On January 5th Gazzetta dello Sport reported AC Milan were awaiting a fax from Everton to accept or refuse a Gerard Deulofeu loan offer.
At the time it was explained Everton had no interest in a dry loan, wanting Milan to make a commitment to sign Deulofeu permanently in the summer. Milan were said to be calm about the situation and not ready to issue any ultimatum to the Premier League club.
Now there is some kind of ultimatum, with the Italian newspaper saying this is probably the final offer Milan will make. It’s a €500k payment for the loan and a right for Milan to buy the player for €18m in the summer.
That right of redemption is on Milan’s side, so largely useless to Everton. Indeed, it could even be a negative, because if Deulofeu excels Everton may be able to get more on the open market.
If he doesn’t excel hugely and Milan still fancy keeping him, they’d try and negotiate the figure down anyway.
Gazzetta say an Everton answer could come ‘possibly this morning’.
The answer should surely be a counter offer with either an insistence on a mandatory purchase option if certain targets are met, or a much higher loan fee which is then redeemable if Milan buy the player.
Milan’s Adriano Galliani is an experienced and confident negotiator, but Everton shouldn’t crumble, and Ronald Koeman did the right thing by suggesting there could be other destinations.
As a way to jolt Milan, perhaps Everton can shake some interest from their city rivals Inter.
