AC Milan boss Paulo Fonseca has confirmed that Monaco midfielder Youssouf Fofana remains our priority transfer target this summer.
The 25-year-old has established himself as a pivotal figure for the Ligue 1 side since joining them in 2020, while he has 21 caps for France to date.
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However, speculation has been rife over his future this summer, with the Rossoneri heavily linked with making a move for him to bolster Fonseca’s midfield.
Milan have now completed the signings of Alvaro Morata, Strahinja Pavlovic and Emerson Royal to address key issues in the current squad and areas of weakness, and now the Portuguese tactician has confirmed that our full focus is on Fofana as the last piece to add to the puzzle.
“We only have one player left in our market,” he told the media, as quoted by MilanNews. “All the others we want are already with us. I must confess that we have to make some exits. For Kalulu we are seeing what is best for the team and for the player.
“The midfielder is Fofana, we all know it”.
Fofana is currently training on his own with Monaco amid all the talk over his future, but as of yet, no agreement has been reached between the two clubs on a transfer fee to give the switch the green light.
It’s evidently in the best interests of all concerned to get the deal done as soon as possible, but time will tell if the two clubs can reach a compromise on terms and approve the exit.
As reported by MilanNews, Monaco’s director of football Thiago Scuro commented on the situation as well this week, as he confirmed that although the transfer talks haven’t gone as smoothly as expected, there are likely to be ongoing negotiations to find a resolution to the matter.
“If he has no intention of staying, there is no point in him being part of the preparation. It’s about getting the right agreement, the process is not as easy as hoped. We continue, always with a respectful approach.”
Milan currently do have several options in midfield, and so it will be interesting to see the knock-on effect if Fofana does arrive as hoped. While Fonseca noted above that Pierre Kalulu could move on, perhaps our midfield room will be considered to be overcrowded too with Ismael Bennacer, Tijjani Reinjders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tommaso Pobega, Yunus Musah and Yacine Adli already at the Milan coach’s disposal.
Having added players to help mould the squad into his own, it’s important we balance that with exits too both from a financial perspective but also to trim the squad of expendable players and create a group that is most capable of executing his ideas and principles to effectively implement his system and style of play.
