Journalist Andrea Longoni has criticised AC Milan’s pursuit of a striker in the last few days of the window, claiming that it was ‘poorly managed’.
Milan went into the final part of the window just looking for a centre-forward to make it 10 signings for the summer and to complete the attacking department, but it ended up being a real rollercoaster.
It looked as though a deal for Mehdi Taremi had been agreed both with the player and with his club Porto but in the end things fell apart, with the cause of the the breakdown still being disputed among journalists.
Luka Jovic came on an initial one-year deal with barely any time left in the window, which has been met with a mixed reaction. Speaking in a column for MilanNews, Longoni revealed his belief that Milan panicked.
“We certainly weren’t bored. There were 3 phases. The first: the sale of Tonali and the sense of confusion. The second: the numerous quality purchases, which brought enthusiasm to the stars. And then the last few days, which lowered the overall rating,” he began.
“Objectively, the search for number 9 was poorly managed. It’s true that at the base there were some incorrect behaviours from Porto and Taremi’s entourage, but there are many buts.
“It was necessary to have a plan B, especially given the first controversial signs in the negotiations for the Iranian, which emerged on Wednesday.
“From that moment on the management was in too much difficulty, with a desperate and frantic search for a replacement, which ended with a plan D, or a plan E. From En-Nesyri, we moved on to Pavlidis, then Daka, then Rafa Mir, to close with Jovic.
“It’s a shame to end like this: today we are at the usual point and that is that after Giroud there is a void. The paradox is that Milan has 3 high-level players for the role of left winger (Leao, Pulisic, Okafor), while as number 9, in fact, it is to be hoped that the Frenchman never catches a cold.
“This went too far: error of assessment, because the central striker was a priority. Jovic is a big question mark, Milan needed an exclamation point. Well, let’s face it, the pre-break victory against Roma overshadows this too.”
poorly managed how exactly? Dont have money, 15m was likely the max we could spend, maybe 20 at worst
There isnt any good strikers at that range. Its a problem to solve for next year
who tf builds a whole team in one transfer window?!
True, and Okafor is also backup for Giroud. We want 3 striker so we panicked a bit after that Taremi saga.
At least Jovic is low risk with potential to be a bargain, his wage is not that high and he is only on 1 year contract. So if his attitude is as bad as we worried, we will just let him go next season and buy the main striker, be it Jonathan David or anyone else.
Yes! I think management had the Jovic deal on the back for quite some time. especially when you consider how quickly the whole thing happened. When did the mesicine check actually take place?!
On the last day we maybe tried to get a better option. At the beginning I wasn’t that happy about Jovic but it’s actually a good deal. We’re only committed to his salary for one year and he still scored goals last season. He will definitely get minutes. Maybe he’ll thrive with our teammates and we won’t need to bring in a striker next year because we’ll extend with him.
Boulden you are right even though many are not happy with Jovic I still think he would exploded at Milan ,story of Jovic is like many Milan players before joining ăn sure pioli would find a way to bring out the old Jovic if that happens then we got a replacement of Giroud for nothing
We need to be fair. New management addressed already certain big issues (notably RW). It’s not wise to try solve everything at once, it never works.
ST position is an issue, we all know that. But it’s arguably a very difficult (and expensive) position to fill in. It is worthy to take our time, do a good research. I would dare to say, it’s even worthy to “sacrifice” a mercato for this position.
So in the long run, it is makes good sense what the new management did.
Well oka4 is giroud backup right. Can’t wait to see how oka4 handle the no 9 position
This journalist is asking too much when Giroud scored 4 goals in 3 match and Jovic -25 years aka younger than Giroud- just arrived.
Beside, it’s not like Milan lacking players who can scored a goal.
A journalist being a journalist…doing nothing other than sensationalism to sell news.
Just realized that PSGey have signed Kolo Muani for whooping 95M. That’s was insane. From Free Transfer to that much value. And we will meet PSGey in UCL 😀
The few first (if not the first) players that we targeted was a striker, so yes, striker had always been the priority. This article has a solid foundation. I think it wanted to outline that we can spend the budget on the now ‘excess’ positions (such wings and box to boxes) for a solid striker signing, rather than gambling ourself in to the very last day of transfer window.
The last mercato was already beyond expectations for many of us tho, so can’t really complain. But hey, everyone’s entitled to give an input / argument.
I’d rate the mercato A-.
Initially, I was p**sed when Tonali was sold rather easily perhaps – though it is a record fee, so it is of course understandable.
But, the money was wisely used to finally fix the lingering RW issue, apart from of course getting us new midfielders as Pobega and Krunic are the only two names remained. The fact that we didn’t sell any other big names is a major positive and the fact that we were able to shift the deemed unneeded players is outstanding. The team looked a lot more balanced and stacked compared to last season, with even lesser salary bills – so, this is a great work all around.
FW is of course an issue too, and the sense of panic at the last day of the windows is ridiculous. I thought we could be fine by sticking with Colombo (there’s Okafor after all), and probably Pioli should try other methods such as false 9 if necessary. However, we landed Jovic, whom I honestly used to admire prior to the ill-fated Real Madrid move. I thought he had talents and hopefully he could be back showing it in our colours.
The only bad things happened this Mercato is Tomori stayed and starts for Milan
And hopefully this is final season of chance management would give to Pioli
Yeah, hope after red card break, Tomori learns from his mistakes and improves his defensive ability.
> Tomori made some mistakes = ok let’s sell this guy.
> Pioli brought scudetto & semi CL while right now Milan at the top of the table with fantastic play = ok let’s fired this guy next season.
I don’t like the current management but thanks God at least they’re not dumb and short sighted as you.
In an ideal world, a backup no. 9 would have been sorted earlier, but it’s still been a great mercato. Milan have goal potential from all over the place, and Jovic is a decent bet.
Who is this deaf journalist? Can’t he hear that Pioli said Okafor is a forward? Jovic is third option.
Journalist is spot on. Having finally landed Jovic as maybe the option Z is a bad image for the club. That cannot be denied. However, the mercato has looked well so let’s see when the season ends to discuss if it was good or bad
So you bake a tray of cookies….. and one of them looks questionable, you don’t throw the whole tray away. You try the questionable looking cookie to see how it tastes.
Same here. Stellar Mercato. Jovic looks questionable so we play him to see if he’s got the jazz. If it doesn’t work out we continue our search next summer for a a more stellar “recipe”.
“Well, let’s face it, the pre-break victory against Roma overshadows this too.”
Wait, the aim in transfer market is to have stronger team and to win games, right? Not other way around. So how come a win overshadows something happened in transfer market???
And I still dont think that getting Jovic is a mistake anyway. Sure it is perhaps not the best ending, but it’s not bad either. Even perhaps I think getting Jovic is one the most appropriate solutions, considering the remaining small budget, because Milan spent earlier to fix more urgent area.
Milan mercato was great, but when it comes to the striker position, the journalist is right.
After the failed attempt to sign Thuram on free, Milan main target became Taremi. They decided to wait until the end of mercato to sign him so Porto can lower the asking price, which they did, but problems from the players side happened. And then it was a scramble mode. They tried to sign every striker with a pulse, ending up with Jovic.
Some say jovic is the 3rd striker in the pecking order behind Giroud and Okafor.
If Pioli views Okafor as a striker why was Milan going after Taremi so hard?
Okafor is the back up for the left wing who in emergency situations will play as a striker. But he isn’t suited to be a lone striker on top, that’s why Milan signed another striker.
Jovic is very talented and capable striker if he’s head and attitude are on point, but let’s not act like he wasn’t last resort striker signing.
Hopefully he takes advantage of this great opportunity and get his very promising career back on track
This journalist is 💯 correct. I have said the same thing.
Great market EXCEPT for the striker search. Left one of the most import positions to the end and then settled on a player with a questionable character and who’s career is failing….hardly the guarantee we needed in light of Giroud age and work load. Ya the deal is good from a financial perspective, but the deal was good because Jovic has been a huge disappointment. High risk high reward yes. But where we are and where we want to go it wasn’t a risk we should have taken IMO. Proper planning should have had this position taken care of way before the last days of the market. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us when Giroud gets injured or just needs rest. Maybe Jovic rekindles his form from his days in Germany, maybe we hit lightning in a bottle. The talent is there for sure. Not sure he’s a fit for our system, but hey anything can happen. So let’s pray he finally decides to become a professional and can provide a solid alternative to our amazing Giroud. Fingers crossed.