Pervis Estupinan was on the verge of leaving AC Milan this summer, but he remains at Milanello, with the move falling through.
There are plenty of deals that don’t go through in the mercato; look at Youssouf Fofana’s deadline day, for example. However, Estupinan’s case is a strange one, given it wasn’t him that caused the deal to fall through, nor was it the buying club.
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Why did Estupinan stay?
This afternoon, MilanNews have relayed information from The Athletic about why Estupinan’s move to Aston Villa fell through and it’s certainly a bit of a frustrating one.
The interest arose from Unai Emery; after working together at Villarreal and Villa needing a left-back, Estupinan was seen as a good fit. Of course, the fact that he was represented by Jorge Mendes was also seen as a hand.
In fact, the report states ‘the move made sense’.
Yet, negotiations were frequently interrupted, as conditions ‘continued to change’. As a result, the Midlands outfit ran out of patience, turning to another target and landing him. It was as a deal was getting close to finalising that things re-opened with the Rossoneri and Estupinan.
As we known, though, it was too late for anything to change and the Ecuadorian remained – and did so for the rest of the mercato.
The worst move by far in our recent history, without the slightest doubt. Tomori, Terracciano, Bondo, Estupinan and RLC needed to be sold and Athekame, Fofana and Nkunku needed to be kept if there was no strong will to upgrade the squad in their respective positions because this is a far worse scenario for Milan than with three of them included. Hutchinson is not a good enough signing, we needed someone much better in that position, we are lacking four more things beside that proper (left-footed) right number 10. Why Athekame, Fofana and N̈kunku? Well, the first one gives us that second option for a right-footed R(W)B (and L(W)B at the same time) because we don’t want and we don’t need Musah to play there, let us provide him with stability, not versability. Terracciano? Not good enough. Bondo can stay now when it all ended this way but Fofana is better and our current squad certainly isn’t without a risk of an exposure in the double pivot especially if Rabiot is to be utilised as an AMRC. Not that I consider Fofana some granit and rock but whom do we have now instead? Do you wonder what if Musah gets injured? Who exactly fits the profile for his backup?!
*versatility
Maignan (Torriani, Terracciano)
Gila (De Winter)
STONES (Gabbia)
Pavlovic (Diawara)
Saelemaekers (ATHEKAME)
Modric (FOFANA or Musah, Comotto)
Rabiot (Ardon, Musah or Bondo)
Moreira (Bartesaghi)
??? (Chukwueze)
Pulisic (NKUNKU, Cisse)
Ramos (???, Camarda)
Stones-Tomori, Athekame-Terracciano, Nkunku-Loftus-Cheek
???-Hutch and YF and a backup #9 instead of Bondo and *P.E.
IN A ALLEGRI’S 3-5-2 FORMATION, THIS WOULD BE OUR MIDFIELD:
Fofana (Musah)
Modric (Comotto)
Rabiot (Ardon)
THERE WOULDN’T BE ROOM FOR CHUKWUEZE THEN BUT HEY…
We didn’t sell, we still have the player. We don’t know what price was realistic but either way, it’s done and he’s part of the squad, let’s cheer him on and get the most from him.
he’s Mendes client, Mendes is our SD, it’ll not happen as long as not in Mendes favor & it’ll happen if it was oppositely (our transfer target) Mendes will bring him in twice the actual price