AC Milan should soon be able to announce the acquisition of yet another important piece for the jigsaw puzzle that is their 2023-24 playing squad in Noah Okafor.
Calciomercato.com write that there were a number of players considered for the centre-forward role including Alvaro Morata, Gianluca Scamacca, Hugo Ekitike and Mehdi Taremi, but Okafor will arrive for €14m.
The love affair began on 6 September last year when Milan were preparing to make their debut in the 2022-23 edition of the Champions League. Okafor scored the opening goal just before the 30-minute mark, dribbling past a helpless Pierre Kalulu and beating Mike Maignan.
On the eve of the return match against Milan at San Siro – which the Rossoneri won 4-0 – the Swiss forward spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport about his future.
“Whether it’s England, Spain or Italy, each league has a particular charm, I will evaluate. Milan? A great club with a legendary history,” he said. Soon he will experience is first hand.
Thanks to the work of the scouting area and the continuous contacts with his entourage, things remained alive. The will of the player was key too as he changed agencies and joined Sport360, communicating to Salzburg his will not to renew his contract.
The clear intention of the player to try a new experience at a top European club and Milan’s constant courtship meant they were able to beat the competition from various clubs around Europe and lower his asking price.
Will this signing work? No idea. But 15 mil for Okafor is a steal and it is a job very well done. Impressive work by Furlani particularly on this front. For the first time Cardinale’s ownership has done something assuring and impressive. Kudos to everyone involved in the transfer.
“For the first time Cardinale’s ownership has done something assuring”
You mean this particular transfer or the whole revamping midfield and attack thing? 😀 I was impressed a week or two ago already.
I mean this particular transfer. So far I don’t see anyone we brought in effectively replacing neither Tonali nor Bennacer. RLC has a chance, but it’s slim because his history with injury.
But Okafor will be useful from day 1 when he gets fit, so does Chuku. So these two transfers will be actually impressive in my opinion as Pioli will be bound to play these two. If Pioli even considers Messias ahead of Chuku in RW, Pioli should immediately be replaced by Nagelsman. Rest depends entirely on coach’s ability to adapt, and well, my confidence on pioli in that regard is low specially on 433.
Everything runs strategically and well planned. This is what happens when a finance geek, a senior investment banker becomes a CEO and leads the negotiations. The rest are depend on Pioli and the players itself. Let us wait see.
Making things happen on the finance and in negotiations you are right. We are still missing a real sporting director that can deal with the players. Baresi is being given that chance, but you don’t hear much about him workimg with players and coaching staff.
Are you missing about Antonio D’Ottavio? He is our Sporting Director… And Baresi is Vice President not director…
Him and Chukwueze means our team is done with the exception of some touches in defense. It looks like in addition to Ballo-Toure replacement, we’re looking at right full-backs so not sure if Florenzi is being shifted to the right side, or we’re trying to sell one of Florenzi/Kalulu.
For those asking for Origi to get another chance, we currently have no spots in the team (17 non-Italy grown players), we can get only 1 italian player (or two if we drop one of Mirante or Florenzi, which probably won’t happen), and we need to let go a lot of players (Rebic, Ballo Toure, Origi, one between Messias and Saele, one between Adli and CDK)
It also was interesting that Pioli mentioned only ‘Maignan’ as a player that our younger players can look up to, so wouldn’t be surprised if Florenzi and/or Kjaer are sold before the transfer ends… I guess it depends also on how the friendlies go for more evaluations on these players.
On paper it looks like a more solid team than last year and pretty much done, the big question mark is the midfield that has different shape and starters. Hopefully with 3 midfielders we’ll be able to make a more stable team as opposed to resorting to using Krunic or Kessie as attacking midfielder.
Kalulu counting as CB for now…