It has been a strange summer for Luka Jovic, who got a renewal and took the No.9 shirt but has now been left out of the Champions League squad list after exit talk late in the window.
The official announcement came yesterday stating that Jovic, as expected, has been excluded from the list that Milan sent to UEFA. The Serbian striker will therefore not be part of the list of players available to Paulo Fonseca in view of the ‘league phase’ of the new format of the Champions League.
As Calciomercato.com write, it is a choice that is not surprising, especially after the addition of Tammy Abraham, who arrived on loan from Roma in exchange for Alexis Saelemaekers going the other way on the same terms.
The decision not to include Jovic in the list for the Champions League is one that had been taken and shared in advance by the entire staff, then CEO Giorgio Furlani was asked about Jovic in Tammy Abraham’s unveiling press conference.
“Why did we renew Jovic and sign another striker? We have three competitions plus the Super Cup. There are a lot of games, so for us it makes sense to have three strikers,” he said.
Now we are left trying to guess what Jovic’s future might be. The Rossoneri will play over 50 games this season so it is clear that the former Eintracht Frankfurt man should get some games, but it is also clear that his exclusion from the list for the top European competition puts him in a less than comfortable position.
He is firmly the third choice, behind Alvaro Morata and Abraham, which is exactly the fate that he expected after the contract renewal that came this summer. His ambitions were highlighted by his decision to inherit the No.9 shirt from Olivier Giroud.
The 26-year-old hoped for opportunities to shine and give his contribution but these will be limited to sporadic appearances, especially after the unconvincing performance in his debut against Torino, where he had the chance to play from the first minute.
Jovic has always believed that the contract renewal exercised in June was a clear and direct declaration from Milan that they wish to focus on him. In reality, as the weeks went by, this belief quickly turned into uncertainty, even though the striker made it clear he is happy to stay.
This is why he never took into consideration the proposals that had arrived in early July from Zenit St. Petersburg and a couple of clubs in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The scenario has now completely changed: Jovic is the ‘luxury outcast’ of the squad, and something could change over the next 10 days.
Milan had already communicated to agent Fali Ramadani that he can find a new club for Jovic and even though the summer window is now archived in Italy, in the ‘top five’ European leagues and in the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, the Turkish Super Lig provides hope.
Incoming operations are permitted there until September 13th and – as the Victor Osimhen move shows – there is a glimmer of hope for Jovic and for Milan that the right solution might yet come.
indecisiveness at play here. Nothing wrong with having 3 ST but when you have homegrown issues having 3 foreign ST does raise a question mark
Well he can’t quite say “we don’t know what to do with Jovic – we wanted to offload him but weren’t able to so we’re stuck with him” LOL!!!
Sorry but these imbec*les extended his contract like two months ago and now they’re suddenly stuck with him and desperate to get rid of. That’s just sneaky and hypocritical from them.
RLC and Emerson need to be kicked out, 3 players (CAM, CM, RB) also hopefully arrive in winter and in the meantime Liberalli, Eletu and Bartesaghi get chances…
I’d rather these 3 take RLC and Emerson’s time…
Another example of POOR PLANNING by this INEXPERIENCED and sometimes embarrassing management lead by Furlani.
We look clueless….AGAIN
It’s becoming quite clear that whenever Fonseca praised someone during the preseason it was an attempt to drive up their value so management can try to offload them. He’s just a mouthpiece for management and it is no wonder there are players in the locker room who clearly have no respect for him.
Spot on!
These bozos extended his contract like two months ago and now they’re desperate to offload him. They probably thought they’ll book a small capital gain this summer since he came on a free but no one came asking for him. So now they’re treating him like the last garbage there. What a bunch of sneaky little b*tches. What have we become.
When there are clowns like this in the management, which player would have respect to them and club.
No surprise if some players leave Milan for free in future and don’t blame them.
I repetead the last days on more ocasions here,Im sure Leao,Hernandez don’t give a fudge about Fonseca,not because they have smth personal against him but just because he is this management’s boy.They trusted they will get a competitve team to go for trophies and we signed players like tearacciano,chukuzela,emerson,Musah and so on,sending away kalulu,salamandra and trying to offload also Benny.They have smth against these muppets that run this club,they had respect and trusted Maldini,you could just a few days ago see their opinion about these chumps.To bad fans don’t want to see it,but these 2 will be the next 2 offloads if nothing is changing with this trash management.
The unprofessional way Jovic is being treated is just a disgrace to the club, its fans, and its traditions.
It is this that concerns me the most about this management.
Everything and everyone to them is replaceable regardless to the context.
Milan was never like that.
And it has nothing with them being American. Elliott Management is an American firm, and got hold of the club accidentally. Still operated within the club’s culture and philosophy.
But these jokers. They are just clowns and have managed to turn the club into a circus.
If they end up getting some money for him, say 5-10 million, then the renewal will be seen as a smart move in order to get cash for him. We have all complained massively about the managements failure to extend contracts and let players leave for free.
If he ends up staying and comes on the score 5-8 goals in the league and italian cup from the bench this season, he will still be worth having.
This isnt a huge problem for anyone other then for Jovic himself.
I’ll wait until the end of the season to evaluate before I jump on the bandwagon and criticize his renewal.
The bigger issue was signing yet another right back, who is not an upgrade to Calabria, and push an italian captain out of the team, on the expense on signing an offensive midfielder who we need so much more.
Had we signed Samardzic instead of Emerson the team balance would had been so much better.
Then Bartesaghi could had been a backup for Theo and Jimenez or Terracciano a backup for Calabria until Florenzi is back. Wouldnt had been worse then Emerson.