Gennaro Gattuso says ‘choices must be respected’ in regards to Leonardo Bonucci transfer rumors

Leonardo started and played in AC Milan’s first preseason match, despite being heavily linked with a move to Paris Saint Germain of Ligue 1, where he would join his former Juventus teammate Gianluigi Buffon.

Bonucci joined Milan from Juventus last summer after a €42 million transfer from Turin, but it appears the Milan captain does not want to stay at the San Siro, even with the Milan being able to stay in the Europa League after today’s ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In regards to any potential transfer of his captain, Gattuso said:

I’ve talked to him. Leo’s a great professional and an incredible player, but we must listen to the players too. After that, we’ll see.

I can only speak well of him until now, for what he’s given and giving, but at certain times choices must be respected: when a footballer behaves like a great guy, there will never be any grudge on my part.

He wants to win, but so do we. I know what we said and the club know what we said. Now we wait because he’s an important player, who we want to keep at all costs

Bonucci is an experienced defender and it would be difficult to lose a defender of his profile with a difficult Serie A season as teams like AS Roma, Lazio, Inter Milan, and Napoli all vying with Milan for spots in the Champions League, not to mention everyone trying to knock Juventus off their pedestal on top of Serie A, which is even more difficult with the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.

Milan should be hanging on to their players, with a few exceptions, not looking to sell them on. Even a €40 million deal to PSG would leave a hole in the Milan backline that would require spending some money to fill. Gattuso said that he would want to keep Bonucci “at all costs,” but when money talks in football, it’s often not a surprise that a player moves on when the manager doesn’t want him to leave.

So it looks like Bonucci is inching ever closer to a move to PSG. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!