AC Milan have had a very busy start to the summer but one of the positions they must fill is the role of deputy left-back, a report claims.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Fode Ballo-Touré will soon leave and an agreement with Fulham is not far away, meaning that a new back-up to Theo Hernandez is needed in the last five weeks of the window.
Riccardo Calafiori of Basel is a candidate, however he doesn’t convince everyone at Milan in terms of his characteristics, despite the fact he would tick a box when it comes to the squad lists.
Speaking of which, the composition of the squad is making the management lean towards signing an Italian left-back. UEFA ask for a list of 25 players, with four academy products for that club and another four having come through academies in that country.
Milan only have Davide Calabria, Tommaso Pobega and Lorenzo Colombo as Primavera graduates given Matteo Gabbia is heading for Villarreal. Marco Sportiello, Antonio Mirante and Alessandro Florenzi are the three home-grown players.
At the moment Milan can register 23 players, not 25. For this reason, the club is looking for a player who came through a youth sector in Italy for the role of deputy left-back. However, Italian-trained left-backs are not abundant.
Juventus have asked for €20m for Andrea Cambiaso, too much for Milan, while Luca Pellegrini earns too much in terms of salary to be a deputy. Cristiano Biraghi, who has already worked under Pioli, has just renewed with Fiorentina and Fabiani Parisi has joined him there.
Calafiori is a candidate, with his 34 games (including cups) in the last season at Basel. In pre-eason, while waiting for Theo to return, Florenzi is playing on the left side and this could also be an idea: to transfer him to the left and buy a new Italian-trained deputy to Davide Calabria.
