Milan’s Romagnoli conundrum: Raiola rebellion, learning from mistakes and a chance for pure profit

By Rohit Rajeev -

After seven long and often torturous seasons, Milan have made it to the UEFA Champions League. The various experiments, projects, permutations and combinations have finally yielded a return for Milan in the most elite competitions.

For a team that has achieved this milestone but would like to grow stronger, two actions are key: to strengthen the team in the transfer market and reward existing performers in the team.

Milan have already started making a moves in the transfer market by signing Fikayo Tomori permanently and securing Mike Maignan as replacement for contract rebel Gianluigi Donnarumma, and as a result have spent €42m in the transfer market in the space of a week (with amortisation it becomes €8.3m per season as an expense on the accounts).

Now comes the renewal part. Milan are in negotiations with Franck Kessie and Davide Calabria to reward them for their stellar season and if rumours are to be believed even Theo Hernandez may be in for a new deal with a pay rise. There is also the big conundrum in the form of Alessio Romagnoli’s renewal.

Surely now Milan have learnt their lesson from the protracted renewal saga with Donnarumma and controversial agent Mino Raiola, after Donnarumma reportedly told Maldini: “I do what Mino tells me.”

Romagnoli and Donnarumma have a lot of similarities. Both players have been at Milan throughout the seasons of struggle, especially with the former rejecting a move to Chelsea to stay at Milan and the Rossoneri rewarding his loyalty with a four-year contract in 2018, albeit with a different agent. The most disturbing similarity is that they both are the clients of Raiola.

Surely Raiola can not so easily forget the bad press Milan and Maldini subjected his client Donnarumma to after he tried to hold the club ransom to get them to pay him a lucrative €10m net per season contract, which would make him him the world’s best paid goalkeeper.

The renewal of Alessio has been a much debated topic with supporters of his renewal wanting Milan to reward his loyalty while his naysayers would like him to leave the club while he has some value, as they feel Milan can find a better player suited to Stefano Pioli’s style of play.

If anything Milan have learned from Donnarumma it is for Milan to take a stand much like how they have done for the renewals of Calhanoglu and Donnarumma. A decision must be put forward to the captain: renew at a reasonable rate or leave the club – and with an ultimatum to answer the club within a specified time period.

With Romagnoli down to his last year, his book value – i.e. the value of the asset in the books (in this case the asset is the player) – is zero and this means that if Milan sell Romagnoli at, for example, €15m it would be a plusvalenza (pure profit) of €15m. This would help Milan to balance the books even further.

Milan had an opportunity to sell Donnarumma last season when he had one-year left but with a pandemic hit economy no suitors came for the keeper and the club was confident of keeping the player. But now it is time the club learned from their mistake and take a stand.


READ MORE: Milan put forward two reasons in bid to secure discount on Tonali – the situation

Tags AC Milan Alessio Romagnoli

14 Comments

  1. Jual Romagnoli,beli lah bek yang lebih tangguh.,Milan harus mencari seorang bek lagi untuk cadangan Romagnoli,jangan kejadian terulang kembali seperti Gigio karena mereka satu agent.Andaikata saya Maldini saya akan menjual Romagnoli dan saya akan mencari partner baru untuk Tomori buat dimasa mendatang karna fisik dan stamina Kjaer diusia nya yang sekarang sudah tidak memungkinkan,Salam Forza milan

      1. Sell Romagnoli, get a better defender. Milan need to find at least one more center-back to replace Romagnoli. Don’t let what happens to Gigio, happen again, since they share the same agent. If I am Maldini, I will sell Romagnoli, and I’ll find a new partner for Tomori for the future, due to the decline in physics and stamina of Kjaer. In his last stage of the career, It’s impossible (for Kjaer). Cheers, Forza Milan.

        (translate it for ya Rimp)

      2. He more and less said :

        Just sell Romagnoli and buy a better defender. Milan must get one more defender for backup. And don’t repeat the same problem Milan faced with Gigio, since they are working with the same agent. If I’m Maldini I will let Romagnoli go and find a new partner for Tomori given Kjaer’s physical and stamina at his current age is no longer possible (to play so many matches with a tight schedule)

  2. I think Roma has a 50% sell on clause in Romagnoli’s contract when they sold him to us so Milan would not get everything they sell the captain for

  3. I really hope he stays , Hakan too they are try and tested and they fit Pioli’s system we will need their maturity I pray they both stays.$5m and 5 years contract won’t be bad for all our best performers after all they were willing to go as far as $8 for Gigio,they should tied these guys for 5 or 6 years with $5m then concentrate on the young ones.

  4. I hope Milan will get rid of Riaola once and for ever. We can wait if needed. No one is greater than Milan. Forza Milan per sempre.

  5. The best solution is to renew with reasonable wages. I am not conviced there will be a team willing to pay 15 mln for him at the moment..

    1. Considering that he is still 26, he has a lot of experience as captain and helped Milan to qualify in Champions expecially during the first part of the season, I thinks he is worth much more than 15. Sure there are better defenders on that role and that’s why I think his wage is already high, giving him a pay rise wouldn’t make it easy to sell in the future…

  6. Roman is distracted by these contract talks. He should just lock in renewal, at least 2 more years, concentrate on getting Seria A and CL title and write his name in Milan history like Nesta.

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