Analysis: Is reported Man Utd, Juventus and Real Madrid target really on the move?
- @snhw_
This raises a few questions about the player’s potential move away from Lazio. The 23-year-old Serbian has reportedly turned the heads of Europe’s elite; Real Madrid, Manchester United and Juventus all being heavily linked with the starlet. However, he, and his agent, have remained insistent over the entire saga that Sergej has a contract in Rome and is happy with the biancoceleste.
Obviously players with a contract can still be bought, yet Milinkovic-Savic will not come cheap; likely to cost upwards of 130-140 million euros. This is a fee that Juventus certainly won’t be able to bring to the table and therefore, if they are going to bid, will have to include a player or two in a part-exchange the other way.
Claudio Lotito, Lazio president, is notoriously tight-fisted and could, in fact, refuse any bid that does not match his valuation of the young Serbian. In this case, considering it appears as though both Manchester United and Real Madrid are dropping out of the race, Milinkovic-Savic might remain at Lazio.
Which brings into question, why all this bother in the first place. It could be that the media were attempting to drive interest in the player, unclear as to whether to the benefit or hindrance of Lazio.
With more reports recently unrealistically linking Thomas Strakosha to Liverpool and Ciro Immobile to AC Milan, we can conclude that Lazio are working in the shadows for the majority of this mercato; instead of playing to the whims of the press.
Serbia’s World Cup is over and the promise was that the decision on Milinkovic-Savic’s future would be made once he had left Russia. We can only wait and see what happens next but the chances of the Serbian staying in Rome are growing increasingly likely day-by-day.
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