AC Milan are expected to sign a central defender this summer, and Giovanni Leoni is a name circled in red on their list of targets.
As Calciomercato.com write, January’s intuition has brought the desired results and now the €4,852,667 paid to Sampdoria seems like an absolute bargain for Leoni. The 18-year-old has impressed in his 17 appearances, especially against Napoli when he cancelled out Romelu Lukaku.
Allegri a big admirer
Massimiliano Allegri has watched Parma several times this season, sometimes even live at the Tardini, and has been left ‘bewitched’ by the personality of a defender who has now very firmly entered Milan’s sights.
The teenager has become the primary objective to reinforce a department which will see the farewell of Malick Thiaw, destined to return to Germany with Bayer Leverkusen linked.
In the next few days Parma will speak with Leoni’s entourage to take stock of the situation. Their idea would be to try keep the former Sampdoria talent for at least another season, but the call of the big clubs is strong.
Parma would want €15-20m to sell Leoni and they are aware of the strong interest from Milan, Inter and Napoli. Igli Tre has not wasted a single second since he took over as Milan’s sporting director and is working on several tables both incoming and outgoing.
The hope of the director is to quickly define the situation of Theo Hernandez with Al-Hilal, because with the potential €35m from his sale he would present an offer for Leoni, a clear strategy to try beat the competition.
I mean they’re selling Kalulu and Pellegrino who will bring in combined just under 20 millions. That’s your Leoni money. Theo’s proceedings would probably be spent on a new lb.
Theo sale means we need 2left back not just replacement
We’ve already got Bartesaghi & Jimenez. Also Flo can play there if renewed. How many LBs do we need without UCL?
Sure hope they know what they’re doing and all of these moves are the correct ones.
Yes yes more kids so we can develop them – then sell for Profit. This is how you build a title winning side🤡🤣
If you are ACM player & foreigner, would you stay in ACM in this awful situation juro? Player like tiji, theo & mike want to leave, there is no point to keep player that want to move. Leoni have huge potential, if late he will snatched by IM or napoli
Probably not but the ownership and management created the sick environment themselves and doesn’t offer much accountability for the sporting side of their “business” project. I don’t blame players if they wanna leave but I will under no circumstances accept it as an alibi for the owners to peddle our players left and right.
Leoni is a great prospect though but signing any players doesn’t offer any assurances if they all can just be skipped out as the squad needs coherency and consistency which only comes over time otherwise it will just become an endless merry-go-round of repetition. Ideally Milan and for that matter every other club shouldn’t buy more than 2-3 players each year while promoting some youngsters to keep a core while overall improving where its needed.
This!
Should have been possible to click on a “like” button
Thanks
Well… Let’s not forget that the players aren’t “signing for life” when they join a new club. They see it as the “next step” and nothing more. I’m 100% Tijj never intended to retire at Milan. Players come and players go. Happens to every club in the world. No more maldinis, tottis, giggses etc.
So if we get to enjoy a (almost) world-class players stay for a couple of seasons in Milan and to great things, fine. Great actually. If we can get money when they leave – even better. Everyone will leave eventually.
100% sure
Well I did make it clear that I wouldn’t blame players for leaving the club at present considering how the club has been run by the ownership but when that is said if players wont have any loyalty then there is no real reason to idolize or support them if they just consider AC Milan a stepping stone in their careers.
Being football supporters is to a great extent about loyalty and I will never buy in to the opposite neither from fans or players but maybe I’m just getting too old for this sport and supporters and pampered overpaid players who think the world revolves around them. A sport without Maldinis, Baresis and Giggs’s is basically a sham in my view.
Yeah. I know… 🙁
I hope this guy join Milan soon, he is similar Bastoni
He is physically stronger while he’s still 18.
But Bastoni has a lot more other qualities.
Leao – Santi
Chiesa* – Lucca*/Camarda
Pulisic
Modric*/Liberalli
deCuyper* – Ricci* – Fofana – Saelemakers
Zappacosta* – Frendrup*/Bondo – Adli or Benny/Zeroli – Jimenez
Pavlovic – Gabbia – Tomori
Bartesaghi – Coppola* – Leoni*
Maignan
Torriani/Sportiello
Looking from Theo’s perspective, why would he go to Saudi?
He is only 27 and next year he wants to play in the World Cup.
He would want to go within Europe and there should be a lot of clubs willing to get him.
Bad season yes, but he has another level than most of the other Milan players.
“He would want to go within Europe and there should be a lot of clubs willing to get him.”
Should be? Maybe. But there isn’t a single one. That says a lot.
Théo should understand that no club sees him the way that he sees himself and settles for a lower salary (like 1.5M€ – 2M€ per year) which might increases the likelyhood of him staying in Europe.
Milan should understand that a player is free to refuse a transfer and thus sell Théo to the first club he agrees to, even if that means only getting 15M€ out of him.
It is getting very unpleasant situation for Milan. Milan cannot win here as no club Theo would accept will make a decent offer and the offers that would satisfy Milan will get refused by Theo.