There is no agreement between Milan and Fiorentina for Veretout yet, while Bennacer’s agents will be in Milano as the transfer is nearing its completion.
Milan have already announced the signings of Theo Hernández and of Rade Krunić but there is still a long of work to be done on the transfer market.
Paolo Maldini, Frederic Massara and Zvonimir Boban are working to reinforce the squad of Marco Giampaolo and it is clear that the two main targets for now are Ismaël Bennacer and Jordan Veretout.
As reported by Gianluca Di Marzio last night and by this morning’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, Bennacer should soon become a Milan player. There have been contacts with his agents over the last few days and a total agreement has been reached: a five-year contract worth €1.5m + bonuses per season.
The deal with Empoli has been in place for quite some time (€15m-€16m plus bonuses), but there are two things holding the transfer at the moment: firstly, the player can’t do the medical-check up as he is currently in Egypt with his national team and tomorrow he will face Senegal for a chance to play in the African Cup of Nations final, which takes place next Sunday (match for 3rd place is on Thursday).
Secondly, Bennacer, who joined Empoli from Arsenal, has a clause in his contract which obligates the Tuscan club to inform the Gunners that a club has made an offer for Ismaël, allowing the English club to match the bid. Arsenal are not expected to be interested in making a move for Bennacer and so Milan are just waiting for their formal ‘no’ so the deal can move forward. The agents of the 21-year-old midfielder will be in Italy on Monday and all the last details are being worked on.
Meanwhile, the negotiations with Fiorentina for Jordan Veretout continue. Yesterday Maldini and Boban had a meeting at Casa Milan with Viola’s director of sport Daniele Pradè and with the right-hand man of new Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso, Joe Barone. According to Di Marzio the Rossoneri are now offering €15m plus €2m bonuses (other sources say it is €16m plus €2m).
Roma are also interested in Veretout and Di Marzio claims they are offering €16m plus €2m. In any case, Fiorentina have still not accepted either offer and are hopeful that the two clubs will increase their bids as they rate the 26-year-old Frenchman at €25m. Milan would still like to add Lucas Biglia into the operation but it doesn’t seem at the moment that Fiorentina are interested in having him. It’s clear that Veretout will leave Fiorentina this summer as he’s asked for it explicitly and he yesterday left the Viola training camp and is not expected to return; his teammates have gone to the US.
Milan are looking for alternatives in case they can’t land Jordan: Di Marzio reports that the Rossoneri have made some initial enquirers regarding Fulham’s Jean Michaël Seri, who arrived there last summer for €30m and has a contract until 2022 but may leave as Fulham got relegated last season.
Nicolò Schira of La Gazzetta dello Sport suggests that 24-year-old regista Stanislav Lobotka of Celta de Vigo is another player Milan think about (Boban in particular) and there was a meeting with intermediary Mattia Buongiorno to understand the numbers and feasibility of the operation.
The market is still very long and there will be more names, more negotiations and more obstacles as time passes. In seven days Milan leave Milanello and fly out for the United States Tour.
Bennacer and Krunic are prudent signings, low cost with very likely upside. Veretout i am little skeptical on. Sure, he is proven serie A player but i dont see much of further improvement or ceiling for his potential. For this reason i think there are better alternatives out there like Benassi from Torino, Strootman who is looking for a new club, he is older but with leadership qualities that we are looking for and proven serie a player. Another obvious choice if his release clause is true is Roma’s Pellegrini who apparently has 30m clause. Lobotka is very good, he… Read more »
Check another midfildel vetout altenativ!
A very informative comment. However, what Milan really need is a combative DM, not an AM. Fekir is a creative AM. Milan need to look for a DM like the legendary Marcel Dessailly.
appreciate your positive comment, based on what i’ve seen from our new coach and his style at sampdoria, he is not after a midfield enforcer rather is trying to recruit another creative box to box mid. in theory, in his 4312 formation, CAM will likely be paqueta but his natural position as described by few notable brazilians like zico and scolari is actually as mezella which is in 3 man midfield alongside kessi and bonaventura. for this reason i recommended fekir but it appears he is joining Real Betis for 30m if rumours are true which is very disappointing, we… Read more »
Why are they wasting time on him, he ain’t nothing special.
Considering Bennacer is already a Milan player and Biglia as good as gone, they are still missing another regista and an SS since Suso, Castillejo, Borini and Cutrone are not functional while Silva is a mystery
The thing is Vetrout can play in any position in the mid and he has the caracteristics that the coach wants, he also seem willing to accept wage at around 2.5mil which is the max Eliot set for new players.
Meanwhile Inter got Barella for 12mil loan plus 26mil buy out clause and posible 10-12mil in bonuses, why cant Milan make smart deals like this his wage will be also 2.5mil.
Inter got Sensi in a simmilar way as well.
Because Sassuolo is very friendly to Juve and Inter. We shouldn’t colaborate with them in the future after Sensi’s case. Anyway, Bennacer is too good for Sensi and Veretout has a lot of experience and technique
The reasons Barella went to Inter are the following: Conte, and UCL. We have an unproven coach and no European competition as well as more or less unstable situation with the FFP.
PS not hating on Giampaolo actually kinda excited to finally have a proper strategist as our coach.
Let’s wait and see where we’re at at the end of the mercato but I’m pretty sure whoever arrives Giampaulo will get the best out of them. I am happy it looks like the Lovren deal is dead in the water though.
If fiorentina is playing hardball then let them be like that we should aim for some alternatives there are lots of swap deals that can be made and finish our Mercato to give ample time to our coach to analyse new players…..see what else is required further in striker position because that’s the area along with false 9 that will give us issues….for cb don’t we have ample players, a low cost purchase like Rodrigo Caio flamengo cb will be available for less than 15 million since he signed contract…..then go for a striker and a treq and prepare for… Read more »
Many strange names. But its okay, at least our bigvplayers still here and trying to give their best.
Forza Rossoneri
Yo guys do you know if bakayoko is gone?
Yes he’s gone back to Chelsea and play a game today in which the Chelsea fans kept making fun of him like he’s not worth playing for the club and should be offloaded. He missed so many balls
Haha ok, thanks for the info 🙂
Guys, no one will buy Biglia, he doesn’t want to go back to Argentina, and his wage is a problem, couldn’t the management give him an ultimatum like go a look for a club lowering your wage or get you contract terminated? I know we’d still pay that 3.5M and get nothing out of him but he doesn’t want to end his career so a threat might work. What should the management do?
It will probably cost us more to terminate his contract since we would to literally payoff the remaining amount in a lump some.
All Milan can do at the moment is to continue to try offload to any team that might be dumb enough to take him. Chances are we will be stuck with him until his contract expires.
What about a loan in which Milan pay half of his salary, that might work, he will get injured again, having him on the bench won’t benefit us.
Its not completely uncommon if a player has a high salary and is sold to a club with a lower wage structure that the selling club pays a percentage of the salary of his remaining contract to facilitate a deal. If we infact manage to sell biglia im pretty sure that we will propably end up paying something in the region of 1.5 mil to biglia either in installments or as an one time payout. It might not be ideal but its propably still the best we can hope for and it would still have a positive effect on ffp.
I think maldini is waiting for giampaolo to fully assess the squad before buying or selling anyone. So far the players we have bought are what the coach needed (bennacer), depth player (krunic) and maybe a potentially world class player (theo).
At the moment, only the media are making noises about signing players because they have to sell papers.
Maldini, massara and boban have so far worked silently and professionally and i think its great as it allows the players and coach to focus on pre season training.
Keep up the good work, guys
I’m still not convinced by veretout. For that money there’s many better options. Especially that fiorentina play hard ball and we’re competing with roma. Just move on. Or do what juve does best, if they don’t accept an offer let his contract run out and get him on a free transfer.
Calciomercato suggests Roma are ready to offer Milan 10 millions + Schick or 15 millions + Defrel for Suso. Fonseca sees him as an ideal addition to his 4231 formation
Zaniolo o nada
I would love no money straight Pellegrini swap.
I was reading some rumors about Suso going to Roma on a swop deal with Shick or Defrel and I disagree.
The only swop deal I would do would be if we get from Roma Pellegrini or Zagniolo but never for Shick or Defrel!!!!!!
Please Paolo don’t let Suso go yet.
I trust that if Suso can adapt to SS he will score more than 12 goals, he does something that only Bona can, drag marks and create opportunities. Put Suso in the box and he will shine. I hope he stays and he doesn’t ask for a ridiculous wage upgrade.
I don’t think so, he’s physically too weak and the opposing defenders always run over him, he always has to run around them and beat them by pace or their poor positioning.
no, he cant… his movement so predictable for defender.. lets paquetta on this position… just sell suso…
Seems veretout is heading to roma and although I hate losing out on a player to a rival, I’m happy milan understood his true value and decided not to spend a dime more. Reports saying roma agreed a 19m transfer with 2m in add ons also giving him 2.7m in wages. Thankful we didn’t spend that much, can get better players for that price
Sensi joined inter, seri looks to go to galatassaray, veretout close to roma. These are players I don’t mind losing out to. Now reports saying that Maldini and boban met with someone in regards to modric and he is open to a move as is madrid. Now I get it he’s old, but hes still a untouchable compared to veretout and others. If we get him he’s the type of player that can add class and experience to this team and would slot in perfectly into the midfield. Although I won’t hold my breath as we have been linked to… Read more »