves a raise and extention; HOWEVER, if he keeps asking for too much, the I agree with everyone who says we should sell him NOW this summer and get the most value possible for him. We can use a huge transfer fee payout to get other good players — won’t be easy; but we could get Lang and if we sold Leao, Rebic would be a much happier player (and if happier, will produce more like his 11 goals per season in back to back seasons before this past year).
We need money to get great players to fill in the weak RW and CAM positions — if we really are going to go after Asensio or Dybala or Berardi (and of course CDK will cost a good chunk of money too), we could really use a big payout for a Leao transfer. Even if we just sign Belotti on a free transfer, we still need to pay his annual salary and need to give raises to Tomori, Kalulu, Bennacer and eventually Theo and Maignan (who, IMHO, are all actually just as, if not more, important that Leao.