GdS: Best summer mercato in 19 years for Milan – Pulisic leads the line

By Isak Möller -

The summer mercato has been heavily debated among AC Milan fans but based on the stats, it’s the best in a long time. Christian Pulisic has been clutch in many games and Tijjani Reijnders is starting to perform on a consistently high level, as a report highlights. 

Geoffrey Moncada and Giorgio Furlani took over the mercato duties from Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara in the summer. A total of ten signings were brought in, using the money from Sandro Tonali’s sale, and you can read our Substack breakdown of it all here.

As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), it is the best summer mercato since the 2004-05 season, i.e. 19 years ago. Milan’s new signings have scored 21 goals this season, 46% of the total goals scored, in addition to 13 assists.

The ten signings cost Milan a total of €113m and this means that each goal has cost the Rossoneri around €5.4m. A total of €19m could be added in bonuses, but of course the cost for each goal will only go down from here.

Taking a look at the numbers in the league, with 16 goals from the new signings across five players, it’s the best impact Milan have received from new signings since 2004-05. In 2012-13, the Rossoneri also signed ten players but ended the first half with 14 goals from these signings.

In 2017-18, the disastrous season, Milan spent over €200m on eleven reinforcements and they only managed 9 goals in the first half of the Serie A season. In short, the summer mercato was the best in a long time.

Christian Pulisic is the undisputed star this season with seven goals and six assists in all competitions. After a tough year at Chelsea, he has regained his form and has come in clutch for Milan several times. Luka Jovic has also started scoring, following a slow start to the season.

Of course, goals are not the only way to determine the impact of the signings. But even with that considered, Milan have done really well as Tijjani Reinjders is a great example. He has two goals to his name but above all, he’s become a crucial player in the midfield.

Milan are still waiting on the breakthroughs of Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor, but there is great optimism regarding these.

Tags AC Milan Christian Pulisic Luka Jovic Tijjani Reijnders

21 Comments

    1. Look at the comments 🤣.
      Instead of looking at the facts and numbers, people will rather talk based on their emotions.
      “Oh, Furlani, the Judah wrote this.”
      Milan mercato wasn’t perfect. They didn’t fill every need, but that’s understandable when they were left with so many needs to be filled. Can’t do it all in the same window.
      But Milan troubles this season are not because of the mercato or the way too many foreign players that need time to adjust. Sure look like they have adjusted just fine.
      Milan problems are the coach, the injuries happening because of the coach and the top players at the club mostly performing like doo doo.
      I’m surprised that GdS is going off script here. The media have been so against Milan since June that no matter what they did the media was criticizing and blaming the foreign owners and the foreign players.
      Sacchi will be coming out to scold GdS in no time.

  1. this is what juddah furlani would say , but what i think is that pulisic is pure class just as reijnders, okafor is classy player but pioli made him flop, chukwu flop,romero flop,pellegrino probb wil be flop,loftus -one or two good matches since he arriwed,even CDK showed more, jović better than expected,musah very dumb player and obviously a flop,sportieloo will be good if out shitty medical team can make him fit ,
    to summ up , 3 good signings, all the others is something that we would be glad if it never happened

    1. There is no way u called musah a flop when he has been our second best mf this season u really gonna blame him after one game smh this man musah is special

      1. what games have you watched? Musah isnt even in top 5 and we only have 5 mids.

        boi has a lot of work left to do to be considered good. good thing he’s young and can still improve

      2. Krunic is better than Musah. Musah has no tactical intelligence. He’s not good enough to play in Serie A. The midfielders from the Primavera are better than him.

  2. Reijnders is a sexy beast. Love watching him on the ball. Just needs to improve his shots on target.

    Puli carrying the RT flank for Milan after years of having nothing of value coming from the RT. hopefully Chuk settles in this season and starts improving his performances.

  3. “Taking a look at the numbers in the league, with 16 goals from the new signings across five players, it’s the best impact Milan have received from new signings since 2004-05.”

    Huh?? Lol what ammi reading here. Does anyone fact check or have memory anymore???
    We just gonna ignore that year we got Ibra and Robinho???
    When we bought Ibra and Robinho that was the best impact from summer signings I can recall. And I’m not even including Cassano who came in January either. Lol this is laughable. They put up numbers that season. Way more than the current guys.
    Also, context ppl! Sure we gained output from the signings but remember we also lost output from the players we gave up. For instance, Tonali had maybe 9 or 10 goal contribution last year. He’s now replaced with other players, 2 or 3 in fact.
    I’ll do the gain/lost at year end. But from the league position after 19 rounds we’re about the same as last year lol 😂. So it seems a net zero impact or marginally better. And I’m not taking away anything from Puli who has been great.

    1. Context.
      Zlatan, Robinho ans Cassano combined scorer 32 goals for the ENTIRETY of the season.
      Milan New signings have scored 21 goals for HALF of this season.
      Is it way more than the current guys?

      1. Ah u might be on to something, I checked both goals plus assists when the article was only goals re 21. We’re talking about 2010/11 right? At this stage (19 rounds and group stage UCL)..Ibra alone had 22 goal contributions. Then add Binho to that number makes it 29… between 2 signings. In terms of goals Ibra and Binho have 20, the decider is Prince Boateng who pushes that tally over 21 goals. Of course Cassano, MvB and co. came later. But this is 3 players vs 10 lol 😂

      2. Lemme do the +/- math

        We lost 55 total goal contributions (over a season) through player departures over the summer. People tend to forget Diaz and Messias contributions. We gained 33 in half the season from the new arrivals…..so we’re about 5 goal contributions better but at the same time out of basically all the competitions???? The math ain’t mathing.
        Btw the pace of goal contributions will slow down as we’re out of competitions. It will be interesting to see where we land at the end of the season

  4. How much did Redbird path to GDS to write this??? LOL.

    Reindjers, RLC, Pulisc and Sportiello were so,I’d signings – same signings (except for Reindjers that we know) were all Maldini targets. Pulisic has been great. Finally we have a consistent RW. Reindjers as well (although he needs to work on his finishing); RLC is inconsistent as he has been his whole career – dominant one game, absent the next. He’s been good but should be great in Serie A. He remains an enigma, but that is who he is.

    We spent 62M on 3 back up players: Musah (20M); Chukuweze (28M) and Okafor (14M) – that have so far produced a total of 5 goals. Not bad for 62M 😂🤪. Now I like Okafor and Musah – but given our limited budget I would have rather us spend that $$ on a proper starting caliber proven/consistent striker – than on backup players. That was a mistake IMO. Chukuweze cannot even beat out Pulisic – and I don’t see how he will – save for drastic injury to Pulisic. So he is an expensive (for our budget) 28M back up. Not good.

    Romero, and Pellegrino are raw and need to be loaned out and we were better off keeping Gabbia than wasting $ on Pellegrino.

    Jovic has been as advertised his whole career: inconsistent. Take away the 2 coppa Italia goals and he is on track to hit 6 goals in 32 games?? LOL. Considering nobody wanted the guy and a Fiorentina were more than happy to dump him for nothing, guess you can’t expect much.

    So when an article like this comes out it’s pretty comical and doesn’t give any context. Seems like a puffer piece by Georgie boy to take some of the heat off.

      1. So as long as it’s a third world country, it doesn’t matter??. And no name loser really 😂🤣😂🤣
        I don’t know whether to call this some. Kind of mental delusion or you just spouting off nonsense as usual.
        But at least it’s consistent with what you do.

        KEEP IT UP

      2. You’re my new favorite but for the wrong reason.

        Carlo whatever his name was, I considered a fun autistic kid.

        You are more like that guy whose been rejected everytime he wants something in life. You’re angry at life. We get it. But realize that people don’t get angry when you comment nonsense. They actually feel pity for the low intelligence outcast.

      3. @Pioli!!!! We all know it’s you LOLOLOLOLO. Are you employed by Redbird?? Seriously buddy you take everything said about Redbird so personal.

        And there it is. The racist/prejudiced comment. Was waiting for it. Only a matter of time. Its an ignorant comment only a privileged uneducated white kid would make LOL. Third world? Like @Briareos said – Do ppl from the third world not matter?? Apparently not in your disgusting bigoted world. Wow how ignorant you are. But why should we be surprised with all the trash that comes out of your mouth.

        Mr Isak Moeller – when are you going to kick this racist troll off this site???

    1. “How much did Redbird path to GDS to write this???” …money well spent it seems 😂😂😂unlike in the summer. Its such a clear puff piece. Bro i watched that nonsense spending 60m on backups smh.. sad and they spin that into some crazy stuff. They replaced a whole midfield and got way more players that last year and still can’t do better??? What a shame

  5. Still, we are out of CL, Coppa and struggle in the league. Did nobody read an article with dataMB from last couple of days clearly showing struggles in linking up the play and create?

  6. It’s extremely difficult to commend in a decent way such articles. Suspicious, incrediblly stupid articles written from idiots addressed to idiots only.
    In this logic, changing the entire team would nearly guarantee the “best mercato” ever.
    Few related facts:
    – we have scored (at the same moment in season) the exact SAME amount (35) of goals as last season (which was not even the best from the past period, let alone the golden years)
    – the xG are 31.78 against 36.59. So our attack is WORSE compared to last year (which wasn’t the best from the…)
    – the year is objectively not a success, being kicked out from CL, Coppa and being very far from winning anything.
    – the overall club value dropped from last year (the amount of decrease is debatable but the decrease is a fact).

    So the new comers may score as much as they can but as long as the team is in (arguably) worse position as last year, none cares. Extending the comparison to 2000’s just makes the story more and more ridiculous.

  7. that’s what i mean in the prev article (about poli the mr. normal),
    we don’t need spend in quantity, 1 or 2 players like Z or Binho then other is bargain (dependen/ young/ cheap/ free players) such Prince & Cassano.
    great board/ director can bring player in Z/ Binho caliber (they are no cheap but we got them without break the transfer record) Messi/ CR7/ Mbappe is there to be call even only for 1 or 2 seasons (Bekham/ r9/ r10) did with us),
    then the coach, great coach will make CDK to be young Kaka, great coach can make players such SMS & Berardi as beast.

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