The summer mercato closed last night and AC Milan parted ways with a total of 14 players. Two of the deals took place on the deadline day, as the Rossoneri managed to offload Divock Origi and Fode Ballo-Toure.
Below is a summary of Milan’s outgoing summer window with all the details and figures, taken from our Substack bonus on the mercato business. Make sure to check that out if you want a more extensive rundown of the summer (you can also take a look at our signings summary here).
Ciprian Tatarusanu
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: End of contract.
Destination: Abha Club.
The goalkeeper’s contract came to an end this summer and after reaching an agreement with Marco Sportiello, Milan decided to let go of the Romanian. He has since signed for the Saudi Arabian side Abha Club.
Tiemoue Bakayoko
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: End of loan.
Destination: Without a club.
Many didn’t even know that he was at the club last season until he came off the bench against Monza in February. With just 39 minutes played and a hefty salary as well, he was never going to be redeemed.
Brahim Diaz
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: End of loan.
Destination: Real Madrid.
After three years at Milan, it was time for the Spaniard to move on, though it’s a shame that it can after his best season yet. Real Madrid decided to bring him back and at that point, there wasn’t much the Rossoneri could do.
Aster Vranckx
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: End of loan.
Destination: Wolfsburg (now Fiorentina).
It didn’t work out for the youngster with the Rossoneri and his departure was thus rather expected. Milan had the opportunity to redeem him for around €21m but ultimately he didn’t show enough of his qualities.
Sergino Dest
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: End of loan.
Destination: Barcelona.
With such a hefty salary, his departure was a must after making just 14 appearances for the club. Milan never intended to redeem him as he was a last-minute solution in the first place.
Sandro Tonali
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: €70m.
Destination: Newcastle.
The big sale of the summer, of course, and one that has been heavily debated among the Milan fans. Given how the money has been reinvested, though, a majority now agree that it was for the best (even if it hurt).
Matteo Gabbia
Deal: Dry loan.
Fee: –
Destination: Villarreal.
The defender wanted playing time and Milan benefitted from sending him to Villarreal, as it helped ease the talks over Samuel Chukwueze. It’s only a dry loan, though, so the Milan product should be back next summer.
Ante Rebic
Deal: Permanent transfer.
Fee: €500k plus €1.5m in bonuses.
Destination: Besiktas.
The Croatian was excluded from the final games of last season due to poor behaviour and his exit was thus inevitable this summer. Milan did their best in the negotiations with Besiktas but they will end up making a capital loss.
Charles De Ketelaere
Deal: Loan with option to buy.
Fee: €3m loan, €23m buy-out plus €4m in bonuses.
Destination: Atalanta.
There was no other option for Milan but to send him out on an initial loan deal, especially with the switch to the 4-3-3 formation. Should Atalanta redeem him, then the Rossoneri will make a capital gain as well.
Junior Messias
Deal: Loan with obligation to buy.
Fee: €3m obligation.
Destination: Genoa.
This is another exit that was expected since the start of the summer. Even Saelemaekers, who we will talk about below, said goodbye to the right flank of Milan and the Brazilian was below him in the pecking order.
Alexis Saelemaekers
Deal: Loan with option to buy.
Fee: €1m loan, €12m buy-out option.
Destination: Bologna.
Given the arrivals of Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze, there was no longer any space for the Belgian who asked for the transfer himself. Milan would have preferred a permanent move, but if he does well there’s a good capital gain on the cards.
Lorenzo Colombo
Deal: Season-long loan.
Fee: –
Destination: Monza.
He got his move in the end as Milan decided to give the green light even before securing a new striker of their own. The youngster pushed for the move as he needs consistent playing time to continue his development.
Divock Origi
Deal: Loan with option to buy.
Fee: €5m buy-out option.
Destination: Nottingham Forest.
Milan worked on this exit the entire summer and the Belgian’s wish eventually came through, returning to England and the Premier League. The English side will cover his entire salary this season.
Fode Ballo-Toure
Deal: Season-long loan.
Fee: –
Destination: Fulham.
The left-back initially rejected the club but with no more options left, he at least accepted a loan move. His salary will be covered by the English side this season and there is no buy-out clause included.
Hey guys, there are only 3 days between the games against Inter and Newcastle. is it possible for us to play both teams with our current XI (except Kalulu vs Inter). can the players regenerate in time?
Well that’s kind of the point of having many options in many positions. As for can we win or not, we won’t know until the end.
Gotta assume with the international break to allow new signings to gel more and let some injured players recover, there has to be some rotation of players. Would assume Starting XI against Inter and rotation against Newcastle especially since both games are in Milan (technically away against Inter). Could see Okafor, Jovic, Chuku getting the start against Newcastle with some consistency in the backline with maybe Tomori pairing with Kjaer for Newcastle and Kalulu with Thiaw against Inter.
Feel like starting to rotate players into the starting line up against such a strong team could only end badly…Would make sense to get one in against a team where they can afford to make mistakes first.
Kajer for Newcastle or Milan hell NO
Should be prime starting xi for both games since those are crucial game.
Yes, thats my point. We should use the best XI in Both Games. But i dont know i the player can handle this. Maybe with early substitutes in the First Game against Inter.
If Pioli hasn’t changed, he’ll use the same starting line up for the first 10 games unless someone gets hurt.
I wish I was kidding.
We could apply to Lega Serie A for adjustment so we can reschedule our match for Friday.
We play Inter on Saturday 16th, while
Newcastle play Brentford on Sunday 17th.
I have a strong feeling, both teams will apply to reschedule their fixtures.
Good point. Would be nice!
Bakayoko is not without a club as he signed for Lorient.
Apart from Caldara, we got rid of all the dead weight. Great transfer window.
Vranckx deal to fiorentina must have fallen through because i noticed in the wolfburg match starting now that he is a substitute player.
Selling was not as successful as buying for sure. None of the departures was a good deal by itself.
Selling Tonali for 70m was probably the worst deal: just consider the money spent on other midfielders. Enzo, Caicedo, Rice were sold for more than 110m. None of them is better than Tonali. Just think that we got approx the same amount as a 19yr old with barely a professional season (Lavia).
Price depends on a lot of things not just being better than someone.
Enzo had 4 great months between Benfica and the Argentinian NT that raised his price to 121 mil. Chelsea was desperate and they paid it. Tonali has never had a stretch like that.
Caicedo was a beast last season in the EPL, so he is already established in that league and 2 of the biggest clubs in that league were fighting for his signature, that’s why his price went to 125. Newcastle had no competition to sign Tonali.
Rice , established player in the EPL, best player on his team and a standard fixture in the starting line up of the England NT, that’s why he got sold for 100 mil. Tonali is none of those things.
Italy has the worst generation of midfielders right now and he isn’t even a starter there. This summer he was playing for the u21 even though he is 23.
Tonali resume wise , especially in the EPL and on International level is not on those guys level. That’s why he went for 70 and those 3 went for over 100 mil.
70 mil was a great deal for Tonali.
Tonali had 3 years as starter, won a championship, played 2 CL seasons, one of which was semi final. None of the named players had CL experience.
The fact that Newcastle had no competition was simply because we don’t know how to sell, we didn’t wait a second to check the market.
There is no way that in today’s market Tonali worths only 70. Again, this is how much a 19 yr old with virtually no professional experience worths.
To sum it up, you are just too biased to accept that the new management messed it up in this case. We lost at least 30m extra.
I know you are not talking about being biased about the new management.
70 mil for Tonali is 70 million more than what the old management got for Kessie, Hakan, Donnarumma, Romagnoli. That’s called messing up, not selling Tonali for a record sum.
Plus, Italian players are not that valued outside of Italy because the very few that leave most of the time they fail.
How many Italians do you know that have succeeded outside of serie A? Not many.
Enzo is a starter for Argentina and played and won the WC, and you comparing that with Tonali playing 2 years in the UCL?
All of that influence the price.
Already playing in that league influence the price.
Just like that bum Frattesi isn’t worth 40 mil that inter paid for him, when Milan actually signed better players than him for half that price.
Nationality and experience in the league matters in the valuation.
Real Madrid paid 100 mil for Bellingham and he is better than all of them and far better than Tonali.
Tonali 70 , Bellingham 100.
Dude if you are happy with the 70m, be my guest.
Today’s market says that we lost a lot money in this deal.
It’s OK, the new management may not be super perfect, it can happen that they do a mistake here and there. Read the other comments: overall they did well, I personally like the overall mercato. But such moves should be avoided in the future.
The moves of Hakan, Kessie, Donnarumma and Romagnoli should be avoided in the future.
Tonali price for what he has done to that point was just right.
You said Enzo 120 mil for only 4 months in EU football.
At the moment Enzo got sold to Chelsea from Benfica, Tonali had only 6 more UCL games of experience more than Enzo, but those 4 months that Enzo had, Tonali has never had. The man won the world cup as a starter at 21. Tonali isn’t even a starter for the Italian NT.
Also, you said Maldini got fired because he didn’t know how to sell. Nah, not knowing how to sell mean maybe getting less than what a player is worth. Maldini was losing some of the best Milan players for nothing.
Just a reminder that without Tonali transfer we won’t have half our latest players. So even if I don’t like it, that was a good transfer and early in the window too, so we can buy the replacement and other need in the team.
No doubts that overall the strategy was OK, that’s why I said “a deal by itself”. But we need to face reality for next time. We have no idea how to sell. Plus we lost potentially 30m – this far to much for a “money-driven” management – which fired Maldini “because he didn’t know how to sell”.
It’s unthinkable that Benfica can sell Enzo for 120+m after just few months in Portuguese league.
In 3 words: EPL.
EPL players are valued much higher than players from la Liga or serie A (even if it’s sometimes undeserved).
If Tonali was english and we were in EPL, sure 70M would be low, but anywhere else, it’s a very good price for him.
Enzo? 120 with 4 months of EU football in Portugal?
We need to take lessons from Benfica, Ajax, Dortmund Leipsig etc.
Arsenal signed Havrtz 75m
Man U signed M. Mount 64m
Chelsea signed Nkunku 60m
Is Tonali better than any of these players?
70m for Tonali was an incredible piece of business. Newcastle overpaid, they must be feeling very bad now, he is clearly not good enough, watch Newcastle matches.
They wanted Barella, but ended up getting Tonali, 21st century scam.
Stop overhyping Tonali.
I’m glad we offloaded so much dead weight by with many of these being loans, it’s possible we will have the same headaches next summer. Especially Caldara.
The only one I think we could have kept was Vranckx. But hope these guys all do well at their new clubs esp if they have an option to get bought lol