The claims that Manchester United are in the running to sign Rafael Leao from AC Milan have been refuted by Sky in Germany.
It was reported by ESPN yesterday that Manchester United head coach Ten Hag has asked the United leadership to consider making a January signing to replace Ronaldo, with Leao on a list of targets which also features PSV Eindhoven star Cody Gakpo.
The feeling was that Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit creates space in the wage bill and a gap in the squad to strengthen the attack. However, according to Florian Plettenberg of Sky Deutschland, the situation between United and Leao is ‘not hot’ because the Premier League side are ‘focused on finding a striker’ to replace Cristiano Ronaldo.
The wings instead are ‘well and expensively manned’, but United are nonetheless keen on Victor Osimhen of Napoli because of his speed, physicality and finishing, though they will not pay a ‘crazy price around €100m’.
Outside of Chelsea interest every other team mentioned is just media invention. And even Chelsea might be out of it since they basically got a deal done for Nkunku.
But a lot of teams will be interested in signing Leao for free in 2024.
We all say sell him in the summer? But are we all crazy? Why would anybody bring him in for 100M when he’s free the summer after. Or we will sell for a cut price like 40/50M or we will lose him for free. Don’t freak on a 100M price, even dumb PL teams won’t pay that
Everybody says “sell him in the summer” because if someone would actually pay what Milan are asking, it’s a no-brainer.
Moneywise, the best bet would be selling in January but that would cause other issues. Then again, losing him for 0€ would cause issues as well.
Basically Milan can’t win no matter what they do here thanks to the greedy agent & daddy.