After reinforcing the attack and defence, AC Milan are expected to make some moves in midfield as the summer window progresses.
As Calciomercato.com report, there are some certainties to begin with. The first is Ismael Bennacer, who – after returning from his loan at Dinamo Zagreb – will terminate his contract with Milan. He will begin new adventure in Qatar, with Al-Shamal SC.
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Another player almost certain to leave is Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The Englishman’s contract expires in 2027 and he is not part of Ruben Amorim’s plans. He could return to the Premier League, where Coventry City and other clubs have made inquiries, with €10m the asking price.
Warren Bondo has returned from his loan at Cremonese but he too is not someone that Amorim deems to be a fit for his tactical system. A price tag of €8m has been set for the Frenchman.
Leaders and talents
Amorim’s position on Luka Modric is clear, and he made it clear again during his presentation press conference: “He’s a player we want to keep, I’ve spoken to him twice. If necessary, I can go and speak to him again, I don’t get tired.
“He’s incredible, he’s a key figure for us. I’m not telling you he’ll play every game, but we want to count on Modric for next season. The board has spoken to him, I’ve spoken to him: I think I’ll have him back in a few days, now he needs to rest after the World Cup.”
The sentiments filtering through point towards the Portuguese coach being satisfied, with the experienced Croatian expected to stay another season.
Meanwhile, Adrien Rabiot should remain too. The aim is to convince him to embrace the new project and ignore the transfer market hype that began immediately after the club failed to qualify for the Champions League.
The future is more uncertain for two other signings from last summer. A year ago, Milan acquired Samuele Ricci from Torino for around €25m, including a fixed fee and bonuses, plus a 10% resale clause. However, the Italian failed to impress in his first season and ended up on the transfer list.
Atalanta have made inquiries, and in the last few hours there has been talk of Atletico Madrid, who are seeking a quality midfielder. The Rossoneri are open to the 24-year-old’s departure, but only with a good offer – lower offers will not be considered.
The same goes for Ardon Jashari, who cost €34m plus €3m in bonuses to sign from Club Brugge. Due to injuries and the presence of Modric his first year in Milan has been less than stellar. Amorim wants to evaluate the Swiss’s abilities, but his agent recently met with management to assess the situation.
The preseason will be useful to determine whether there will be more room for Jashari in the new Milan or whether it would be better to seek an outgoing solution. Atalanta are interested, but at least €30m is needed to avoid a capital loss.
Youssouf Fofana arrived two years ago for around €25m and is now being courted by several clubs in France and Turkey, so he could also leave. In this case too, a significant offer is needed to make a capital gain: €20-25m is Milan’s request.
It’s a different story for Yunus Musah, who is returning from his loan at Atalanta and has a real chance of staying. Amorim wants to evaluate him during the summer preparations, he could be useful both in midfield and as a solution on the wing.
Finally, the youngsters. Kevin Zeroli’s stay is unlikely: he will be monitored but is expected to leave for a new experience. Christian Comotto, however, has a better chance of staying, as Amorim also admitted in the press conference.
“Cissè and Comotto will start with us, I don’t know what will happen. We’ll find new players who weren’t there last year. If they play well, if they absorb my ideas, then we’ll find a place for them.
“Before looking outside, let’s look carefully inside. Then after the preseason we’ll decide, but always with an eye on the budget. The owner is here… We’ll evaluate the young players.”
Everything has therefore been postponed at least for a few weeks, but after a good season at Spezia, Comotto has a chance to carve out a niche in a season that promises to be busy, with a return to European football.
double-pivots are fine
LWB and CAM are now priority
They are not fine at all, what do you mean by that?
Who do you see playing along Rabiot?
Modric, Jashari, Fofana, Ricci, Bondo, Zeroli.
Are any of them the perfect profile for that role? No. Are there enough skilled footballers there that Amorim should be able to coach, mould or adapt with what he’s got? Absolutely.
If we got good offers for a couple of them and we choose to reinvest in that position, I would understand, but I also think it’s not the top priority if those don’t arrive.
I feel the same about CAMs too, if we’re playing two behind Ramos then we should be able to fashion something with the players we currently have – only if we sell should we need to go all in there.
Wing back quality is more pressing IMO.
I wouldn’t exactly call MC a crucial position in 3-4-2-1 but it’s also not far from that either. LWB, MC & AMC, we need all of them just like we need another DC/CB.
We don’t ‘need’ them IMO. We may be able to find some updates, some that fit Amorim’s system better, but we already have a very large squad with numbers in those positions. Good coaches don’t just slot players in, they can coach the ones we have to get the best from them too.
Once Gila signs, we have 5 senior CBs for 3 spots. Plus Odogu and Bartesaghi.
We currently have Chukwueze, Leao, Pulisic, Nkunku, Comotto and Cisse for two spots behind the forward. With Saelemaekers as another option too.
We have four wing-backs/full-backs. Arguably Musah too.
Yes, we’d like to sell some of those players and some of them might be loaned out to cover salaries or to get more first-team experience. But we can’t just go buying and ignore what we currently have.
Much as people post lists of our current players and fantasy values for them, remember that many top players grew or were coached into the roles they’re in.
Selling isn’t going to be easy with the wages and expectations of some of those, so at some point Amorim’s going to have to coach one of those round pegs to play in a square hole.
First of all, we don’t HAVE to do anything, Amorim doesn’t HAVE to do anything, Of course, it would be nice and preferable but it’s not something he MUST do, they should provide him with better players and then we’ll see how he will be able to fit and manage (all of) them during the season.
“Once Gila signs, we have 5 senior CBs for 3 spots. Plus Odogu and Bartesaghi.”
Tomori will most probably be sold.
“We currently have Chukwueze, Leao, Pulisic, Nkunku, Comotto and Cisse for two spots behind the forward. With Saelemaekers as another option too.”
Leao will be sold, Pulisic, Nkunku and Chukwueze are injury prone, Chukwueze is not an AMC but a pure winger (although I think he will be just fine, at least that’s what I’m hoping for), Comotto isn’t an AMC either but a MC, another youngster Zeroli would be more suitable for that role.
“We have four wing-backs/full-backs. Arguably Musah too.”
Estupinan will be sold, it’s very possible that the same fait awaits Musah.
Modric, Rabiot, Comotto- stay
Fofana, Ardon, Musah, Bondo- evaluate
Ruben, Ricci- sale
Bennacer- termination of contract
Zeroli- loan
Sala- Milan Futuro/Primavera
Brother you got a serious problem with Ricci it seems. You want Ricci out but keep Fofana, like are you serious? The midfield is fine with Rabiot-Modric (Jashari-Ricci/Comotto), and maybe just maybe Musah for RM/CM sub
If you want to call that a problem, that’s fine. Fofana is far better midfielder than Ricci (and Ardon for that matter), of course I’m serious.
Fofana is a worse mid fielder,do you see France call him. He is not tactical. Not a good finisher and always finds himself in a good position,but to use his brain is zero
He is still better than these/those two. What about his qualities, are there no positive traits? The fact he’s not called for France right now doesn’t have to mean and prove anything, e.g. Gila doesn’t have a single cap for Spain. Fofana was called before, he has 25 appearances and he has scored three goals for the national team, that’s got to count for something.
I never liked Ricci for Milan either
You would evaluate Musah and Bondo but sell Ricci who still managed 4 assists and 1 goal in his first season while being played mostly from the bench and in different role than his natural?
People have explained you everything yesterday, just look it up and you will see what their arguments are.
Explain what and where? All I see is a patronising question why was he on the bench. I don’t really see the need to defende him on that when there are Rabiot and Modrić here while every coach has his preference and Allegri played him out of his natural position. Or maybe I’ve missed a different post with arguments shared?
Vertical passes, rather no vertical passes at all. I’ve seen your response to that as well, it’s OK.
Hi Ted, do you know who else played out of their natural position?
Leao
Nkunku
Estupinan
Pulisic
Barteshagi
RLC – Did he ever play is natural position of CM? nope)
AND……..you guessed it, Fofana!
But you aren’t giving them the same break are you?? Complete double standard, as usual!
You don’t watch football do you? Just listen to podcasts by people with even less knowledge than you.
You can’t even begin to compare with me, slimy ignorant peasant, now go back to your kennel and stay there until I throw you a stinky bone.
P.S. Musah/Bondo would be only (the) 5th/6th MC in the pecking order…
That’s rather an opinion about his verticall passing. And here’s a statistical proof about Samuele Ricci’s passing from last season
Forward passes in % – 86%
Key passes % – 90,8%
Number of those of course is half of what Modrić had but he also played half of the minutes Modrić had.
There’s simply no room for both him and Ardon – one of them must leave because we still need the right DMC/MC meaning one new midfielder has to arrive, one that would be better than the current options. It wouldn’t be fair to either of those two to treat them as a fifth MC in the pecking order (you can imagine what would their playing time look like), they deserve better. Vertical is with one “L”.
Sorry Revolt for challenging your complex, making a typo on my “vertical” word. I wanted to write vertically first but then deleted and forgot one “l”. I see you’re rather harsh on people here regarding their typos or mispronounciations. Maybe chill a bit?
Merely an observation.
Ricci had a terrible season and did nothing Ted, why do you think he should not be on the chopping block?? Particularly when other players contributed much much more and you want them gone. It doesn’t add up mate.
What’s the point of loaning Zeroli or any player?
When has loaning a player ever worked?
Just sell him and put him out of his misery.
And then the club can keep reinventing its midfield every season.
Good times.
Just off the top of my head: Costacurta & Albertini, Dida & Suso.
Are you serious? Wow we have some stupid fans
So we lack of italian players?
Imo lwb is first priority now. Bartesaghi should be a backup LCB for now . Estupidnan is a fail.
We need a beast of a starter
Like how Amorim said Salad can play at LWB also and he actually did we’ll from there whenever played and I’d been going on about it….
We need two LWB then.
F’off undermining Bartesaghi.
*underestimating
Undermining works actually. If you’re going to be a pedant, do it properly.
How exactly is Rb undermining Bartesaghi? He has no way of doing that, he is not in contact with DB nor can he get in touch with him so…
not undermining Bartesaghi fool. I just see him more as a LCB than a pure LWB. This is not Allergy Milan anymore where his lwb is basically just a lb.
In an attacking 3 atb formation , lwb needs to be much better at attacking than Bart currently is.
But this was Estupinan’s first season, remember Tonali? He needs another chance.
This is such a click bait article, like 95% of articles on here. Didnt Amorin say in his press conference yesterday that he wants to evaluate what players he has internally first before looking outside… now all of a sudden, a day later, he doesn’t want any of the midfielder at his disposal apart from essentially Modric and Rabiot..
So deep in their virtual reality lifes that people no longer distinguish reality from fiction. Every day I see here people putting together fantasy formations, sell this buy that, as if this is just another season of their fantasy football game.
So earlier in the week Amorim says he wants to give Jashari a look and likely to stay. Now he can go.
You guys just print anything?
Already too many foreigners and they want to sell one of the only remaining Italians!!!
Do people need reminding we are not Internazionale
Here are the Italians that would make Milan a better team.
Barella
Tonali
Bastoni
Calafiori
Cambiaso
Kean
Buongiorno
Otherwise, don’t bother.
If many departs and new one comes they will start learning how to understand each others again thus come 5th in the table and next year many will depart and new ones comes every season. Inter won the league because they have many players who played together for seasons.
This happened to Lazio in the early 20s when they had the most expensive bench yet they almost relegated. Lesson
LOL after only 1 year, jashari the new modric is considered to be sold, fofana as well once he was france best midfielder. Ricci is also promising. I am tired of this moneyball, we can’t even get the real wonderkid like lautaro martinez, yildiz, yamal, maybe only leao is the real deal and it was maldini who was able to see the real talent. This moneyball is rubbish.
Fofana best French MC? Maybe the best in Ligue 1 but that wasn’t the case either – and that’s coming from a guy that actually likes Fofana and wishes that he could/would stay.
Ricci Jashari Comotto modric Rabiot stay
Rest are sold.
For CAM
Sell Leao Chukwueze
Bring one CM/CDM and Two CAMs
Put Cisse on futuro
Renew Scotti and Lorianti
Promote Scotti
Putting Musah and Fofana (a bunch of f****** circus players, along with Bondo and Estupiñan) over Ricci, I genuinely don’t get the hype, it’s shambles.
Ricci must stay!!!!
As for Chukweze, he’s just another Castillejo type of player. It’s like having stick-man in the team, honestly.
That’s just pure bollocks.
Jimi where were you last season? What next?? Gimenez is awesome, right? You’re hilarious my friend.
Have they not learnt that constantly chopping and changing esp in the engine room most of the time don’t work out.
This revolt guy clearly doesn’t watch football, just listens to podcasts by people who know less than nothing about football, and plays FIFA on his playstation.
I’ve never played FIFA on Playstation. You’ve already proven yourself to be a blatant liar but that doesn’t stop you from making and talking things up about me on an almost daily basis. You’re obviously a very bad (sinister even) person whose whole life seems to revolve around provoking others, if you are mentally ill (and you evidently are), get some help if you can, just don’t drag me into that s**t of yours anymore, miserable loser.
*talking and making things up
It would be foolish to sell Jashari.
It’s idiotic to splash out on a young player and then sell him just one year later if he fails to deliver. Milan’s rationale for buying young players is that we haven’t (till now at least) had the financial muscle to buy players in their prime. So we invest on younger players who have potential. If they don’t perform as expected, we should either loan them out to smaller clubs or retain them in the first team and give them time and confidence to come good.
But we end up selling them after a year.
CDK wilted under the pressure at Milan but then thrived at Atalanta. Now he’s a proper player. Why invest in young talent if you’re not willing to give them time to thrive? Surely you spent a fortune on them only because you saw some serious potential there. It’s just crazy.
It’s hard to make sense of all these building blocks until we see what Amorim is trying to build with them. They didn’t fit in well last season with Allegri’s plans, and that’s what they’re mostly being judged on. I’d hold off until preseason to see what Amorim wants. I bet some of the older ‘pieces’ might fit in better than others.
The only thing we’re holding against them is being brought in without a mercato or strategic integration plan and unsurprisingly they didn’t work well.
Very, very stupid idea to sell 2 international players such as ricci and jashari.
Bollocks.
@ Mandinelli…Ricci was a bit part player for the national team as well. Generally being left out of a very medicore national team or given 10mins of play when there were injuries….seems all of his coaches ignored him??? It’s probably a mystery to some of you…but not to anyone who was awake last season. but at least he gets a lot of love from the posters in here!
How will someone sell ricci and jashari and keep fofana….Ricci enters and does what fofana supposed to have done when he was playing. Allegri just prefers fofana,if fofana could have converted some of the chances he always gets, we would have gathered points that will make us qualify for champions league. He can’t shot in accuracy, he can’t finish simple goal, always get lost in matches. We dnt feel his presence,but when ricci enters,you will feel valverde spirit type of player. He was playing better when we went and pick him in his team and a better captain,allegri started to bench him and was looking for giant mud fielders.
Fofana with everything negative aspects has actually given a lot of killer passes.
Don’t say that Blue…The echo chamber won’t like it.
Ricci (had) almost cost us the victory in the second Derby against Inter, his handball in the away game against Cagliari wasn’t (or hadn’t been, I’m not 100 percent sure) penalised either (nor should it (have been)) but he was very, VERY reckless against Inter and had ruined everything in the end, spoiled that enormous joy of ours with his brainless reaction…
Here I am thinking that after witnessing such a disastrous season, talk about building anything around this guy would just evaporate . But no….not in here. Sigh.
@ Nesta re-watch Milan’s games from last season and you will arrive at the same conclusion. Fofana is a much better player.