AC Milan’s attacking department will need freshening up next summer as there is a continued reliance on Olivier Giroud, and the management already have some ideas on how it might look.
According to this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Milan know that Giroud cannot be asked to score endlessly at the age of 37, despite the fact he continues to contribute on the biggest stages.
The mission is to find an heir or heirs worthy of succeeding him and one has already been identified in Jonathan David, while the second generation is represented by Lorenzo Colombo and the third by Francesco Camarda.
Before handing over the baton, Giroud will sign a one-year renewal until the summer of 2025 and it will foresee the reduction of his €3.5m net salary. He will remain a leader of the dressing room, and will be able to impart all of his experience.
Then, the hope is that David will join him. Milan tried to sign the Lille striker at the end of last August and will continue to monitor the situation in January because his deal expires in June 2025 and that lowers his asking price from €60m to €40m.
Next summer – more likely than in the winter – Milan will make a second attempt, which will be even more forceful than the first. The Canadian has only scored twice in the league this season, but Geoffrey Moncada and co. believe in him.
Then, Lorenzo Colombo could become part of the fold too. Milan will have him back next season, at the end of his loan spell with Monza. He scored a decisive brace against Verona at the weekend and the feeling is that he would be an upgrade on Luka Jovic, with ample room for growth given his age (21).
To complete the evolution would be Francesco Camarda, who is warming up with the Primavera at the moment and is just 15 years of age. The last time he was talked about was for an overhead kick against PSG in the Youth League on Tuesday which attracted the spotlight.
Camarda is spoken of as a generational talent, observed with interest by all the top teas around Europe, but Milan can renew his deal until 2027 next March when he turns 16.
If possible we should be looking for someone in January, what happens to our season if Giroud is injured?
Even if we play Okafor that is only 1 player (I am not counting Jovic)
Whatever happens next season we need
1. Mr. X
2. Colombo
3. Giroud – if he stays
Perhaps Camarda will get a debut in Copa Italia after he turns 16
If Colombo has a good season he may be the man. I’m very optimistic about him.
Honestly getting through this season may be tough.
Okafor is very good, but defineately more at home on LW
You’re not counting a player who we literally just signed?
And when we sign someone new in January, will count them?
Or we won’t count that person either and we’ll sign someone else in the summer, who we won’t count…
Maybe this is how we’re signed at least 1 striker every season for at least the last 15 seasons.
Im certainly not one who espouses chopping and changing many players each year.
We have needed a good centre forward for years now. Giroud is 37. I wanted Colombo to stay at Milan this season as id prefer him to Jovic and hes homegrown.
Jovic was a cheap last minute solution. He clearly is not good enough.
I like Okafor a lot too, will see if he can adapt to striker role. Though that may be a waste of his talents.
You should be happy we have colombo coming through and Camarda down the line
I feel we will lose Camarda if Pioli stays a coach.
It’s nice to see Colombo and Camarda being considered. I haven’t seen enough of David so maybe somebody here can tell me what they think? In my opinion, considering their “struggles” in the EPL and their familiarity with Serie A, Scammaca or Hojlund would be a fantastic steal
I follow Ligue 1 a bit since I’m French, so here’s my personal opinion on David. He scored a lot these past seasons, but he has also missed great opportunities on a regular basis. He scores many penalties. This year, he has only 2 goals and lost his starting spot two weeks ago for players that are not real forwards. Lille has creative midfielders and electric wingers, but he’s struggling. He’s not so young anymore and I guess he won’t be the great striker that many thought he could be. I think Milan deserves better, especially for 40M.
I agree about Jonathan David.
He kind of exploded on the scene about 2-3 years ago, and made a lot of people excited.
Last season with Lille, for the first time, he was the chosen PK taker and managed to pad his stats with 10 PKs.
This season, he’s fallen off a cliff for some reason, despite having the same manager, and not having any major injuries. He lost his starting job.
He’s really not a top striker that can have a big impact. Doesn’t really have the ability to beat a defender one on one and score.
Generally scores by working with a partner up front.
Apart from being faster than Giroud, he is not an improvement in skillls and is definitely not a like for like replacement as a target striker.
He would NOT have been able to score that goal against PSG that Giroud scored. He just isn’t that tall and big and strong like Giroud.
It would be a mistake for Milan to get him, especially for 40 million. I wou.
Mostly, I’ve seen him in action with the Canada MNT, playing against the USMNT in CONCACAF.
He hasn’t been that impressive, and hasn’t been much trouble for the USMNT to handle.
The guy on the Canada MNT that is really dangerous and has given the USMNT a lot of problems is Alfonso Davies, the starting left back for Bayern Munich.
Davies is world class, Milan will never be able to afford him.
Jonathan David is only so so. It would be a mistake to get him.
First, Scammaca along with being a mediocre player at best, is no longer in the EPL, he is an Atalanta player. Pay attention.
As for Hojlund, do you mean one of the 18-year-old twins on Copenhagen? Because there is no way in hell Man U would be selling him for less than 9 figures these days.
Ok I’ve gone back through every season to 03/04 and I’ve gave up.
Let’s say Kaka isn’t a striker.
We’ve signed at least one striker every single season since 03/04. Every single season for 20 seasons we have signed at least one new striker.
04/05 Crespo
05/06 Gilardino + Amoroso
06/07 Ronaldo
07/08 Pato
08/09 Ronaldinho + Shevchenko
09/10 Huntelaar
10/11 Ibra + Robinho + Cassano
11/12 El Shaarawy
12/13 Balotelli + Pazzini
13/14 Matri
14/15 Ménez (who played as a CF for us) + Torres
15/16 Balotelli + Bacca + Luiz Adriano
16/17 Lapadula
17/18 Silva and Kalinic
18/19 Higuaín + Piątek
19/20 Ibra
20/21Mandžukić
21/22 Pellegri + Giroud
22/23 Origi
23/24 Okafor + Jovic
And that’s just major signings. There’s been the same number of youth players in that period.
And there are no sign of it stopping.
We’ll probably sign another striker in January. Our third striker this season.
We have about (if you can keep track) 9 senior strikers on our books:
– Colombo
– CDK
– Origi
– Giroud
– Okafor
– Jovic
– Lazetić
– Roback
(There’s a few others. Nasti? Alesi? Who knows they’ll be amateurs soon).
In 20 years we’ve never found one long term solution to our striker position (or most positions). Not even long term. A short to medium term solution.
That’s a lot of changing one’s mind. And changing one’s allegiance. And, well, change.
Imagine a business appointing at least one new sales director every single year.
Would anyone think that business was well run?
Shevchenko played striker for 7 years. Thats a pretty long term solution
Great strikers who can score a lot of goals, guaranteed, are hard to find, very much in demand the world over, and proven scorers are generally very, very expensive.
Milan still seem to be in that phase of business trying to hunt for bargain basement deals, Moneyball type players.
So you get very young players who look promising, like Okafor, and hope they can develop and blossom into world class talent.
Or you get fallen angels like Jovic, and Origi. Origi was a bust, and Jovic looks to be a bust also.
Or, you hope that one of your academy players turns out to be a star. That could be Columbo and Camarda, but they really need more playing time before being incorporated fully into the senior squad. They won’t get better by sitting on the bench behind Giroud.
Dont buy David. Why the f would you want David?
You want a 175cm dude to battle 190cm dudes match in match out? And you’re gonna pay 40M for that?
Do these people really work in football?