Despite the fact that the 2022-23 season has not yet officially drawn to a close, predictions regarding how AC Milan might line up next season have already begun.
Today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) talks about the potential starting line-up that Milan could field next season if they get deals over the line for the players considered to be their main targets.
Mike Maignan is in net with an unchanged back four of Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez, with Sandro Tonali in the double pivot alongside Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who seems to be getting closer to joining from Chelsea.
Brahim Diaz is down as the right winger presuming he is signed permanently from Real Madrid, with Daichi Kamada as the attacking midfielder who is expected to join on a free from Eintracht Frankfurt, and Rafael Leao on the left wing.
The number one centre-forward option is Lois Openda with Olivier Giroud his alternative, and Marko Arnautovic also down as a potential third choice.
Projected Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Tonali; Brahim Diaz, Kamada, Leao; Openda (Giroud/Arnautovic).
Tielemans is better than Loftus Cheek and free.
Also Thuram is much better than Openada and free as well
Send Diaz back to Madrid and sign Ziyech instead.
Ziyech is an old flop.
Everybody flops at Chelsea. Did you watch the world cup? He would thrive in Milan.
Did you watch Dest at World Cup?
You mean the World Cup where he consistently held the ball too long and repeatedly played wayward passes? That World Cup? Definite pass on Ziyech.
Just because they are free doesn’t mean they want to sign with us when other teams can pay a much higher salary and are not constrained by a “wage cap”
Kovacic better than both and more suited for the role than Youri
GreekVanBasten,
Wake the f**** up! Thuram is NOT free. His agent asks money+he wants too much salary. If somebody’s contract ending, does NOT mean they are FREE.
Lol the season hasn’t finished yet and the transfer window hasn’t opened yet and we’re doing expected teams already LMAO 😂😂😂
We could get franca from Brazil, asensio in exchange with Diaz,then savic.
No, it can not be Diaz .
How did we keep diaz and not get dybala is beyond me, smh. And origi what a waste of salary, we could have gone African or Brazilian league and got better striker cheap.
What a bad lienup… only improvement is kamada. Diaz at RW is ok not great. RLC will be bad to average and Bennacer is far better. The 4231 is terrible for this team but Pioli is limited.
Average lineup. Kamada upgrade at ACM but rest is questionable. Diaz is going back to Madrid so our RW may be Orsolini? Average player again and unproven at big club. Hardly moves the needle that much. RLC has injury history to overcome. Benny has to come back healthy. Openda is unlikely as his price tag has risen to 35-40M. So I’m sure instead we have to go even younger and more unproven for a player like Jackson and add veteran like Arnautovic…So not that much change from last season. Again average upgrades and still lots of question marks. But what can we expect. Limited budget can only get you so much and we have many holes to fill. Maybe we can do something creative like swap that slower than molasses and destined for the bench player – Pobega for Singo of Torino if Juris is still interested in him and dumb enough to swap him plus some cash for Pobega. A RIGHT side of Calabria and Orsolini doesn’t move the needle much if at all. This is not a CL winning side IMO but it seems clear that is not the concern of Ownership. Top 4 is the only goal year in and year out which we will struggle with that each year BUT I’m sure we will be profitable lol
With a transfer budget of 75m
Additional 20-30m from player sales.
And the best we can do is add:
Openda
Loftus Cheek
Kamada (free)
You really will blame a transfer like this on the ownership??
Really??
Kamada and Thuram are free, and both earn between 3-4m annually. That settles the AM and CF positions effectively.
DM – Amrabat 25m earns around 2-3m annually.
CM – SMS 60m (pay in two instalments) earns around 6m annually.
RW – Moussa Diaby 70m (pay in two instalments) earns around 2-3m annually.
I know it wouldn’t be easy, but these targets don’t necessarily break our wage cap, I wish we can look in this direction, we would have successfully built a competitive team to challenge on all front.
Dude , Fio reject 30m euro offer for amrabat from EPL club and you want to take him 25m euro ? Need 40m euro to convince fiorentina. Thuram free but his agent asking fee agent 10m euro & salary 6m euro nett , what if he flop ? It is huge gamble giving new player 6m euro nett. Diaby 70m euro ? AC Milan will never buy player more than 40m euro , just forget if that player cost more than 40m euro . SMS quality signing but with 1 years contract left, it is over price pay 60m euro , just skip if not 40m euro
Read carefully man, I was referring to the “wage cap” conversation.
And, 40m for Amrabat, 70m for Diaby and SMS weather overpriced or not, I’m just pointing it out that with the funds available, we can seal the deal if the heart is there.
6m salary for Thuram a huge gamble??
Then we should just settle for being an average club.
The biggest gamble we can take right now, is signing cheap and average players and expect them to outperform their limits. Not everyone is Leao and Theo you know.
When you recognise quality, pay for it. Quality doesn’t come cheap unless you are Theo.
We need instant upgrades in necessary departments and not unproven cheap solutions, imagine, which is better, an overpriced CDK or an overpriced SMS? I will rather have an overpriced proven quality than an overpriced unproven talent.
Look bro, I know the Redbird policy, we are just having a conversation. But, we have made low risks gambles, and we have overperformed last season, but truth is we CANNOT do better than that, the team has reached its max, without a high risk approach of signing proven quality, I’m sorry to say this, but we WILL never get better.
No I disagree with Pioli over tomori Kjaer is better
M.maignan
Calabria,kalulu/thiaw,Kjaer, Hernandez
Loftus,tonali
Diaby/saelermakers,Diaz,leao/Noah Okafor
Openda
I would prefer if they kept the summer transfer drama to a minimum. All the CDK news from last year contributed to his over-hype and poor start/year. Get the key spending done early and wait till the deadline in Sept for bargains.
Calabria Diaz out …..
Anybody who knows football will surely know that Calabria,salemaekers, Brahim,Rebic,origi are average players
Milan should get quality players to replace them…. FORZA MILAN
Most of u are blaming Diaz ,that guy is the most technical player milan has ,milan can’t afford any player of his quality in the market …on his good days he is a super star ,milan should do all possible to keep diaz
I would let Diaz go, he is too inconsistent. If we get Kamada we have him, CDK, Messias, Salamakers and Adli who can play centre or right.
Personally for the front three id go Leao, Kamada, CDK behind Giroud or someone new.
RLC in my opinion will be a big flop. Our first red light should be ‘injuryprone’. Healthy players get SERIOUSLY injured in training in Pioli’s ‘system’ for no reason and sits out for MONTHS. Pioli managed to get Kessie Injured in training and out for a whole month. RLC will just die. LOL
BTW, Kessie got injured in Barca as well, but it was in a game while we FVCK our players up in training. It’s OUTRIGHT Mind boggling.
the question is how far the coach can get the best out of a player and how long a player can adapt