The penalty save against Dybala has put the Rossoneri goalkeeper back in the spotlight; thanks to his saves this season, he has already earned the team several points. For now, contract renewal talks remain at a standstill, and his departure (with Chelsea in the lead) seems inevitable, but the club will make one last attempt

In the post-match press conference following the game against Roma, Massimiliano Allegri distanced himself from the matter: “How did I convince Maignan to stay? It definitely wasn’t me. The credit goes to Claudio Filippi, one of the best strength and conditioning coaches around. And then there’s the club, which really wanted to keep him.” White lies, as such, do no harm. But, based on what had become clear over the summer, Mike’s short-term future had unfolded quite differently. At one point, the Frenchman had become a virtual Chelsea signing—to whom, it should be emphasized, he had even said yes. The deal didn’t go through solely because the two clubs couldn’t reach a financial agreement: with one year left on his contract, the fee the Rossoneri were asking for was deemed excessive by the Blues. And so—this must also be emphasized—if that agreement had been reached, Mike would be in goal at Stamford Bridge right now. Once the deal with Chelsea fell through and as the weeks went by, the Rossoneri club rightly made it a priority to secure their goalkeeper. And Allegri, even if he publicly plays it down, certainly played a role. How can you blame him, though? In a Milan team that needed to be rebuilt from the ground up, Maignan was one of the key figures—a recognized and recognizable leader on the field, in training, and in the locker room.

Against Roma, after saving Dybala’s penalty, the Meazza crowd let out a roar even louder than the one for Pavlovic’s goal, and his teammates smothered Mike with hugs. It’s hard, though—very hard—to imagine this sense of satisfaction carrying over in the coming weeks to the fourth floor of Via Aldo Rossi. In that room where players are handed a pen and a sheet of paper to sign on the table. Nothing new from this perspective, and in this case, “no news is good news” is a saying that’s totally inappropriate. The issue resurfaces every time Maignan becomes “Magic.” For example, as in Turin against Juve (Gatti), in Bergamo (Zappacosta), and, indeed, against Roma. Superb saves that squeeze out real points in the standings, as if they were goals. It’s only natural, then, that as time goes on, his contract situation stands out more and more. Mike’s contract is expiring, and in two months he’ll be free to negotiate with another club where he can play starting in July. There are no signs of progress at the moment; the stalemate continues, and what was once a dialogue has been frozen for some time now. The paths of the player and the club are inexorably heading toward a parting of ways, even if Milan will try to make one last attempt. A renewal offer (through 2028), with a salary increase from 2.8 to 5 million, had already been put on the table for the Frenchman a year ago. But then it was Milan itself that slowed things down. And now Maignan seems quite determined to rekindle his relationship with Chelsea (but keep an eye on Bayern and Juventus as well). The Rossoneri are obviously looking around, and have been for some time. The first names to end up in Tare’s notebook were those of Noah Atubolu (Freiburg) and Zion Suzuki (Parma).