This afternoon, AC Milan have made a new and improved bid for Youssouf Fofana as they look to finalise a deal to bring him to the club this summer.
For many Milan fans, the Fofana saga has continued for too long, and has become a frustration more than anything. However, it has not been due to a lack of trying, and it can be argued that the Rossoneri have operated brilliantly in a difficult situation.
In Monaco’s eyes, the Frenchman is worth €35 million, a figure that the Diavolo refuse to match, given his contract expires at the end of the upcoming season, and until now, they had made offers of less than €20m.
However, a report from Fabrizio Romano has stated that Milan have made a revised offer to Monaco worth more than €20m – a fixed fee of that price, plus some ‘difficult’ add-ons, but there is no information on the potential price of these add-ons.
Romano continues, stating that the French club are asking for €25m plus ‘easy’ add-ons, so it remains to be seen if this latest offer will be enough to tempt the Monegasque club, but with Milan open to waiting until next summer, and the player only wanting the Rossoneri, it is difficult to imagine that much more negotiating will occur.
And we are correct if they don’t accept, because Fofana can sign in January anyway, for free. Never thought I’d see stupidity like this from a club, but then again they are Monaco, basically French Napoli, who go from winning titles to relegation quite often
I don’t see how it’s stupid to improve their chances of UCL qualification by holding onto their star midfielder for an extra year – it would be a net gain if he makes the difference.
That’s a lot of weight to give one player and a wild assumption. He could also sulk, get injured, or just have a down season. That’s a ~20 million euro gamble Monaco would be making…
Then he’d leave them for free like Kessie did with Milan.
They might improve from a UCL spot to… another UCL spot, but they’re not going to win the league. If they don’t monetize Fofana this summer, regardless of their results they immediately lose 20M when he walks away for free.
At least now they can take the 20M and use it to bring in another player to replace him.
Kessie stayed and he helped us (with playing a vital role) winning Scudetto. Donna stayed and he helped us to finally gained that UCL spot again. That’s another way to see it. It’s not always about money, free transfer, and all. It’s not always black and white in football.
LMAO bro it’s us who want the player. You’re only saying they are stupid because they don’t want to give up a player who is contractually obligated to them? Lol Monaco doesn’t have to sell if they don’t want to. If he brings them UCL spots or even the league, the pros outweigh the cons (ofc at a limit but not at the rumoured offers)
It’s stupid because they could make 20m+ euros and reinforce there squad for the long term, but instead are going to get a one year rental and have nothing to say for it.
Their*
But they might qualify for the UCL next season if they keep him and miss out if they sell.
Maybe they’ll qualify for the knockout rounds this season, which they might not do otherwise.
Maybe he’ll help them progress further in the other cup competitions or they’ll go on a Europa League run.
Obviously football isn’t so clear cut to know how much difference he makes, but maybe having a year to find and train up his replacement is worth that money to them.
That’s one way to look at it.
What about keeping an unhappy player in the squad?
They already having him train separately.
They already have signed a replacement for him.
The fans were likely to turn on him.
What if he gets injured?
How much can he helped them then?
This nonsense that they don’t care about money is pushed by people living in an imaginary world. Those are the same people that think that it is better to lose a player for free than sell him for less than he is worth.
Fofana isn’t going to play for Monaco next season. Be won’t be helping them get to the UCL. Even if he doesn’t go to Milan, he isn’t staying at Monaco.
I guess you just don’t get it. To them the money doesn’t matter. I also said within limits. So if we offered say 60m, yes then I think they’ll be making a mistake but even then I’m not even so sure. But at 12m we’ve been offering, heck no. 20m seems ok but I also don’t know their “internal evaluations” 😅. Who in mid August are they going to find to replace him at his technical level whatever they deem that to be? And for 20m or whatever we’re offering? Suppose his technical level is at 50m in value to the team and we offer only 20m then best Monaco keep him for a year and have us fight up with high commissions, wages etc next year even though he’ll be free. And we’re only offering 15-20-25m BECAUSE he has one year left. Perhaps his value outside of that is higher eg 50-60m. Hence the ball is not in our court.
How many top free agents have we attracted lately? That answers the question as to what will happen if we don’t sign him this summer. To your point, even if he is worth 45 to 50, we already lost precious time to integrate him into our team. That is worth more than the 5 to 15 million we are haggling over if he is good enough to elevate our midfield.
FYI monaco already sign his replacement from senegal . They prepare long before because fofana tell them early that he wont renew contract unlike ACM player like kessie,hakan,donna that keep in secret to leave free transfer. It is good attitude from fofana to tell monaco early. Keep fofana wont help monaco in league because he is unhappy and already exclude from monaco training camp. Keep him 1 years = huge loss for monaco even if ACM not getting him free transfer
Yeah, having an upset, pouting player who doesn’t want to be there always works out well for teams.
Let him leave for free, they must be getting advice from Maldini.
No milan fan mocks maldini
@SJF he’s not a real Milan fan he’s a USA POS like the owner
So true , it in their blood. Napoli just can’t keep a good thing going…
Sign Johnny Cardoso for 18m 20-25m market value. just negotiate with Fofana and his agent promise them more commission to the previously agreed on so he wont accept other offeror renew and he come next season as a free player.
This is probably gonna be our last bid for Fofana, hope that Monaco accepts this time, it’s not that far from 25M€.
In any case I hope we already have DMs lined up just in case, we can’t afford to wait until winter for a DM.
Just get this deal done already man, let’s move on
We also need to sell some mids cause its getting crowded. Especialy if Pulisic is moved in the mid as well.
Our squad is bloated for sure. We can move off 4 players and replace with one quality DM. Origi, Ballo, Pobega, and Kalulu come to mind….
How you gonna move Origi? No club is going to offer anything close to 4M a year and no fraud is going to turn down good money for less money.
They’re better off trying to work out a deal to release him. Offer him x amount of money to end the contract
20 million plus bonuses is a more than fair and reasonable offer.
Milan shouldn’t have raised the offer,we can manage till the end of the season so we can get Fofana for free. I think French football Clubs have the culture of letting their super stars leave for free. Mbappe as a case study!
The fact they raise the offer makes me think they feel confident they can get it over the line.
I too think we will get Fofana when Monaco realizes he only wants us and all others haven’t tried. Might be a late signing though.
Up next: another article saying Milan are a distant second to Man U in the race for Fofana despite the fact Man U still haven’t made any offer…
Objectively speaking I can’t blame any one particular party. Each seems right in their own eyes and working feverishly to achieve their ends as in all business cases, with the mindset of winning or loosing out considering the immediate and long term benefits.Example, had Milan known Kessie and co.inspite of their many assurances would’t sign in their final year they would have gone for the peanuts rather than loose them for nothing The name of the game is negotiating. with many factors and interest at play, some visible some not.As supporters we can only hope and pray for the combination of the various issues involved in negotiations to work in our favor. Stop the hate, name calling,Phd attitudes and back the club with positive spirit if truly we are all Milanisters.
It’s obvious Fofana is Milan’s No.1 target for the defensive midfield position, and the coach is pushing the management to get him. However, if Monaco doesn’t accept Milan’s decent offer for him, then, they lose him for free next summer. We made the same mistake with Kessie, Hakan and Donnarumma. As much as they think they can push, there’s nothing to gain if Milan pull out. Fofana is not interested in any other club, and that is a setback for Monaco. Time is ticking.
Apparently we’re closing in, at least according to Fabrizio Romano.
We might finally get Fofana before the end of the week.
This is Monaco. They have fantastic primavera team,example Henry, mbappe, bakayoko, axel disasi, badiashile and even Fofana. They are not afraid to lost they best player but in a good prices. They also not to afraid to play their young player maybe at 17 yo. That’s AS Monaco.
Here we go soon! Finally.
Now there are reports that Monaco is about to fold and sell him to Milan in the next few hours. Of course I will only truly believe in it once Fofana officially signs the contract, but I am growing more optimistic. Milan is currently offering 20 M + 5 M of (difficult) bonuses + a 10% resale clause. This is more than fair. Apparently if we believe in the latest rumors, the only thing Monaco is still trying to get from Milan, is to make the difficult bonuses become easy bonuses. Whatever Milan does about the bonuses, management needs to CLEARLY state to Monaco that this is our final offer and if they don’t accept it we will move on to other targets for this season and will gladly get Fofana for free next season when he becomes a free agent. Management needs to say, “respectfully, we need a definition because there are just 2 weeks left; we will not be improving our offer; now it is up to you. We need the next two weeks to get an alternative target if you don’t want to sell Fofana to us, so, please respond by the end of this week; we repeat, next week we will be moving to another target if we don’t get the white smoke from you by the end of the week.” I am increasingly optimistic that upon hearing this, Monaco will fold and agree with the terms.