AC Milan are plotting a move for young Greek defender Konstantinos Koulierakis in January as there is a lack of fit central defenders at the club, a report claims.
As has been reported by Calciomercato.com, the PAOK Thessaloniki defender is a serious target for the Rossoneri as Pierre Kalulu is now out for around four months and Marco Pellegrino is also injured. Simon Kjaer has also been struggling for consistent fitness.
This means that Milan must enter the market in January to ensure they have more depth, but there is a desire to stay in line with the usual transfer strategy of identifying young talents who do not break the bank.
At 19 years old, Koulierakis certainly suits that and he has been impressing at the back for the Greek side, making 13 appearances across all competitions and scoring three goals, which is a great return for a defender.
He was a feasible target for the summer but that could now be accelerated.
just promote simic
I agree – if you are going to buy some backup then go for experience
Simic is bad bro. Pellegrino part two
I agree with rossonero. We have at least 2 months to give Simic time and see if he can be the solution. If he doesn’t get sombreroed in his first game it will be a good start.
How can you say this? Did you actually see hom playing or you just imagining that?
Yes, I saw him in preseason. Was bad. Can’t play the offside trap, easily gets outmuscled by taller players and positioning is suspect
Is there a reason we can only get teenage kids? We can’t bring in a good defender with real experience? Someone who can actually step in and play immediately. Pioli is never going to play a young kid.
Any experienced defender that would actually improve or at least be of equal quality to what we have would cost a premium because nobody wants to let a good player go in January. That said, I think Baschirotto of Lecce might be in a sweet spot. I think an offer of 10m might be enough. He’s a good defender and has been considered for Italy.
Don’t need another foreigner and especially when we already have our own youngsters ??
If we do go for someone, should be experienced and Italian. Caldirola, Buongiorno, Ferrari.
If only we had have got Calafiori when we had the chance in the summer, would solve CB and LB.
Otherwise we must have faith in Simic and Bartesaghi, why get another import to block our youngsters progress.
Or how about bring back Gabbia from loan, was always reliable for us and is not playing much in Spain
Yep, I like Buongiorno too. He’s somewhat under the radar defender still, but this might be his breakout season. Left-footed too. The problem is that Torino will probably ask for 20-25m for him.
Konstantinos Koulierakis is the CB Milan should have signed in the summer. I don’t know why they would sign Pellegrino who is clearly not ready for this level of football. This is why I rate Milan transfer market a 6.5/10.
Signing Pellegrino and waiting until the last minute to sign Jovic who is a useless CF was a big flop for Milan management.
They should have gone all out for Konstantinos Koulierakis who is similar to Botman and they should have gone all out to sign Rafa Mir or Pavlidis before the transfer window closed. Smh
Kookierakis from a different league altogether is somehow a sure bet whereas Simic isn’t?
It is just stupid article. Lets just not believe in our great young talent and bring someone same age instead. It is not happening.
I suspect this is miss-reporting.
If management believes this guy is a great talent and someone they can build on for the future (possibly even because they may no longer believe in Pellegrino), that’s fair enough.
But I can’t believe that we’re going to sign a 19 year old CB from Greece to solve the depth problem we have at CB on account of injury and reliability. That to me is non-sensical.
I do suspect that we struggle with, as opposed to favouring, the ‘devil we know’. That devil being the Primavera kid.
Koulierakis has 18 months on Simic but he’s not going to be anything more than 3rd string in the 12 to 18 months from January – use Thiaw and Kalulu as the guides here. While I can accept that physical maturity plays a factor in deciding between the Greek and Simic, the lines get blurred between 19 to and 21. The key issue here will be comfort in the system and exposure that would cause Pioli, or any coach for that matter, to trust the player. Neither player is going to be the end product physically.
Because Pioli already knows Simic, and should get a look at him in the next few months, before the earliest point at which Koulierakis can arrive, I’d say that probably evens the gap between the players that otherwise exists as a result of age / physical maturity. Of course, that’s all assuming that Simic acquits himself as well as he did during the pre-season matches.
This is the sort of balancing act that Milan is going to have to get serious about if it is going to get anything from the Primavera. It’s also going to have to take the leap of faith that the players are good enough.
It seems to me that Milan has wasted a lot of time and money to pursue players who, to put it into the terms of a computer game, might be 80/100 when there is a known 70-75/100 coming through the Primavera.
Great post, and I fully agree with the player development angle. I blame Pioli, who refuses to give minutes to youth during safe games and is then forced to throw them in during emergencies, like Pellegrino against Napoli, with poor results.
Is another 19 year old really going to help THIS season? I’m all for getting young talent but what can we realistically expect from this kid? Lot to ask of him and putting immense pressure on him – similar to Pelligrino. We need a more experienced player who can actually step in and help now with all our injuries.
By the time the mercato rolls around, they may not have a centerback problem. Long term, Johnathan David is the better option. But, I really think that their budget depends upon their champions league success. I thought Simic played well in pre-season and he is playing well on the primavera.