Milan’s Bacca wants to go to Villarreal, but will he be used as a part of a deal for Castillejo?

Carlos Bacca wants to leave AC Milan for Villarreal. Milan reportedly wants Villarreal’s Samu Castillejo. And Milan are rumored to have a deal set for Bacca to go to Sporting Clube de Portugal on loan, but Bacca would rather go to Villarreal, but VIllarreal doesn’t want to include Bacca in any deal for Castillejo.

Confused yet? Let’s try and break this down.

First, reports indicate that the latest winger that Milan wish to acquire is Villarreal’s Samu Castillejo. Castillejo, is a 23 year-old winger former U21 Spain international who had a pretty good season for Villarreal in 2017-18. He made 38 appearances for the Yellow Submarine, scoring six goals and, more importantly, registering eight assists last season. He came on strong at the end of the season as well, helping Villarreal to a 5th place position, including scoring two goals in the 4-2 victory away at Deportivo La Coruña and coming on late to score the goal that completed Villarreal’s second-half comeback against Real Madrid with a goal that sealed a 2-2 draw at home.

He’s a young prospect and having a pair of young, quality Spanish wingers in Suso and Castillejo would make Milan the envy of most teams in both Serie A and La Liga.

However, Villarreal are intent on cashing in on their young star winger, and have reportedly declined including Bacca in any deal.

This is where things get interesting. Their are also reports that Milan have made a deal with Sporting CP for the Lisbon club to take Bacca on loan with an option to buy, but that Bacca is holding out for a return to Villarreal, where he spent last year on loan.

Bacca came to Milan from Sevilla, where the Colombia international scored 49 goals in 108 appearances. He made 43 appearances for Villarreal last season, where he scored 18 goals for a career renaissance back in La Liga after only managing to score 13 goals for Milan the previous season.

Bacca wants to go back to Villarreal, but so far the two clubs have been unable to make a deal for him, as the valuation of the striker by the clubs appear to be off by several million euros.

However, given the willingness of Milan to use Bacca as bargaining chip in a deal for Castillejo, it appears that Milan is willing to lower their rumored price in an effort to swing a deal. Villarreal might be playing hardball now, but at the end of the day, money has a way of greasing the wheels. This deal makes sense, and a deal to send Bacca out on loan to Portugal might be enough leverage to get a deal to Villarreal done.