Chelsea want €30m from AC Milan for Fikayo Tomori — reports

Fikayo Tomori’s strange and mysterious shunning over the past 12 months or so — literally 7 appearances in the 2020 calendar year — is set to culminate in a loan move this month, and the surprise destination appears to be none other than the current Italian league leaders, AC Milan. (No, this is not some time-traveling post from the ‘90s; Milan really are leading the Serie A at the moment!)

Milan are hoping to solidify their squad for the second half of the season and this unlikely title push, and are close to adding a midfielder (Soualiho Meïté, from Torino), a striker (Mario Mandžukić, who’s a free agent), and a defender, which is where Tomori comes in (now that previous primary target Mohamed Simakan is out with a knee injury for the foreseeable future).

Reports from Transfer Oracles Fabrizio Romano and Gianluca Di Marzio agree that the two teams are in discussions over a loan with a right of redemption, and basically the only hang-up is the value of said clause. Chelsea reportedly want €30m, while Milan are trying to lower that potential fee to something probably more commensurate with the fact that Tomori has only 27 career top flight appearances (in addition to 120 at the second division level) and is just a distant fifth choice at the moment at the Bridge.

Either way, this move is looking more and more likely with every passing hour and day, and really, there is little time to waste if we think this is the best choice for all parties involved. Lampard might claim that Tomori is part of his long-term thinking, but we’ve seen scant evidence of that over the past 12 months. This could very well be goodbye indeed, if it goes through.