AC Milan, Chelsea ‘getting closer’ on Bakayoko loan agreement — reports

Tiémoué Bakayoko’s long-anticipated return to Milan is inching closer, with reports this weekend of “positive talks” between the two teams over a loan with an option to buy. But of course it’s a loan with an option to buy.

The specifics of the deal in question were reported a couple weeks ago, and presumably they remain in the same or at least in the same ballpark: €3m loan fee with a €35m buy-option. That’s not exactly ideal — we’re looking to jettison the surplus, not just keep shuffling them around from loan destination to loan destination — but it’ll do for now. Bakayoko does have two years left on his Chelsea contract still.

The 26-year-old midfielder spent a productive year in Milan a couple seasons ago, and both he and the Rossoneri will be hoping that he can do so again, both in their Serie A campaign as well as their European return in the Europa League following an exclusion due to FFP violations.