The 2026 summer mercato came to an end at 20:00 CEST, and AC Milan made a total of five signings for the first team, reinforcing a few key positions.
While the key details of every transfer are listed below, we would recommend signing up for our Substack to get our annual mercato financial breakdown when it drops. In that article, we will outline the exact costs for the Rossoneri.
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Below, we take a look at the six signings and the details of each, from the contract length to the transfer fee.
2026 Summer Signings
Andrej Kostic (Striker)
Formula: Permanent transfer
Fee: €3m plus add-ons
From: Partizan Belgrade
Contract: Unknown salary until 2030
Kostic being the first summer signing is a technicality given the deal was announced in advance, but it took effect on day one of the window. The Montenegrin was tipped to compete with Francesco Camarda for the back-up role, yet he has been sent on loan to Sparta Rotterdam.
Goncalo Ramos (Striker)
Formula: Permanent transfer
Fee: €74m plus add-ons
From: PSG
Contract: €5m per year until 2031 + one-year option
Milan arguably made the first big splash of the summer mercato, at least among Serie A clubs, as they blew their transfer record out of the water to land the striker Amorim wanted. It was a deal that has divided opinion, but he started well with a goal in his first home appearance on Friday.
Mario Gila (Central defender)
Formula: Permanent transfer
Fee: €25m plus add-ons
From: Lazio
Contract: €4m per year until 2031
It was known that Milan wanted a top centre-back, and they grabbed arguably the best ‘opportunity’ domestically by landing Gila from Lazio. Considering the fee it could end up being a bargain, and he too has slotted straight in.
Sankoun Diawara (Central defender)
Formula: Permanent transfer
Fee: €2m
From: Troyes
Contract: Unknown salary until 2031
Diawara was the third signing of the summer after Goncalo Ramos and Mario Gila. Though he might have cost a fraction of what was paid out for those two, he is in the early stages of his career still and seems to have a very high ceiling. The suggestion is that he will be Strahinja Pavlovic’s deputy.
Diego Moreira (Wing-back)
Formula: Permanent transfer
Fee: €50m plus add-ons
From: Strasbourg
Contract: €3m per year until 2031
Milan had not been linked with a move for Moreira, or at least not since his days at Benfica, so it came as a surprise when the deal was done out of nowhere. It is an operation that could reach over €65m, including bonuses, strengthening the wide areas. He is yet to make his debut.
Omari Hutchinson (Forward)
Formula: Loan with option to buy
Fee: €3-4m + €40m option
From: Nottingham Forest
Contract: €3.5m per season
Milan were linked with countless attacking midfielders in the weeks prior, but Hutchinson’s name came a bit out of nowhere. On Monday night the club announced the capture of the Englishman on an initial loan deal from Nottingham Forest which includes an option to buy.
It is honestly refreshing to see a mercato where instead of boiling the ocean we targeted our biggest need in striker.
Instead of chasing bargain value, we sat still and got two more high quality players.
That’s it!
I’m January. Maybe we add one critical piece that gets us over the hump.
And next summer we’ll add two or three more high quality pieces.
And that will look like building a project rather than arbitraging on player value
Agree to an extent.
It certainly could have been worse.
However it was a typical Milan transfer market in that:
1. another Scudetto winner/player who brought me joy was forced out (Leao);
2. an Italian player who also brought me joy and was finally establishing himself after years of being overlooked (Gabbia) was undermined by an unnecessary signing (Gila);
3. another Italian (it has to be the Italian players) youth player who had broken into the side last season was undermined by an unnecessary signing this season (Moreira) and ghost from last summer’s transfer window (Estupiñán who is being given his fifth or sixth chance to prove himself);
4. yet another Italian player (Ricci) was forced out (to a team that finished above Milan in the table (Com)) so that Milan could give yet another chance to a player (Musah) who last year struggled at a team that finished below Milan (Atalanta) in the table);
5. In the one area that needed the 100% focus, budget, quality upgrade (striker) Milan ended up with a super sub from PSG (Ramos) but let’s hope that works out….
6. Oh and they blew money on some pointless youth players who will probably go nowhere but will block existing youth players (Kostic will undermine Camarda).
So the squad is even less Italian, Milan still don’t have a settled defence (after 20 years), and I question whether they have found a world class striker (who will also struggle because Milan gave up on one of their leading assist providers).
Given the relative lack of disruption however Milan have a chance of making the top 4.
And being entirely honest if Gabbia is frozen out then I hope that Milan fail to make the top 4 and the owners are finally forced out.
Wishing failure on the club doesn’t make me a fan so I can’t say I support Milan this season.
Those who wished failure on the club last season will of course maintain that they are fans.
On Gabbia I note he’s injured so I’ll reserve judgment.
If he is injured and Bartesaghi (and Cisse) are pushed out in favour of the new (or old) transfers then the “Italian” club AC Milan from the city of Milan will be starting with a grand total of zero Italians…..
And I do question how I can support that.
This team could be playing in any league in Europe. There’s nothing that makes it Italian, let alone Milanista.
It’s just an empty brand name.
But we needed a bigger squad.
Gabbia will get plenty of game time, he’s just not a guaranteed starter anymore. The only one of the six who I’d say is, is Gila, but in my opinion he was the best defender in the league last season, so I’m cool with that.
Bartesaghi will also see plenty of game time in this system, he is – and I believe always was ahead of Estupinan. We are yet to see where Moreira fits but again, we did need that depth this season.
Cisse will get more game time than anyone could have possibly expected this season so that’s already a win.
Ricci left because he was behind Comotto (Italian) and he’s too good to be 5th choice. I was horrified by Musah’s inclusion too but to be fair he has been absolutely brilliant so far. I appreciate you’re not watching games so you might not know this from YouTube highlights.
Camarda is now in no danger of us signing an extra striker so he is guaranteed minutes.
Torriani I believe will also see games this season, so I suspect by the end of the year, Italians overall will have had more minutes than last year. Enough? No, but a step in the right direction.
Ramos has been superb – again, highlights won’t show his work off the ball, only the coupe of sitters he missed, but he’s got his eye in now, and he’ll enjoy the extra space in bigger games for sure.
Kostic was loaned out.
Gila is the natural replacement for Tomori as he’s not in the coach’s plan this season (of course before the Gabbia injury case). And based on the early matches, I’m really glad we got a player like Gila.
Why did Tomori (or any of one of the league’s best defences) need to be replaced?
Incase somehow you haven’t noticed, Tomori is just never able to replicate his level of performance during Scudetto season. And every coach has a style and preference. If Amorim thinks Tomori doesn’t suit his need, he must have a strong reason behind the decision.
Don’t get me wrong, based on this recent news, I’m glad that we’ll reintegrate Tomori back to the squad. At least we have someone that has vast experience in the Milan enviroment. And will be a decent back up. Yes, back up, not a starting eleven material.
I’m sorry I tried to read it but I stopped at “ was undermined by an unnecessary signing (Gila)”…
We’re done here 🤣🤣🤣
Stop there and don’t question why Milan have not had a settled defensive pairing for over 15 years.
And come back next year excited about yet another CB pairing.
The fact that you say Gila and Moreira was unnecessary blow all your post credibility to the dust.
It now just seemed like useless rant from a hater that only looked at “Italian” without considering the club’s overall quality.
Even worse when you say Kostic will undermine Camarda, when in reality, it is Kostic thats being loaned out this season and Camarda is the 2nd choice real striker at the club, he will definitely get his minutes if he keep trying.
Also, we are not pushing Leao out. It is him that publicly stated he wanted to go out and his time at Milan is over. Before world cup. Even after he knew Allegri was out and his compatriot will take the coaching helm at the club. And then he destroy his own market by being Bang average at the world cup. At that point the bridge has been burned, theres no way back for him.
If you really cant support this club anymore then go support Como or Inter and save ppl in this forum from your rant.
I have explained extensively why those signings are unnecessarily destabilising to a defence that was only finally getting settled.
Forgive me for not keeping up with the endless loans and back and forth but if Kostic has gone on loan then that is a positive for Camarda (and a negative for Kostic who may turn out like all of the other players who were loaned to death).
Leao was forced out by the club.
They backgrounded him in the media for years (like they did to Calabria and Theo). But you as a true fan bought into the media nonsense and turned on Leao (the player who helped deliver you a Scudetto).
You have got no loyalty to the players. Just some empty brand name.
With every comment you just confirm that you haven’t kept up with anything.
Leao was NOT forced out, he wanted to leave.
Get over it. Idiot.
It’s as simple as you have said it, he is shouting Italian players up n down at what end, Milan is a team of champions till we come across an Italian with great qualities, let’s remain like this, some fans are just in a hurry to achieve nothing, if eventually we start looking like an unbeatable Sporting FC of Amorim every fan will take the glory n brag about Milan anywhere
This has got to be the worst take I’ve read on here all summer. You don’t know football, you don’t know Milan, you don’t know anything really. I can’t even fathom how dumb you sound.
You ‘agree to an extent’ then basically sum up why you don’t agree with anything, so you start off with contradicting yourself.
1) Leao was a locker room problem, he’s not the player he was in the Scudetto season and after, he has an attitude issue, he’s not the type of player Amorim likes (which is important, cause he’s the one fielding the players), he doesn’t press, he doesn’t run, he doesn’t come back in defence. On top of that Amorim plays a 3-4-2-1, Leao can ONLY play LW. We saw last year when Allegri tried to put Leao elsewhere, he was basically useless. And last but not least, HE wanted to leave himself, decided to drop that bomb in the media, no one wanted him, and you still accuse him of being FORCED out? Are you just illiterate or that stupid?
2) How in the world is Gila an unnecessary signing? WHAT? We had issues in defence all year, last year. Even after the signing of Gila, basically every Milan fan wanted the board to go for another quality defender, because we DESPERATELY need them and the ones we have are either really bad or don’t fit Amorim’s system. Secondly, I don’t care if Gabbia brought you joy or not, Gila is 100 times the player he is? And it doesn’t even matter because it’s pointless, Gila was brought in to replace TOMORI, not Gabbia?? De Winter currently has Gabbia’s spot because of injuries and because he’s better on the ball than Gabbia?
3) Another shocker of an opinion, you think a WINGBACK was an unnecessary signing? HAHAH MY GOD. We needed wingbacks the most of all, especially in this system where we play them EVERY GAME, and they have to run so much, covering both parts of the pitch. Again, you clearly can’t read because Moreira was brought in for the RIGHT wing back, where he’ll battle with Chukwueze for the starting spot. Yes, he can fit on the LWB and on the AM, that doesn’t mean he’ll undermine Bartesaghi’s development. But again, this is so POINTLESS, because Bartesaghi IS NOT EVEN A WINGBACK. He’s looked weak there all season last year, he looked worse than Estupinan last game, which I don’t even know how you can manage that. Bartesaghi is a LCB and will be Pavlovic’ backup.
4) Crazy how you’r’e judging players by their team performances, I can’t even with you, the further I read your nonsense the more I feel like I’m explaining this to someone with 0 IQ. Ricci & Musah both barely played, almost NEVER started games, who cares where they finished on the table? Amorim clearly likes Musah more, so it’s good that Ricci will get playing time elsewhere.
6) Cherry on cake, it’s pointless to buy talents? How is Kostic gonna undermine Camarda being at Sparta? When Amorim clearly said he believes in Camarda and wants him to be Ramos’ backup?
My god you are truly stupid, so lost, so out of touch. Read a book, please.
1. Leao wasnt “forced out” he went and brought it to the media’s attention that he wants to leave.
2. Gila’s signing had to effect on Gambia whatsoever as Gabbia is in the center and gila plays on the right. Which was the smartest purchase milan have made because hes An amazing player fitting the system.
Moreira will primarily play in the right or attacking mid but is versatile enough to go anywhere so Bart will still get minutes.
4. Agree to an extent
5. Name me a better striker available than goncalo ramos? Its been a decade since we got someone who offers so much up front.
I feel like you just want to complain because your done with the team but for once I think they had a decent mercato addressing things that they actually needed instead of spending money for the sake of it. A slow process but hopefully to build around.
Three excellent or at least very good signings and three practically insignificant and irrelevant deals. We had nine weeks to “cook” as many like to say and we have only 3 transfers worth mentioning?! On a scale of 1 to 10, I am really not sure how would (and should)
I even rate this s*itshow of a STW.
My best guess is that Amorim believes that he can coach the best out of the current CB’s and get the best out of Diawara and Bartesaghi as back ups. But if their butts get tight, there’s no logical way Tomori doesn’t get reintegrated back especially with the high press Amorim wants to play.
As for backup striker, guess we’ll see if Camarda can make a difference. But between him, Ramos, the 10’s and the wingbacks, there should hopefully be enough production this season. Midfield looks OK too.
Amorim promised to address the mercato in the next presser and explain the plans and moves so I’d be real curious to hear what he has to say.
Tomori has already been reintegrated according to Romano
Maybe, but Turkey’s mercato is still open.
‘
Tomori is too error prone.
Scudetto winning defenders are famously more error prone than other defenders (who exist in your imagination and never, ever, ever make errors).
How did such an error prone defender help Milan finish with the third lowest goals conceded last season (Milan had conceded the fewest goals for most of the season)?
Dude. Form declines and players age. You are stuck in a distant past. Explains your rants. You are delusional.
Declines?
But just last season (that finished just a few months ago) he was part of a defence that finished with the 3rd fewest goals conceded (having conceded the fewest for most of the season)?
Bonucci played 200 games with Chiellini. Milan are starting again with another CB pairing. And next season they’ll start again, and again, and again, and again.
Tomori has sharply declined as a player. Now you’re talking about Bonucci and Chiellini. Jfc. What decade are we in? Old man go take a nap.
Also bud, try to keep up. Mario Gila is simply a better CB than anything we had last season.
Dude I swear to god this Maldinis Heir guy is the most delusional dude I’ve ever seen, look at his stupid rant above, jfc
But no section on the outgoings? Another big failed summer of getting rid of deadwood. But they sure are good at successfully getting rid of academy talent, aren’t they. In addition to Liberali, we’ve now given Zeroli away to Sud Tirol, crucially with…no buy back option, just a future sell on percentage. I’m more concerned by this than by our inability to move a Tomori with one year left on contract or a player like Bondo.
Zeroli wasn’t good enough, was going nowhere.
3 great transfers but not enough and the outgoings were abysmal.
Taking into consideration that Roma and Como have improved their squads especially depth wise and have continuity, Inter is on another level we have only 1 spot to get us into champions league and we are out of golden eggs where redbird can sell them for a massive capital gain.
We need a perfect season in terms of avoiding injuries, Amorim system to work and the players to buy into it( early signs for this are encouraging but let’s not get exited to early because it was Torino and Venezia) and some of our rivals to have a bad season
All in all it was a standard redbird mercato where we are aiming for a top 4 finish( no title challenge with this squad) and competing for the financial scudeto.
Gerry was all talk at the begining of the summer, revolutionizing football for the 5th year in a row but in the end it was all talk.
The only improvement was that we have aquired 3 ready first team players that will improve the squad and we are not buying 10 random 20 mil players and hoping that 2 of them will work so they can sell them for a profit in 2 years.
5 out of 10 mercato in terms of players, let’s see if he picked the right coach, maybe we will get lucky there.
As always, Forza Milan and FY Gerry!
They just got a random for 50 million, potentially.
yeah, u r right about that. Hopefully it works but damn… to many variables need to work out in our favour in order to get back to being competitive
I like that we quickly addressed our two biggest weaknesses and with high quality additions.
Moreira… jury is out; he’s going to have to be fantastic to justify that price tag and we don’t even know where he’ll play yet. I assumed LWB and he seemed to address a weakness there but no idea why we’ve spent so much yet.
Hutchinson and Diawara are low risk deals, let’s see.
I assumed Kostic was to curry favour with Vlahovic’s agent, but we’ll see if anything comes of that in future.
Leao to Galatasaray took much longer than it should have done, but IMO that’s a fair deal and offsets our extra spending for this season.
The way we have treated Nkunku, Fofana, Gimenez, Tomori and Bondo is despicable and embarrassing IMO. By all means make them available for transfer and make them lower squad status, but complete exclusion is just pathetic. Especially as CF, CM and CB are all positions we lack depth.
Complete exclusion is necessary in order for the actual roster players to get necessary training. Excluded players still have access to all facilities and personal trainers. If you include everyone in training then it takes coaching time from the actual roster players.
For me, this is a transition season. It will take two to three “good” transfer markets to fix the damage done the past three seasons. My goal for this season is to see a foundation of a team that will win the Scudetto within the next two seasons and be a competitive in the CL within the next three. I like the fact that there is a clear system, players signed for that system, young players involved, and players not in the coach’s plans being told to leave (not well executed though). I am still not convinced though that this is the right system or coach to back. I am happy to be proven wrong, two wins in two is a good start, and I have been impressed by Ramos and Gila. I will reserve judgement until the winter break.
How many “transition” seasons do we need?
Not signing a valid CB was stupid. Unless they think Diawara (I doubt it) will come good.
We haven’t had a proper transition season. The management blew up the Scudetto core instead of investing in it. They approached every season without a plan and with random signings. After finishing eighth, that should have been the transition season. They wanted a quick return to the CL with Modric, Rabiot, and Allegri; quick fixes, not a long-term solution. Yet, they spent a lot on young players like Ricci and Jashari and then confined them to the bench. With the money spent on those two and Nkunku, we could have gone all out for Nico Paz and Fabregas to build a team for the future. The money from the Reijnders sale should have gone to strikers (Keane and Pinamonti for example). We could have also slowly integrated Camarda and Liberali instead of sending them away. Ultimately, their quick fix failed and now we need another transition season.
The scudetto core was old, a point you Maldini FC boys keep missing. A repeat was impossible.
For clarification, I am including the players up until Maldini and Massara’s departure. Yes some were old. Some got done by injuries like Bennacer. Some were out of our hands like Diaz. However, Tonali, Thiaw, Kalulu, CDK, were all let go too soon and created unnecessary gaps in the squad when all we needed at the time were three quality starters. I would also argue that Giroud, Krunic, and Calabria should have stayed a season or two more as options off the bench. The bottom line is, Cardinale, Furlani, and co. made a mess of things despite spending over half a billion in three seasons. That will take a while to correct even if they play their cards right.
I don’t know… maybe I was harsh with that 5.5 I gave before, but I’m still not convinced. We needed another centerback, especially with Gabbia getting injured. Strange decision not to move for anyone. And could be a costly mistake. Maybe Diawara will come good, but I highly doubt it (I do hope I’m wrong).
Well, we got a few months until the winter I suppose.
Maybe I’ll give this mercato 6 to 6.5, but I feel as if there was a major opportunity missed.
Hope I’m wrong.
As far as the outgoing players, I think they did the best they could with some of the players. And some may still leave to Turkey.
It’s a squad not built to challenge Inter for the title but rather qualify for the top 4 and since that was last seasons (failed) objective, the progress is negligible. With Juve, Napoli, Como, Roma and others competing for those Champions League places, I’ll guess we’ll learn two things: how good a manager is Amorim and how much these players can raise their game.
Nothing special about Inter. We should worry about Roma
Can David Alaba still play? He is a free agent and can still be signed. At least they brought Tomori back in the fold. Not his biggest fan but I’d rather have him back up Gila than De Winter or Terracciano.
They should have signed another striker.
As much as Amorim wants the striker to press, going into the season just with Ramos, who didn’t play heavy minutes the last 3 years in PSG and Camarda, who has barely played in his career, it is crazy not to have another striker in the squad.
I guess will be seeing RLC or Pulisic play the false 9
Belotti, Icardi, Martial, and Leao before Leao M’baye Niang are available free agents. Niang is only 31 years old. Thats crazy.
Icardi and Martial wont run, but id give Belotti a call to be behind Camarda. He was always a hard working striker. Plus an Italian.
It’s always a bit hard to determine how good or bad a transfer window is before seeing all the players, that being said, I think we can already determine some of the good and some of the bad concerning this particular one.
Among the good points, I liked how fast were were to get some of the players, particularly Gila & Ramos. While until now were always had summer drama sagas and lowballing, right now Cardinale managed to immediately get some of these players and sometimes without even the media catching up. I also did like that we spared no expenses, I do get that we had financial restrictions up until this summer, but it’s still nice to see us going for 50M+ players rather than the usual sub 30M.
On the downsides, first, our inability to sell or even loan many of the players we wanted to offload. You can whatever you want about our players not being marketable, but us mentionning that some players aren’t part of the project so late into the summer did us no favour. Having so many unwanted players means we couldn’t obtain more money for more purchases and it’s also a headache in terms of squad registration. The other downside is the squad balance. We have a plethora of midfielders and also attacking midfielders if we consider Rabiot as one (althout I prefer him in the double pivot), Saelemakers and now Hutchison. I guess we also more or less sorted out both wingbacks with Moreira’s purchase. The issue is mainly with the strikers. In a season with 2 main competitions and a playing style involving a lot of pressing, playing with only Ramos (who never played 2000 minutes per season since 2023) and Camarda (a youngster with little to no playtime) is too light. In the defense, if Tomori is indeed excluded, that means we only have Gila, De Winter, Gabbia & Pavlović in a 3 men defense for a whole season playing 2 main competitions. Needless to say, we will need a lot of luck concerning injuries.
Lmao Maldini Hair Ball still talking about a Tomori from years ago. Dude really does live in the past. He probably would want Calabria back too.
Was Maldini Hair Ball dropped on his head as a child?
Tomori from a few months ago….
But your loyalty to the players is once again astounding.
You being stuck in the past about past dreams is astonishing to me. Why are you so incapable of moving the past? I mean you still yak about Calabria.
Because Milan keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over and over again, and people like you are incapable of learning over and over and over and over again.
This has been going on for 20 years now. That’s why Milan have only won 3 x Scudetti and are no longer a European force (or even a force).
You’ll be back next summer saying the exact same things having learnt NOTHING.
Old man, you’re stuck in the past. You live off past memories. The players you once admired are either over the hill or long retired. No, they seriously did make moves to improve this team this summer, but that wasn’t even my point.
My point is your incessant whining. It’s the same old nonsense. The reality is if we followed half the things you want we would be playing in the Serie B. Thank goodness you aren’t in charge of anything.
Also if you look at one of my posts above, I felt there should have been more done including bringing in another top caliber defender.
The problem we had in recent years was bringing in 20 million Euro players fit for midtable teams. We got midtable results because of it. This summer were players of a far different caliber, but unfortunately still lacking in two areas.
I think we’ll have enough to maintain a good run until winter, but we really need to make a move for another central defender of a higher caliber then.
Loyalty to players who move at the drop of a hat to sign for the club that pays the highest salary? What fantasy world do you live in? We’re not talking about Maldini, Costacurta and Baresi here.
Gila is probably the worst signing…..
And it’s exactly the issue with the overreliance on the transfer market to try and ‘improve’ the squad.
Gila is probably a better defender than Gabbia, De Winter, Tomori and Pavlovic.
He’s no van Dijk but he’s a solid defender.
But it’s not just about having ‘better’ players. It’s about the system.
In defence especially familiarity is more important than quality.
All of the best defensive partnerships have played together for years.
Juve’s BBC defence, Real’s (error prone and sometimes just violent) Ramos and Pepe, Barca’s (equally error prone) Pique and Pujol.
Milan have not had an established CB pairing since (conservatively) Nesta and Thiago Silva but probably going back to Nesta and Maldini.
Tomori and Kalulu should’ve finally provided a long term solution after the Scudetto winning season but the club became distracted.
Milan finished with the third best defence last season (having had the best defence for most of it).
Why did they need to then sign a CB?
DEPTH is not the answer.
Milan had found the perfect 4/3 combo with De Winter being utility player who could play across the back three.
If there were concerns about DEPTH then Milan could’ve picked up an experienced CB for cheap and signed an experienced LWB who could have allowed Bartesaghi to cover LCB.
But they’ve destablised the defence AGAIN. And long term it will continue to undermine performances on the pitch.
It’s this lack of focus we see every transfer window.
Gila is miles better than any of our defenders. You are smoking something if you think he’s the worst signing. You got nothing. As expected. Except more and more complaining. Stuck in the past. Kalulu was made of glass.
It’s not about who is ‘better’. It’s not a computer game.
If it was up to you, we would be relegated to the Serie B at this point and you would still wanting Calabria to start because you live off past memories. Dude you’re hopeless.
How could the club have done worse than missing out on the Champions League every year since the geniuses got rid of Pioli (who had finished 2nd)?
This would be a perfectly fair comment if Gila hadn’t already proved you wrong in two performances by showing he is both an upgrade in quality AND (very clearly) already integrated. Again, you are speaking from the unqualified position of someone who hasn’t watched the games he’s played.
And now you are going to talk about how lean our defence was last year… a
And for half a season they were, because we were defending as a unit of 9 and it was working. Then teams started drawing us out, and I don’t for the life of me know why, but we fell for it every week and the midfield continued to protect the defence even when we were behind in games. We finished 5th with the 3rd leanest defence – that extra detail paints its own picture.
There is an adage in football that predates even the era you are nostalgic for – you’re only as good as your last game – it’s not a modern phenomenon. Tomori will always have the scudetto and the legacy that comes with it, and he is still good enough to be in this squad, no doubt, but Gila is an upgrade, I’m sorry but he just is.
Gila is probably the most suited CB in the Amorim’s system. We can see his instant impact. Just like Rabiot last season (I still remember how’s the rejection on this site).
And surely he’s improving our defence.
Glad to see Tomori back. He had a decent season and was recalled to the England team and was amongst their 40 top players before the WC team was cut all based off his actual performances. His performances were solid enough. Mistakes? Yeah, I can sit here all day picking out the mostakes of other players….and no one made more than Bartesaghi and no one is pushing to sell him are they? Nonetheless, aside from Gila and Ramos, Milan are not materially better off this season than last.
And not to be totally negative here’s who I would have signed based this summer (based on real free agents and real transfer):
David Alaba as a reserve CB behind Tomori, Gabbia, Pavolvic, De Winter and Bartesaghi
Alberto Moreno as a cover for Bartesaghi
Moise Kean for 32m.
Total expenditure 32m……
The biggest gamble is Kean but strikers are always a gamble, and who knows, this would be his break out season.
I would’ve convinced Leao and Liberali to stay and the squad would look like:
Terracciano
Maignan
Torriani
MORENO
Bartesaghi
Pavlovic
Gabbia
ALABA
De Winter
Tomori
Athekame
Saelemaekers
Rabiot
Jashari
Modric
Ricci
Fofana
RLC
LIBERALI
Leao
Pulisic
Cissè
KEAN
Camarda
The rest would’ve been sold/loaned or whatever. Anyone who couldn’t be sold or loaned or whatever would be kept as back up.
The above focuses on what didn’t work last season (Estupiñán) and the strikers and gives those players who had started to make progress space to grow.
And I reckon that squad would challenge for the Scudetto. And I make that claim on the basis that Milan were in fact challenging for the Scudetto until February.
The season ends in May not in February.
What happened around February last season that stopped Milan from challenging for the scudetto until May? The other teams got knocked out from the UCL/Europa/Conference league and just like Milan only had to play 1 game a week. Without extra commitments compared to Milan they surpassed Milan and left them in the dust under the dinosaur coach Allegri. It would be nice watching him destroy Napoli this season. It has already started.
Also, Estupinian barely played last season. What didn’t work was Bartesaghi being the weak link in defense but we know that he can do no wrong in your eyes.
You wouldn’t have been able to convince neither Liberali nor Leao to stay because you would have kept Allegri who wouldn’t have played Liberali, just like he isn’t playing Vergara at Napoli, and he already wanted to sell Leao and Pulisic.
Milan not qualifying for the UCL last season was actually a blessing because it meant no more Allegri.
What happened?
You’d need a sports psychologist.
Other teams getting knocked out Europe doesn’t explain why Milan couldn’t beat Cagliari.
Now clearly Milan had a better team than Cagliari.
So why did Milan not beat Cagliari?
It was almost entirely psychological.
Milan can’t fix it’s psychology when it’s in a constant state of flux.
PS Speaking as a left back for 20 years Bartesaghi was certainty not the weakest link, most of the goals he was blamed for were things that were impossible to stop (like a ball being volleyed across his body from 1 yard out and hitting his arm).
This is the same as any other year. Chaotic transfers , and wholesale changes. We just simply can’t choose a path and stick to a plan. Every year it’s the same old. Why are we changing so much…….. AGAIN?? we don’t have the same forwards and midfield from last year. That’s two thirds of the team. We even played a different 3 at the back last year. Our starting midfield is Musah, Chuk and Estu. None of these were starters last year (I do get the real starters are still out). RLC too. Cisse and Ramos are completely new attackers. Only our GK has remained the same. And the backline had a starting change. The rest are all “new”.
When are people going to realize they need to come off their transfer fixation and using it as a means to a cure? Each transfer window, I see ppl come out of the woodwork to get their transfer dopamine. Our previous, most recent success was built upon stability and not rocking the boat. In fact it has always been like that with us and most other sides when successful.We’re not functioning very well structurally as a club. Our recruitment is still poor. If there are fringe players who needed to go (like Bondo, Ricci, RLC) that’s fine but replacing core players each year is a disaster. And I haven’t gotten into whether or not we overpaid for some of these players given UEFA will be looking at our spending as per FFP new rules.
It seems all too familiar: sweeping changes, try to make us forget about our older players and get the fans excited because with new players they can “imagine” and hope they’ll be what we think our brains want us to in a utopian world. But the reality is that it’s more of the same. Do people really think that Hutchinson will perform well…well enough at all much less for us to trigger a 40m buyout? Has anyone really seen or heard of Moreira or are the YouTube highlights what ppl are basing their assessment of him being a “good” signing on? At 50m+ no less. This is insanity. Next year I’m sure we’ll be in the same position with some of the (more permanent) acquisitions, trying to offload and sell to just break even and rinse and repeat….get the fans to go berserk because you guessed it..more brand new players to get your fix off.. and ppl falling for the same formula over and over.
And I’d love to eat my words, I really do but I rarely have to because we’ve seen this movie over and over. And also if I do eat my words …fantastic, it would be great for the club as it would mean we have a player who’s going to perform well… Added bonus.
But I just don’t see it, at least on a grand scale Even with all that being said, I do hope Amorim brings us some joy, both in the way we play and hopefully in the standings. Let’s be clear, we’re not Scudetto material. Let’s, once more, take it one step at a time and hope we can play in the real Europe next year.
Exactly!
Missing out on the Champions League last season cost Milan more than just money.
It derailed the latest project.
Whether people liked Allegri or his football or not is irrelevant.
The fact is he’d made Milan competitive again in Serie A. Milan were challenging for the title until February and then it all fell apart in the last few games and collapsed in the last game.
That collapse has cost Milan dearly. Allegri would’ve asked for some key additions (it was looking like a CB, a CM and a CF i.e. a spine).
I’ve been against a new CB (because Milan really need to get a settled defence so need to stop signing new CBs) but the other two signings made sense. I think he would have really pushed for a quality new striker (maybe Ramos will be a success, who knows)?
Instead it’s another revolution.
You’re clueless complaining all the time Alegri was bad, we had the best market since 2019
I would contend that one of the reasons for turnover is in fact poor transfer market planning, lack of a project and zero strategy.
The truth is that the players we have accumulated as a result are not good enough for any one coach or any one system because they hardly complement each other is any one system.
No coach can work miracles with the players Gerry’s management team has brought in because again most of them are suboptimal. And if there’s any proof of that, just look at how many people we had to loan out because of no sales offers. The only one was Leao who shone once 5 years ago 🙂
You have to transition out of the current batch of players probably at a loss to turnover into players of higher ceiling and quality. Gerry naturally wasn’t able to place a competent structure in place to no surprise. But he is backing his coach with signings that fit the coach’s system. It’s not a cure-all but it’s a step in the right direction.
And I agree in many regards. It’s like a crazy catch 22. Can’t get out of this mess unless first cleaning your own mess (even though Gerry pretends he wasn’t the owner the last 4 years) sort of thing.
On the one hand, I can accept a reset… on the other hand, we’ve been down this road before with the same owner and I’m not sure about his ability to follow through on a long term project. Suppose we don’t make a UCL spot next year? Is he going to stick with his choice of coach or Revo again? My guess it’s the latter. Or how about a spot below 5th? Still stick with the process or overhaul again? Which do you think is more likely given our experiences over the last 4-5 years? I simply don’t know what’s about this time around that will make me go ‘oh this is different ‘ (I do acknowledge your point in that Gerry has given him the players he want. I’d say to a certain extent). Bht I do believe they’re pulling the same transfer window tricks, just in reverse order
I still think Gerry’s “long term” plan is only as long as it will take to sell this club in a package. So 3-4 years tops in which it just has to not suck. Except he’s finally realizing that “not suck” costs money and planning. Also, his face is on it this time. Not Furlani’s. He has to make sure it isn’t a complete disaster.
Seeing Ricci go to Como broke my heart.
My biggest concern is still the midfield. We’ve seen the play starting with Jashari and Musah and we’ve seen the play with Modrić and Rabiot. It’s still a midfield completely reliant on a 40 year old while Rabiot could play behind the striker.
Maldini’s Heir. This guy pops up at the most random times. Wasn’t he going to cheer on Como or something? The team entirely built from foreign players? Or was it Monza? I don’t quite remember.
This clown has been on this website for years saying the same old things.
I’ll put this in more clear language: There is a difference between a player rated at 20 million euros and one that’s 50+ million euros. The latter will deliver results. The former will generally not. We had to up our spending because that’s just how much players are now. It’s not 2005.
Thank God we are not all coaches, sentiment would have ruined us. I know it’s not nice we don’t have Italian core but it is what it is, the other clubs that have Italian core how far have they gone why is the national team poor. For me Ac Milan is looking to build the next generation of Italian players thats why they want to build a team that integrate youth. If you look at our team this season there is Italian youth on the bench in each department. We only hope that this season goes well so they can get minutes.
For Allegri last season he played the most boring football ever you said we were 3rd best defence last season at what cost, first all the players where in defence, what was our output in attack why do you think Leao left, do you think if this season was last season Leao won’t enjoy his football. Who is out there to be signed when you are not in the champions league. This team has a mentality issue, what is happening to Liverpool now. If a team plays fine football, dominate possession when would the opponent have the ball to go at your defence. If we talk about inter why do you think they are good they know how to finish games pressing and taking chances. Look at Roma who is in their defence they play interesting football.
Let’s just fix the mentality of our club including we fans.
Even if don’t win anything this year I will prefer a team that goes on the pitch and the opponent are scared of what will happen. Look at Arsenal do you know how long it took for them to get here it takes season by season with the backing of management
“… the other clubs that have Italian core how far have they gone… ”
Dunno, Inter won Scudetto 3 times in last 6 seasons with Italian core claiming their 2nd star on the way and play Champions League final twice?
Team that went to Europe and disgraceful made history.
Happy with the market, considering the late start with directors and coach still missing we did quite a bit of work
We made 87 mill of sales, including Jimenez, Morata, Colombo and Pobega. With potential future income from Nkunku, Ricci, Gimenez and Fofana which can push it closer to 150m in sales, covering the entirety of this transfer window and leaving us with the capability to strengthen in January when we have a better understand of what Ruben Amorim likes and what we need.
We did a complete reset this season and we will need to be patient in order to do things right.
Maldini said we needed targeted signings after our UCL defeat in the semis. He was sacked, now a bunch of crooks and wannabe Merlin’s are telling us it will take several transfer windows to fix a problem they caused? Genuine madness!
Anything cardinale does now, does not impress me. He’s behind by 4 years . 4 wasted years of yearly “transitions”, “revolutions” and all other invented grammar used to explain policy somersaults.
I can say Milan Mercato is fair. Why I’m saying this is because I’m considering the objectives we have versus the quality of players we have. So considering that, it’s just a fair mercato. Considering we have about 4 competions to play, how are we going to cope ? 3 more solid addition in striker ,defensive midfielder and a centre back would have sufficed.. I would strongly suggest we face Europa League and Serie A and forget about other 2 competitions we have Let’s look for guys from primeval and play Italian and super cup. Attempting to greedily trying to achieve playing in all these competitions with same players may end in another disaster
Btw we did try to sign inacio but according to kush sporting pulled out on deadline day and instead of signing tiago gabriel and finishing the defence they left it so hopefully they get it done in january so im guessing this is the squad they are going for in january
Ramos
Pulusic – Endrick
Moreira – Musah-Rabiot (Modric/Jashari) – Chuk
Pavlovic-Inacio-Gila
Maignan
So for all of you that have a lot of bla bla bla in regard to Cardinale and Red Bird and and and…. Here are the hard facts. Was it perfect, far from it but Rome was not build over night either.
Milan 165.05m
Juventus 164.35m
Fiorentina 150.30m
Roma 124.20m
Inter 101.00m
Napoli 71.2m
Como 64m
In Europe:
1 Manchester City €526.20m
2 Chelsea €406.70m
3 Tottenham Hotspur €366.35m
4 Newcastle United €313.00m
5 Aston Villa €300.20m
6 Liverpool €264.60m
7 Arsenal €227.10m
8 Real Madrid €225.00m
9 Ipswich Town €220.65m
10 Barcelona €184.00m
11Hull City €175.65m
12 Manchester United€173.20m
13 Brighton & Hove Albion€169.50m
14 West Ham United €167.30m
15 AC Milan €165.05m
16 Bayer 04 Leverkusen €157.00m
I would say Red Bird is investing in the future, results will come, we have January window now to tweak the team and then next summer.
This table just proves something I’ve been saying to certain people in both real life and on here fore years…
We (fans, the Lega, the government) can protect the insularity and tradition of Calcio with all our might, but we have to accept that at some point we’ll become a satellite club of Brighton.
Or it can globalise, market effectively off the unique-ness of Calcio and Italy (Como have taken a good lead on this), and then and only then, we might win the Champions League and retain our most beloved Italian talent.
But we can’t do both.
As someone who goes to games and is invested in ‘the day out’ above everything else, I’ll happily do either, but we can’t do both – it’s that simple.
How is Bayer in 16th place if juventus spent seven million euros more than them?
Question now is, who will be cut from the 25 man squad?
The 17 foreign players are-
1. Maignan
2. Pavlovic
3. Gila
4. Tomori
5. Diawara
6. Estupinian
7. Rabiot
8. Modric
9. Jashari
10. Musah
11. Loftus-Cheek
12. Moreira
13. Saelemaekers
14. Chukwueze
15. Pulisic
16. Hutchinson
17. Ramos
The homegrown players that been talked about as part of the team are currently 9-
1. Torriani
2. P. Terracciano
3. F. Terracciano
4. Gabbia
5. De Winter
6. Bartesaghi
7. Comotto
8. Cisse
9. Camarda
With Tomori back as backup for Gila, F. Terracciano seems like the obvious cut? Hes not needed in the back 3, we have 3-4 better options on rwb and central midfield.
Terracciano is Backup of Backup
Yeah I guess they can add him to the squad list as a backup for injured players instead of some under 22 players who can be added freely to the squad in the league during the season.
Still Amorim seemed really displeased with more then 25 players in the squad saying it made it impossible to work with them all enough and arrange good training seassions…
Why would that be impossible? That’s an absurd statement. And yeah, you’ve missed Bondo.
I think you’ve missed Bondo in your list unless I am not caught up with all the transfer news. I think he’ll be the one to miss out.
The list you have I think would be the squad list. The “8” for homegrown is actually at least 4 homegrown plus another 4 either homegrown or association trained (trained at the youth level in any club within the league). Also, you COULD include or not under 22s in your 8. So you could have Camarda for instance with the squad even though he’s not on the list of 8 as he’s under 22… Same with Commotto. For the 4 club trained I guess they would be Gabbia, Bart’s, Torriani and Camarda for instance and 4 association trained would be the two Terras, De Winter and say Commotto. And Cisse would be your under 22.