Football
Julien Laurens, Correspondent 7y

Will Monaco keep Kylian Mbappe or continue their profitable summer?

Monaco denied on Tuesday that they have agreed a deal with Real Madrid for the transfer of Kylian Mbappe for a world-record fee of €180 million after reports in Spain stated that everything was done. The 18-year-old prodigy is still a Monaco player and his club is adamant he will stay for another season before following his destiny in a much bigger club. They don't want to sell him at any price.

Nevertheless, with Neymar's possible move to PSG, Mbappe could be the other big transfer saga of the summer, despite everything being quieter around him in the last few days. Last week, Monaco threatened to report clubs who try to approach the French international without their permission.

Their offer of a new improved deal for the teenager (his current one expires in June 2019) is still on the table. However, it seems that Mbappe is getting frustrated by the amount of players being sold. He is already very mature for his age but will only stay in Monaco if the team is still competitive. Losing so many key players is not a good start, although it is not a surprise.

Monaco were always going to be the main target for Europe's biggest clubs this summer. Their golden generation, who just produced such an incredible season, was always going to be raided.

Yet back in April, Vadim Vasilyev, the club's vice-president and in charge of transfers, publicly said that only two players would be sold in the summer. Then in May, after the team lifted the French title for the first time in 17 years, Dimitri Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire who owns the club, said that they would not keep a player against his will and that everyone was for sale at the right price.

So they sold and they did so in an incredible way. What helps them to sell well is that many top clubs wanted their best players. Bernardo Silva, the 23-year-old Portugal international, was wanted by Manchester City, Manchester United and Juventus. So Monaco could drive the price up and sell him for €50m to City.

Tiemoue Bakayoko, the 22-year-old defensive midfielder, was at the heart of a battle between Chelsea and Manchester United. Good, Monaco let them try to outbid each other and in the end, got €45m for him from the Blues.

There are not many very good left-backs available on the market? Perfect, Les Monegasques had one in Benjamin Mendy, who has four caps for France and was pretty much wanted by half of Europe. He was made the most expensive defender of all time when Manchester City paid Monaco €57.5m for him.

If you add Valere Germain (€8m to Marseille), Abdou Diallo (€5m to Mainz), Nabil Dirar (€4.5m to Fenerbahce) and Corentin Jean (€3.5m to Toulouse), to that tally, Monaco have sold their players for an incredible €173.5m so far this summer. Obviously, no other club in the world has done better.

They have been the masters of selling, the Yellow Jersey of making profit. Silva cost them €15m and Bakayoko €8m three years ago, Mendy €15m last season, while Germain and Diallo were two products of the academy. And let's not forget Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Anthony Martial, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Layvin Kurzawa and Aymen Abdennour, who were all sold for €180m in total two summers ago and on whom Monaco made huge margins.

It is their business model. You build a golden generation and you sell it at golden prices. Had they kept last season's squad for another two years, there is no doubt they would have been very close to winning the Champions League. Instead, they have been depleted. So much that they are already rebuilding a new generation, with a similar mix of talent, youth and experience.

They have already invested around €50m on new players such as Belgium international midfielder Youri Tielemans, Dutch defender Terence Kongolo or Spanish winger Jordi Mboula. They have managed to keep Radamel Falcao, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar, Djibril Sidibe, Kamil Glik and, of course, Mbappe so far. Falcao, Sidibe, Glik and manager Leonardo Jardim have even signed new deals.

So are they done? Is the raid over? Will they be able to keep their last two real gems, Lemar the sapphire and Mbappe the diamond?

They say that they will. They repeat that there will be no more sales. Yet, it is no secret that Fabinho (PSG, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United) and Lemar (Arsenal) would rather leave. There are five weeks left in the transfer window for Monaco, and they could be five very long weeks.

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