The Milan management decided not to make any big moves to strengthen the squad during the January window, and they have now upped the stakes ahead of the summer.
In his column for MilanNews, Anto Vitiello describes the last month as a ‘wasted chance to improve the squad and shore up some important departments’ that was ultimately not taken, as only Marko Lazetic arrived from Red Star to replace Pietro Pellegri as the third choice striker.
Nobody was expecting expensive signings like Juventus managed to pull off to land Dusan Vlahovic, but some adjustments would have been of great help for the rest of the season, and Vitiello thinks it is because Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara believe Stefano Pioli already has a pretty good team.
“It is assumed that the management considers the team already competitive as well, and has repeatedly stated this publicly. Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara think that this group, with the return of the injured players, can do well until the end of the season,” he said.
Therefore, not intervening in a concrete way during the winter mercato is a ‘calculated risk’ from the offices of Casa Milan, and only the finish at the end of the season will tell if this strategy was right or wrong.
Milan did try to replace Simon Kjaer who will be out injured for the rest of the and did not manage to do so. Instead, the squad left for Pioli may not be enough ‘numerically and qualitatively’ to get a top four finish.
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The quality is there I agree. But I feel the probability of more injuries and a depleted team are higher than having a fully strengthened team. These next 4 months will tell if this was a great move (saved money, became financially healthy and spend big in summer) or a horrendous one (no depth, no additional talent resulting in missing top 4).
I feel it will be the second one. A 6th place awaits us.