AC Milan have reportedly opened fresh talks with Bayer Leverkusen over the possible signing of defender Malick Thiaw.
The 23-year-old joined the Rossoneri from Schalke in 2022, and he has since gone on to make 85 appearances for the club.
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While he’s shown great potential at times during his spell with us, Thiaw has also struggled with injury setbacks and runs of games out of the team, as we saw at the back-end of last season where he was an unused substitute for seven of our last nine Serie A games of the campaign.
With Massimiliano Allegri being appointed as our new coach last month, it had been hoped that Thiaw might be able to establish himself in the new boss’s plans, but according to Antonio Vitiello, it looks as though a potential exit could be on the cards instead.
He reports that new contacts between the two clubs started on Monday, and the German international is said to be open to the idea of joining Leverkusen.
If that is indeed the case, then Milan should push to reach an agreement to sell Thiaw, as ultimately we want players committed to the project and plans moving forward under Allegri and encounter a critical period that will shape the coming years.
It’s unclear if the Milan management envisaged such a rebuild on this scale given so many of our current players are being linked with departures, including some very influential figures too, and Thiaw’s name has seemingly now been added to the list of those who might move on in the coming weeks and months.
Provided that he is indeed in favour of the switch to Leverkusen, that should make agreeing on personal terms relatively straight forward, and so it comes down to whether or not an agreement is reached between the two clubs, with Milan undoubtedly looking to get a sizeable fee for a talented young defender with a big future ahead of him still.
Further, it will be interesting to see the knock-on effect of such an exit, as Allegri will no doubt assess and analyse those already at his disposal, but will certainly want to bring in reinforcements to fill any voids that open up this summer to mould the squad into his own and ensure it’s as competitive a group as possible for next season.
