Massimiliano Allegri’s priority at AC Milan is to fix the defence, one that made too many mistakes and conceded many avoidable goals to opponents last season.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report, Allegri has a clear idea of one of the main problems that Milan suffered in 2024-25 and intends to remedy it from the beginning of his second Rossoneri adventure. How? By working first on the market and then on the pitch.
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Milan need full-backs, both on the right and on the left. Kyle Walker will not be redeemed, Emerson Royal is on the way out, Alessandro Florenzi’s deal is expiring and Theo Hernandez is expected to leave.
Then, a quality centre-back is also needed because Malick Thiaw is in the sights of Bayer Leverkusen and Fikayo Tomori is not certain of a stay either.
New full-backs
Playing only three competitions (Serie A, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana) but not in any European competitions means that Milan will not have to build an extra-large squad. Let’s say that they will be able to focus on a few signings, but targeted quality ones.
To replace Hernandez, the preferred option is Destiny Udogie, who Igli Tare also liked when he was at Lazio. Tottenham paid €25m for him and his value has certainly not diminished after this year’s victory in the Europa League.
In defence, the former Udinese player makes some mistakes but due to his age (22 years old), Italian nationality and growth prospects, he is considered a ‘safe’ investment. If Theo’s money were to arrive, things could accelerate.
Milan are still looking around and has also asked for information from Junior Firpo’s entourage, whose contract with Leeds United is expiring. Lyon are also interested in him too. Maxim De Cuyper is on the radar too.
Allegri’s dream? Andrea Cambiaso from Juventus, who can be used on both flanks, but he is an unattainable player for Milan after Manchester City’s winter courtship.
Centre-back targets
For the heart of the defence, both Tare and Allegri highly rate Mario Gila, the Spaniard at Lazio who the Albanian sports director brought to the capital. Convincing Lotito is not going to be easy.
Also on the Rossoneri’s notebook is Jaka Bijol, the Udinese defender who can be useful especially when using the three-man line. Luiz Felipe, another of Tare’s obsessions, has found little space at Marseille since January and if called he would answer.
Then there is the rising Fiorentina star Pietro Comuzzo, another Italian that would be useful in forming an Azzurri group at Milanello. He has a high valuation and La Viola wants to hold on to him.
All of this LB put together have weaker stats than Theo Hernandez himself. Maybe the management can lower their own salaries a bit so they can have money to pay players like Theo. After all our management has double the salaries of what other big Seria A clubs have.
“All of this LB put together have weaker stats than Theo Hernandez himself.”
Only if you look at the offensive stats. I’d argue most of the primavera players are better at defending than Theo.
We all know that he has been an excellent defender at some point, with both Milan and France, improving drastically over the years. We can speculate that his lack of effort this year is due to his contractual situation and being unfairly treated after giving it all for these colors.
Exactly @Bartholomeo.
If he was such a poor defender he wouldn’t be on the National Team.
Many easily forget how good he really is. Going through 2 new coaches in one year with different defensive systems and, as you already pointed out, lack of clarity on his contract – could upend any player.
And what would we sell him for, 30M? That does NOT buy you Udogie. He’s 50M. So you’re still in a hold as RedTurd will not spend 50M on a player.
Give the kid a chance under Max to prove himself and rehabilitate his game and market value. Makes no sense to sell him for that cheap
“Give the kid a chance under Max”
He has said the management he wants to leave this summer so it’s not up to Milan to give him a chance. Kid? LOL. He’s 27. Hardly a kid anymore – even though he still acts one.
Well your arguments are always just based on defending Redbird no matter what so they don’t mean a lot. Theo is not a bad defender, he just has a lot of responsobility to help the attack too which of cousre makes it harder for him to defend. Also it seems many of you have some unrealistic expectation for full backs that they need to block every cross that comes from their side like it is Fifa or something.
“Well your arguments are always just based on defending Redbird no matter what”
LOL!!!!!! You haven’t read any of my posts lately, now have you? 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
If not sale Theo for 40m then is stupid not gave him salary and new deal make. This LB is joke for Milan. Let Thiaw go is stupid thing too.
Ricci? I think Inter will buy him like always Inter buy before us.
We are lost with this managment. We not buy David from Lile and buy Gimenez who is not better then Camarda.
This season will be same. We will be 7-10 place
This is just a list of unattainable players for the most part, the time to sign Udogie or Kayode or whoever is now in England was before they went to England. Seriously, Udogie is a starter at a UCL team and already has a similar salary to Theo, why would you think he’d come to Milan?
Just get Parisi or promote Bartesaghi and be gone with it. Elsewhere, Coppola is reportedly available for 10 millions which is a robbery but they’re again contemplating and wasting their time for someone to hijack that talent. Same goes for Ricci, close the deal before Inter hijacks it you incompetent clowns!
Those things aren’t quite as simple. Let’s say Coppola has a release clause for 10M, it’s not a case of sending the money and off we go. His agent will be discussing salary, player development, where he fits into team’s plans. Does he want time to choose? Maybe he already chose somewhere and is waiting for the window to open or for that club to free up the spot for him.
I’m sure you haven’t discovered a secret that somehow Roma, Lazio and Juve’s sporting directors haven’t.
Exactly. But these discussions can already be held with his agent, that is why I am saying they should already be on it.
Theo needs the other 3 defenders to be strong in a four and the midfield also has to be solid, which is why France will continue to include him. Their team has no real weakness, so Theo has freedom to play his game and thrives. He played well when Kjaer, Tomori and Kalulu were back there and on form. Our defense is too weak to accommodate Theo’s attacking style, so I’m ok with him leaving if we can get a quality alternative that is more defensively solid. Or…we need a rock solid RB and another strong CB, and a strong DM and I mean a really good one, then maybe we’ll see the best of Theo again.