Nkunku swaps London for Italian fashion capital

The striker position has been AC Milan’s biggest problem since the last season ended in May. Rossonerri tried with Dušan Vlahović, but they couldn’t match the salary the Serbian forward earns at Juventus. Then everything was agreed with Victor Boniface, only for the doctors to say – his knee isn’t reliable, and a 27,500,000 euros transfer collapsed. For roughly the same amount, Konrad Harder from Sporting was supposed to arrive, but since the Portuguese couldn’t find a replacement, the Rossoneri started looking elsewhere. And it seems they’ve finally found a solution – not one, but two. Of course, we’ll see whether they manage to finalize both, just one, or neither, but their targets now are Christopher Nkunku and Artem Dovbyk. The first is the absolute priority, and supposedly everything is already agreed: a five-year contract with a salary of around 5,000,000 euros.

It didn’t take Milan long to reach an agreement with Chelsea either. Almost all relevant media in Europe claim that the Milanese and London clubs have settled all details of a deal whose value, with potential bonuses, could rise to 42,000,000. Chelsea will get 37,000,000 euros guaranteed, according to Italy’s Sky Sports. Nkunku’s potential arrival wouldn’t significantly affect Milan’s desire to also bring in Dovbyk. But it would change the conditions of the transfer, since the Rossoneri could then only offer Roma a loan with an option or obligation to buy. Gianluca Di Marzio even writes that Milan is negotiating with Roma about a possible swap – Artem Dovbyk for Santiago Gimenez, although the Mexican would prefer to stay in the fashion capital.

Nkunku has been looking to leave Chelsea, and this could be a perfect chance

The Ukrainian, meanwhile, is looking for a way out of Roma, since after 12 goals in his debut season he’s now the second-choice striker, given that Brighton’s Evan Ferguson arrived on loan in July. The Italians kept the option to buy him for 40,000,000, and with that kind of money at stake it makes sense to give him playing time to show his worth. What could block Dovbyk’s move is the fact that Roma would first need to find another striker, and we’ve already seen how complicated that can be. Everything was in place for Harder, but then negotiations between Sporting and Panathinaikos for Fotis Ioannidis fell apart (the agents demanded more money), and everything went to waste. Milan lost patience, and according to the latest reports, Harder is heading to Rennes. We’ll see where Dovbyk ends up. As for Nkunku – that seems to be settled.