Milan face battle to land Drogba
-
Milan face battle to land Drogba
AC Milan, Real Madrid and Inter are chasing Didier Drogba. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP
AC Milan have opened talks over the summer transfer of Didier Drogba from Chelsea. The Italian club's sports general manager, Ariedo Braida, met two of Drogba's representatives in a Paris hotel on Tuesday to discuss Milan's reinforcement plans. But any transfer could depend on whether the Italian club qualify for next season's Champions League.
Braida informed them that Milan intended to buy Ronaldinho from Barcelona, bring Andriy Shevchenko back from Chelsea and sign Drogba as a principle centre-forward. Salary was not discussed, although Milan are expected at least to match the Ivorian's current weekly wage of around £90,000.
However, Milan are two points outside the Champions League places, a gap that would be increased to five with two games left were they to lose today's home derby with leaders Inter while Fiorentina won at struggling Cagliari.
Milan, who were last season's European champions, were eliminated from this year's tournament by Arsenal. They face a trip to mid-table Napoli and a home game against Udinese - who are chasing a Uefa Cup spot - in their last two matches. Fiorentina face games against two more teams battling relegation, at home to Parma then away to Torino on the last day of the campaign.
Drogba, who scored twice in last week's Champions League semi-final defeat of Liverpool, resolved to leave Chelsea after their dismissal of José Mourinho in September. He has told friends that he believes he will be permitted to join another club and has allowed some of his feelings for current manager Avram Grant to become clear. The striker opened a recent column for French magazine Sport with the words: 'Don't ask me what I think of Grant. It's better for everybody if I keep quiet.'
Two other sides who have definitely qualified for next season's Champions League are in the running to sign the 30-year-old: Spanish league leaders Real Madrid and Inter, provided Mourinho agrees to replace Roberto Mancini as the Serie A club's coach.
Grant has been unable to guarantee Drogba's presence at the club next season. On Friday the Chelsea manager said: 'There are a lot of rumours about everybody. Didier can only play for one club, but he's been linked to six or seven. He's at the club. Sometimes he has good days, sometimes he has bad days. Most of the time, you have to give answers to questions like this on the pitch. In the semi-finals, he was good.'
Meanwhile, despite Avram Grant's disclosure that Roman Abramovich called to congratulate him following Chelsea's defeat of Liverpool in last week's Champions League semi-final his job is still not safe, according to a Stamford Bridge executive.
The source also claimed that the Russian billionaire had been absent from many of Chelsea's recent games because he was 'unhappy with the club's results'. 'He is happier now, of course,' the source said. 'But it is still unclear what will happen regarding Grant's future. Mr Abramovich was not present on Wednesday for two reasons. The first is because he was in Moscow due to the changing political situation. But he has also been unhappy at the form of the team.' Grant created history by leading Chelsea to their first European Cup final, but even if the club were to win the competition and the Premier League, his future could still be in doubt, the source said.
Sven-Göran Eriksson, who has been told by Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra that he will be sacked at the end of the season, is one candidate to replace Grant if he were to leave, with the Israeli a possible mover in the opposite direction. 'The club would be interested in Grant. The owner likes him very much,' a City insider said. West Ham are also thought to be monitoring Grant if they decided to replace manager Alan Curbishley in the summer.
-
Sell sell sell!!!
-
Seems like a lot of Spanish and Italian clubs like to pick players from the EPL... Rvn, Henry, Flamini, Drogba... But apart from Flamini, the rest all seem like those over 30s kind... Seems like the EPl must find some place to dump their old strikers... lol
-
I think Drogba is still "potent" leh
-
one day, when Drogba leaves EPL, what will you remember him for?
for me, the tiger beer commerical sums it all up.
-
No, I want Drogba to stay!
Frank Lampard too!