Whilst most of the focus has been on new signings for AC Milan this summer, the club is always working on sales and Ismael Bennacer could provide a useful cash injection.
As reported by Tuttosport (via Milan News), despite the interest coming from the Saudi Pro League for the former Empoli midfielder, there have been no official offers yet.
One of the reasons for this could be his €50m release clause which is almost certainly more than any team would be willing to pay.
Realistically, Milan would accept a deal for less than €50m but it is going to take a club making an opening bid to find out where Milan really stands on Bennacer’s valuation.
The Algerian’s Milan career has really nosedived recently when you consider that he was a vital part of the midfield in 2022/23 but then suffered a very serious injury in the Champions League semi-final against Inter.
His return during the 2023/24 season did not go to plan as he struggled to get back up to speed and played a bit-part role in the final months of Stefano Pioli’s tenure.
With various midfielders being linked with the club, selling Bennacer to raise money makes a lot of sense.
OH SNAP! No one is banging on our door with 50mil in their hands ready to throw at us??? How come?
Could it be because he’s had a forgettable few seasons with us?
I think we’ll be lucky to get 25m – injury history goes against him
Even 5ml is enough
Yeah sell only defensive midfielder you have in team and then wonder how come your midfield is not playing well.
Even if they’d offer 50mil for Bennacer then what? They would need to spend at least 30-40mil to get some replacement, who probably will be some no-name from Ligue1 who might not even fit the team and league.
“sell only defensive midfielder you have in team and then wonder how come your midfield is not playing well” yep 💯
Worse yet, if the new DM flops there’s no fall back plan. A true DM is needed IN ADDITION to Benny not in place of.
Or could it be that Fonseca will make the players work AS A TEAM where EVERYONE do their part – also when when the opponent has the ball. Not all teams have dedicated DMs.
Yes that’s true. It’s ours mids don’t play defence. I can’t see how it will work but hopefully I’m proven wrong. Fonseca also says he wants a high line. That’s going to be alot of work and player fitness would need to be high.
True, but you need at least some players we can defend a bit regardless of them being pure CDMs or not.
We used to have Tonali, Krunic and “prime-ish” Bennacer who can do the job+Kessie.
Now we have a team of carriers who can’t defend the save their lives+post-injury Bennacer.
Not that I’m that hot on selling Bennacer, but hypothetically if you sell him for around 50M€, you get get Hojberg for around 20M€ and Fofana for around 25M€.
Pure CDMs are generally undervalued, underestimated and not very expensive, but our “algorithm” doesn’t seem to find them.
Adli is a better DM than Bennacer and that is saying something. Almost every time Bennacer started, Adli had to come on later because Bennacer looked like a child being bullied in midfield. Not good enough,,,