Cristian Zapata, Ignazio Abate, Riccardo Montolivo, Andrea Bertolacci and Josè Mauri will all leave Milan at the end of the season, it seems.
Milan are still fighting for a place in next year’s Champions League, but Ivan Gazidis, Leonardo and Paolo Maldini are already thinking about the 2019/20 squad.
Five players have expiring contacts at the end of the season (worth a reported total of nearly €10m net per season in salaries), and according to reports in Italy – none of them will be getting new contracts.
It’s practically a given that Riccardo Montolivo, Andrea Bertolacci and Josè Mauri will leave as they’ve played a total of less than 460 minutes this season. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, however, Ignazio Abate and Cristian Zapata are also on their way out of the club as free agents.
Milannews.it has gone into details in regards to the Zapata case: as reported by the reliable Antonio Vitiello, the Colombian center back is getting close to saying goodbye after seven seasons. There was a meeting in January between Leonardo and Iván Córdoba, the agent of Zapata. The request of the player was a 2-year deal worth €1.7m, which is the same salary he earns today.
The Rossoneri, however, never complied with the requests of Zapata and had offered him a one-year deal. In addition, in January there was a possibility of Zapata leaving, with Fenerbahçe in pole position to sign him, but the leadership decided not to let go of him due to the injury of Caldara.
A month after the meeting with Córdoba, Leonardo called him to say that the club has changed its mind in regards to the contract proposal and they can no longer offer him a one-year deal for reasons of costs. Since then, Zapata has received no signals that he’d be getting a new deal. Vitiello adds that Zapata would only accept a two-year contract and so an exit seems inevitable.
Zapata and Abate have both served Milan well this season as Gattuso’s side has suffered many injuries. A revolution in midfield and attack is expected, but there may be some additions in defense.
Unless we buy enough players to have a backup for the defence and midfield, i wouldnt release all of them, especially abata, zapata and maybe mauri, lower wage and 1-2 seasons contracts, but if the managment has a plan to make some investments in the squad in ALL ROLES (defence, midfield, wingers/attack) then aside from abate (leader and past history) i would relase all of them, and i would add a few more to that list or sell list.
Milan should get Everton Soares from Brazil. His combination with Paquetá will be formidable. Milan should get him now. This is kind of player we need !!!!
the deal is most likely happening as they have already agreed to personal terms.
Pato yes Everton soares the only Brazilian talent not paquata is flop and weak player but Everton am sure even 100 million he deserve
Hope you are not mistaking cricket for football?
1.Give Abate,Zapata n Mauri 1 more season. Then we don’t have to invest in defence this year.Even Abate plays as CB 3/4 games this season.
2.Sell Suso, Conti,Biglia,A.Silva, Samu n get a healthy balance (totally 100million euro atleast or even more if we r lucky)
3.Buy Castagne,Gosens from Atalanta, coz they will cost little money but give huge boost to the squad(by remembering FFP obstacle). Also try for 1 in b/w Neres/Hakim Zeich(both can play as Rw/Lw/Ss)
4.Bring Rabiot as free agent
Sell conti and bring castagne and gosens hhhh none of them are better than conti they are better under gasprini but in reality conti is far better than them under gasprini conti was the most assisted fullback in the world
Abate maybe… he has been an excellent back up player… Zapata for a discount if not we can get fresh younger blood… but Mauri’s time is up. We can get Tonali or Sensi.
So this team will consist a bunch of kids? Reina, Abate and Zapata should act as a senator team to these young lads, therefore offering Abate and Zapata at least one year extention would be good.
Out with Bertolacci, Montolivo, Mauri
Milan will need to spend a lot this coming season.
If we make it into UCL, then we’ll need to step up from players like Hakan and Biglia.
We should do all we can to get Bakayoko even though he says he is considering returning to Chelsea. Milan needs that strength in the middle of the park.
Terry bakiyoko thinks milan is small team and chalsea is better so let him go they already signed stevano senzi
Abate and Zapata deserve an extension, and we need both.
Totally agree.
Abate should be kept for sure he saved us so many times this season, plus he can play as a CB as well, he is great as a back up. Zapata can go but where are we going to find a cheap good CB back up after that ? Rumors say we are after Mustafi 25mil, but why waste money on him when we already have a decent back up, instead this money should be used for a top class LW which should be a priority in the summer. As for the mid it seems Sensi is our top target,… Read more »
this is what makes milan since years so weak.selling their own jewels for peanuts and end up buying players for too much money. never understood why we let go of locatelli and buyed the injury prone biglia. now we are planning to sell dona for 55 mil. this is way to less.compared todays prices. dona should be sold for nothing less then 70-80 mil.loca should have never left for less then 25-30. but milan is still far away from beeing proud of their own players.we never got to be proud just becouse we havent reached champions league or won the… Read more »
U know uve hit rock bottom when departure of zapata is something unwanted.