When Paulo Fonseca arrived in the summer, his first port of call was to meet with Rafael Leao and tell him about his centrality to AC Milan. Now, that seems miles away.
There is no denying that Leao is one of the best wingers in football when he is at his best, and his smile at its widest. However, that smile has dwindled with his performances falling below the level expected of any Milan player, let alone him.
With the Portuguese, it is difficult. A player who possesses as much quality as him should not be on the bench regularly. Players worth €175 million do not do that. A contract belonging to the highest-paid player on the team does not justify constant placement on the bench.
However, this is where Leao finds himself.
Paulo Fonseca has already established that the team comes first, and the winger has seemingly not bought into this yet. For this reason, reports suggest that the duo have ‘no harmony’ anymore with the tensions heightened, report Tuttosport (via Milan News).
Due to the tensions, the winger has lost his centrality to the Milan project, and he has instructed his entourage to look for a way out in January if things do not change.
Crock of you-know-what…
Like Redbird would cash out on it’s biggest asset in a distressed sale? LOL!!!
If he refuses to play or continues to play poorly or sparingly, he’ll no longer be our biggest asset come the summer transfer window, he’d drop to 2 or 3 behind Theo and Mike. So it’s very likely true and if he shows them that he’s serious, they may be forced to sell. They may have to gamble and fire Fonseca to save Leao, which actually may be what’s best for the team, I don’t know.
If you have a high performance vehicle you don’t hire an Uber driver to race it around the track.
This👆
Milan would be foolish to sell Leao because of a manager whose exit is drawing closer…Fans want to see result, Leao isn’t good enough then show us the result without him to prove it… This is football not newsball if Leao isn’t good for the team, then prove it on the pitch. Putting Okafor in the starting eleven to try and do what Leao does doesn’t make sense.
“A player who possesses as much quality as him should not be on the bench regularly. Players worth €175 million do not do that.”
Leao isn’t, never was, never will be a player worth 175m. That’s just a release clause negotiated in a contract.
Half of Barcelona players have 1 billion release clause. All of them combined are not worth 1 billion.
On the market, you are worth whatever another team is willing to offer for you. And so far, no one has offered Milan anything even close to half of 175m.
Why is he benched regularly?
Is it because he plays like trash and his effort is even worse?
Other overrated players have sat on the bench before, too. Coutinho at Barca is a perfect example. Barca actually paid 135m for him, and he sat on the bench or got loaned out around Europe.
If you play like trash, you sit on the bench.
Do you wanna start again? Work harder instead of crying, moping, and sulking around.
That’s a weak mindset and loser mentality.
It’s not Leao’s fault. It is actually the fault of the people that decided to make him the center of a project. He is just a supplementary piece on a team, not a centerpiece.
A crow will never be a peacock, no matter how many pretty feathers you shove up its @$$.
Leao is not a system player
Well said.
Sack Fonseca? The only answer.
I m tired for this drama. Relationship between coach and player are now like telenovela..