Chelsea, AC Milan negotiating wages, loan fee for Bakayoko — report

Tiémoué Bakayoko’s immediate future may not lie at Chelsea, with the 23-year-old set for a place on the bench, playing second or perhaps even third fiddle to our midfield starters. Seeing this as an opportunity, AC Milan have approached Chelsea to broker a deal taking the midfielder to San Siro in one of those typical “loan with option to buy” arrangements common in Italy.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sport Witness), the negotiations are progressing well, although Chelsea rejected Milan’s initial attempts to get a very favourable deal by having Chelsea still pay part of Bakayoko’s wages. Another issue, perhaps the biggest one, is Chelsea’s demand for a €5 million loan fee to let Bakayoko join the Rossoneri.

The purchasing option, rumored to be around €30-35 million, is reasonable as it would allow Chelsea to recoup most of the fee spent on Bakayoko last summer. Sarri hinted in his press conference that this deal may still happen even after Batshuayi and Zouma’s loans took care of Chelsea’s overage in the non-homegrown player department.

The Serie A’s transfer window closes in a week, so we should know soon what may lie in Bakayoko’s feature. For now, he continues to train with the first-team and took part in yesterday’s official photoshoot day.