There were some eyebrows raised when Tiemoue Bakayoko came off the bench during the win over Monza, and it sent a message about Aster Vranckx’s current standing.
That is according to Calciomercato.com who write that Vranckx remains a mystery especially after the Monza win on Saturday. Malick Thiaw has been showing what he can do in defence while the midfield is a bit short due to Ismael Bennacer’s injury, and yet Bakayoko came on over the Belgian for the last few minutes.
So far the 20-year-old has made seven appearances in Serie A, none as a starter, with one start coming in the Coppa Italia against Torino. His last league minutes came against Lecce in mid-January, more than a month ago, with Stefano Pioli clearly deeming him not ready to use yet.
Bakayoko meanwhile is a player that has been completely outside the plans so much so that he was close to joining Adana Demispor in January. He is on a two-year loan from Chelsea and needed 15 appearances of at least 45 minutes each to trigger the obligation to buy. He had zero appearances all season prior to Saturday.
For Vranckx meanwhile the repeated exclusions suggest that using the €12m option to buy is far away from Milan’s plans and to reverse that something quite big would be needed. Thiaw shows that there is still some runway to do so, but not much.
