AC Milan were seemingly going to be active in the market for a right-back during this mercato, and a player who was their favoured target may now be off the table, according to a report this morning.
From Tiago Santos to Emerson Royal, there have been links to different profiles to sure up the defence, but whether the option taken will be internal or external remains to be seen.
Since joining the club, Paulo Fonseca has experimented with Pierre Kalulu at right-back and the project has been somewhat successful so far, according to recent reports, and it could now mean that the mercato is used to add another central defender, to cover for his movement, rather than using the mercato to prevent his position shift.
Another possibility is that this is a forced hand that the Rossoneri have to play, and a report from the BBC’s Nizaar Kinsella on X, states that Milan made a €10m bid, officially and verbally, to Tottenham Hotspur for Emerson Royal, but the bid was rejected.
The interesting part is that there have been no further contacts since that offer, which could suggest two things.
Firstly, they do not see that specific player as worth more than that price, or vice versa, they don’t want to spend that much on a player who may ultimately just be competition for Davide Calabria.
Either way, the contacts are dead at the moment, and with the experiment continuing, it remains to be seen if the contacts will reopen or Milan will look in other directions.
That’s logical. Focus on a midfielder (Fofana) and centerback (Pavlovic) first, as Morata is done. Beyond this, we may actually need more of a DM, as Fofana isn’t a pure DM.
We don’t need a RB. Though if we must, Tiago Santos make the most sense. Or just stick to Kalulu as RB.
Huzzah
Royal does not excite, but Calabria/Kalulu does not either.
Most sensible news so far. If there’s an extremely scarce occurrence here is that we all seem like in agreement for this matter.