Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko wants to stay with AC Milan ‘at all costs’ but the Italian side are yet to make a decision about his future.
The Frenchman is currently in the first year of a two-year loan deal with the Serie A club, having returned in the summer after a successful spell in the past.
The deal includes a redemption clause that can become compulsory next season, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, but Milan are yet to decide whether to keep him until that point.
The newspaper explains that Bakayoko ‘hasn’t played for a month’ and seems to be on the sidelines under Stefano Pioli, who prefers a midfielder three of Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer.
Even when the latter was missing for the last two games Bakayoko remained on the bench, something which led many to question his future at the club.
The current loan deal saw Bakayoko arrive for €5m, with a purchase clause of €15m for next summer after difficult negotiations with Chelsea to make it happen.
The midfielder has not been able to justify the effort made to get him back, though, and in January had offers to move somewhere else.
He chose to stay at the San Siro and not ‘abandon the ship’ after six months, but he may be forced to rethink that choice after not playing in the last seven games.
If he continues like that, his future will lie elsewhere, even though the ‘redemption obligation’ in the current loan deal does activate next year if he makes 15 appearances of more than 45 minutes the summer of 2023.
Milan, then, will evaluate their options in the coming months, but if he were to remain on the bench and out of Pioli’s thinking, they may seek an ‘early termination’ deal with Chelsea.
That would be against Bakayoko’s wishes as he ‘would like to stay’ in Milan, but at the moment, he is fourth choice, and the decision could be taken out of his hands.
