AC Milan youngster Davide Bartesaghi has hinted at collective frustration over how hard it is for young Italian players to break into senior teams compared to others in Europe.
Bartesaghi spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of the Italy U19s European Championship semi-final against Spain and it was put to him that it must be unusual to see players of a younger or similar age like Lamine Yamal and Kobbie Mainoo competing in the final of the senior European Championship earlier this month.
Bartesaghi’s response was telling about the lack of faith in youth players shown by most Italian clubs and even the national team setup: “They may be great talents, but we have them in Italy too. But they give them the chance to play…”
Bartesaghi made his senior debut for Milan last season under Stefano Pioli but soon returned to the youth setup once other injured defenders started to return.
There are five players from Milan in the current Italy U19 squad and Bartesaghi admitted that this does help with the understanding on the pitch: “And this helps us, because we know each other well, but there is also a lot of understanding with the others. After all, we have been preparing for this European Championship for a year.”
Arguably the most exciting player of those five is Francesco Camarda, who many are watching extremely closely. Bartesaghi explained that he is constantly surprised by just how good the 16-year-old striker is.
“He’s smaller than us and he’s always amazed me. Already at the first training session in the Primavera you could see that for his age he was formidable. He’s also a good boy, this helps him,” He said.
Bartesaghi was also asked about the creation of Milan Futuro, to which he said: “I really like the idea, it serves as an apprenticeship to get to the first team, which is not an easy thing. Milan Futuro will play in Serie C, it is a championship not to be underestimated. We will play there too.”
When asked if there is a player he looks up to most, he chose one of his Milan teammates: “My reference is Theo [Hernandez], who I have the opportunity to see every day in training. But I have always been inspired by Marcelo when he played for Real Madrid: I like him a lot, even if we have slightly different physical structures. Many people say that I resemble [Riccardo] Calafiori or [Alessandro] Bastoni, I am happy as a centre-back, but I prefer to be a full-back, which is my natural role.”
They let them play meanwhile we sign another LB…..
How is the Theo, Jiménez and Bartesaghi thing going to work?
There’s Teracciano too. Throw in Kalulu and Florenzi and the FB position is chocked. And all are natural right sided players too except Bartesaghi
so Bartesaghi can be on a competitive level with Jimenez when takes over from Theo in 3-4yrs.
milan plan is to have core starting 5-8players from the futuro. and this will mean in 3-4 yrs time and by then the stadium promised will be close to completion. the future is bright but we are hungry currently and it will affect the young crop.
In 3-4 years time?
Is this more ‘depth’? Future depth….
How many times have we been told about some bright future?
And all we have to show for it is Calabria – who the club is currently backgrounding over his contract renewal to try and get rid of him so we can replace him with 3 RBs.
Because apparently the best things in life come in 3s!
Well given we sold Nsiala and Simic, the core of the Primavera team and defence and are now looking to buy Pavlovic, I wouldn’t waste your time getting excited by Primavera players
Nsiala wasn’t a key player in the Primavera and the difference between the Primavera now and the past is that some of these players have already won European Championships with Italy, they are as good as young players from other leagues.
From how I see things, I think the Ownership is looking at the Primavera and Futuro as a money making machine or at least a balance sheet machine, much like Chelsea and Madrid. We’re already seeing it this summer.
I think Bartesaghi needs to be loaned, but only at Serie A team, a low tier one like Venezia, who can guarantee him a starting spot. 2-3 years its enough, or if they want to sell him, insert the buy back clause. I think he can be like Abate, one of the best right back in the league when he comeback to us, but on the other flank.
Abate (and Antonini) were probably the only lions to ever work out.
None of the players that have broken into the side since have ever gone on loan.
Donnarumma
Calabria
De Sciglio
Locatelli
Sending players on loan is the death knell for their careers.
The loanee club has no interest in their development because they don’t own them, and Milan have no interest in their development because, well, they loaned them.
What needs to happen is we need to stop constantly signing new players and actually just focus on 1-2 players per position rather than 3.
This summer we actually had to choose between Jiménez and Bartesaghi. We could have not bothered with Jiménez and backed Bartesaghi. We decided to not back Bartesaghi and sign Jiménez so we may as well put Bartesaghi out of his misery.
Sell him.
We gave up on him this summer when we signed Jiménez.
Hopefully the choice works out.
He needs to concentrate on learning the CB position and forget about being a full back. He is too tall to play as a full back.
Calafiori started turning heads once he got moved inside. No one cared about him when he was considered a full back.
Bastoni is a perfect comp for Bartesaghi
He prefers LB. But I think he should play CB too, would be invaluable
Maldini, Tassotti and Fachetti were tall full backs.
Maldini 6’1
Tassotti 5’10
Bartesaghi is 6’3. Huge difference.
Never saw Fachetti play since he was playing in the 60’s. Football back then and Football today are totally different thing. Today’s football is centered around speedy, shifty wingers with low center of gravity going 1v1. They will twist and turn Fachetti and Bartesaghi into a pretzel.
I think I agree. Left footed understudy to Pavlovic, but one who gets game time.
I would rather have him in Futuro but getting minutes in the first team than at an outpost somewhere.
The risk with loans is you don’t settle or fit the system, then because you didn’t stand out at Empoli/Monza/Venezia etc, you’re damaged goods.