Journalist Pietro Mazzara has offered some reflections on what has been an ‘exhausting’ but ‘exhilarating’ summer transfer window for AC Milan.
It was a turbulent start to the offseason for Milan as Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his retirement, then Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara were sacked as the technical and sporting director, arousing questions about the plans moving forward.
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The reasons for the fall-out between Maldini and RedBird Capital were debated at length, but then Giorgio Furlani and chief scout Geoffrey Moncada got to work, quickly selling Sandro Tonali which created another violent storm.
Then, ten signings were made to rebuild the squad and add depth that wasn’t there last season, with the general consensus being that there was some good business done with the Tonali money.
In his latest piece for MilanNews, Mazzara talks about some reflections that he made late on the night of deadline day after the final piece had been published.
“It’s 00:48 on September 2 here on MilanNews. We made the last market launch of the summer session, namely the move of Fode Ballo-Touré to Fulham,” he began.
“After Gigio Torre pressed confirm on that news it was as if everything stopped for a moment. For a few seconds, staring at the iPhone screen, I thought about what we talked about and experienced from June to September.
“Three months of absolute delirium, which started with the sensational bang of the dismissal of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara by a Gerry Cardinale very lucid in making his decision, to eradicate – as owner – a poisonous situation that had now been created within Milan.
“This was the two-headed monster which then also led to the rift between the ‘Maldiners’ and those who instead wanted to watch and draw his conclusions on the work carried out by Giorgio Furlani, Geoffrey Moncada and Antonio D’Ottavio in this new phase of AC Milan in Yankee style.
“Let’s be clear, Maldini and Massara as well as the current trio have tried to work for the good of Milan, but with different strategies and concepts.
“In June, when Milan let Thuram go after the request for 6.5 million in salary, unedifying opinions circulated – from some insiders – about our managers.
“Today they no longer mock them, because Milan have once again anticipated the times and are putting themselves in advantageous positions that the others are unable to emulate.
“Accounts in order, transfers worth their weight in gold like that of Tonali to give fresh life to a market that has revolutionized the squad available to Pioli.
“Now the ball is in the court, but I swear I don’t remember such an exhausting, exhilarating and full of things to talk about summer session.”
Very good job by Moncada and Furlani this summer especially taking into consideration that they took over on the eve of the transfer window and couple targets like Thuram and Nd!cka escaped them because other clubs that had their directors in place already had negotiated with those players for months.
Read reports about Nd!cka to Roma as early as November last year. Same with Thuram and Inter.
When it comes to Thuram, he looks good in inter’s a 2 man front line next to Lautaro, but I don’t know how he would have looked as the sole striker at Milan. He isn’t the classic 9. He likes to drift left way too much.
Thuram is a good player but his salary is too big for us – 6.5m? No, he is not worth that much right now, good luck to Inter with that salary. Leao who is our star player don’t even get that salary after becoming protagonist for us for 2-3 years straight.
In all honesty I’m quite happy with the transfer window, we got players we wanted for decent price and salary, we don’t let the agent – or the player itself to hold us ransom in negotiation.
The hole still left in the squad – there is enough cover for now, we can address them properly in next summer – and if needed, this winter.
Jovial is still 25, he was a really good prospect at Frankfurt, there’s reason why Madrid buy him for 60m at 2019, where the player price not as crazy as today. If he can get his sh*t together, behave properly and work hard he can be our bargain of the season and solution for next 3-4 years. If he can’t, no worries, we just let him go next season.
LB cover, well last season Theo don’t play for only few matches so Bartesaghi (and Florenzi) should be enough as back up. Hopefully next season Bartesaghi or Bozzolan will be fully integrated to the team.
DM, or Regista in our case – well so far Krunic can do his job and seemed better than ever – long may it continue. Adli as backup regista is the one I quite worry – but hopefully he can get his chance, of course if he deserve it based on training, not for the sake of giving game time. Bennacer will be back after long term injury – still need to see if he can be back to his best.
Jovic* dmn auto correct 😅
Different concept? Lol. They are still the same.
Back then and now, the scouting is led by Moncada. Both management still sign mostly young players with only 1-2 experienced players. The previous management also negotiated for RLC and Pulisic who were then finalized by the current management. They still stay within transfer budget and implement salary cap like before. So what concept is changed?