Leeds and Newcastle United could be set to miss out on Florentino Luis, with MilanLive reporting that the Benfica ace is in talks over a potential £30 million move to the San Siro instead.
In truth, the West Yorkshire giants always had a mountain to climb in their attempts to lure one of Europe’s most highly-rated midfielders to Elland Road.
With Benfica demanding a fee in the region of £30 million, Luis always felt likely to be outside of Leeds’ financial reach regardless of whether Marcelo Bielsa could make their Premier League dreams a reality (ESPN).
And, according to reports in Italy, the proverbial mountain in question has just been upgraded from Kilimanjaro to Everest.
AC Milan are going full steam ahead and, as MilanLive point out, talks between the seven-time European champions and Florentino’s agent have taken place this week.
Leeds are not the only English-based sleeping giant who are set to miss out on the Portuguese playmaker, however.
The Mail reported in June that Newcastle are also big admirers of Florentino. But with their prospective Saudi takeover still wrapped up in red tape, The Magpies are powerless to prevent Milan from sprinting clear in the race for the 20-year-old’s signature.
Interestingly, Florentino had found himself out of favour at a Benfica side who have gift-wrapped the Primeira Liga title to Porto thanks to a dramatic collapse which cost Bruno Lage his job.
But, with Lage packing his bags and replaced on the touchline by Nelson Verissimo, Florentino made his first start in nine months in Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Vitoria Guimaraes, completing 90 per cent of his passes and four tackles.
With stats like that, perhaps Florentino could have been the man to challenge Kalvin Phillips for a place in Leeds’ starting XI.
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