There have been positive steps taken by AC Milan towards the renewal of Mike Maignan’s contract, according to a report.
TMW speak about the ‘David De Gea effect’ and how Maignan is closer to renewing his contract with Milan than he was a few months ago. After having asked for a very high salary of around €6.5m net plus bonuses (similar to Rafael Leao), the demands have dropped considerably as the end of his contract approaches.
Maignan’s contract expires in June 2026 and it is not known how the goalkeeping market will evolve in 18 months. What is known is that there is a deflation regarding the overall salaries, because De Gea received €11m net (€22m gross) at Manchester United and is getting €2m net from Fiorentina.
The Frenchman currently receives €2.8m but the feeling on both sides is that around €5.5m could be the right amount. The idea of the player’s entourage to ask for €5.7m per season, while Milan ares offering around €5m.
Things have been ‘at a standstill for quite some time’ but there is confidence that distance can be bridged with bonuses, perhaps slightly increasing the fixed salary part.
Maignan continues to show his importance with big saves in big games, and if huge offers came in from other clubs they would still be evaluated, but for now an extension seems more likely.
Seriously offer the 5.5M… what are we expecting? getting Donnarumma back for free?
Exactly. Pay the man and do Theo next.
The decrease in wages for one GK does not mean an overall decrease in wages for all GKs. While it could well be true, to point to a single player as an overall effect is poor journalism imo.
5mil with bonuses seems fine to me. It’s motivation to show up and prove his worth. And especially given his concerning injury record recently
The skyrocketing transfer fees and salaries in the European leagues took a huge hit from the COVID epidemic, with many teams still struggling to find their financial footing.
Real and Barca, who were the ones always leading the top of the transfer fees and salaries, both took huge financial hits – Real has now mostly recovered, but it did so by completely refraining from paying anything resembling big transfer fees in the last couple of years, and instead, relying on its reputation to just wait for top players to run their contracts out and get them getting them for free.
Barca, on the other hand remain mired in debt, having had to sell off shares of its money making operations to financiers in order to just survive the debt payments. They have had to do some creative accounting with their player rosters (e.g., putting Andreas Christensen onto a dubious “long term injured list” in order to make financial roster room for another player they needed/wanted, and letting İlkay Gündoğan go on a free transfer back to Man City), and so are in no position to be paying big transfer fees and salaries.
The Premier League decided to finally get serious about its profits and sustainability rules (FFP) and last season docked points from Everton and Nottingham Forest for their violations. Man City was brought up on 115 rules violations and the outcome of that case should be decided in the coming months.
Under the shadow of that ongoing case, Man City spent only €25 million for one player in the last summer transfer window (they got Gundogan back from Barca for free). Their recent failings, losing three matches in a row, likely has something to do with the club roster not having its usual overflowing stable of expensive talent.
Roman Abramovich, the big spending Russian oligarch at Chelsea who had helped kick off this massive overspending, was basically kicked out of Chelsea and England after the Ukraine war started – the accounting after he left showed he had loaned some £1.5 billion to the club, which he forgave after selling the club.
Chelsea’s new owners started off on a massive spending spree also, but more recently have sold off almost all the team’s older players to not run afoul of the EPL’s strict FFP rules.
Newcastle, not wanting to run afoul of these rules, has had to stop buying new top level talent for the last several transfer windows, despite being owned by the Saudi PIF, and their results have also suffered.
So the only big spenders left are PSG and the Saudi Pro League.
Most players don’t want to live in Saudi Arabia.
Living in Paris is fine, but for most top level players, Lig Un is considered a step down in professional achievement.
PSG, in the meantime, also seems to be scaling back its spending, having spent huge sums of money in the past on the likes of Neymar, Messi, Suarez, and Mbappe, only to have them all leave without winning the Champions League.
Facts!
Great post. I think there are still a couple of relatively big PL clubs who have enough financial strength and could be looking for a GK. Apparently Tottenham are not happy with Vicario. In 2025 Mike would be at bargain pricing and Tottenham could surely afford to offer him the originally demanded 6.5m. Are Sanchez and Jorgensen the best Chelsea can do? Newcastle could also use an upgrade at GK, and even with some kind of reduced spending, Maignan at ~20-30M (final contract year) and 6.5M salary will be doable. In other words, we can’t f-k around.