Malick Thiaw has ended up on the radar of Newcastle and as the interest is concrete, the journalist Andrea Longoni believes AC Milan should cash in. However, only on one condition.
It was a season filled with ups and downs for Thiaw, with the Monza disaster coming to mind, but he remains a player with a lot of potential. Milan have certainly seen what he’s capable of on a good day and at the age of 22, there is a lot of time to grow.
In recent days, the interest of Newcastle has been confirmed and could result in a decent payday for Milan. In his latest editorial for MilanNews, the journalist Andrea Longoni shared his thoughts on the situation.
“One of the potential mercato turning points concerns Malick Thiaw. Newcastle’s interest is concrete and, in the event of an agreement, it would allow Milan to cash in around €30m. Money that could be used for a big signing for the centre-left position.
“Napoli are ahead on Buongiorno, Juventus on Calafiori, but at that point, the added funs could help Milan. Thiaw is just 22 years old and has the possibility of taking several steps in his growth: personally, I would only sacrifice him to make a big signing, like one of the two Italians mentioned above who, with Tomori, could form a truly well-matched defensive pair,” he writes.
The sale of Thiaw could benefit Milan but only if they replace him with another prominent talent, in other words. Of course, the Rossoneri would have to wait until an official offer arrives from Newcastle before making such evaluations.
He’s a €15 million player at best. Simic and Barteshagi are better. All that is risked by playing another season is his value diminishing further. He has no tactical intelligence. That is the most difficult thing to learn as a defender and an area in which most defenders rarely impove on.
Simic and Bartesaghi are untested at the top level , especially Bartesaghi.
Last Season Thiaw played in the CL at a very high level for a debutant and that is why Madrid, Newcastle and other clubs want him as he has elite potential being only 22 and impressive physical gifts .
If you think he is a 15million player and Newcastle want to offer more then double that you should take their directors job …be realistic.
Thiaw is still young. He will get better with proper coaching and playing time if he can avoid injuries.
€30 million is too cheap to sell to a PL club.
The potential is much higher.
We already most Kjaer. And we are still waiting for Kalulu to show high class without injuries.
Perhaps Fonseca can make Thiaw better again?
They may be untested, but they’re not prone to the bone headed mistakes Thiaw makes. Poor positional play and poor discipline rarely improve with age. Thiaw has both.
Thiaw was unremarkable in the UCL. If Real Madrid wanted him, they would have already signed him. Elite potential? A good first season followed by a bad second season. The jury is out. Newcastle are in danger of failing PSR so have to sell before they buy nor do they have a history of blowing money on randos. A 50% return would be good business and the money could be spent on an Italian CB.
I don’t know what you are referring to with bone -headed mistakes but even greats such as Maldini and Buffon made big mistakes and had glorious careers…. And this season Tomori was no better , losing his man very often with poor positioning .
As I said earlier , Bartesaghi & Simic barely played so you have no idea what they are prone to in real first team games.
Yes ,Thiaw has elite potential and that’s why he has a market , If he would leave for Boungiorno or Calafiori(who also both had 1 good season) that would be the only way transferring him would make sense.
There is no comparison between Maldini and Buffon. Maldini made probably one mistake a season, until his mid-30s and even then, he was still very good. There will never be a defender like him again. Buffon was shot by 2010. Awful in the 2010 World Cup, awful in 2 UCL finals for Juve. After 30, he was slow across the ground and thus weak on crosses and shots from distance. Regardless, you’re talking about 2 players who were world class in this teens and the best in the world in their positions in their early 20s. Thiaw is a million miles from the level of Maldini and Buffon.
Remember Milan needs more Italian players, the same Italian team that was embarressing to watch most of the Euros, one match against Spain was all it took to traumatise them
Italy were absolutely awful true, but watching Calafiori at Bologna, and even for the national side, gotta think he would be better long term bet than Thiaw.
And if the numbers are to be believed, both would command fees in the €30-35mn range.
Targeted Italian players are still worthwhile, agreed most of the national side is not high quality.
They’ll ask 50-60m for him, def not worth that much.
This. Buongiorno is still our best bet in the “Italian and affordable” category, but we are way behind in negotiations, so it’s unlikely. Most likely is another French player from Ligue 1.
“They’ll ask 50-60m for him, def not worth that much.”
Well.. Compared to Thiaw’s 30M€ he definitely is.
you realise the quality of defender you can get OUTSIDE of Serie A for that money? Why should Milan overpay? So twitter users can flex?
Selling a CB just to buy a CB is plain stupid. Who does that?
Its even more stupid if you factor in that he is only 22 and has a lot of potential.
Whats the point in buying young players if they wont develop them?
The point is buying for 8m and selling for 30m, which would be the case here.
Capital gain. That’s the only reason these bankers need in order to sell.
I don’t believe that anyone from the starting 11 will be sold without the coach assessing them.
I refuse to believe those people are that stupid
“Selling a CB just to buy a CB is plain stupid. Who does that?”
It’s called “improving the squad”. Sell a player and get a better one to replace him. That’s how good teams are built.
well if you do it right it is “improving the squad”. The way we do it… bleh
and honestly. Nowadys teams sell just for the sake of it. and buy for the sake of it..
Swap for Tonali, maybe?
Selling him, or either the club management or journalist is plain stupid, this boy has potential, he is calm, and young, he just needs consistency and advice, if we sell him, replacing him will not be easy..
There is no way that the management ACM would be smart enough the reinvest money from at Thiaw sale in Buongiorno or Calafiori.
But some mediocre free transfer player, thats the shit.
Thiaw was not good last season. He was probably the worst performer in the entire department, as he single-handedly cost us points on more than one occasion. He’s a big, strong guy but I don’t see anything from his performances that indicates the type of intelligence, or positional awareness that too CBs have. A nice profit to spend on a more established, consistent performer.
Exactly. People are duped by his size. He has the footballing intelligence of a pea, just like Musah. 5 yellow cards and 1 red in just 21 appearances. That’s appalling and he had 5 yellows in his first season as well. He has shown zero progress.
Really? That’s your issue? Yellow cards? A defender is supposed to get yellow cards.. if you wanna talk about a card prone player here we have one Theo Hernandez..
Besides the whole team looked weak af in def and all of them got cards to share even the midfielders if you really want to get into it..
I mean leao got 5 yellow cards and doesn’t even defend ffa
As I wrote:
“Poor positional play and poor discipline rarely improve with age. Thiaw has both.”
“He has the footballing intelligence of a pea, just like Musah.”
As for Theo and others getting yellow cards, you’re comparing starters to someone who plays what 23-24 games a season? Their cards don’t lead to goals being scored. Why do you think our defence sucks so much? Who started at CB? There’s your answer.
You don’t know how much thiaw will or will not improve next season. You just fúcking don’t. Even people who train them don’t know when a player will click or not.
Football intelligence? Dude is playing for ac Milan at 21 and 22 yo. Yeah, he will makes mistakes. Nobody is born with experience…
As for theo getting cards. As a fullback he gets an abnormal amount of cards. Go check.. pls go check. And why did he play in cb? You really went there? Why did Theo play cb. And you’re trying to lean towards theo played cb because our cbs suck so much? They’re were all, but one, injured you buffoon. That’s why theo played cb.. ffs talking about a pea brain here. It’s you. You’re the pea brain one
“You don’t know how much thiaw will or will not improve next season. You just fúcking don’t. Even people who train them don’t know when a player will click or not.
Football intelligence? Dude is playing for ac Milan at 21 and 22 yo. Yeah, he will makes mistakes. Nobody is born with experience…”
What’s experience got to do with it? How many defenders who were error prone at a young age went on to become great defenders with more experience? I can’t think of a single example at Milan in the last 40 years, in fact looking at the major European teams, it rarely happens. That is not how it works. Upemecano is notorious for making mistakes. He was 22 when he joined Bayern, 3 years later, he’s still a disaster in defence, he hasn’t improved. Discipline can improve with age, but defenders who get caught out of position, who can’t track their runners, who can’t anticipate through balls, centres and crosses, these areas rarely improve with age. Either a defender has footballing intelligence or he doesn’t and Thiaw doesn’t.
“As for theo getting cards. As a fullback he gets an abnormal amount of cards. Go check.. pls go check.”
How is that relevant to Thiaw? Theo has attributes that more than compensate for his occasional hacks. Thiaw only has only quality, he’s good in the air. Thiaw made 31 fouls in 21 games, 19 as starter and drew 7 fouls. Theo made 38 in 32 appearances, 31 as a starter and drew 50 fouls in return, only Leao drew more fouls, and numbers only tell half the story. Fouls out wide don’t put teams in great jeopardy. Fouls in central positions do.
“And why did he play in cb? You really went there?”
No, I didn’t. When did I say anything about Theo at CB? I asked who started at CB, clearly I was talking about Thiaw, Tomori and Kjaer.
I agree with your assessment. In two seasons he has not shown much development and is prone to making untimely errors in games, often getting duped into getting turned or making a foul by a quick forward.
let’s be fair.
milan’s defense looked so shaky was due to no natural dm.
but that being said, i never rate thiaw highly as some people here.
sure he’s 22 and still has room to grow but from what i’ve seen from him, he has no defensive inteligence making too many mistakes.
if there’s a potential for him to be a star then there’s also a potential for him to be even worse next season.
30m is fair price to sell him.