AC Milan are working on multiple fronts to try and improve the squad ahead of next season and the midfield is being focused on.
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According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Milan will almost certainly not spend €40-50m on any one player but will certainly rebuild the team with a serious of targeted acquisitions after Sandro Tonali’s sale.
With Ruben Loftus-Cheek to be announced soon, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada are now aiming for two other signings: Yunus Musah and Tijjani Reijnders.
They are not seen as alternatives but rather complementary, because they can play together in a three-man midfield. Loftus-Cheek, Reijnders, Musah is the current dream. The trio would be physical, European, experimental but interesting.
Milan have verbally agreed a €2m net per year deal with Musah, who would be happy to join, and Stefano Pioli likes him for his physicality as a mezzala. The question now is the agreement with Valencia, who want €25m with Milan aiming for €20m.
Reijnders is in a different situation. In recent days he has made it clear that he only wants Milan, with Premier League clubs snubbed. For a Dutch player, the chance to join the Rossoneri and follow the path of Rijkaard, Gullit and Van Basten is something special.
Reijnders is 24, Musah 20 and Loftus-Cheek 27 making it quite a young midfield department. Milan have not yet made an offer to AZ Alkmaar but will soon, aiming to close at around €18-22m which is becoming a natural ceiling for all operations.
The Eredivisie club are not an easy one to deal with, so the key will be how much Reijnders will be able to impose his will. Reijnders and Musah are the two players around whom Milan are trying to build the midfield because of their physique, ability to move play forward and their dribbling.
Reijnders would be the pivot, called to protect the defence and stride out when possible. The only doubt might be that Loftus-Cheek and Musah score very little, meaning there would not be the attacking production that Tonali offered, for example.
The next 10 days will bring decisions on at least one of them, probably both, while there is no shortage of alternatives like Nicolas Dominguez of Bologna.
