After securing the signing of Niclas Füllkrug from West Ham, AC Milan are now looking to reinforce the options out wide, a report claims.
According to Calciomercato.com, Zachary Athekame has not impressed so far. The Swiss defender, acquired in the summer from Young Boys for €10m plus a 10% resale clause, has seen very little action which suggests a lack of trust from Massimiliano Allegri.
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Across the league, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana, Athekame has only managed just under 200 minutes (including the equalising goal against Pisa), too few to consider him a real alternative to Alexis Saelemaekers.
The Belgian, on the other hand, has already racked up over 1,900 minutes, which is why he’s clearly been short of breath in recent weeks. He’s lost his edge, but he can’t rest because those behind him aren’t guaranteed the same level of performance.
The possibility of bringing in a new face in the winter is complicated, but not impossible, especially if someone were to leave, such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Targets in mind
Allegri would like a player who is ready now, but he could opt for a young player who is already familiar with Serie A and has shown he can compete. Real Madrid’s Jesus Fortea is currently out of the question, while Girona’s Arnau Martinez and Sevilla’s Juanlu are off the table.
Dinamo Zagreb’s Moris Valinčic, who is also on Inter’s radar, has been linked with the move in recent weeks, but he’s not high on the list. Genoa’s Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Atalanta loanee Marco Palestra (at Cagliari) are also highly sought after, but both cost over €20m.
One player who won’t be heading to Milanello in January is Yunus Musah, whom Atalanta acquired from Milan in the summer on a €4m loan deal with a €26m option to buy. The American will stay in Bergamo until June, then things will be evaluated.
Valinčić is not such a bad idea
Gatti-RLC swap
Timber for 10-15M
and either of Cuffy/Palestra would great January mercato
Palestra has a 40 m price tag, there is no way we bring him in january. I would rather try for Dodo, much cheaper, more experience
Which Timber? Jurrien is worth 60+ according to Transfermrkt
Quentin his brother, perfect box-crasher
can tackle, can run, can score… everything that RLC can’t
We only can pray, that they will get some useful players in the winter mercato. One for salae and one cb. 19 days still left. 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
So basically admitting that Athekame was a pointless signing, and waste of funds for no reason…
He is 21… but yes. I try to give the benefit of the doubt to 23-24 or under. Not everyone is a Yamine L or a Barthesagui. But yes, we cant say, we need depth and go get a under 21 not ready to play. It leaves us back to square one. lol
He literally played with Verona and he had an injury. You need to calm down we don’t need pallestra or brooke cuffy. Athekame is okay. Maybe a LWB LM LB we need since estupinian is weak from these four players so recommend a Left Side player. Also Milan will not keep musah even if Atalanta
Athekame hasn’t been given a lot of opportunities to show what he can do, I don’t know why he is been written off.
If Musa can be called back, Musa is the complimentary player for that role he can take on players and is also a hard worker, makes no sense to be searching for another player.
Totally agree. I don’t even know why they didn’t consider Musah as a backup for Salaemakers instead of wasting 10m on Athekame. Sigh!
Have you not watched enough of Musah last season to see that he’s not particularly great in any one area?
“I don’t even know why they didn’t consider Musah as a backup for Salaemakers”
I can give you a million reasons. 😀
We have to ask this questions allegri and the management. 😁
Hasn’t impressed? He hasn’t been given a chance to and when athekame has played he hasn’t looked bad at all. Scored a lovely goal, almost scored last game with a similar shot and his passing been neat. I see no reason. The cb role is where we need to give an upgrade to and allegris tactics against smaller teams.
Sure, Allegri, who is always slow to trust new players, is going to give minutes to some rando. Athekame is 21. Stop pretending they’ve decided he’s a bust.
Athekame is probably a friend of Moncada. Otherwise how to explain that Milan paid 10M for a guy playing at the regional level not long ago and whose valuation was close to 4M. Swiss fans were shocked last summer, feeling like they robbed the bank. We can all see it now. Another lousy transfer in the new and yet already long tradition of buying overpriced no names.
Dodo or Tiago Santos are better than Salad maker
Kayode??
If ya want to spend a lot of money with a high ROI, get Laimer from Bayern. Though, he is a bit more than a backup only. At least you could put him anywhere on the field.
Yes. He’s got pace and I think his stamina is good as well, but it seems he doesn’t want to leave. They’re talking over a new contract.
I know. It’s just I would love to see my fellow Austrian compatriot play for Milan. 😉