AC Milan were approached by Chelsea earlier today for former Italy under-21 centre back Alessio Romagnoli. Milan have told Chelsea representatives that they consider the defender un-sellable despite an offer of €35 million.
According to Sky’s Peppe Di Stefano, Chelsea had bid €35 million for the former Roma defender, who was bought only last year after a long-drawn saga that ended in the player’s successful €25 million transfer to the fashion capital of Italy (via Di Marzio).
Chelsea’s Visible Desperation
The successful negotiations for N’Golo Kante and Michy Batshuayi couldn’t dispel the clouds of uncertainty regarding the market proceedings this year at Stamford Bridge. Failure to land Kostas Manolas (whose agent had admitted that Chelsea were one of the clubs after his client’s signature), Nikola Maksimovic, Leonardo Bonucci, Kalidou Koulibaly and more recently Giorgio Chiellini (according to reports) has Chelsea looking in the direction of Milan youngster Alessio Romagnoli.
Sky Italia further report that not only have Milan made a straight answer for Romagnoli’s transfer, but also declared that they consider him a crucial part of the club’s future. Indeed Romagnoli is a part of the Italian core that CEO Adriano Galliani and erstwhile President Silvio Berlusconi had envisioned to be the backbone of the club for years to come.
Moreover, a clause in Romagnoli’s contract said that Roma are to recieve 30% of his future sale if it exceeds €25 million, which makes it even more unreasonable for Milan to consider a possible sale (via Football-Italia). The offer comes despite Romagnoli having a very mediocre outing in Milan’s Serie A opener vs Torino, where he was directly at fault for the two goals Torino scored.
Chelsea’s palpable desperation is also glaringly evident as Conte turns his attention to a player he had ignored while he was leading the national team to Euros. Conte had selected West Ham’s Angelo Ogbonna ahead of Alessio Romagnoli, despite the latter coming off the back of a decent first season at Milan.
Moreover, Romagnoli does not fit the description of the kind of ball-playing defender that Conte has been looking for all summer. It would seem Chelsea will again turn their attention to Koulibaly and/or Nicola Maksimovic after this debacle.
