The curious case of Leon Goretzka and his potential move to Serie A has taken another strange twist. Just weeks ago, the rumour mill had the German in...
The curious case of Leon Goretzka and his potential move to Serie A has taken another strange twist. Just weeks ago, the rumour mill had the German international practically unpacking his bags in Milanello, with whispers of a verbal agreement to join the Rossoneri from Bayern Munich. Now, according to information reaching GoalZaza, the deal has cooled considerably. One might ask what changed so quickly.The answer, as is often the way in modern football, lies in a mix of financial reality and tactical doubt. Milan, for all their ambition in returning to the top of Italian football, are not in a position to absorb the kind of wage packet Goretzka commands at the Allianz Arena. His box to box dynamism is admired, yes, but the club's recruitment team have allegedly baulked at the total cost of the operation. When you factor in agent fees and a signing bonus that looks more like a ransom than a reward for service, the arithmetic simply does not add up. The Italian side have a historical tendency to walk away from the table when the price feels wrong, and this feels like another classic case of the bluff being called.Yet the story does not end there. If Milan are pulling their chair back, Juventus have not exactly lunged forward to claim the seat. The Bianconeri are in a curious state of flux, a side that has parked the bus in more ways than one this season. Their midfield lacks the bite of old, the kind of snarling presence that made them kings of the ugly win. Goretzka, with his lung busting runs and knack for a late arrival into the box, would seem a natural fit for Max Allegri's system. But I am told the decision makers in Turin remain unconvinced. They see a player who has lost a yard of pace, who has spent too much time on the treatment table in recent campaigns. For a club trying to shed its reputation for signing broken talent, it is a risk they are not willing to take.This leaves Goretzka in a rather awkward holding pattern. Bayern are not actively pushing him out the door, but they are also not building next season's tactical plan around him. He remains a high quality squad option, a player who can control the tempo of a game from deep. But at twenty nine years of age, he needs to be playing every week. He needs to be the main man in the midfield engine room, not a rotational piece. The real question for the European elite is whether his best years are behind him or whether a change of scenery could reignite that formidable drive. For now, the Italian giants have seen enough to hesitate. And in this transfer market, hesitation is often the death knell for a deal.
