AC Milan are still working on the signing of a left-sided central defender and Diogo Leite of Union Berlin remains the main name, according to a report.
According to Sky, Milan believe that they need a left-footed centre-back to complete the department and to partner the more naturally right-footed players like Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia, Malick Thiaw and Pierre Kalulu.
Diogo Leite has been a name of interest to the management for some time but the Rossoneri are not the only club interested in the 25-year-old. Bayer Leverkusen are also interested in him and Bologna could also turn to him as Riccardo Calafiori’s heir.
Geoffrey Moncada and his team do not want to be caught unprepared and have a strategy ready to beat the competition. Leite has played for Porto and Braga in his career and he shone with Union Berlin last season.
He closed the season with statistics that attracted the attention of several Italian and European clubs. Leite in fact collected averages of 4.22 aerial duels won and 6.72 interceptions made per game. He was also the number one defender for distance covered in the Champions League, with 72.4km.
With the arrival of Paulo Fonseca as the head coach, Milan are looking to make his compatriot one of the first gifts and to bolster a defence that struggled a lot last season.
The centre back who couldn’t make the Portugal squad while 41 year old Pepe could…great signing #moneyball
One would argue neither Pepe nor CR7 should be there as they hold the team back, but that’s Martinez for you. Hardly an indicator of talent chosen.
True
Indeed. There are many questionable choices with national teams out there. Not just Portugal.
Well spoken. Not being in the national team doesn’t mean that you are not good; coaches make choices based on what they want. Benzema was left out of the French team for years, yet, he was one of the best attackers in the world.
Meanwhile Inter got Zielinski.
God forbid we miss out on this world class defender. Uuuuffff
If we are really selling Thiaw for 40M why not go for Calafiori? Bologna would be happy since they can go for this guy instead.
Also, hopefully management met Kia and we are getting Zirkzee if not we really should go after Gimenez/A.David/Dovbyk until all three are sold.
What are your guys idea about Lukaku coming as 2nd choice and asking for Casedei as well for 35M package? They would be happy to remove his wages once and for all and Casadei can become quite a regista if given time.
If Saelemakers and Pobega are sold with other small sales and CDK moeny we should have 50-55M. Not including the real possibility of Bennacer going to Saudi, since Pioli is also there and 50M release clause for them is nothing serious. This is a 200M warchest we are getting, including UCL money.
Because a) seems like he is going to arsenal, and soon. B) he’d cost closer to 50M than 40M. C) this management won’t pay high transfer prices, they’re way 2 cheap
Rafa Marín to Napoli, here we go! Agreement in place with medical to follow before pre-season camp.
Real Madrid have accepted and buy back clause will be included in the agreement.
Napoli also agreed with Torino for Buongiorno, still details to clarify on player side.
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Like I said, they’d get both Rafa Marin and Buongiorno. Having an ambitious coach (or is it manager) surely makes all the difference. While us, we’ll still revolve around random names from France, Belgium, and now Portugal.
I don’t know how ADL is affording Marin and Buongiorno not having sold Osimhen yet… Living on the edge, I guess.
As report said, Marin initial fee is only 10 mil with complicated future buy back clause and such. So it’s achievable to get both.
Also there’s a report that he has 100 mil transfer budget with Napoli plus any amount of Osimhein’s sale. All in all, they’re cooking.
True true. Juve on the other hand Di Gregorio Thuram , Douglas Luíz, and now Kopmieners incoming. While Milan focus on Leite and Tamy Abraham and 0 completed signings until now. But people say we have until end of August aka 3rd week of the new season 💩🤡
But what you want? Summer mercato like last year? When we buy players from start to end of mercato? We don’t need to buy 7 players like napoli or 10 players like juve. We do this last 2 seasson and now we need just few players. There are so many options, from free agent’s to players like Leite. Last summer everyone abuse on players what they buy and after their first seasson it was great. Better then mercato with Maldini ( Origi, Balo-Turre) or when you wait almost 1,5 month for De Cetelare who after 1 seasson go to Atalanta
How is the new coach supposed to do a pre season without the players he actually wants or is he supposed to use telepathy mid august or end of August to transfer his ideas to the players. All the top clubs do their business at the beginning of the Mercator to give the players time to adapt to the coaches ideas before the season starts. And about Maldini the backbone of this team is thanks to him so you can just kiss his boots and thank him. Even if he had some misses ( and we saw De Ketelaere posting same numbers as Pulisic or even close to Leao when played under the right circumstances) still had better players arrive. Apart from 3 players that managed to get into the starting 11 where the others 7-8 players they signed last summer. Bench warmers in their teams and national teams as well 😉
Yes for sure Maldini make this team competitive, and definitely he is bigger and better in market because of his name. The main problem is Euro and Copa america . Many players don’t want to make transfers before end in turnament. Last summer there wasn’t any of this and we buying from the start of mercato. Now you need to wait , or sign only mid players. Pre seasson start with half of squad like always. Full squd will be there somewhere before August.
Can i tell you how this new story will finish? Union Berlin will ask for €30 million but wise guys furlani and moncada will offer €10 million. Then we will deal and talk and wait and talk and wait and then juventus and arsenal and man utd will join the fun and at the end Leite will join Chelsea.
Initial fee would be 5M plus bonuses, rejected, then try for 6M, and so on until August.
So arsenal have had a first bid rejected for Calafiori as Bologna want 42m (£)….riddle me this Redbird fans. Why aren’t we in this conversation…Newcastle have supposedly offered 30m for Thiaw, that means an upgrade for a 12m spend…surely this is how we should be acting in the market? One of Italy’s only shining lights of the euros for a spend of 12m to be a starting CB for a long time….
That’s right, and they said they wanna be more competitive than yesterday, but forgot to say how.
Newcastle took in €76 million to comply with PSR. They are not going to put themselves back into a hole to sign a mediocre player for €30 million.