AC Milan wanted an experienced central defender to arrive this summer, but David Odogu was the man to arrive late on.
Throughout the summer, there has been a focus further up the pitch, though everyone was aware of the potential need for another defender. However, one has not arrived, at least in the form imagined, unfortunately.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Milan forced to change
As Gazzetta dello Sport (see below) states, ‘Milan fans had gone to bed hoping to wake up with an extra (Joe Gomez) in the centre of defence’. However, he did not arrive; instead, the Rossoneri are placing their hopes on a youngster.
A prospect for the future, but is he what Milan need now? Well, it was not really a choice made by the club, but rather a hand forced by the mercato itself.
An agreement had been reached with Liverpool and Gomez, a four-year deal and a €15 million transfer, the flight was booked, and everything seemed done. However, the Reds placed things on hold at 10 am. The Rossoneri waited and waited, and waited until 4 pm, and then it was time to move on. A necessity, even if it was frustrating.
The new Thiaw
The club consider Odogu to be ‘the new Thiaw’, and with a €10m deal, there is little downside to the move. At 19 years old, he has already got experience, albeit minimally, in the Bundesliga, and Chelsea previously considered him for their youth project.
Comfortable on and off the ball, the defender is smart as well as being a good defender. He is one for the future, but he can also be one for now.
Leoni only had 17 matches under his belt. It’s a punt, nothing more nothing less
This guy has 3 and not full games, in a different country. He doesn’t speak Italian. Incomparable. Leoni would fit in much better…
Leoni was around 40mil….
A 19yo coming from abroad in Serie A as a CB, with 3 professional matches in his belt as a potential improvement to our current defense. I wish him all the best and rooting for him to become a superstar, but chances are we will see him play a couple of matches this season at most. And if he actually shines and replaces anyone from the current trio – they need to pack their bags immediately.
Somehow I deleted part of the first sentence. Imagine for the club seeing the 19yo as an improvement to the squad. Good, let’s have him and he might flourish, but as Tare more or less said about a week ago (while trashing his only striker) – we definitely need to bring an experienced starter CB.
No problem with taking a gamble on him. The issue is we never hold onto them, instead we cash in. This is exactly like Thiaw. Buy cheap, if he does well in 2-3 years sell to epl club for 40m. Same with Kalulu. Biggest issue is redbird is seeing Milan as a feeder club. That’s very disappointing. Our entire strategy now is that ie tonali, Reijnders show we sell a big player every summer.
Everyone is optimistic about this kid but he could be another Pellegrino
We may show optimism about him – it would be great to support a young promising player for once (instead of the usual hate from day 1), but don’t get it wrong – we are far from optimistic about the club’s defense this season
Just imagine if we have one injury to the current defense playing a back 3, we’ll be in trouble.
yup. I have a feeling once de winter and anthekame get up to speed we might move to a 4-4-2 of some sorts by force. Not enough CBs for a 3-5-2 (to your point, one injury and we are screwed ) , we also dont have a hold-up target man to do 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 But we got plenty of fast, swifty attackers in Santi, Saladman, Puli, Rafa, Nkunku for a 2 attacker system and plenty of midfielders for a once a week game. Who knows, they are all talented and if we are being honest, on an individual basis, we got plenty of talent. Putting it together as a team, consistently, will be hard.
We need to play 442
I would have loved to see Akanji here, but, he turned us down. Joe Gomez was a surprise, and, I’m glad it didn’t work out. David Odogu is an unknown figure, but, as long as he can bring himself down to learn, the sky is the limit. Some people criticized Reijnders signing; when he didn’t perform too well in his first season, the criticism continued. Now, we’ve sold him for good money, some are still criticizing. Milan is no longer the Milan of old. So, if we get turned down by the likes of Akanji, Archie Brown, Hojlund, we have to make do with what we have, and slowly build a big team. Reijnders turned down some big names to come to Milan two years ago. We are slowly coming up.
Absolute failure of a mercato to cover the most critical position of need despite 160mil in purchases… Odogu maybe another VVD in the making but he won’t be able to slot in to the first team immediately…. What was the though process?
Capital Gains. Right.