(Football news) Chelsea have held talks with AC Milan over the selling of Hakim Ziyech as Thomas Tuchel works to reshape the entire squad under the club’s new owners. Ziyech has handed in a transfer request and would be open to joining the Serie A champions but first an arrangement must be found regarding his salary, which is larger than Milan would ordinarily pay. Milan are discussing the matter internally and with the 29-year-old’s agents. AC Milan have not had the greatest start to the transfer window as both of their two main targets Renato Sanches and Sven Botman are set to join PSG and Newcastle respectively.
Ziyech last season was in and out of Tuchel’s team; he started 19 matches for Chelsea’s 48 games in the Premier League and Champions League. He had joined the Blues from Ajax for an initial fee of €40m in the summer of 2020 on a five-year contract. Hakim Ziyech came to Chelsea and was named “The Wizard of AMS'' but his two years at Stamford Bridge have been magical only in bits and pieces. The 29-year-old has had his fair share of injuries and often those injuries came at the wrong time, but even when he was healthy, he couldn’t quite manage to nail down a consistent starting spot in the playing XI. The few solid runs in the team he has got have been quite largely underwhelming.
His name hadn’t been mentioned for a few weeks regarding a transfer away but now looks the most likely to follow Romelu Lukaku out the exit door, and a potential destination at Milan, who are reportedly working on the deal to make it happen. According to Gianluca Di Marzio, he has gone so far as to claim that Ziyech has handed in a transfer request, and that there is a willingness on everyone’s part to work out the financial details as it might involve a pay cut for the player, the same as in the case of Lukaku. A loan with an option to buy, with a €6m loan fee getting mentioned in Italian reports, along with an option to buy for an unspecified amount. Chelsea paid €40m to Ajax in 2020 and will want to get back most of his transfer fee this year or next summer transfer window
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