Tiémoué Bakayoko yet to convince AC Milan about €15m option — report

We haven’t checked in on Tiémoué Bakayoko much this season, though part of that is because he’s barely six months into a two-year loan at AC Milan.

However, it looks like those six months have not gone too well, with a report from Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sempre Milan) making it sound rather unlikely that the Rossoneri would exercise their €15m buy-option — and even less likely that the conditions necessary to turn that into an obligation next season would be met. And if neither happens, Bakayoko would be heading back to London in 2023, with his contract at Chelsea currently set to expire in 2024.

Bakayoko has made 17 appearances after overcoming an early-season injury, but only 5 of those have been starts and in 3 of those 5, he was hooked at half-time. He did start back-to-back league games in early January, but has not been seen since the 2-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened Spezia, which may yet prove very costly in the tight three-way Serie A title race. The report puts him as only fourth- or even fifth-choice for the midfield pivot, which doesn’t bode well for his future — and that’s even led to some speculation in Italy that his loan could be terminated early, though it’s unclear if that’s possible.

Hopefully Bakayoko can turn things around, for the sake of everyone involved.