Among the most significant statements that Paolo Maldini made prior to the game against Torino last night was his declaration that AC Milan will not be busy in the January window.
Maldini was asked about what can be expected this month given the links with a move for a new goalkeeper and potentially for reinforcements in other departments, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“We have faith in Tatarusanu who has played excellent games, we have Mirante and we have signed Vazquez. There is no other operation in sight. We won’t make large investments and we won’t do anything in the winter transfer market,” he said.
Therefore, Pioli will have to bring out the best from the squad that he has available even despite the long list of injury problems that he is battling. Milan had 10 absentees for the defeat against Torino last night, and with so many players missing it is tough to make headway in all competitions.
The Rossoneri do not have a history of making big splashes in the winter transfer window, with Fikayo Tomori being perhaps the biggest arrival since Maldini and Massara started running the technical area.
If guys like Origi, Ibra, Rebic, Kjaer come back strong from injuries and CDK, Adli and others finally step up Maldini will look like a genius.
But currently Milan is lacking impact from the bench, depth on multiple positions and that bit of extra class that Maignan gave us in goal.
Tatarusanu is an okay goalkeeper but statistically speaking Maignan is one goal every three games better.
If IFS and BUTS were candy and nuts.
Signing notoriously injury prone players and hoping they don’t get injured is really genius move by Paolo.
Instead of hating on PSG we should thank them for stealing Renato Sanches under Paolo’s nose, because they saved us from that “genius” signing another injury prone player, probably the most injury prone player in sports.
Well… If I had to choose from Sanches playing 1/4 of the season or current CDK “playing” the whole season, I might have chosen Sanches as he can make a difference every now and then. Unlike CDK who has zero (positive) impact on Milan’s games.
There’s one good thing though… CDK can only improve from here.
If you don’t understand that Sanches is a complete waste of space, you need to stop reading hype and start watching games. CDKs problems are physiological, nor is he the first player to struggle under Pioli in his first season.
So far CDK’s performances have been “a complete waste of space” too.
You have forgotten it was Gazidis blocking most of good investment intended by Maldini/Massara. Now he’s gone!
That’s great, so let’s continue to suck.
Did we suck last season?
No but this year we do… What’s this have to do with last season?
Because, last season, we didn’t do much business in January.. You seem, to think that: Signing Vlahovic, Lewandowski in January means, we are good to go!
Are you dumb or something? Why do you bring up last season? It’s a different team from last season. Worse. We lost our best midfield player in Kessie and didn’t sign an adequate replacement. We had Romagnoli as a backup CB, now gone. No depth at any position. The summer signings have been disasterous. Origi, Adli, CDK, Vranckx, Thiaw. They have done Nothing.
@K last season, we lost Jessie and Donnarumma.. Nobody predicted, us to win the scudetto! I am not dumb, I am just a Milan faithful..
Who is Jessie? Are you talking about Kessie? He was there last season and that’s why they won the scudetto. He’s gone now and has not been replaced which is the major reason why the team is struggling this season.
@K sorry.. I mean Calhanoglu! Donnarumma and Calhanoglu, nevertheless you got my point right?
Yes, but you are actually making my point, that the squad continues to get weaker year after year. They keep losing starters and not replacing them with the same level of talent. Milan were very lucky last season to win the Scudetto with what was probably the 4th best roster in Serie A. Luck is running out. And now that we are competing in Champions League, the squad should be getting stronger not weaker.
@K So you aren’t happy, that Milan won the scudetto last season? Instead call it, a fluke?
Mike not close to returning for another 40-50 days and we are not going to sign anyone let alone a real keeper this winter window…..well we can kiss the Scudetto goodbye gents. It was fun while it lasted. Without Mike I don’t believe we have a chance. He is our most underrated player and most valuable player, esp this season without Kessie. Let’s hope the best thing to come out of this season is we resign Leao and finally announce we are building a new stadium on our own in Sesto. Love Maldini but it’s a bit arrogant if he really thinks we are a complete squad and all of his signings have worked out thus far. Maybe he believes it will all change second half of season (All our youngsters develop, injured players return healthy, etc…) but that is asking and expecting a lot – and it is difficult for a fan to see right now. I honestly think he knows our weaknesses and knows all of the above won’t happen but has to tow the company line as he’s not being given a budget yet again in the winter market to reinforce the squad. Shame.
For sure he is covering for the owners. He was annoyed with them and spoke publicly about how they hadn’t contacted him at all regarding his contract until the last minute.
He was then not entirely convinced by their project but didn’t want to abandon the team/club.
We may not be surprised to see him leave sooner than later as he is a man of principle and a club legend.
These “owners/investors” got away without investing in summer by completing the deal officially literally the day after the transfer window closed. It was such an obvious cover.
Chelsea agreed a deal to be sold around same time as Milan did (and they were in a very bad situation). No issue closing that deal and investing in the team.
These new Redturd owners have done nothing for the club since deal was agreed last May.
They are not to be trusted!
Scavengers!
Maldini isn’t covering for anyone but himself. The owners gave him 50 mil to spend this summer and he pissed them on players that up to this point has given us nothing. They can’t even get on the field.
50 mil is the same amount Napoli spent to bring in Kvara, Olivera, Kim, Simeone, Raspadori, Ndombele. All those players were signed for a combined 50 mil.
He hasn’t been provided enough money to compete with the best clubs in Europe, but he has been provided more than enough money to be on top of serie A. How much money Inter, Juve, Roma and Lazio spend this summer? Nothing, all their signings were either on loan or free transfers.
2 summers in a row he signs players that are useless to our team.
“How much money Inter, Juve, Roma and Lazio spend this summer? Nothing, all their signings were either on loan or free transfers.”
BS!!!!!!!!!!!! Why resort to #fakenews and made-up-stories?
Quick googling tells that Inter bought Correa for 23,6M€ (and Lukaku’s 7.8M€ loan isn’t free either), Juventus spent a whopping 105M€ on Chiesa, Bremer, Kostic & Cambiasso, while Lazio spent 39,5M€ and Roma bought Celik for 7M€.
Especially the Juventus-part was pretty funny, eh? 100M€ or 0M€. Not a big difference…
This is shameful from management and ownership. Not interested in winning, only keeping expenses down. You can love Maldini as a player but his signings have been terrible and the players that they have let leave for Free is unacceptable. This team has no depth at all, cannot rest anyone without getting beat. And now they are satisfied with this and will not make any moves? Shameful.
Yes this is the way to success…… count on trash to get us to trophies? Not going to work. Worst summer in a long time and now nothing in winter. Origi is trash, vranckx and thiaw are long term projects and a waste. Rebic blows now and has 1-2 good games per season in him. Team is not good at the moment.
Whether it’s about money or the lame excuse of not liking to change the team mid way through a season, this year is different to last. We have a lot of injuries just like last season but this year you can just tell we’re hurting bad. There’s something missing and it’s that one player that can score and create. How can we count on players like ibrahimovic who is 41 and has been out injured for a year? How can we count on rebic who plays a good game, gets injured and then takes 5 games to regain form just to get injured again? I cnt even talk about origi because who knows if he’ll be any good he hasn’t played dmore that one full game before getting injured.
CDK may come good in the future but for now he’s no better than adli. Diaz does everything right and then the last pass or shot he messes up everything. Saelemaekers and messias are limited.
Why are we conceding cheap horrible goals every single game?? I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt safe and it always seems to happen in the last minutes of a game. Kjaer needs to come back and start.
Anyway, back to the winter transfer market, if we don’t get a good attacking player I think this season is a lost cause. We’ll be fighting for a top 4 finish and hopefully don’t get embarrassed in champions league. Juventus have looked horrible all season long, inter have 5 losses and somehow both look more stable than milan right now and that’s very scary, wake up Maldini. If red bird isn’t giving any funds for the winter market and 300k is all we can spend on an unknown gk then we have serious problems.
Milan had only 50 million euros for transfers this season. Problem is, the money they spent for this season is almost wasted. Origi doesn’t have any impact, Charles is struggling a lot, Thiaw unexperienced, Vranckx also, and we lost 3 very good rotation player like Kessie, Roma and Hakan.
So, Milan in near future must change politics. Maybe this season Milan will got lucky to reach 1 of 4 spots for Champions League. But if you don’t create a competitive team, that luck will disappear.
Please call back Sheva, Kaka, Pato, Pippo, Seedorf, Pirlo, Gattuso, Nesta, Boateng, we already have Zlatan from the past 😀
Different owner, same ambition.
Qualifying for UCL knockouts (which we already achieved) and top 4 spots at the end of the season. Winning Scudetto was a one-off, now, we can go back to being mediocre.
Please let the fans kick start a project called#Redbird people must go
Say goodbye to champions league for next season. They wouldn’t finish in top 4.
You have forgotten it was Gazidis blocking most of good investment intended by Maldini/Massara. Now he’s gone!