AC Milan have decided to put the negotiations for Emerson Royal on hold because another defender is likely to arrive instead, according to reports.
According to Sky (via Reddit), Milan have ‘frozen’ negotiations for Emerson to advance talks for Strahinja Pavlović, which draws an obvious question mark regarding the plans for the defence given they play different positions.
The broadcaster add that Paulo Fonseca has been consistently testing Pierre Kalulu as a right-back during the first few days of training, and potentially sees him as being capable to do a job on the flank.
Thus, the investment could be diverted towards Pavlović, the Red Bull Salzburg defender who is on vacation after Serbia were knocked out of the European Championship in the group stage.
Meanwhile, Simone Cristao of Radio Rossonera is also reporting that the Serbian is more likely to arrive than the Brazilian, which as a consequence means that Kalulu is heading for a ‘dual role’ again.
When Kalulu arrived from Lyon it was known that he could play both as a centre-back and as a full-back. He has been a back-up for large parts of his time with the Rossoneri, but was a bedrock of the Scudetto win starting alongside Fikayo Tomori.