AC Milan have made moves to reinforce the midfield during the current window and it could be a preparation for Franck Kessie’s exit, a report has speculated.
Tuttosport (via NotizieMilan) writes that Milan have managed to find an agreement with Bordeaux for the purchase of Yacine Adli after weeks of negotiations with the Ligue 1 side, and interestingly the 21-year-old will remain at Bordeaux on loan until next summer.
According to the paper, this purchase may have been made in view of Franck Kessie’s farewell at the end of next season. Obviously the Ivorian has become almost irreplaceable for the team, but the improvement of Sandro Tonali, the arrival of Adli and the two-year loan (plus possible permanent signing) of Tiemoue Bakayoko could make his farewell much less bitter.
Kessie’s contract expires in 2022 and after reports suggested initial optimism over a renewal, that seems to have faded and another difficult negotiation appears to be on the cards.
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Yup. Romagnoli will definitely leave for free. Kessie quite possible, too.
It’s the 2 for free/year policy Milan have apparently
Sell him now or regret it later. But of course we will let him go for free. Jesus Christ, we have become a punching bag for players and their managers.
Too late now, had chance to make a sum and reinvest and lost that time – keeping Kessie is the biggest fail of the window IMO; it shows no lessons have been learned
It’s unfortunately that both Kessie and Romagnoli might leave for free, but the quality that they both offer is difficult to replace at a good price (even with the small sums each would have brought in). Simply put, Romagnoli is in the 30mm range and Kessie is in the 40-50mm range. Milan doesn’t have 70mm to spend to bring players of equal quality in this window. I think the calculus is that keeping them on expiring contracts will increase the likelihood that the club finished in the top 4, thus bringing in the UCL funds that will be used to replace them, and keeping the club in Europe’s most prestigious competition. If you sell them both now and don’t adequately replace them you’re looking at taking a step back in terms of where the organization is at the moment. Ex. A is Juventus, who just got rid of Ronaldo, their undisputed bomber, and replaced him with…Moise Kean. They are already -5 from 1st place. Finally, there is the chance that they do renew, with Kessie being the more likely of the two. It’s not ideal, but I don’t think there are easy solutions here.
In 15/16 Juventus had -11 after 10 rounds; after 38 they’ve had +9.
Yes, I remember that. They also had a still capable Buffon, the BBC in their prime (Barzagli played the second most matches of his Juve tenure that season), a fresh Alex Sandro, a fresh Cuadrado (and the beast Lichtsteiner to boot), Pogba (10 goals from midfield) and Marchisio running the midfield (this alone compared with now is like night and day), a young and hungry Dybala (23 goals), and Mandzukic in his prime.
Interestingly, Napoli who had finished in 2nd 9pts behind Juventus that season, but were in their first season with Sarri, ended up closing the gap over the next two seasons to 5pts and then 4pts, and that was after losing Higuain to the very same Juventus.
Also, Ronaldo scored 101 goals in 134 games for Juventus (3 seasons). That’s a .75 goals per game rate. That’s almost irreplaceable. For comparison try .54 for Shevchenko and .62 for van Basten during their time at Milan. After Sheva left we luckily won the 2007 CL despite the ageing squad (thanks to our other remaining bomber Pippo) and then nothing until 2011 (Ibra).
And which sane club will offer 30M for Romagnoli ? be real bro.
Bro, I meant that’s his value when there isn’t a year remaining on his contract. I think that’s fair given I’ve seen some clubs getting 50-60mm for rando CBs. Obviously with one year left his value is more like 10mm and Kessie’s is more like 15-20mm. Bro.
Give him what he wants and then sell him for 50M next summer….how hard is that?
Yeah we could or should do that