AC Milan are still in talks over a deal to sign Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna during the summer window, Alfredo Pedullà claims, and the requests have been revealed.
The journalist spoke on his YouTube channel (via Radio Rossonera) to give the latest updates on Zirkzee’s future, given that he is expected to be one of the hottest properties of the upcoming mercato.
He states that Milan ‘have tried, are trying and greatly appreciate Zirkzee’s profile, quality and style’. However, it is not true that there are any agreements drawn up and it is also untrue that Thiago Motta asked for him as part of talks with Juventus over taking over there.
Bayern Munich meanwhile still have reservations about exercising their €40m buy-back clause and have not committed either way yet. Even if it is more of a no than a yes, Bayern will bide their time with the understanding that anyone interested can go to them to ask for information.
There is a ‘very serious problem’ as per Pedulla: his agent certainly went around the clubs and spoke with both Juve and Milan. He specified that the cost of the operation starts from a price plus commissions of no less than €65-70m. He asked for a salary of €5m net per season for his client.
Presuming that were a five-year deal, the financial package required to sign Zirkzee would be around €90-95m net, which – when factoring in gross wages – would become about €115-120m.
Fûck that.. I’m so sick of players who haven’t shown anything getting 60,70,80,90+ million price tags.. penaldo was sold for 100M because he was that good and he consistently backed it at United.. nowadays a kid scores 10-15 golas BOOM. Pay 70-100M for it
I think that’s the point why Milan will not buy this one
And meanwhile, we are selling CDK for 28M.
I said months ago that the cost of this operation would be nearly identical to Hojlund. Oh well. Next.
Yea but that’s the agents trying to wh0re their clients around because they want a bigger commission.
Just because they ask for 65-70mil, doesn’t mean they will get it. The agent doesn’t decide the price wither way.
Bayern would be wise to activate the option to recall him and sell him on. That’s a pure profit without any work.
As for 5mil/year – that isn’t turrrrible. But the renewal would get tricky.
My sentiment exactly. My fear is those idiots from the Premier league will show up with that kind of money. And the greedy agents smile all the way to the bank. They will keep pricing us out of deals because agents and clubs know someone will pay…
Lolllll maybe if he scored 20+ goals but no. He’s not even worth half that. Just get Sesko and call it a day.
Also he scored less than some of our wingers. 11 goals. Is he supposed to suddenly improve from that in a team with far higher pressure? Not for 90 mil… no thanks!
Sesko would be my choice as well not that i mind Zirkzee but i agree he needs to do a lot more than that to justify such a hefty financial package,
The Neymarr to psg deal has seriously damaged the game
Yeah, young players and agents look at the price tag but forget that the transfer left Neymar without European trophies.
You can’t eat trophies or use them to invest in other things that will make you and your family even wealthier.
So you doesn’t think that Neymar had already earned enough cash for several lifetimes before he joined psg 😀 that is only his wages then add all the advertisement deals he has striked,
This is football not Gordon Gecko with his mantra that greed is good.
Zirkzee is already expensive, Sesko release clause increased to 65 million €, Guirassy is in auction, Gyorekes has fantasy football price….. Lol
It’s becoming more difficult to media, now they have to find other player to write articles
his agent can kiss my a** smh,even puli has more goals than this zirkzee..just buy guirassy and jonatan david already
No no no
He’s not number 9, he’s not that good.
We need a younger and a quicker version of Giroud.
Get Sesko or Gimenez
It’s a trick so when they end up asking for a bit less it will sound ok to pay. His value was like 35 mil when all this started and with nothing special done in between, should stay 35 mill.. 40 max for his team may consider keeping him for the CL. In fact I’d just sign Guirassy if not sacrificing 70 mil for Sesko, certainly not 70 mil for 10 goal striker.
If you want to deploy Zirkzee as a winger or a second striker, then yes he is worth around 70 mln. If you want to deploy him as a centre forward, he is not worth more than 40 mln. He is just a slower version of Gabriel Jesus.
At this point better bring back CDK and make him the 1st striker. If Zirkze is 90mil then i dont see why CDK is not 90mil when he had even better season.
Because that’s not up to us.
The clause is in the loan contract, so it’s up to Atalanta and CDK if they wanted to make the loan permanent or not. We have no say in this.
Sure, he’s suddenly going to become the most expensive player in Serie A history. I love how people who’ve never seen Sesko play think he’s the solution. Zirkzee is miles better. Zirkzee’s fee will be between €40-50 million and Bayern aren’t going to sign him just to sell him on.
This is a lesson for our management, our scouting department and the management new about him 3 years ago, why couldn’t we have bought him that time from Bayern, we were linked to him as far back as 2018, he is a good player with potential, but he is not worth that amount, the highest valuation for him should be between 35 and 40million max….how many goals does he have to warrant that price tag…
This means not having a vision, not moving quickly and boldly in the transfer market… We quite often end up wanting a player when it is already too difficult for us to be able to take him…
Jonathan David seems to me the most realistic target for us with the price versus value ratio.
It’s just unfortunate that they didn’t have the foresight to sign Scamacca for 25M last summer. We will probably end up getting David.
Scamacca who has scored even less than Zirkzee?
Milan needs someone capable of 15-20 every year, not someone you hope can get 10.
Understood, but where are you going to find one of these for under 50M? You seemed to have missed the point of this article. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. We’re either signing a 20+ goal striker and paying 75-100M for him, which we cannot afford, or getting a 10-12 goal striker for 20-40M with the expectation (or hope) they will score 20+ goals when put into a better squad. I think Scamacca is the latter. He started slowly this season as he needed to integrate into Atalanta’s system. Since the beginning of the calendar year, and more specifically since getting snubbed by Spalletti, he’s been on a tear. 10 goal contributions in his last 11 games. He’s got 10 goals and 5 assists in 26 games this season. By comparison Giroud has 14 goals and 8 assists in 33. It’s relatively comparable.
The only way for Milan to get a quality striker for less than 50 mln is to get a young talent and further develop him. Milan should have done that while Giroud was still around. Leipzig bought Openda for 38.5 mln and, in his first season, he has 24 goals and 7 assists in 33 Bundesliga matches. Chelsea bought Nicolas Jackson for 37 mln and, in his first season, he has 14 goals and 5 assists in 33 EPL matches. He had a difficult start but now he has improved a lot and keeps improving. One can buy a quality striker for less than 50 mln, but it needs vision to do so. Not to mention that Inter took Thuram for free, or Frankfurt took Kolo Muani for free and then sold him for 95 mln.
Also, at 72 goals scored, scoring goals is not our problem. We have the second most goals scored in the division. All we need to do is replace Giroud’s goal scoring rate. Our issue is defending/keeping clean sheets. We have 43 goals allowed. Compare that to the other sides in the top 5.
You are right, Milan has been able to score goals this year. So with Giroud leaving there is a choice to be made, Jovic (if he stays) and someone to grow into the role, or a top center forward. And yes, you will have to pay a lot for one. But cheaping out and getting somebody who is of average quality is not the way to go. I haven’t seen Guirassy enough to say if he would work as a cheaper option. If you want to win anything, you need somebody who can be counted on to score frequently.
The fact is none of us know what Milan’s budget will be this summer, but I don’t want to see money thrown at a player who isn’t an upgrade. And I have seen enough of Scamacca to say he won’t be.
Scored less than Zirkzee?
Scamacca has 10 goals and 5 assists from 26 Serie A appearances for a total of 1,288 minutes in the league.
Zirkzee has 11 goals and 5 assists from 34 appearances for 2,774 minutes of game time in the league.
So in 1,500 league minutes (or 16 matches of game time) he’s got 1 more goal (equating to 1 more contribution). Expand it to the whole season:
Scamacca has 17 goals and 6 assists from 40 appearances for a total or 2,064 minutes. The additional goals and assists come against Sporting (the leader of the Portuguese league), Liverpool and Fiorentina.
Zirkzee has 12 goals and 7 assists from 37 appearances for a total of 2,942 minutes. Zirkzee scored against Cesena in the Coppa but, in fairness, was unplayable against Inter in the Coppa in which he recorded 2 assists as Bologna won.
5 more goals, 4 more contributions from just under 900 minutes less (i.e. 10 games) with a real bad form slump to start 2024.
That’s to go with his 16 goal season the last time he played Serie A.
Any way you look at it, Milan should absolutely be considering Scamacca as it’s number 9. Considering nothing other than on the pitch he is far and away the best option we could realistically sign for next season and he hasn’t even peaked yet. Sesko may surpass even Scamacca’s peak but there is a lot of water to pass under that bridge.
Do you mean the guy who has three fewer Serie A goals than Giroud? That’s an upgrade?
Look somewhere else, he is not the answer.
Just get Guirassy ffs
Maybe Chelsea are that dumb to pay those prices; I think if he leaves Bologna it will be for much less
This is ridiculous, he is not worth that much money. At that point, just buy Gyökeres like I’ve been screaming all year.
To bad that Giroud is leaving but this Zirkzee is definitely not worth that many. Way too much! There is no wat that Zirkzee in ACM will score and assist more than Giroud this year. I even think Jovic is much better than Zirkzee and will score more goals than dutchaman once when he starts getting more minutes. Plus, 120M$ stays in clubs pocket. That’s one third of a new stadium. No one should be worth that much money.
Watch out for when the player score a brace. They will easily say 100 millions +
Guirassy.
Get that guy.
Okafor + Jovic look pretty good at this point as replacements for Giroud.
What’s the hurry?
For all the people who bemoaned not getting Taremi in the last mercato, Taremi proved to be an aging (he’s 31) bust this season for Porto.
Taremi got benched because he is leaving. I’m not the biggest fan of the guy but one can’t score goals if one doesn’t play. Evanilson has 22 goals tho, he’s the starter now..
Just get Jonathan David.. Still young, on last year of his contract and we have good relationship with Lille. Especially if we can get him under 40m. He is on 19 goals and 4 assist in the league, 27 goals and 8 assists total. Only 2 scored from penalty too.
I’d love Zirkzee or Sesko but if their price is more than 50m I don’t think they are worth that price.
NO !!! TO JONATHAN DAVID …….
Zirkzee & Sesko both have same price 60-65m euro . The different only jn sesko that release clause while in zirkzee you can negotiate with bologna include player like saladmaker etc. Both have high price . I dont think ACM can afford their price without selling theo or maignan . The best for route for ACM just guirassy or jonathan david that available in moderate price