Noah Okafor looks like being AC Milan’s sixth signing of the summer as he is currently undergoing his medical, but Hernan Crespo has warned fans not to expect big numbers.
Fabrizio Romano reported yesterday among other sources that Milan will sign Okafor for €13-14m from Red Bull Salzburg and a long-term deal has been agreed with the player.
The Swiss international is characterised by his versatility. In 166 career games he has played 64 times as a centre-forward, another 64 as a left winger and 38 as a right winger.
With Salzburg he scored 34 goals in 100 games, with 14 goals and 11 assists being his most prolific season (2021-22), but he has never been a striker to put up the numbers of other targets like Mehdi Taremi.
Crespo was interviewed by La Gazzetta dello Sport and his words were published in this morning’s edition (seen below), as he gave his thoughts on the latest attacking addition for Milan.
What do you think of Okafor?
“I know him well, I scouted him in several games. He is a striker who does a lot of movement, capable of acting both on the wings and in the middle.
“However, let’s say it right away to prevent the fans from deluding themselves, he’s not a classic centre-forward and he doesn’t have many goals in his DNA.
“He has never played in the Italian league, which is the toughest in the world for strikers and someone who has experienced it on his own skin tells you that, and I would be happy for Milan if he managed a haul of ten goals.”
A gamble, not the certainty people expected…
“Yes. But bets can also be won, it’s not said that you always have to lose them… Milan doesn’t have the budget to buy super champions and so they focus on elements that aren’t very well known and try to enhance them.”
A virtuous policy, but that does not convince some…
“With this policy, let’s not forget, Milan won the Scudetto in 2022 and reached the semi-final of the Champions League in 2023. Who knew Tomori and Kalulu, just to name two, before they exploded in the Scudetto season?
“In today’s football, which is increasingly based on the team, if you don’t have Mbappè or Haaland, which Milan can’t afford, you have to focus on game organization and aggression.”
It seems the path that Pioli wants to follow…
“And it’s good because if you’re organised, you press, if you steal the ball in the attacking zone then you’re more likely to annoy your opponents. Pioli has positive ideas, let him work in peace. And maybe it will make Okafor a number one.”
Thank you for your honesty. He is not a Centre forward. However, when looking at the team that is being put together, one can clearly see that a champions league team is being build. Pace, technique, and stamina.
Nice to see Crespo “confirming” my thoughts. 😀
Totally true.
Milan sign him not because he will score 20+ goals for milan.
His job is to unlock the defense, especially against a weaker teams that usually park the bus, which has been milan’s problem for quite a while.
The potential of playing either 4 3 3 or 4 2 3 1 with okafor, leao, pulisic and chuku up front, on the paper already looks terrifying.
They would do so much damage with their speed and dribble.
True, bets can also be won. Can we win 6-7-8 (lost the count of incoming players) bets in the same time?
Ah yes the old bartolomeolol with his negativity.
If these signings were made by maldini he would lick maldini’s boots.
The only player that left midfield is tonali, bennacer is out due to injury, and you talk as if they overhaul milan midfield when in fact they add depth to it.
And of course you would prefer messias and diaz instead of pulisic and chuku
You ac maldini fans are getting dumber by the day, stretching out to find any single negative thing about this new management.
Milan wouldn’t have signed so many players if the likes of cdk, origi, vranks, dest were not failures
Calm down man you look like Patrick Bateman right now.
You were whining about Milan selling Tonali and are now worried we signed too many players. Its always the same with you guys. You are never happy about anything. If Maldini signed even half of the players we did, you would be praising that he’s a genius.
He is delusional.
Like i said, these ac maldini fans will always try to find something negative to say.
Look at his reply, he can’t even come up with anything.
He tried to be witty with the patrick bateman comment, but it’s just making him look even sadder 🤣🤣🤣
I just don’t get it with these guys. We have the base of Milan from last season. Only Tonali left. And maybe some fringe players will leave too.
But now these guys say we signed too many players and they are all uncertain bets. It’s giving me headaches.
I guess they wanted Maldini to stay to just sign 34 year old Arnautovic on loan and Messias to keep starting.
”
I just don’t get it with these guys. We have the base of Milan from last season. Only Tonali left. And maybe some fringe players will leave too.
But now these guys say we signed too many players and they are all uncertain bets. It’s giving me headaches.
I guess they wanted Maldini to stay to just sign 34 year old Arnautovic on loan and Messias to keep starting.
”
Or maybe they just want to see us get defeated by Inter over and over and over again like last season. The team is MUCH stronger than last season. How’s that a bad thing? According to certain people everything is wrong with Milan and nothing (or no one) is ever good enough for them. Getting tired of that same BS…
Yes , agree. We are Ac Milan, not Ac Maldini. Now stop whining and trust your new players.
Lmaoooo you sound so bitter. Many of the incoming players are develooed and are not 17/18. Rather 23 or 24 with top level experience. Whine more about it. You’re just upset Maldini didn’t sign them.
Guys you are talking about Maldini in every single one of your comments. Who’s obsessed? You just throw up some made up thinkings about people who don’t agree with you and you’re like some butterfly attracted by the shiny lights of these transfers. Or in this case, like some addicted gamblers attracted by Vegas signs. You thing that we’ll win the jackpot. But we also lose everything if things don’t go well. We had a team on the verge of glory, now the management said it, it’s a new project. They don’t intend to win trophies right now because they know that this team with the turnover and new tactics will require time. Hopefully we qualify for UCL, that’s our goal now, and the development continues. If we fail, our key players could leave and we rebuild again.
I don’t understand why you discredit this scenario. For now it’s as much a fantasy as yours.
Wow what a clown response. Many of the players we signed already are sure bets who have played at the highest level. These aren’t a bunch of 18 or 19 year Olds just starting out.
A team on the verge of glory? Are you delusional? We had a thin squad last season and nearly missed out on qualifying for the Champions League. If we missed it, we would have had some financial problems.
This is a new project to improve on the base. NOT to replace it. We fixed the right side of the pitch with players already performing at a high level, like Chukwueze.
I discredit your scenario because it’s not reflective of reality and it’s delusional. Just like you are. I suppose you were happy with our thin squad last season and Messias and Saelesmaekers starting.
You’re condescending and wrong. I wonder what you would say if we missed out on qualifying for the CL last season. If Juventus didn’t get a point deduction, we very could have. No, the team last season was exposed for its shortfalls. We had to reinforce accordingly.
Also as far as midfield, nobody wants to see Krunic starting every game either. And Bennacer had a surgery and is now out long term. Bet you didn’t even think of that.
So we added to our dead right side quality players and you still think it’s an uncertain bet? With players that have played at the highest level in the Champions League? How are you so sure about that?
Seems to me you’re just bitter your worst prediction didn’t come true.
You call team of messias, diaz, vrank, cdk, dest and origi is in the verge of glory?
Dude what you smokin?
Chill down a little bit
You starting to lose your brain
Going from mid table in Serie A to UCL qualification, Scudetto and UCL semis is something I would qualify as being on the verge of glory. Your scenario implies that the previous management wouldn’t recruit anyone. They had different ambitions. Keep the core intact, surround them with proven players. That’s my point, I know you disagree and you can’t even understand that people think differently from you, you’ll probably insult me again so I’ll stop here you guys are uncivilized.
Credit where credit is due but ucl semis only because milan got pretty easy draw.
And milan almost losing ucl qual if it wasn’t for juve point penalty.
All of that is the result of poor signings.
No quality in depth, which this management address this season.
Sure maldini would sign players, but who could he have gotten if milan didn’t sell tonali?
Milan selling 1 player, which is tonali, who btw, had bad 1st season, had great 2nd season due to him paired with kessie in double pivot, and last season he was a mix bag.
But suddenly, people like you saying milan lose their core, lose their identity, blahblahblah.
Gtfo
Is there something you don’t understand Bartholomeo? If we had a harder draw in the CL, we wouldn’t have got that far and we were on the verge of missing out on Champions League qualification. If Juventus didn’t get that point deduction (and they nearly didn’t as they appealed it), we would have missed out on the Champions League for this season.
Is there something you don’t get?
The core is there. Besides from Tonali and to a lesser extent Brahim Diaz (who wasn’t always a starter). We didn’t replace our core. And we bought players that are proven.
WE DID NOT BUY A BUNCH OF 18 year olds. Sure Romero is young, but the other players are definitely proven. Some of these other players already have played at a high level. Okafor is a rotational player. Players like Pulisic played for Chelsea and Dortmund at the highest level.
Your assessment is simply wrong. It’s okay to admit you’re wrong.
I was negative when Tonali was sold, and I can now say I was wrong back then. Tonali was never the base of this team. You need a reality check, Bart.
Also I wonder where Bart was when we bought Tomori and Maignan? Tomori couldn’t even get any time at Chelsea. Pulisic did. Was he on here doubting Tomori and Maignan? Or was he okay with it just because Maldini signed them?
Insult you again?
You called me an addicted gambler that goes to Vegas. I don’t gamble. That was insulting.
Every time we sign a player there is a risk. Every single time. So what do we do? Sign nobody and just keep playing Messias until he’s 37?
Arguably, the point of making 6, 7, 8 bets in Milan’s case is that winning 4 of them is good business. We’ve signed too many players to win them all, but enough that winning some of them will do enough. Or that we have injury cover for the prone ones. Depending on which bets work, we’d be covered for either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 and possibly a 3-5-2 in an emergency again (eg Leao is injured and we can play Okafor and Giroud together as a pair with Theo given space.
I wonder if this dude would have been scared to sign anyone like Tomori or Maginan, who were gambles too. I don’t see the difference between those two, and what we have signed now. Tomori didn’t even get playing time at Chelsea. And now he’s doing great for us.
Well AC Milan already losing bet from giampaolo ( coach ) , player like : rebic,meite,pelegri,bakayoko,florenzi,balotoure,aster prank,adili,dest,origi,CDK . Losing bet are part of gambling . Lets give this new player chance to prove themselves in first season
Rebic was good for 2 years and did what he was brought in to do so I wouldn’t say he was a lost bet. The last 2 years do hinder the success but he was a good purchase never the less.
Leao – Okafor- Pulisic/Chuk can be deadly if used the right way because of their unpredictability. They know how to drag players onto them and create space for each other up front. So instead of having one forward bagging 20+ goals a season we have three players up front being able to both create and score a lot.
What will be good is the fear factor, before they all feared Leão so they moved everyone to our left while now they will respect both sides which will give space for both
Exactly.
Leao would have so much more space now since milan also have ballers from right side and from the middle.
And yet some fans here complaining about our signing in attack department because apparently they prefer to stick with messias and diaz
“And yet some fans here complaining about our signing in attack department because apparently they prefer to stick with messias and diaz”
There’s plenty of things to complain about. If nothing else, they can always bash the owners for being American or something. Never a happy day for those guys.
*FOR THEM there’s plenty of things to complain about.
He also came relatively cheap and if Pioli can nurture him in right way he can easily be worth triple or more.
Let’s not keep worrying about a centre forward we have one than can score 20 goals this season in all competitions..HIS NAME IS OLIVIER GIROUD..
so no matter who we buy he will be an understudy to Giroud and not his replacement.We have made some very good signings this season ,and the best one could well be Loftus cheek as he has height speed physical strength and he will ,or should be ,a great asset in midfield…Pulisic also has great speed and skill ,and will provide Olivier with plenty of scoring opportunities….Yes Olivier is the perfect target man and he has proven he can score goals in the sera A League…Yes the Italian league is the toughest leauge to score goals in ,..but this AC Milan team can do that against anyone.Yes we also have Rafeol leao ,and again i except him to score lots of goals .
This will be our best season ever and we will challenge for honours again this season ,not only in the scuddeto race ,which we can win again this season , and we will also be a force to be reckoned with in the champions league.
I am very excited for this season …We have a great team and a great manager in pioli .let’s trust him and our team ..This is a very good AC Milan squad indeed .
I want Lacazette to join. Giroud is a class player but he can’t play an entire season. He is 37.
Giroud is fantastic for the team, but the problem is that we can’t clone him. If we had two, that would be perfect.
Goals are being spread across the frontline, winning as many games as possible is what is important, there are not many 20-30 goal strikers out there, the few that are there are expensive and a bit old, young ones are rare and they are taken by rich clubs, definitely not serie a, so this approach is the best for milan, everyone knows what we are getting in okafor for 14mill, and its okay
He’s a forward in the mould of George Weah, who also didn’t put up crazy goalscoring numbers, but could give you 15 goals and 10 assists a season and provide you with good backtracking. He’s an excellent hardworking player.
Swap Messias with Luca Jovic.
Or luka doncic for more physical 😀
Liverpool had a terrifying attack despite not having a pure CF. Klopp’s *Gegenpressing* made it easier with quick counters. Milan have the players, it’s on Pioli to utilize them.
Okafor played 3/4ths of his games as a winger basically. He was brought in as a rotational winger. And with three competitions you need all the depth you can get. This is a serious shortfall we had last season.
Not to mention for god knows how many seasons, milan right side had been pretty much non existent.
But with the addition of chuk and pulisic, milan can balance their attack from both flanks
Any sort of depth on the flanks is important. I do hope we sign a CF with the players we do manage to sell, like Origi, Messias and Ballo-Toure. Not sure who though.
Amrabat available for 25m?
Gosh!
Man utd
I know buddy.
But we aren’t even trying.
Heard he doesn’t consider Man Utd a top club in England.
Crespo is absolutely right. Milan needs a patcher on same level as Robert Lewandowski, Muller,Pogba in order to put fears in opononents
Poacher**
Crespo is 100% correct. Okafor is not a true #9 nor prolific goal scorer. But that is not what we purchased. We purchased a versatile backup and potential spot starter across the front line – basically a Rebic replacement. For 13M you cannot expect a prolific goal scorer. It’s a good signing for the price. I would have hoped we could have also purchased a true #9 but looks like that will be postponed until next summer. Key is how Pioli will use Okafor to spell Giroud so he stays fresh for the big league and UCL games.
What is a fact is that we have added quality depth to our squad and added players who have started for their teams. This is a good market. Admittedly I was not happy when we sold Tonali. But I have to give credit where credit is due – the replacements we purchased in his place (although have some question marks) look like well balanced calculated risks and one that I think we will all be happy with in the long term. We are deeper and more versatile and that is a good thing. You can never have enough players. Just add another mid (Musah) and backup LB and hopefully upgrade our RB position (Singo) and I think we have a team that can definitely win the Scudetto and make another deep UCL run.
Will we be better than last season? Nobody knows. I personally think we will be – Just solving that horrible RW position makes us better and I think Reinjders especially will be a breakout player and will calm the fears of many fans who didn’t want to see Tonali leave. I would have preferred we kept Tonali and just add more pieces like an SMS and a Chukwueze etc…to build on what we had – BUT that is not the Redbird policy. IF we want additional monies above the transfer budget a player sale will be needed. In this case should everyone stay healthy – 3 players for one player – may be the best path – as depth was one of our Achilles heels last season with so many games due to WC and UCL. It was a bold move but a creative one and one that I guess must be done if you have limited transfer funds. So let’s see how it plays out. I am much more optimistic than I was a month ago. Now time to put up results and that is in Mr Pioli’s hands.
Good job thus far Georgie boy. Still need to sell some players but eventually that will come in time. Now keep spending that $$$$$
To put it simple, Okafor’s role as CF will be like Ante Rebic style as CF. He could high-press well, stronger & fast. And he will be perfect if we really change to 4-3-3.
4-3-3 :
– DF : Calabria, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo.
– MF : Loftus-Cheeks, Reijnders, Pobega.
– FW : Pulisic, Okafor, Leao.
So, if we buy Chukwueze too, we will have very good depth at both wings. And i conclude that CDK will be Loftus-Cheeks’ backup ?