There continues to be question marks surrounding the future of Davide Calabria, and a report has confirmed that he turned down an offer from abroad.
After the arrival of Alvaro Morata and the imminent announcement of Strahinja Pavlovic, multiple sources are reporting that Milan’s third summer signing should be Emerson Royal from Spurs, who would arrive to strengthen the right-back role.
With the Brazilian now very close to Milan, the one who risks losing his starting spot is Davide Calabria as per La Gazzetta dello Sport (via PianetaMilan). The full-back and captain of the Rossoneri has almost always been a starter, but the significant investment in another player could change things.
The Milan academy graduate should stay at Milan and compete for the place with the new signing, but he is also in demand it seems. The paper claims that Calabria said no to an offer from Galatasaray earlier in July.
The Turkish club even offered a higher contract than the one he earns at Milan but he was not interested in the move. An added question mark comes from the fact that Calabria’s contract will expire in 11 months and there is no significant news on a possible renewal.
OOOOF! I’m ready for this thread to explode!
Y’all know where I stand. 100% not Captain material, nor starter. Keep at the same wages or boot.
The rest of you: GO!
this. Calabria is awful and the only reason some people defend him is because he came through the ranks of the club
A lot of people were complaining about Calhanoglu as well, I don’t think Calabria is bad and in the right context he can do very well. Let’s not forget that he was part of the defense that won the scudetto.
I’m afraid that Marotta is gonna pull a double-heist of Calabria + Chiesa next year
We need to give him a raise and make him captain/ coach. Rb of the decade for Milan
I would take Calabria over Emerson Royal or Kalulu any day. He was a starter during the Scudetto season. He was a starter during the UCL semifinals run. He managed to contain Kvaratskhelia and Mbappé. He’s da Milan. I don’t understand the hate for this guy. He’s not world class but Milan is not recruiting world class players anyway.
I agree buddy…
Still pushing this false narrative the Calabria shut down Kvara and Mbappe. If you watched those games you would know that Milan had to assign a second player to help out Calabria the entire game. He was never 1v1 vs these guys, always had help. WHen he plays against lesser players and they don’t assign someone to help, thats when he gets beat badly.
💯
It’s common practice to double team the best opposing player. Leao is always double teamed. And we won both against Napoli and PSG so it seems to work fine enough.
People don’t understand football mate, like you say, all teams double up. Even Maldini used to do it, he famously spoke of playing against R9 and telling Desailly to stay with him. Alex Ferguson used to tell Neville and the CB to stay close when playing against Owen because of his electric pace…
Football is a team sport.
What teams don’t double and triple Leao?
I agree with Barts. Dude is not world class, but he is solid.
Last year was a poo-fling. He never knew who he was lined up with because injuries. He was asked to essentially be a midfielder and to go forward far more often. I’m really not ready to pitch out anyone based on last year’s defensive odyssey.
So I too am unclear why Calabria is vilified the way he is. Royal is faster, so let them compete. But either way we have depth in a spot we didn’t before with the injury to Flo.
I understand. But people like to act like he shut them down on his own when it’s not true. And like I said, when we play against other teams where they don’t feel they need to give Calabria extra help is where he struggles. Can’t always be taking away another player to help Calabria out.
He’s always out of position and doesn’t have the pace to make up for it when we get caught on the counter. And Fonseca is going to want his fullbacks pushing forward as well so he’s going to have the same problem.
He offers next to nothing going forward, can’t deliver a good cross. A useful back-up at this point.
He is average at best. Solid is a generous overestimation. His good games are far and few in between forgettable and terrible games.
He’s not a villain here. He’s just…. average. And we need to do better than that.
It’s the sense of belonging these anti-Calabria fans lack. They just want shiny new toys from other club’s stock. Our own stock is boring.
I’d agree with you on the captain issue, that should belong to Theo all day long, Mike vice captain.
However ive always thought Calabria is a very decent player. Sure at times he does ludicrous things that make you wonder how he became a professional, but then he’ll shut down Kvaratskhelia and Mbappe in the CL. He’s no Panucci, Tassotti or Cafu (who is) but unless we have a gem lined up, who’s better? Kalulu? Emerson Royal?
I think he’s a starter right now, I liked the sound of the Thiago Santos move to perhaps push and eventually replace Calabria in 1-2 seasons.
There is too much unrequited Calabria hate. Not saying you do, buts it’s just the go to trope for Milan fans. Whenever I watch him I’m not underwhelmed and you can never doubt his love for the club
Theo captain ? you mean the guy who constantly gets yellow cards and red cards for diving and fighting (especially with Dumfries). Theo is too immature and too hot-blooded to be our captain.
So kind of what beckham did before he got the captains armband….it would be the making of him
As for hot blooded captains…Roy Keane wasn’t bad
Or Gattuso…
Roy Keane (and Gattuso) had far more charisma, leadership and winning mentality and fighting spirit that Theo could ever dream of having.
Hot blood vs even-keeled Calabria who is never near team mates separating them from opposition like Tonali used to?
Who is closer to Tonali? not the Italian. I’m not arguing for Theo. I’m arguing against Calabria. If Theo gets it he’I’ll have to act accordingly for sure.
I think he would step up, it made beckham who could also be petulant. Despite his moments Theo does lead by example by the way he plays, and to be honest I don’t mind him having his battles, the red card was inexcusable against Inter, but all the greats had that edge
He’s now 26, peak time career, he needs to step it up and lead this team
I don’t hide my distaste for Calabria. The problem is that we face the likes of Kvara and off-day Mbappe far less frequently than every other attacker with less quality than those two that Calabria struggles against…
He is not a starter for me. Emerson isn’t much to write home about either so far and Kalulu remains to be seen.
I see it as this. Calabria a loyal player who has always given his all to the team. At the same time there was a period where I couldn’t be more angry with him because of his positioning on the field always leaving the winger wide open to run inside and Calabria was nowhere to be found. The question is was that his fault or pioli’s?
You know what your getting with Calabria, he isn’t the best rb. He’s average but he’s been with us all his life and deserves respect. If someone comes in and is better than its only right he gets benched. Simple as that
I would definitely renew him but in the end it also depends on the players salary demands and whether he will accept a potentially reduced role if we actually brings in a new rb.
Calabria is the weak point of this team right now. He offers little going forward and his defense has dropped off dramatically. He is too slow to play RB especially how they want to use a RB in this system. If he wants to stay as a back-up that’s fine. He is not a leader either and should not be our Captain. If he wasn’t Italian there would be nobody defending him here at all.
YES! Thank You.
“especially how they want to use a RB in this system”
It is my understanding that we want the RB to almost act as a RCB in the offensive phase as Theo will be free to get forward.
Royal does not appear to be an offensive minded player either. He seems to be a faster version of Calabria. This appears to reinforce the idea of 3 in the back on offense.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out
Not sure. I know he likes to have the wingers go inside and the FBs overlap. It would be better if Calabria did stay back because he’s rather useless offensively. An upgrade is needed either way and more pace is always welcome.
Emerson Royal….. Seriously??
Where is this really going?
If we want to replace him, it has to be with someone much much better.
Emerson Royal?? I prefer someone like Frimpong. He was good last season with Leverkusen.
The problem is, Frimpong likely won’t be cheap. At least 40m I guess, which I’m sure too expensive for us.
Calabria is by no means a world beater but he can do a job if the team is set up to cover his weaknesses. I like Calabria but he had a down year. Fortunately he has responded well after previous down seasons (the year Conti replaced him comes to mind). On the whole he’s replaceable but I trust him to always leave it all on the field for better or worse.
Calabria had a down year, Bennacer had a down year, Tomori had a down year, Mike had a down year. Reijnders and Musah didn’t have a season worth mentioning as well.
Should we get rid of all of them? Or are you just going to go with your biased selection of players who were suffering from Pioliball and ones who are just useless?
And considering Gabbia has a great half a season, shouldn’t we make him top earner and a captain?