The January transfer window is approaching, and for various players in the AC Milan squad the next two months could be decisive in proving that they deserve to stay.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report this morning, Luka Jovic is the main sale candidate. He was excluded from the squad list for the Champions League and from the close of the summer window onwards he played just 14 minutes in the league, at the end against Lecce with the score 3-0.
Jovic may not be the only one who has to pack his bags because Milan are waiting for some signs especially from Samuel Chukwueze. He was the most expensive signing last summer at €28m including bonuses, but his performance levels have so far fallen significantly short of expectations.
The Nigerian had a positive preseason but when things started to get serious, he practically disappeared: not even a goal or an assist in the 194 minutes played under Paulo Fonseca. At 25 years old and with a convincing past at Villarreal, Samu continues to have admirers around Europe (Everton) and also in Saudi Arabia.
However, his residual value in the accounts means Milan must get at least €14m, and will anyone offer that? Above all, the salary of €4m net per season could be holding back the suitors. This is why, if Chukwueze does not change his pace between now and New Year, a departure on loan cannot be excluded, with an option to buy.
Noah Okafor has shown more, especially coming off the bench. The Swiss striker, however, is not currently fighting for a starting place as the management hoped he would and that is why an offer of around €20m would be taken into consideration, with the Premier League again a possible market.
Malick Thiaw is another exit candidate after the Newcastle links in the summer, but selling him during a difficult moment (he is fourth in the centre-back hierarchies) would mean receiving significantly less than the €30-35m mentioned a few months ago.
A question mark remains over Davide Calabria. The captain’s contract expires in June and in January he could therefore be free to talk to other clubs and yet Milan could consider an immediate sale in January to get at least some capital gain.
It is more complicated to imagine the sale of Ismael Bennacer and/or Alessandro Florenzi, because both are out for a while longer yet after surgery. Divock Origi and Fode Ballo-Toure remain outcasts and can leave.
Sure, let’s sell Calabria, because we did manage to “upgrade” him, right ?
Ha ha….True upgraded iPhone 13 with iPhone 13 mini 😂
And we could get what, like 1M€ for him? Not worth selling as the alternatives are Crap with capital c.
Transfers will only work if there is a smart strategy behind them. The problems within the team now stem from the chaos the owners created when they removed a successful management team that possessed football knowledge and a plan. The new management is yet to demonstrate either:
1.Losing Diaz and Bennacer was out of our hands and disrupted the midfield but we still had Tonali, Krunic, and CDK who knew the coach and the system. The decision was to sell Tonali and CDK.
2.The new management signs nine first team players. Only one, Pulisic, has shined and I would argue Jovic did what was expected of him. Transfers don’t always work out but 7/9 failing is alarming. What was more alarming was the lack of a clear vision for the team. After a whole season, it’s not clear what roles Reijnders, RLC, Musah, or Okafor were brought in to play.
3.After struggling to find a working formula in midfield, the management sell Krunic and don’t sign a replacement. The midfield setup is changed again.
4.Milan are out of the title race, Coppa Italia, and Champions League by January and are eliminated in the Europa League quarter-final by a 10-man Roma.
5.A new coach comes in and has a great pre-season followed by a mixed transfer campaign. A couple of good signings in Morata (proven player) and Fofana (brought in to play a clear role) to strange departures of Simic, Kalulu, and Saelemaekers with the latter two involved and doing well in pre-season.
6.The ups and down suggest the team and coach need time (the Inter win deserves a lot of credit) but as a fan I want to see a clear direction for the team more than anything.
Reijnders isn’t a failure. After Puli our 2nd best signing, easily. He and Fofana have a good partnership going. But they are playing every game, since we don’t have proper subs for them and it’s not good for their stamina.
Musah is more of an investment, he has interesting traits it’s just he needs to find the right role, cause I think mezzalla isn’t his role.
Okafor strugled but at least showed some promise unlike Chukwueze.
The rest are true, 100%.
Genuine question…what does Reinjders do?
I really wanna know because I’m so lost on dude
In my opinion, Reijnders is not at the level that Diaz, Tonali, or Bennacer were for us, despite being a good player
After selling Tonali, Reijnders was hyped as massive upgrade and he was supposed to be the new star of our midfield. In the Eredivisie, he was in the high percentiles in many parameters mainly involving passing accuracy and ball carrying.
Given that Tonali was sanctionned, I don’t mind having selling him, but the new midfielders have to be a MASSIVE upgrade. for 65-70M€ we could have gotten Koopmeiners, Ricci and/or Hjulmand instead we opted for 3 midfielders the best of whom was Reijnders.
The problem with Reijnders is that he was supposed to be a mezzala in a 4-3-3 yet his success was limited there since we had to ditch the 4-3-3 (lack of defensive midfielder). He doesn’t do well in a double-pivot because his defensive abilities are next to no-existant and he doesn’t do well as an attacking midfielder because his shooting and his through balls are a bit lacking. Also, an aspect that doens’t display in stats, is that he doesn’t move in a way to offer solutions to his teammates when they have the ball and doesn’t do a good job as a playmaker when having the ball. To put simply, even his playing style is too shy to be the main playmaker in our team. I thought he improved on it during the derby, but it seems to be a fluke.
So I can’t say that Reijnders is a failure (at least not as much as Musah and Chukwueze) but he certainly is underwhelming giving his hype and is not an upgrade compared to when we had Kessié and Tonali.
@Sheva Milan. Totally agree. This is what happens when a team doesn’t have an experienced Sporting Director to build a winning cohesive team.
Milan is the only team that doesn’t have a sporting director. What a brilliant idea to ruining a scudetto winning team.
Yeah we are signing players but what’s the point if they don’t fit into the system or formation the coach wants to play?
Musah, Okafor, RLC and Reinjders signing was always puzzling to me especially given that Pioli won the Serie A playing 4231 formation.
These players do not fit into 4231 system and now we had 2 summers to address this mess and nothing has changed under Fonseca this summer.
It would have made sense for Milan to sign an attacking midfielder and a players similar to Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer but instead they signed midfielders that are odd balls and don’t fit a 4231 formation.
This is pure incompetence from this Milan owners and management. Until we have a proper Sporting Director we will continue to waste another 80m on the midfield and sign unnecessary players who are not functional to a 4231 formation.
Agree with all of that.
Big mistake by sell Thiaw and Calabria because millian won’t get people that are far better than them
Dont sell them it was mistake to breng Emerson Royal
Even if they sell them what’s the point? We just need to buy replacements and they won’t be getting any more minutes than this lot.
And nobody is paying 20-30 or even 15M for players that don’t play.
This management finds a new low everyday…imbeciles
So we’re gonna keep throwing more players at the problem without any sort of a plan or system?
We are becoming a merry go round like Manchester United. Honestly I’m just closing my eyes and hoping for the best this season.
Same.
selling calabria while he is our best rb currently
It’s only worth selling players if there is someone willing to buy and at a decent price. Right now you would not be getting anything for these players.