Granovskaia puts up huge offer as Chelsea look to replace summer signing

Marina Granovskaia, Chelsea - pic via Chelsea FC

Gianluigi Donnarumma is reported to have received a huge contract offer worth £195,000 a week to quit AC Milan this summer.

The Italy goalkeeper is in the final months of his contract at the San Siro and can move as a free agent. Donnarumma is regarded as one of the world’s best goalkeepers and landing the 22-year-old on a free would be a real coup.

Donnarumma is thought to have rejected Milan’s final contract offer worth £132,000 a week. He now looks destined to move on.

While La Gazzetta dello Sport report the approach from an ‘unnamed club’, a variety of other sources have indicated the approach has come from Chelsea.

Indeed, Eurosport report Chelsea remain keen on the 22-year-old and state they would ‘jump at the chance’ to recruit the Italian if he hits the free transfer market. Reports last month revealed details of Chelsea’s ‘monstrous’ approach.

Some, however, will see the move as something of a surprise. The Blues have – West Brom embarrassment aside – performed extremely well under Thomas Tuchel’s reign. Their record of 12 clean sheets in 15 games have showed them a tough nut to crack. Indeed, summer signing Edouard Mendy has been a big part of their defensive solidity. He was powerless to prevent all five Baggies goals at the weekend.

As such, he could consider himself unlucky were Chelsea to replace him. However, the chance to land Donnarumma on a free appears to big an opportunity to miss. Having already amassed nearly 250 appearances for Milan, he could have another 10-15 years at the top.
Hakan Calhanoglu, Gianluigi Donnarumma Milan

Blues director Marina Granovskaia is reported to have made put the offer before his agent Mino Raiola. Any deal, it’s claimed, will likely include a significant signing-on fee for the keeper. The super-agent is also likely to take a hefty cut.

Raiola could also be quids in later this summer were another of his clients, Erling Haaland, to move on.


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Tuchel demands Chelsea reaction

Tuchel and Chelsea will have an immediate chance to recover from their West Brom annihilation against Porto on Wednesday.

The Champions League quarter-final presents Chelsea with a solid chance to reach the semi-finals. Indeed, one pundit has called them ‘dark horses’ to win the competition.

For Tuchel though, the immediate aim is to get a reaction from his players after Saturday’s heavy defeat.

The result clearly had an impact on the squad, with tensions running high at training the following day. Such matters have now been resolved, but Tuchel has still had to consider what went wrong in their most recent outing.

“It’s very natural there is a reaction to a result and game like this,” he said. “So it is necessary to adapt.

“It is a strong part of sports at this level that the guys hate to lose. So if we suffer a big loss in a weird game, it’s normal there are reactions.

“Clearly there are lines we don’t want to overstep. This happened one day after the match but now things are sorted out. My talk after the game isn’t to be too harsh or emotional; the risk is you regret what you say.

“You have to swallow and accept we lost the game. Then it’s important that we are reliable in analysing the game. We can’t only do meetings depending on the result – we can be critical after wins and we can point out things we like even though we lost 5-2.

“We won all the statistics against West Brom: expected goals, touches in the box, shots on target. If we played the same game again, I bet 99 times out of 100 that we win the game.”

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