AC Milan completed a radical overhaul of the squad during the summer, with Igli Tare having a very busy start to life as the new sporting director.
The curtain has now fallen on the summer transfer window, but its consequences continue to be debated. Some experts and fans view it as a necessary revolution that took place, while others believe that the demolition was done without adequate reconstruction.
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As Corriere dello Sport (via MN24) report this morning, is is ‘A brand-new AC Milan with a positive balance’. They believe that Milan managed to profoundly revamp the squad without compromising its financial stability.
Prudent financial management
According to the data provided, Milan’s mercato recorded a significant profit, an almost unexpected result given the scale of the investments. Sales generated a whopping €190m, a significant figure that shows Tare’s ability when it comes to sales.
The new director worked tirelessly to complete approximately 40 transactions in total, including purchases and sales. Despite the significant expenditure on new arrivals – amounting to €157m – the final balance remained positive.
This approach allowed Allegri to have a a group that combines experience and young talent, built to best face future challenges. Tare and the management’s aim was to rejuvenate the squad and make it more functional for Allegri’s style of play, and they have largely done that in the eyes of the paper.
The ability to generate significant revenue from the sale of players who no longer fit into the plans is a sign of great managerial acumen, and something that Milan have lacked before.
Then, the signings of young talents like Ardon Jashari and Samuele Ricci were complemented by experienced figures such as Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot, who should drive the standards up and create a new positive culture at Milanello.
So Milan reduced the team size by how many players? Maybe mention that relevant detail when saying someone made a profit?
And if/when the gain euro competition, guess what, they’ll need to bring in more players again.
You are absolutely right and there is a lot of missing context.
Well isn’t that the best part?
I have been saying for years that the squad needed to be brought down to 22-24 and it seems the 6 x winning Scudetto coach agrees with me.
As did Mourinho (taken from his first Chelsea press conference):
“I want a small squad – 21 players plus the goalkeepers and no more.
“It is a correct number for the specific work we want to do. I want to look to the reserve and youth team with different eyes.”
True. Many top coaches have said something similar. Nobody wants to deal with unhappy players, forgotten on the bench or in the stands.
This is especially important when we are not playing european football.
Next year, we might need to add one or two extra players, but not more.
But the experts on this site comment section say we have too few players. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
*site’s
That’s the ideal number but the problem with that is that they don’t trust their youth much. We’ve not really had luck with injuries so when many get injured, do you play the players out of position to make up for it or do you put trust in youth to step up. That’s the only reason why I think it’s OK to have a large squad. We’re just not lucky when it comes to injuries.
The expert on this sites here forgot that ACM can take player from futuro & primavera , but yet they still want new shiny toy to fill squad more than 25 player for playing in serie A & coppa italy
Can’t say I don’t agree with the outgoing…some players were just not at the level of a team wanting to compete on all fronts, with deep progression into the UCL the north star. However there may be an opportunity to go back into the market for a solid CB during the winter mercato (there is a need for one). Between now and then will give us clearer indications of any shortcomings elsewhere. I am silently curious on how our front 4 will pan out. If nothing else Tare really helped cleaned out house with the deadwood. Forza Milan.
It wasn’t their imaginary ‘level’, it was the fact that the squad was farcically being and needed to be trimmed.
We essentially raided the piggy bank by selling half our squad. So there is that
Whats more this squad is woefully short in many positions.
We also spent a pile of money on players the coach does not want.
Wait until we get a couple of injuries and we’ll see what a great squad we have
If Milan (or any team) gets injuries they can kiss the season goodbye.
We have to get out of this idea that we need 30-40 players to ‘compete’.
I’m convinced fans like big squads because it means more transfers (and more players to insult when the 4th choice CF doesn’t ‘make it’).
I think that is one extreme to the other.
No doubt we needed to slim down the squad. But lets not pretend the great numbers written about above are not the result of a fire sale.
Estupinan for example is injury prone and has no backup, saladmaker has no real backup either. So we shud have kept Jimenez.
We have 1 center forward. Could we not at least have kept Jovic?
As far as I can tell there’s two for every position (except for CB where there’s 5 for 3 positions).
At left wing back Bartesaghi might finally get a chance.
At right wing back there’s Athekame to cover.
Upfront Giminez and Nkunku will compete for one spot.
Leao and Pulisic will compete for the other.
The midfield is packed.
The squad is not that bad. The bigger issue is that they’re mostly new after the 3rd or 4th revolution.
If they can keep this squad together for more than 5 mins they might have a chance of building something.
Bartesaghi is no wing back and it will do him no good being asked to play there.
Athekame, well we are asking a lot for this young man to jump from swiss league to Milan.
In terms of CB I count 4 senior pros of varying ability and a teenager more likely to play in the Futuro.
Nkunku is no center forward
@SJF : Extend Jovic for what? to see him all season unfit, injured, not playing, and only start scoring goals at the end of the season again?
Jovic did well last season, so yes he is better than nothing and he is free.
We signed him unfit and out of form and let him go when fit and in his best form for years. Not smart
I’m concerned with the possibilty of injuries too and an over-reliance on Modric, who may not be able to carry a full season of 90 mins. Allegri needs to be careful that he doesn’t run him into the ground, but having Fofana and RLC as make-weights in midfield doesn’t give a ‘warm’ feeling, so I can understand why he would be un-subable at the moment.
Fingers crossed we don’t get an injury list that we’ve had in recent seasons..