It has been widely reported that Thiago Motta has a verbal agreement with Juventus ahead of potentially taking over there next season, and yet AC Milan have not give up.
A report from MilanNews starts by establishing a basic principle when it comes to doing business in football: long as there are no signatures, nothing is ever certain.
We have seen Franck Kessie declare that he will remain with Milan and sign a new contract after returning to Italy before then departing months later on a free, while Marcus Thuram reached an agreement with the Rossoneri then scored the goal to earn Inter the Scudetto.
Will it be the same for Thiago Motta and Juventus? We will see. However, the issue does seem more open than before and all while Motta’s Bologna are competing with Juventus in the race for a Champions League spot.
The story is that the Italian-Brazilian head coach reached verbal agreement with Juve chief John Elkaan without, however, putting pen on paper in any way. Could Milan get themselves firmly back into the running?
One thing is clear: the management are now back to evaluating other options to replace Stefano Pioli because of the backlash over the Julen Lopetegui news. Among the profiles admired is certainly – and for some time now – also Motta, who ticks a lot of boxes.
He has been a revelation with Bologna and is basically a perfect fit in terms of knowing the league, having an attractive playing style and the mentality of a player who didn’t retire long ago, plus a record of developing young players.
In short, he could be the ideal candidate to give new life to the project of Gerry Cardinale, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and co., if they decide to act on their interest and if they manage to overcome the competition from Juve.
Where the Bianconeri have stalled is related to Massimiliano Allegri’s future, who still has the esteem of vocal supporters groups like the Ultras and also has a contract until 2025 worth €9m net per season.
There is also the very concrete hypothesis that all Allegri’s staff would need paying off too, so it could become very costly just to sack him and try start afresh. In all this chaos, who knows if Milan might make their move.