Our dealings with AC Milan lately, far from resembling the million pound dealings of businessmen, are starting to resemble playground squabbles. And as the bickering over Ancelotti continues to simmer just below the surface, it seems we’ve found something else to fall out over with AC wanting both Drogba and Shevchenko, and Chelsea refusing to barter.

Whilst we’ve agreed to let Drogba go to the San Siro in principle, it appears Milan are doing their best to bleed us dry where money’s concerned again. Sources within Milan suggested yesterday the two clubs had agreed a fee. However, with the suggestion being a £10million down payment, rising to £18million over three years, it’s hardly surprising Chelsea’s reaction to this wasn’t one of ecstatic confirmation. Chelsea paid nearly £24million for the Ivorian and with three years remaining on his contract have put a £30million price on his head. Now that might seem fair enough to most of us, but we all know Milan like to screw as much out of us as possible, so maybe it’s no bad thing to see us digging our heels in for a change.

And that certainly seems to be the case as far as a deal over Shevchenko’s move is concerned. He may well have been linked to a move back to Milan virtually since he got to Chelsea but the chances of that happening now are looking less likely than ever, with Chelsea apparently putting a block on any possible sale. Having crowed about negotiations ongoing with Drogba, of Sheva, Galliani has said “Unfortunately, the response we feared came for Shevchenko. Chelsea consider Andriy unsellable. This epilogue makes us very sad.”

But is it a case of Chelsea really saying that or is it more a case of us telling Milan they’re not getting him back as a freebie? You see, whilst they were only too happy to charge us £30million in the first place, Milan don’t actually want to pay to have him back. Instead, Galliani has proposed no transfer fee, although he’s very generously suggested Milan would take him on loan and pay a bit towards his £130,000 a week wages. I just bet they would!

And this from a club who have always had a very ‘special relationship’ with Shevchenko? The supporters adored him during his time there and it’s well known his close friendship with Berlusconi has seen the owner end up godfather to his eldest son and yet they’ll use words like “unsellable” when talking about him publicly? But so far, Galliani’s the only one to have come out with this statement, not Chelsea, so maybe it’s actually a case of Chelsea valuing Shevchenko a lot more than AC do these days?

Filed under: Current Players, Rants