This summer, there was no shying away from the task at hand. AC Milan had work to do, and little time to do it in.
Of course, when you hire a new sporting director and head coach, both will have ideas for their Milan. Massimiliano Allegri has wanted Rafael Leao to be the centre piece, whilst both imagined a more Italian side, going back to the DNA of the club.
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Working on that, though, is something entirely different. In such a short space of time, the duo have had to assess players, mercato options and the budget restraints. All whilst still having to make progress on other fronts.
Work in progress
Today, reports suggest that Igli Tare will stay behind as his squad travels to Asia to begin the pre-season tour. The reasoning, to try and complete the squad which is far from finished.
As Tuttosport (via MilanPress) write, the club need a set of full-backs, another midfielder and a striker. Ideas are in place, and there is evidence to show this. However, again, having an idea and a new signing is not that simple.
Right now, the only finished article is the central defensive area. However, even this could change in the next few weeks.
There is a lot to do, indeed.
What Italian DNA? How all these foreigners link to us induce Italian DNA? Full backs of English, Spanish and other minors are better than the Italian minors? Lecce, Cagliari, Verona and more have full backs and centre backs of the same level. No wondering why the national team struggles! (I am not Italian)
Bros, we have Emerson at left back don’t worry. We have no Theo replacement it doesn’t.
He’s a right-back.
I’ll just focus on the positive here and say I hope Bartesaghi grabs this opportunity considering we are “leftbackless”. I really don’t want to see the likes of Estupinan, Garcia, Zinchenko there. These are no improvement over Theo so I rather stick with our own talent.
“Whilst both imagined a more Italian side, going back to the DNA of the club”
Is that why we signed 2 italians (Ricci and Terracciano) and shipped away 5? (Calabria, Camarda, Sportiello, Pobega and Pellegrino who is half italian). We also let Florenzi go. So 6 in reality. That leave Gabbia, Ricci and maybe Bartesaghi and Torriani as italians in the squad? 4 out of 23?
We are with other words much less italian this season then before Allegri/Tare. If you dont believe there are enough good italian players to “go italian” just f***g say so.
If they wanted to “go Italian” they would had signed Rovella, Leoni and Cambiaso, renewed Calabria, kept Camarda and added Bartesaghi, Torriani and Magni permanently to the first team.
Maignan and Torriani as keepers
Leoni and Gabbia as 2 out of 4 CBs,
Cambiaso and Bartesaghi as LB
Calabria and Magni as RB
Ricci and Rovella as 2 out of 3 midfielders
Gimenez and Camarda as CFs
Then we would at least have had 10 italians in the 23 man squad (Torriani, Gabbia, Leoni Cambiaso, Bartesaghi, Calabria, Magni, Ricci, Rovella and Camarda). All except Calabria are young that could had been our core for a long time
A little weaker on paper then signing Estupinan, Pubill, Jashari and Vlahovic perhaps but at least a return to an Italian core (worth it IMO)
“… that could had been our core for a long time”
See, that’s the problem. They don’t want longterm core. They’re here to play buy low, sell high in two seasons time. That’s RedBird’s business model for this club.
At least until (or rather if) new stadium is built. Then they’ll gladly f*ck off selling this club to the highest bidder.
Italian Italian Italian in the but the Italian national which has all Italian are playing garbage in every tournament
This is a club and what matters is to win competitions no matter which country you come. Am from Canada and my family has not been to Italy yet we have been supporting Italian national teams both under ages and female national teams and AC Milan since 1982. So any player from other nations can play for Milan. Barela from Inter Milan plays for Italy yet nothing to show for it. Italian national lost to Norway by 5 goals to nil which has never happened
Yes because Italian top teams doesnt give the young Italian players the chance to play in the first team and develop to the same extent as teams in League 1, La Liga, Bundesliga and the Premier League does (even is PL have had similar problems).
There is a reason old coaches like Capello and Sacchi continously put the blame on the national teams failures on the top clubs in Italy.
I’m not italian either but I can cleraly see the problem and danger for italian football.
And if you dont know why they always talk about “Italian dna” in Milan you should read up and learn the history of the club and why Inter was started by players who broke lose from Milan, and started their own club.
These Italian in their respective clubs are doing just fine. Inter, Juventus, Atalanta, clubs who own these Italian NT starters, all finished in front of us and will play CL coming next season. We with our “diverse” team finished out of all European competitions.