{"id":7028,"date":"2026-05-11T03:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=7028"},"modified":"2026-05-11T03:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:42:08","slug":"man-utd-hijack-e50m-chelsea-move-for-aerial-monster-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=7028","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd Hijack \u20ac50M Chelsea Move For \u201cAerial Monster\u201d Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n\t\t\t<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Transfer news: Manchester United have put AC Milan centre-back Strahinja Pavlovic on their radar ahead of the summer 2026 window. However, Chelsea are currently the clear favourites to sign him, according to Italian transfer expert\u00a0Daniele Longo\u00a0via Get Italian Football News. The 24-year-old Serbian has hogged the headlines across the Premier League after a sensational 2025-26 Serie A season, where he managed four goals and an assist in 31 games playing on the left of Milan\u2019s back three.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transfer news: Manchester United enter the race for Strahinja Pavlovic as Chelsea lead chase of AC Milan\u2019s standout defender<\/h2>\n<p>Milan have set a firm \u20ac50 million price tag and have no plans to let him go for cheap, especially since they\u2019ve already lined up Lazio\u2019s Mario Gila as a potential replacement. Chelsea\u2019s interest has an added dimension as bringing in Pavlovic could pave the way for Benoit Badiashile to exit Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>While Badiashile has previously been linked to Milan, the Rossoneri prefer a straight cash deal over any player swap. Pavlovic moved to Milan from RB Salzburg for \u20ac18 million in 2024 and, after a rocky start, has completely turned his form around this season. His stats back up the hype: he\u2019s in the 83rd percentile for aerial duels, the 84th for clearances, and the 81st for blocked shots.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transfer news: Does Manchester United\u2019s interest in Pavlovic actually make sense given their priorities this summer?<\/h2>\n<p>To be honest, not really, at least not as a main target. Manchester United\u2019s defence is already decent enough, while the real problems for the 2026-27 season are in midfield and attack, where they are still desperate for more goals and creativity. Spending \u20ac50 million on Pavlovic feels like a distraction from the areas that actually need fixing.<\/p>\n<p>Transfer news: Plus, he still has the odd positional lapse, which shows up in his 67th percentile ranking for goals conceded. It suggests he\u2019s still a work in progress. United\u2019s interest looks more like they\u2019re just keeping tabs on the market rather than preparing a serious bid, and INEOS will likely want to spend that money elsewhere. Chelsea, whose style of play and need for ball-playing defenders fits Pavlovic much better, are the ones who actually have a real reason to push for this deal.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-author\">\n<div class=\"c-author__avatar\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aacadf3e95bfb01ce13b429dee6bd0a5e90e6507900d73b4a9224a6381a644be?s=75&amp;d=mm&amp;r=g\" width=\"75\" height=\"75\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-author__thumb\" alt=\"Photo of Rohit Sarkar\"\/>\n    <\/div>\n<h3 class=\"c-author__name\">Rohit Sarkar<\/h3>\n<div class=\"c-author__bio\">\n<p>Rohit Sarkar is a passionate writer with a deep love for multiple sports, but his favourites are football and cricket. Since 2017, he has been covering football and cricket news with a keen eye for detail and compelling storytelling. He is a fan of the beautiful game and a specialist\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- \/\/c-author --><\/p>\n<p> <!-- \/\/c-share --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t    <!-- Begin Tabola Creative --><\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transfer news: Manchester United have put AC Milan centre-back Strahinja Pavlovic on their radar ahead&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}