Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes that AC Milan have signed two strong players in Riccardo Sottil and Warren Bondo, that the club will develop further.
Milan had a very busy winter transfer window as they welcomed five new signings and said goodbye to six senior players, with the management making it clear they are not happy with what has come this season so far.
The headline signings in terms of name brand were probably Kyle Walker, Santiago Gimenez and Joao Felix. However, the acquisition of Bondo on a long-term deal – with some help from Adriano Galliani – looks an astute purchase, and Sottil arrived with plenty of Serie A experience.
Ibrahimovic was present at the press conference that saw Bondo and Sottil unveiled to the media and he spoke to reporters before the pair answered questions, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“Good morning everyone, we are here to present two of our acquisitions, Warren Bondo and Riccardo Sottil. We welcome them. They are two young guys, but they already have great experience in Italian football,” he said.
“Bondo is someone who covers space, works, does dirty work that is not always seen, but for the team he is fundamental and knows how to play with the ball at his feet. He can improve in many areas.
“Sottil always looks for one-on-ones, he can play on both wings, he is young and has room for growth. We must make them even stronger.”
Riccardo Sottil has quite bad stats but looks like a walking highlights reel.
I’ve watched some of his available footage and the guy looks like Kvaratskhelia in addition to having good freekicks.
So are those his actually his only good highlights available or is the guy one of those players who are good but whose stats don’t do any favour ? Only time will tell I guess.
I would read between the lines regarding his characteristics and therefore his overall game and performances. His highlights show a few things, remove the goals he scored and the stats. Sottil is relatively young, has a lot of Serie A experience. He is particularly quick with the ball and has the attitude of someone who will use his speed to beat his man on the wing. Sottil isnt a prolific goal scorer but by beating his man on the wing he can then cross a ball and that is key for the current type of strikers at Milan.
On top of that Milan got a wingers with this kind of characteristics and attitude for a loan deal with an option to buy at 10 Mil. It is a good deal for someone who isnt injury prone like Okafor and can be okay with playing 10-20 minutes in a game.
I look at certain statistics for players like this and one of them is pass success rate because given his characteristics he is a forward thinking player and in those cases he must either be a shit passer of the ball . He is above 80 percent and that is the standard Milan likes to see in all their players they go for except strikers.
I think there is a player who can score 3-4 goals and help cover Leao in certain games but still not good enough on his own to threaten leao’s position.
Yes. That’s where we are. Look at the bench now company to the scudetto winning team. It’s much stronger.
Sotill is a better dribbler than Okafor and he is young. He doesn’t get injured a lot and he is better than Chukwueze and Okafor in 1 on 1 with defenders. At Milan he is also playing with better quality players like Reinjders, Pulisic, Leao, Joao Felix and Gimenez. So he will improve his game in Milan and he has Serie A experience.
This is a loan with option to buy so there’s no risk in getting him. Milan will get Lewis Ferguson, Ricci and Orsolini this summer to complete this team. If Abraham doesn’t stay then they will go for Kristovic from Leece or Udinese striker Lorenzo Lucca.
Milan are already building for next season. RLC, Chukwueze, Jovic and Emerson will definitely be the next players to leave.
I hope you’re right regarding the players on the way out, RLC seems unnecessary in the squad and replacing him with Ricci would be great.
But credit to the management who many fans (including myself) have been critical of. This window they at least seemed to want to improve the dynamics and quality of the squad making targeted acquisitions. Gives us all hope for the remaining part of the season and beyond.
Forza Milan
The two main qualities of Bondo and Sottil were cheap and inexpensive 🤭