Everyone can see that AC Milan have had a reset this season; it is an unavoidable fact. However, the extent can maybe get lost.
The term reset is, perhaps, thrown around too much nowadays. A few sales with a few key arrivals are often deemed a reset, but Milan have thrown that away and done it properly. They have well and truly reshaped.
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Admission of guilt?
Last season, as Tuttosport (via MilanNews) writes, Paulo Fonseca had a squad of 27 players; after this summer’s exodus, there are only nine of those players remaining. Those are: Mike Maignan, Lorenzo Torriani, Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori, Strahinja Pavlovic, Youssouf Fofana, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and then Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao.
This summer has been a revelation, despite the repeated message that last season’s squad was good enough for the lofty ambitions of the management and the fans, which were only ever held internally.
Theo Hernandez, Tijjani Reijnders and Malick Thiaw lead the list of departures, which is admittedly filled with a few players that never really got a look-in for Paulo Fonseca. However, it proves two things.
Firstly, Milan fulfilled the need to reset, and secondly, the management have, in some way, admitted some fault in last season’s capitulation.
This season, big results are needed for everyone’s sake, but most of all, the management.
The question is: how many players from the current squad will remain next season or the one after ?
Mike and Modric will probably be out. Pulisic and Tomori have contracts ending in 2027, I don’t see them extend to stay in that mess so they would be sold. Whoever has a good season could be sold as well, either Ricci, Jashari, Nkunku or Leao. Rabiot might also fight with someone haha
Banter era 2 on its way to transcend the original.
Leao maxed out on salary under imposed cap so I think he’s the prime candidate to leave. Or if he accepts extention under the same conditions. It’s what RedBird clowns are shamelessly offering around nowadays.
Good point.
It feels like a never ending revolution.
This sh!t don’t work. Changing so often is not good for the team and ultimately the club and their goals. But they keep.on doing it. It’s not a winning formula. Keep your key players, up their salaries to hold on to them, build consistency,.make fans bond with them etc. Ultimately we endear ourselves to the players above all, how can we do that when they’re gone before I go take a bathroom break ? 🤷♂️
The one bit of hope is that Allegri is a good coach so there’s a decent chance the team will finish in the top 4.
If it does there’s hope they’ll avoid another revolution next summer.
However the odds are stacked against Allegri and the squad.
The squad has numerous holes, the players are mostly new, and there’s a lack of leadership.
Fingers crossed I guess.
Another issue is that players get sold whether they perform or not.
If they perform they get sold for a ‘profit’ (I put ‘profit’ in inverted comas because they still run losses every transfer window).
If they don’t (instantly hit the ground running after yet another revolution) they get sold for a loss or frozen out.
So even if the team has a really great season there’s a good chance that some of the star players will be sold anyway – which is even harder to take…..
I love Sempre Milan but putting the words ambition and management when it comes to Milan is pure nonsense