AC Milan are readying a concrete attempt to sign Joshua Zirkzee, according to Carlo Pellegatti, and they have a card to play in their favour.
It was reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport yesterday that Milan have made Zirkzee their number one target ahead of the summer and it seems that they have a mutual admiration for each other, with the player open to the move.
Milan are working on the deal and they will try, even if the negotiation will be complex. Bologna, when thinking about the asking price, are looking at Rasmus Hojlund’s move to Manchester United for €75m plus €10m in bonuses as the benchmark.
Speaking live on Radio Rossonera, Carlo Pellegatti answered several questions from Milan fans and he gave his take on the latest news that has come out about Zirkzee, including a potential trip to Germany.
“Milan have this card that they hope to play with Bologna: Saelemaekers. We learned that last week there was a blitz, or trip, to Germany by Moncada,” he said.
“Last night they told me that he was in Munich: I rule out that it was to sell Theo, but the reason could be to ask Bayern what their intentions are regarding Zirkzee.
“It may be that he went to ask for this so that the club’s strategies and possible talks with Bologna can continue. I designed this scenario.”
I thought that they just invented phones few years ago, but that’s just me
Low budget
Unless it’s last minute transfer, you don’t negotiate 50 million dollar business deals over a zoom call. The contracts are very detailed. Often you have a team of people, procurement lawyers, agents, etc for the later meetings before signing.
Also, in this business – you make contacts and connections. You look people in the eye and shake their hand. It’s not THAT big of an industry. You see the same people often many times.
Do you really think Moncada called and was like, “hey we wanna buy your guy 50m plus Salaemakers”, and then the they were like “ok, yah cool bro lets do it”. and then they hung up and then everyone signed the contracts. Afterwards, they all credited for that incredible initial phone call from Moncada as the game changer.
PS. None of this applies to Manchester United or Chelsea, who will just buy anyone at anytime for any price with minimum research. LOL. Should be just kidding here, but I’m not.
“Bologna, when thinking about the asking price, are looking at Rasmus Hojlund’s move to Manchester United for €75m plus €10m in bonuses as the benchmark.”
Sure, that’s what they told GDS.
If he is in Munich talking to Bayern, feels like they are trying use Byerns 40 mil clause in our favor with one of their targets from our team. Not sure I like this as Theo is their big target.
This may be their way of getting zirksee cheaper than what Bologna are asking for.
Really Hope I am wrong.
Bayern was interested in Tomori. A player swap might have been discussed, hence we looking to buy another central defender.
That would be kinda interesting. Not saying we want to sell Tomori he’s been v good this season. But if Zirkzee doesn’t have a release clause valid for us, then it’s possible we’ll need to shell out closer to €50mn. In which case that’s a reasonably fair swap for Tomori.
Then we use the “striker budget” on a Tomori replacement, eg Buongiourno
What a load of rubbish. Milan have proven with Redbird that they will not make the same mistake with signing players over 30m. Therefore, if Bologna wants more than that then Zirkzee will not come to Milan.
These outrageous numbers are ridiculous for a player with one good season and he’s not a prolific or consistent striker and he’s definitely not a number 9 so he’s not the player we will sign for sure.
Why is he not a number 9?
Also looking for a lot of good seasons from a 22 yo is not very productive.
If you look at the stats (took mine from fotmob) Zirkzee does a lot more than just scoring (stats are compared to other Serie A strikers:
Most tackles won (18)
Most successful dribbles (41)
97.2 percentile for blocks, recoveries and possession won in final 3rd
94th percentile for chances created
95th percentile for successful passes
88th percentile for accurate long balls
98th percentile for touches and 94th for touches in the opposition box
All this in addition to scoring double digits in serie A.
Combine him with world class wingers like Pulisic and Leao and we could have a great front line, with lots of space to improve since they are still relatively young (22, 25 and 24 iirc)
Bro milan will get much money from loans made permanent this summer and a base of 50 mil.They will have a budget over 100 mil and yes they will spend big around 50 million on a young quality centre forward.
If they only looked at players based on some kind of “past performance”, they wouldn’t buy anyone! We will not buy Viktor Gyökeres because he did not play in a strong league ! We won’t buy Zirkzee because this is only his first successful season, and we won’t buy David either because he scored a lot of goals from penalties, and so on… That’s why there are scouts who have to recognize the player and sometimes you just have to take a risk.
Zirkzee is good but 50mil plus sale is way too much for a season wonder.why not pay 10mil for tijjani nosling and keep okafor and jovic and we’d be okay
“I designed this scenario.”
Ok.
75mil for Zirkzee lol. His goals per minute are not better than Scamacca or Retegui. Why not go for them better. They would cost around 20mil. We can even get Scamacca in swap with CDK. Or we can bring back CDK and make him the CF. That should be an option too. I like Zirkzee but no way he is even close to 75mil at most he is around 30mil realisticly.
I think you are spot on. The guy scored 10 in 28 including penalties.
People keep saying he will score so many more for Milan, but remember Bologna are very good this year.
I saw some of last weeks game they won 3-0, he didn’t have a goal or an assist.
He is a skillful player but his finishing is average and his shooting is quite poor.
If we are paying 30m and he is taking the AM spot ok, but certainly not 50m to be our center forward. As you say we could just keep CDK at that point (neither are what we need)