Paulo Fonseca reportedly believes that AC Milan can compete for the Scudetto if they sign a new centre-forward, but other pieces are needed to elevate the level of the squad.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, it was Fonseca himself – even if involuntarily, given that the statement was not public, but was leaked anyway – who apparently told the management something along these lines: “With a strong centre-forward, this team is worthy of the title.”
Fonseca didn’t say something absurd because Milan finished second in the standings and not 10th, but they never really fought for first place this season or last season, finishing 20 points behind Napoli and now 19 points behind Inter.
It would be wrong to point at Olivier Giroud and say that he was the reason that Milan did not fight for the Scudetto, just as pointing at his deputies in Noah Okafor and Luka Jovic does not feel entirely accurate.
A change of ownership, farewell to Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, the loss of pillars like Franck Kessie and Sandro Tonali, a decline in performance of older players, questionable choices in the mercato and inconsistent performance levels from stars all played a part.
Therefore, is it really as simple as signing a striker who scores 25 goals per season to fix those things? Again, that does not feel like an accurate assessment of where this club are at because there are too many other issues even on a squad building level.
Looking at the Milan team that won the Scudetto three years ago, it wasn’t that far technically distant from the current team, but it had some men at the height of their footballing maturity, and it was certainly richer in character and personality.
Just think of the comeback in the derby against Inter which started the fight for the title, while this group has lost six derbies in a row. Could it have been all Stefano Pioli’s fault? The hope is that Fonseca is an upgrade in this sense and that he has studied how to make the Rossoneri reclaim the throne.
The club will have to do the rest: by supporting him, showing clarity in choices, narrowing down the list of targets by carefully choosing the profiles needed to bring Milan back to fighting for the title. A central midfielder, a centre-back and a right-back have all been mentioned, and for good reason.