Ismael Bennacer has had a tough season with multiple injuries and a lack of playing time as a result, sparking questions about his future at AC Milan. According to a report, a sale could be evaluated in the event of a hefty offer.
Bennacer recovered from his knee surgery in November of 2023 and made a couple of appearances for the club straight off the bat. However, bad luck struck again as he suffered from adductor pain and thus couldn’t participate fully in the AFCONs with Algeria.
The severity of the knee injury meant he needed a long time before regaining match fitness, only just starting to do well for Milan again. However, with just one game left of the season, he may not have shown enough to truly cement himself.
As reported by Calciomercato.com, Milan are currently evaluating the future of the midfielder and the first indications suggest that they are willing to listen to offers. Bennacer has a €50m release clause in his contract and as such, that would be the starting price.
Very few clubs are currently willing to pay that much for the 26-year-old, but several in Saudi Arabia have expressed an interest. As we know, these clubs can spend a lot of money and it would be difficult for Milan to turn down a hefty offer.
If a offer from 40m till 50 mil we should take it
He has a 50 million release clause. I think even a mid table EPL team might be interested.
Sell.
Absolute sell. 50M would just be smart business. Could be injected to the budget needed to recruit ST.
When fit he is such s good player – even Pep wanted him not too long ago.
deal him while he’s healthy
So we’re just gonna keep giving away our best midfielder every season???
That’s the plan, well Furlani and Gerry’s plan.
Uh, the fact is, he is not our best midfielder this season.
But I get your point. If any offer of 50m we can’t refuse because of the clause, but below that, don’t sell. If he can stay fit for next season he can be our captain.
Best midfielder??
Sure. Cause Musah, RLC, Reijnders, Adli, Pobega are so reliable and top of the top players. Fit Bennacer is miles ahead of them. And before you go and say he’s injury prone, go and take a look at his medical history with us.
Reijnders has consistently been out best midfielder this season. Bennacer has barely had a full season since we lifted the title, and even then he was injured. Stop complaining, Bennacer, Tomori, and Maignan need to be moved on. Tomori can’t lead the defensive line, and the other two have been injured when we needed them the most for longer than just this season, Bennacer especially.
Hyping Reijnders based on? His footwork on ball is catchy to the eye?
Since coming to Milan, Bennacer has been injured every single season for a total of 400 days or 70 games for both club and country. And this season, while he seems to be improving as of late, he is still far removed from his prime of 2020 and 2021. Since Osti is likely to be gone with Pioli, maybe Bennacer won’t get injured as often again and will be able to get back to his prime, but he might have become one of those Hazard, Neymar type of players that will miss games every single time.
He is one of my favourite, but 50M given the current conditions are hard to ignore.
The fact that you don’t see value in Reijnders says a lot about your ability understand a great player when you seen one.
So teach me your football greatness, please share you deep football knowledge and wisdom with me. Show me the way and reveal your secrets of your extensive football knowledge.
All I see you responding to people in a manner “the fact that bla bla bla, show you have no knowledge of the game”. But you never really offer a productive counter argument.
And tell me, what has Reijnders done to deserve such a praise? 35 games and 3 goals? A real world beater we bought here. A new Seedorf on our hands folks! Benny played 19 games after knee injury and Afcon this winter and has 2 goals to his name.
If you only use goals and assists to quantify a player’s worth, then it’s pointless to try and explain things to you, Ted.
Reijnders’ calcio verticale is the best in this team. He is progressive in distribution and driving the ball forward.
Can his shooting improve? YES. Can his final passes be more direct and faster? YES! But that’s more of a tactical system issue.
Seedorf we had was more of a final product having played and improved at Real (and arguably Inter) before he came to us. Reijnders is young and has ample room to grow.
Using him deeper back by Pioli suppresses what he’s good at, which is… you guessed it… driving the ball forward. In fact I would have used him or Puli more at the 10 than RLC.
But again, if your criteria to question is:
“what has Reijnders done to deserve such a praise? 35 games and 3 goals?” – then this is pointless… Play FIFA instead.
Oh man, you’re throwing in Italian prof terms too. Now I bow deeply. But Bennacer and Reijnders are characteristically different players, where one is indeed a true ball carrier (hence the super dupper stats) while the other is a deeper playmaker. So, if we take defensive actions, Bennacer far exceeded Reijnders (almost twice in percentage although he played half of all minutes less). But like I said hard to compare two different type of players here. But my genuine question above was, who will take care of Bennacer’s position? Non of who we have now. Non.
And there’s no need for fancy words. You can easily write “kid knows how to run with the ball in his feet in a straight forward line. And he does it good.”
I thought those are football basics.
@Ted:
I think the point of selling Bennacer, if we assume we let him go, is not to let him go for the sake of letting him go, but to have more money to purchase a quality defensive midfielder (a guy like Hojberg, Hjulmand maybe ?). He is indeed our best midfielder defensively wise (which isn’t saying much), but even he was at his best when paired with an actual defensive monster (Kessie). That’s my take anyways.
And by the way, the fact that “Benny played 19 games after knee injury and Afcon this winter and has 2 goals to his name” (one of which is a PK by the way) only reinforced the hard truth that Reijnders is better, simply because he is more available to this team to contribute and play than Benny with his fitness issues…
I don’t have the option to reply to your “reply” below.
So if you admit that:
“ But Bennacer and Reijnders are characteristically different players, where one is indeed a true ball carrier (hence the super dupper stats) while the other is a deeper playmaker”
Then maybe don’t make statements like
“… Reijnders, Adli, Pobega are so reliable and top of the top players. Fit Bennacer is miles ahead of them”
That’s all I’m getting at.
Yes, yes he is miles ahead of them, considering the midfield role. My comment was in context with the title. You take out the only player who at least knows how to play pivot or a deep lying playmaker and you’re stuck with bunch of ball runners. It’s been evident whole season, we lost our duels in midfield cause there was no one there to defend. Non of these ball runners have positional awareness to cover the midfield.
Yeah let’s sell our best midfielder. That’s a great idea.
I’m sure Musah, Reijnders, RLC, and Pobega can do a great job just like Benna 😀
Best midfielder helps us zero when he’s out injured more than he plays… Bennacer hasn’t been our best midfielder since the Scudetto season.
Lol wut? Bennacer still our best midfielder since the scudetto season.
Bennacer Milan’s best midfielder? 😂😂
Take the money and run.
100% If 50mil comes in, it would be madness not to sell him.
And if he has a great next season he will be worth 70M. Class is class
He isn’t at that level, I’m previous Milan squads even during the banter era he would be on the bench as Montolivo did Bennacer’,a job way better than what he does it.
Stfu.. dont even mention that log in the same sentence as Milan.. worst midfielder to ever wear the Milan jersey
Are you high? LOL!!! How much drugs did you do to make through the banter years? hahaha
Man go easy on those shrooms.
Bennacer has been injured for +400 days since we’ve bought him. If we get that kind of money let him go. He hasn’t been out best midfielder ever, I don’t know how people have conveniently forgotten about Kessie, last season when it was up to him and Tonali to step up we finished 5th. So please be logical, there are many profiles like his with way less injury implications. Bennacer, Adli, Tomori, and Maignan should be moved on at the end of the season and refresh the options to match the new coach’s style of play. Reijnders is versatile enough to fit in whatever system we should be heading towards, Loftus-Cheek is another question mark. The youngsters should be integrated into the first team as well.
This.
Bennacer was never as good as Hakan, Kessie, Paquetta, Bonaventura, Tonali. At one point during the scudetto season he was sitting on the bench while Krunic was playing.
Never as good as Hakan or Paqueta? Stop smoking your old man’s crackpipe. You’re talking out if your a$$.
Let’s see who is smoking and talking out of their ass.
Hakan as a Milan player:
17/18, 45 games, 3159 minutes, 8 goals , 14 assists.
18/19 , 46 games, 3547 minutes, 4 goals. 13 assists.
19/20, 38 games, 2932 minutes, 11 goals, 9 assists.
20/21, 43 games, 3348 minutes, 9 goals , 12 assists.
Bennacer
19/20, 35 games, 2878 minutes, 1 goal, 1 assist
20/21, 30 games, 1906 minutes, 0 goals, 5 assists.
21/22, 40 games, 2100 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist.
22/23, 40 games, 2732 minutes, 3 goals, 2 assists.
23/24, 24 games, 1246 minutes, 2 goals, 2 assists.
It’s disrespectful for Hakan to even be mentioned in the same sentence with Bennacer. In the season when Hakan played the least amount of minutes for Milan, he still played more minutes than Bennacer has ever played.
Meanwhile Milan current best midfielder Reijnders
49 games, 3779 minutes, 4 goals, 4 assists.
Put those facts in your pipe and smoke it
THAT. WAS. ON. POINT. LOL!!!
Although, Bennacer’s evaluation shouldn’t be based on Goals and assists since he’s a deeper lying mid. Whereas Hakan was always going forward more. They played different roles.
OK.
Last 2 seasons Hakan played as a deep lying mid at inter.
His stats
22/23 , 49 games, 3502 minutes, 4 goals, 8 assists.
23/24, 38 games, 3093 minutes, 15 goals ( mostly penalties), 3 assists.
In his 1st season at inter he played as a box to box mid
21/22, 46 games, 3356 minutes, 8 goals, 13 assists.
Like I said, we are disrespecting Hakan as a footballer by mentioning him in the same sentence with Bennacer
Really? This is your comeback? Did you do a mike drop also?
Suddenly we are comparing players from different roles? From Hakan to Reijnders and Bennacer? And you give me plain goal/assist stats for that? Did you take into consideration what role Hakan plays and in what system he plays for Inter? And minutes compared to Bennacer?
This season Bennacer played 19 games as deep lying playmaker and has 2 goals and 2 assists while Reijnders, our best midfielder, who knows how to run with a ball in a straight line played 35 games and has 3 goals and 4 assists. Not really impresive considering his previous season tally (if we are already comparing stats from different seasons and clubs).
Ha ha 😂. You better re-watch the games brother. Even since Bennacer came back, Reijnders is still playing as a deep lying playmaker while Bennacer is playing further up the field.
Reijnders in his 1st season as a Milan player has surpassed every Bennacer season when it comes to goal contributions even though he plays in a position where he is not suited to play.
Bennacer scored a penalty, calm down.
I also put Hakan’s numbers from the last 2 seasons where he plays even further back than Bennacer and still outperforms him.
Hakan is considered the best in Europe in a position where he started to play last season, while Bennacer is considered transfer target for the Saudi league because no one in Europe wants him.
Paqueta is about to move to man city, Bennacer to the Saudi league.
Kepp trying though.
“Reijnders is still playing as a deep lying playmaker while Bennacer is playing further up the field.”
The only thing Reijnders surpassed Bennacer is % of ball carrying. But if we take defensive actions, Bennacer surpassed Reijnders for double in % eventhough Bennacer played half of games Reijnders played. So again, they have different roles and duties. Also what does Paqueta have to do with Bennacer? He’s an attacking midfielder who failed in Milan (not entirely by his fault).
But I am not saying Reijnders is a bad player. I am saying we have no deeplying playmaker who also takes defensive duties after Bennacer, like we don’t have defensive coverage ever since Kessie and Tonali left. It’s all repeating and if we think these ball runners or carriers or chasers or whatever we’re stuck with, will take over these duties… Lmfao, we’re in for another season of tragicomedy in midfield.
I miss Bonaventura.
It’s true that he was never the best and he left before we won the scudetto, but currently he could have been a good depth to our team, save us the need to buy some of those midfielders we got and with Fiorentina, he is doing actually quite well, scored and assisted a lot and is quite versatile (been used as an AM, a CDM a CM and even a LW in many different tactical configurations). Plus he has a lot of experience, loves and fights for the shirt.
100%
And probably a better example than Rodriguez!
My 2024 squad…(in my imagination):
Maignan – 15m
Plizzari – Free
Nava – Free
Theo – 20m
De Sciglio – Free
Acerbi – 4m
Gabbia – Free
Tomori – 25m
Darmian – Free
Calabria – Free
Bellanova – Free
Locatelli – Free
Cristante – Free
Pessina – Free
KESSIE REPLACEMENT – How much do you want to spend?
Paquetá – 35m
Bonaventura – 7m
D Maldini – Free
Leao – 35m plus whatever
El Shaaraway – 20m
Pulisic – 22m
Verdi – Free
Cutrone – Legend
40 GOAL A SEASON STRIKER – Can we now afford Mpappe or Haaland?
Yes Bennacer was probably the weakest of our Scudetto winning midfield. (I am not being sarcastic).
So how good a transfer strategy have we had that we ended up with our worst midfielder!
You even acknowledged Krunic was playing ahead of him.
Other than Kessie (who is a mercenary) there is simply no reason why Tonali and Krunic should not be still playing for the team.
The same goes with possibly Paqueta (see my 2024 squad below) and certainly Bonaventura the absolutely legend.
I won’t mention the other player as he’s dead to me.
Bennacer is definetly not as good as Tonali or Kessie, but I don’t see how Krunic is better than him.
From 20/21 till 22/23 Bennacer always played more minutes than Krunic despite being injured more often than him (1.906′ vs 1.419′ in 20/21, 2.100′ vs 1.810′ in 21/22 and 2.732′ vs 2.482′ in 22/23).
In all of those seasons, Bennacer always contributed either as much or to more goals than Krunic despite generally playing deeper (Krunic played mainly as an attacking midfielder in 21/22). In those 3 seasons, Krunic had a total of 3 goals and 5 assists, while Bennacer had a total of 5 goals and 8 assists.
But even goal contribution aside, since they’re both midfielders, Bennacer is the better playmaker and was better with long balls (example his assist to Dalot vs Sparta Praha in 2020) and through balls (like this season’s assist to Leao). Krunic never displayed such vision and such skills with passing. Bennacer is also the better dribbler although he has tendencies to exagerate and put himself in bad positions, and in his prime also the more aggressive tackler and defender.
Krunic is better perhaps positionally, you could also say he is the more versatile of the 2, since he played/can play in more roles and he is more “fit” since he got injured less often.
I’ll quote Pioli on Krunic:
“I don’t care if he’s not praised enough, I know he’s important. There are things that cannot be explained through numbers and images. He makes those who play near him play well. He is smart and occupies spaces properly, with and without the ball.”
This is exactly why Krunic was one of our best midfielders.
He was the most efficient with the ball, took the fewest touches, kept it moving, rarely lost it, had an excellent reading of the game, had great positioning in defence, and actually had a great set piece (but for some reason Milan haven’t been able to decide on a set piece taker since Pirlo!).
He really was the best midfielder after probably Kessie. He was key to our progress in last season’s champions league where we dominated the midfield in those games. He also started all of our games at the start of this season.
And then Pioli, after he said the above and after we had a good start to the season, decided to just freeze him out. And whether it was Pioli or the player or the club or whatever – it shouldn’t have happened.
And it wouldn’t have happened if the club had had a bit of focus. A clear idea that this player or position was working, and this position needed filling, and targeted, top quality signings to lift the side to the next level.
We have undone our midfield, unsolved a problem that was solved, created a distraction, a waste of time and money, when we could’ve been building on other positions.
I’ll quote Pioli on Krunic:
“I don’t care if he’s not praised enough, I know he’s important. There are things that cannot be explained through numbers and images. He makes those who play near him play well. He is smart and occupies spaces properly, with and without the ball.”
This is exactly why Krunic was one of our best midfielders.
He was the most efficient with the ball, took the fewest touches, kept it moving, rarely lost it, had an excellent reading of the game, had great positioning in defence, and actually had a great set piece (but for some reason Milan haven’t been able to decide on a set piece taker since Pirlo!).
He really was the best midfielder after probably Kessie. He was key to our progress in last season’s champions league where we dominated the midfield in those games. He also started all of our games at the start of this season.
And then Pioli, after he said the above and after we had a good start to the season, decided to just freeze him out. And whether it was Pioli or the player or the club or whatever – it shouldn’t have happened.
And it wouldn’t have happened if the club had had a bit of focus. A clear idea that this player or position was working, and this position needed filling, and targeted, top quality signings to lift the side to the next level.
We have undone our midfield, unsolved a problem that was solved, created a distraction, a waste of time and money, when we could’ve been building on other positions. We could’ve been focusing on a world class striker.
I’m not disputing that Krunic was an essential player to our scudetto winning side. In fact, it was having the 4 of Krunic, Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer that allowed us to effectively manage that season, not overuse players and each player had his features that the opposition had to take into account and ultimately failed. I just don’t think that Bennacer is the weakest of the 4 here, but we also have to remember that Krunic did better playing directy behind the attack (better than Diaz in that regard), so overall all of them had different profiles and qualities and it worked well.
I do think that this summer was mismanaged in the midfield department (and the responsibilty lies also with Pioli). Leaving Tonali’s case, personally I would have never brought Musah, we already had the 2 CMs we wanted (RLC and Reijnders) and Krunic was able to play as a CM. Instead of Musah who costed us 20M we could have gotten a DM. We would have been able to play in either 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 without all this mess.
15ml is more than enough for bennacer he is injury prone and mid table team player he is better than pobega in our midfielders nothing more
Said the dude who portraits amrabat as some super world class midfielder. Your knowledge about football and footballers is severally limited. And that’s a generous description
“severely” is the word you’re looking for. But yes, you’re right. That kid is dense.
Autocorrect. I’m 2 lazy to actually write and 2 lazy to reread and check what was written.. sad
LMAO!!! At least you’re aware that you’re procrastinating.
Find the Saudi Club that has Kessie. Offer them Bennacer in exchange and make them pay the difference between thhe salary of the two lol.
I think it would be a perfect opportunity to make up for the mistake of giving the wrong player a renewal.
Kessie was better defensively and offensively, only place has an edge when fully fit is vision and distribution of the ball. We have Tijani and Adli for that already. Kessie is a unique player who’s skillsets are rare, with Giroud leaving, and Ibra gone, he would be the perfect candidate to take penalties for us as he strives there as well.
So this summer we’re losing our manager, Kjaer, Bennacer and Giroud?
That’s a championship winning spine gone (after also losing a championship winning spine last summer – Maldini & Massaro, Tonali, and Ibra).
That’s another year zero.
The thing about spines is they provide a foundation to build a team on. Even if they’re not starters, they provide a foundation for new starters.
We do need a new DM which will likely impact Bennacer (or Reijnders if Bennacer returns to his best) but even as an injured squad player he provides a reference point.
With Calabria probably being frozen out, who will be the club captain – Theo?
I think we will lost Mike, Theo, Tomori, Kalulu, Jovic, and Leao too. So there’s a total of 9 players gone or maybe more.
I can’t definitely see at least one of those going and then we really will be starting from scratch (with a squad that just finished 2nd).
I would prefer if we just signed One Super World Class DM and that was it!
Keep Pioli, keep Kjaer, keep the rest.
Sign someone insane like a Kimmich or a Kroos. Someone who has won everything, would get in there and take charge.
It would make a huge difference.
His starting price is €25 million. No club, Saudi or otherwise, is going to bid €50 million for him. People haven’t been paying attention to the transfer market. Only a handful of clubs have real financial power, and they all have better midfielders than Bennacer.
His starting price is €25 million. No club, Saudi or otherwise, is going to bid €50 million for him. People haven’t been paying attention to the transfer market. Only a handful of clubs have real financial power, and they all have better midfielders than Bennacer.
Wtf, they should sell d club instead, to make d best profit. We need the best 17 player next season.