AC Milan’s midfield is taking shape following the sale of Tijjani Reijnders, having brought in Samuele Ricci, soon Luka Modric and potentially also Jardon Ashari.
Since the start of the mercato, it’s been clear that Igli Tare is prioritising the midfield. It makes sense as Milan parted ways with Reijnders last month, one of their best players last season, and the midfield department needed reinforcing before that.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
As highlighted by Calciomercato.com, Milan’s midfield is now taking shape. The signing of Ricci, which was announced yesterday, is the first but Modric will also be announced after the Club World Cup ends for Real Madrid. Then, another player could arrive as well…
Jashari the icing on the cake
Of course, we are talking about Jashari here. Tare has made the Club Brugge man his main target but negotiations with the Belgian side are very difficult. For now, it’s a waiting game but an agreement could still be reached between the parties.
Adding these three signings to players already in the squad, namely Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Youssouf Fofana, Warren Bondo, and Yunus Musah, it’s clear that Milan’s midfield would be complete. Yacine Adli, Ismael Bennacer and Tommaso Pobega, meanwhile, should be offloaded.
Musah could also leave the club before the mercato ends, but alternating between six players will definitely be enough for a 4-3-3 formation still. The versatility of some of these players also helps, with Ricci able to play as a defensive midfielder as well as a mezz’ala.
Sell Musah as well…
Jashari – Fofana – Ricci
RLC – Modric – Bondo
Jashari – Ricci – Fofana
RLC – Bondo – Modric
Bondo as a back up does not instill any confidence. If we’re gonna use a young player, might as well either bring in a young Italian or promote one from Futuro/Primavera.
So, an unnamed young Italian player or unnamed player from the Primavera or Futuro instill conference, but Bondo does not?
Don’t mind some Italicentric fans, they allow their hearts to control their heads. I have nothing against Italians but anybody must earn his place in the team
Bondo has earned his place in the team?
Have we seen enough of him to know?
He did very well at Monza.
But arrived with a muscle injury and we hardly saw him play in half a season.
It’s too early to tell IMO.
I’m fairly sure Bondo now qualifies as National trained Italian. He spent 2.5 seasons at Monza and 0.5 season at Milan.
All culminating in last season being the year he turned 21.
That meets the UEFA criteria.
You are correct.
Bondo, the French guy, is now Italian Homegrown.
Bondo = Musah, add nothing but run & run,
the diff is the other one being here 4 too long,
this season i hope they sell Musah & Bondo improve
I guess I can’t reply in Russian…
Bondo is young and needs experience. Might as well afford that experience to an Italian kid from Futuro. Not like Bondo is a special talent that we’re trying to develop. He was a knee-jerk signing last winter.
First of all it’s Cyrillic, several nations use it, and you don’t need to reply in another language since I responded to you in the same language you commented in the first place.
You said “Bondo as a back up does not instill any confidence.”
Than you go on to talk in generalities about bringing a young Italian player or a player from Primavera or Futuro that BTW got relegated from serie C, to be a backup at Milan instead of Bondo. Why you would have more confidence in an unknown young player than Bondo?
You can’t even name a player that they should bring in but you are talking about Bondo not instilling confidence.
How much did Zeroli play at Monza, the worst team in the league? He is arguably the most ready young Milan player to play, and he barely played for the worst team in the league where that same Bondo was one or their best players.
And how is that young player going to get experience not playing at Milan? Bondo barely played, but a young Italian or Primavera/Futuro player will play for Milan?
If you want them to gain experience, then they should be loaned out, not sit on the bench at Milan.
Because Bondo as a “known quantity” isn’t any better than an unknown Vos or Hodsic or Malaspina or Comotto for example. But the problem is Allegri probably wouldn’t even use them. Or Bondo for that matter.
“But the problem is Allegri probably wouldn’t even use them. Or Bondo for that matter.”
So what was the point of your initial comment about lack of confidence in Bondo as a backup? Just to comment for the sake of commenting?
BTW, Bondo played a total of 164 minutes for Milan, and you have already figured out that he is a “known quality” who isn’t any better than dudes that played in a league 2 levels lower?
Bondo was good enough to be an everyday starter for a serie A team, while the names you brought up were not even good enough to be regular starters for a team that got relegated to Serie D, but they somehow instill more confidence than Bondo.
You’re missing my point because you’re too busy nitpicking what I wrote. Since you clearly are not understanding what I’m trying to say, let’s agree to disagree on this.
I would rather we offload Bondo and bring up someone from Futuro/primavera. Period.
very well said my brother
If you go back and watch Monza matches, Bondo looked good. Unlike the suggested young unproven Italian players, Bondo has actually done well in Serie A. One of his goals was ironically against Milan. He will be a credible backup. remember, injuries disrupted his short spell so far. Besides there is a clear lack of good Italian youngsters these days.
In my old opinion all play are good where you play them no sitting on the bench at least you give one benefit of the doubts like you bench one today tomorrow you bench the second one then you know which one is better that’s Apple I supposed to be used not using one player every season every season changing them is okay
I would bring Zeroli back and give him whatever minutes bondo would get, even if they play different roles. It could be Comotto, Malaspina, Eletu… heck it could even be Vos or Hodzic – but someone from the youth team. Because at this point Bondo doesn’t offer any more than a Futuro player would.
And their demotion to D is more on the idiots than ran the project and got Abate fired than on the team itself. IMO.
This was supposed to be a reply to MILAN.
Sometimes, just read and listen to yourself if you make any sense.
People like you just comment just to argue and argue pointlessly without making any meaningful arguments.
A Futuro player over Bondo… sigh!
God forbid someone thinks differently from you, pal. Just because s**t makes sense to you, doesn’t mean it makes sense to someone different.
That’s what’s brilliant about this world we live in – takes all sorts of people to make it go round.
Yes, I would rather we offload Bondo and promote the likes of Vos, for example.
I just learned to keep quiet when fools talk.
Milan has to sell some players in the midfield. Take the losses now on the players you need that don’t fit in Allegri’s plan because they may be worth even less a month from now. I don’t see a midfield taking shape as the title suggests, but I see a roster with a lot holes to fill and that has a lot players who may not be here next week, and still some players who don’t even know what their role will be.
“I don’t see a midfield taking shape as the title suggests…”
Of course it’s taking shape. It started taking shape when Tonali was sold. Now, it’s taking better shape with Tijjani sold…
👍💯
From a sarcastical point of view, it’s an excellent disposition.
Also, from a realistic point of view, it’s still an excellent disposition.
Btw we won’t get De Cuyper – Brighton just signed him.
If a 4-3-3 is to be used, with news also saying the last weeks that Allegri want a Deep Lying Playmaker, then I don’t see it taking shape yet. Modric is to be played as a DLP? makes sense, and then you would need to have 2 midfielders to provide defensive coverage for the DLP and for the team (kind of how Gattuso, Ambrosini did for Pirlo years ago), those 2 could be, at the moment, Fofana and Ricci. But what about the other 3 midfielders? Jashari, let’s hope he is as good as he seems to be these days with all the news about him, but what role would he play, defensive midfielder? Because i have also read articles about him being very good technically, so the idea would be for him tl be a DM or become DLP? Keep Bondo as CM? Sell Musah? Ok good; but what about Loftus Cheek? For me he should be sold, he only showed good football when he played behind the striker, so that would be as an AM that it seems won’t be used that role anymore, and even then he only was good for very few amount of games. Milan should sell both Musah and RLC and either continue for Xhaka, or Javi Guerra or someone else. There are news that Zambo Anguissa has an option by contract to either continue or leave Napoli now, that option could then be explored. Ederson (Atalanta) would probably be too expensive, but a great option. Frendrup (Genoa)? Larsson from Frankfurt seems interesting option, as well as Saibari from PSV or Taylor from Ajax. Kökçü from Benfica i think would be great, and he had a bad discussion recently in Club World Cup with his manager. Angelo Stiller from Stuttgart would also be great, DM primarily but with good passing game and technical player, not just a destroyer type of DM