Chelsea could reportedly see talks with AC Milan over an initial loan switch for Tiemoue Bakayoko break down given their valuation of the midfielder.
The 26-year-old has struggled to establish himself at Stamford Bridge and has been shipped out on loan spells to both Milan and Monaco over the past two seasons.
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Given he seemingly doesn’t form part of Frank Lampard’s plans moving forward, he has been heavily linked with a fresh exit this summer but it appears as though doubts could now be raised over the destination.
As noted by Tuttomercatoweb, there is currently a stalemate in negotiations between Chelsea and Milan as the former are asking for €30m as an option to buy fee if the Italian giants wish to make the move permanent.
Milan are not willing to pay that much if they do decide to keep Bakayoko, and so it’s now suggested that they could start to consider alternative targets to further bolster their midfield options.
Given the likelihood that the midfielder will sit on the bench if he were to remain in west London, Chelsea should arguably be open to reducing their demands in order to ensure that a deal goes through.
However, based on the report above, it sounds as though they have their valuation of Bakayoko that they want met, and as things stand for now, Milan aren’t willing to accept those terms and thus they could start looking at their options with Boubakary Soumare and Florentino Luis both specifically mentioned as targets.
For Chelsea and Lampard, after a summer of heavy spending, they will undoubtedly hope to balance the books as much as possible and so receiving such a hefty figure for Bakayoko would surely be a welcome boost.