AC Milan came into the summer mercato with a reportedly healthy budget, but a report is suggesting the Rossoneri should sell before any further purchases are made.
It has been a weird mercato so far, given Milan have only made two first-team signings – excluding the deal for Alex Jimenez, who will probably be between the senior and Futuro squad. However, arguments can be made that the European Championship is the reason for this.
Nevertheless, the Serie A season is approaching quickly, and additions are needed across the pitch.
Today, Milan News have stated that the club must sell before adding any new players to the squad, though, for a multitude of reasons. Most notably, to reduce the number of redundancies within the squad, and rid themselves of players who have no place in the squad moving forward.
The report goes further, suggesting that a decision must be made about Yacine Adli, Alexis Saelemaekers and Malick Thiaw. For the French midfielder, there is ‘little’ place for him within the squad, so he could leave if a good offer is made, and the same can be said for Thiaw.
Saelemaekers presents a weird proposition, given Fonseca is a fan of his, but whether there is space for him among the ranks is yet to be seen. We also must consider the exits of Divock Origi and Fode Ballo-Toure, but interest in both is lacking.
If Thiaw doesn’t leave, I personally would consider our defense done. There are 1 or 2 quick fixes that could happen in January or next year, none are that important atm.
We must sell, before buy would go to Pobega and Adli. We need to upgrade both of them. Fofana is a must while the Adli replacement can still be figured out.
Keep Saelemakers, sell/terminate Jovic and keep Nasti, Liberalli and Torriani should be promoted or act like Jimenez. (I like Jovic, but by keeping Saelemakers Okafor might suffer for playing time. without Jovic, Okafor can play as ST as well)
Why would they terminate Jovic?
First he is the only real striker outside of Morata in the team.
2nd, even if you are trying to move him why terminate when you can get money in return for him instead?
Okafor being able to play as a striker and playing well as a striker are 2 different things. Not to mention that he is often injured.
The only way Jovic should leave is if another striker comes in.
If your plan is Morata and Okafor, you are in for a repeat of last season, when Giroud had to play every 3 days.
Okafor should be sold before thinking about selling jovic.
Pioli-ball being the epitome of football apparently… and the plan is to get another ST, anyway. Nasti is a quick easy fix, one you could loan out and even test Camarda in main team and then swap them between Futuro.
I agree our CBs are done as is. We have Pavlovic, Thiaw, Tomori, Gabbia and Kalulu. Meanwhile, Royal seems to be incoming and that will complete RB for now with him and Calabria. If anything, we may do well to have a true experienced LB to backup Theo instead of Jimenez or the still raw Bartesaghi, but given budget priorities, we might be OK for another season as is.
In terms of midfield it’s less about “upgrades”, and more about numbers, both in terms of cost and squad size. We can’t “upgrade” two players who are basically subs, because we’d be acquiring starting calibre players who would: A. cost what starting calibre players cost and B. have a locker room problem when they wind up on the bench.
If Fofana arrives, a CM will need to be sold. In essence Fofana IS a “replacement” for Pobega or Adli, and I’m 80% sure it’s the latter. Then we’d have Fofana, Bennacer, Reijnders, Musah and Pobega at CM for two positions, which is already one more than we need, I think. Then IF Fonseca decides to use Puli as the AM, RLC will also be in the mix. So we might actually want to sell another CM. The question is who, since Pobega, even though you want to “upgrade” him, is important for the UEFA list. And no, we’re not going sign Ricci to “replace” Pobega, because of what said at “A” and “B” above, but also we’d still need to get rid of a non-Italian CM. I have a sneaking suspicion that Bennacer will be the one sold if Fofana arrives (but only if Fofana or another DM arrives), and that the starting double pivot will be Reijnders-Fofana, with Musah being the first option off the bench, and RLC also mixing in (again, if Puli is moved to starting AM).
Why would you get rid of Jovic? That’s a terrible idea. He actually performed quite well last season if you look at goals per minutes played. He’s our only real back-up unless they sign Abraham. Why would you think Nasti is capable of handling that role? Because he scored one goal in a preseason friendly against B-side players?
Jovic should go, it’s baffling that most of us are not seeing that jovic couldn’t score without Giroud on the pitch last season.Adli ,Pobega should also go to give room for new comers
100% agree. Adli and Pobega upgrade to Fofana and Ricci, get striker and wait until you get more information about squad balance until January. Fullback being max what we would need in 6 months.
No way Ricci, should be Samardzic, not too defensively minded but will become a ‘fantasista ’, it’s been a while since we had one of those at Milan.
In Morata, Pavlovic, Fofana, Samardzic and maybe Tammy/Broja, we are complete, and other signings should be market opportunities towards the end of August like Chiesa on loan with option to buy
Reijnders is fantasista so is Pulisic. Liberalli… we need players that do defensive work and Ricci isn’t that defensive either way, he’s no Casemiro. He’s a good copy of Bennacer, just more raw.
I would have to disagree there, in my humble opinion fantasista are players like Dejan Savicevic and Roby Baggio, much as I love watching Rijnders and Pulsic, they are not the classic Milan fantasista’s, Traqurista’s yes, but not ‘fantasista’s’
We should have 5 defenders!! so the CB are okay unless anyone offers 40M for Thiaw! But if he leaves we should get a experience one like Hummels
A complete lie, we don’t NEED to sell before we buy.
To trim the squad. Not because of money.
Remember we need to offload origi and ballo-toure to.
Good luck with that, maybe if the management had made better decisions when purchasing then we would not have this predicament now.
What is absurd if that these losers think they are to good for Saudi league, when they are no good for any league
Well balo toure and origi are not the ones rumoured to be sold. The ones that are rumoured are theo and thiaw. Those 2 are quality players so how is that trimming the squad…
There getting rid of one and bringing one in…
There not trimming the squad there making money for transfers by selling our players. Get your facts right.
Disgusting management
As far as I’m concerned, sell pobegba and Adli. With Fofana coming in, I think we are OK. We already have RLC, Musah, Benacer, Reijnders in the midfield with him to be arranged depending on each game.
With the discovery of Liberali and the form of Chukwueze, then Saelemaekers, Jovic, and Okafor offer some kind of redundancy in the development of the whole squad.
Pobega was good in both matches. Liberalli need to stay as well as Salad and definitely Jimenez is great. We already made mistake by selling Simic. Adli must go.
We have a few to sell or loan…
Lapo Nava LOAN
Fodé Ballo-Touré SELL
Davide Bartesaghi LOAN
Malick Thiaw SELL
Filippo Terracciano LOAN
Yacine Adli SELL
Tommaso Pobega SELL
Alexis Saelemaekers SELL
Divock Origi SELL
Chaka Traorè SELL
Marco Nasti LOAN