If yesterday was Alvaro Morata day, the AC Milan management are hoping that Niclas Fullkrug will soon have his as well.
According to MilanNews, the intention is that Morata will not be the only striker to arrive in the summer transfer window and in this sense two names have been mentioned in recent days: Fullkrug of Borussia Dortmund and Tammy Abraham of Roma.
The German striker is increasingly ahead of the Englishman in terms of preference. Another injury suffered in recent days by Abraham in training with Roma has dampened enthusiasm for the former Chelsea player.
Antonio Vitiello adds that Fullkrug would cost around €15-20m to sign and that there have been ‘positive conversations’ with the player. The first approaches with Borussia Dortmund have been made too, after they confirmed the signing of Serhou Guirrasy.
The position of Luka Jovic is at risk too as per the MilanNews journalist and his date depends on the offers that arrive, despite the fact that he has just renewed his contract after a first season in which he scored nine goals.
Late last night, Gianluca Di Marzio reported that Fullkrug had shown ‘great enthusiasm’ towards the idea of joining Milan, after a Euro 2024 campaign with Germany where he scored twice.
He’s older but I prefer cheaper fullkrug to younger Abraham. I think hes not a “good player” but he is a “good goalscorer”.
Offers something different a true no.9
Morata first choice as a link forward , fullkrug as a battering ram ie plan B.
The guy is effective and very easily underrated. Think its a bargain. Can see him get 12-14 goals just coming off the bench
I’ve been team Tammy in this but the recent injury has made me question myself.
I like the way you describe the tactical possibilities with Fullkrug.
Sensible by Milan management. If this goes through, both Morata and the German would fit well up top physically and tactically without a significant goals scoring drop off when alternating between the two.
And the two of them combined, still cost less than Zee would.
His stats from last season with Dortmund in the BundesLiga shows that he scores a goal every 185.6 minutes playing as a starter.
On the other hand Jovic scored a goal every 147 minutes playing as a substitute for Milan last season.
Totally worth 15-20 million and almost double the salary of Jovic for the 31 years old.
Milan has became the garbage 🗑️ for other teams thanks to the wisdom of this 🤡 management.
Jovic can only score with another striker in the box to free up the space. Jovic can not and had not score as a sole striker last season. I don’t know how many different ways to state this for Jovic proponents to understand.
He is a sub. Even a super sub when you have to throw the kitchen sink in to win a game. He has failed to deliver every time he started as our 9.
So yes, I’m happy with Jovic in the bench and alternating Morata and Fulkrug as our primary strikers. They are everything Jovic isn’t – physical, tall, good on the hold up play, good pressers of the ball. Can hold their own in the box as the sole 9.
You keep saying Jovic hasn’t scored as a sole striker and that just isn’t true.
Just because he scored two lucky goals against a relegating team in Coppa Italia doesn’t make him a good lonely striker.
26 goals in Germany and the CL vs 6 in serie a, 2 in the coppa (in garbage time) and one meaningless Europa league goal. Enough said
Zirkzee has all it takes to reach the elite 100mil MV list. Just like we did with Leao (although he’s still a tad below 100mi level). But both of Morata and Fullkrug combined will never ever ever ever reach that kind of level.
Once again, high risk high return. Low risk low return. Low risk high return would only apply if the FM mode is on.
We don’t need them to reach that level, BOO! We need them to hold the line for the next 3-4 years until CAMARDA is ready to blast away. Then we build around him.
I wish Camarda all the best in the world but boy do we have a major double standards here. We often see comments about Zirkzee being over valued and there’s no such guarantee that he’ll perform. The same question should be applied to Camarda as well.
And sometimes, great players don’t need a mentor, a red carpet access, a spoiled special space for ‘em. What they need is a high level of competitiveness and challenge. A good example would be Kaka in the midst of mega stars such as Rui Costa and Rivaldo. I bet Morata (or Nicolas too in this case) can’t offer that kind of ‘rivalry’ within 3-4 years.
CAMARDA has been scoring on every level so far, Ibrahim. Zee is a one season wonder so far to be fair.
Are you really comparing junior level to the first team level? ZIRKZEE has been scoring (a lot) since his junior level as well. Bayern U17, U19 to Munchen II. His numbers at U19 (as Camarda primavera level now) was far more productive compared to Camarda. Performing really well at every stage of national team youth (U15 to U21).
He scored a hattrick on his Bayern II debut. Scored 2 goals in his 2 first matches on Bayern first team. Already made UCL appearance as well. To tell the world that he’s a one season wonder while not knowing the full story (like many others too here) is a oversimplified justification or some kind of coping mechanism.
What was he doing before Motta got his hands on him, Ibrahim? What warranted the ManUtd move? The fact that he scored a hat trick for Bayern 2 or the fact that he has a great season for Motta?
He’s doing everything Camarda doing now in the junior level. On the senior level, he was the stop scorer on Anderlecht. He’s performing well even before
Motta if you still haven’t got my point. If you ever watched him play on his 1st season at Bologna, you know the kid got something else. Even many experts said so. The 2nd season was the fruition.
Of course the professionals on MU look all his comprehensive history (which was remarkable since the junior year). And the last season’s performance was simply the justification on investing 40-50mil of figures.
Good point ACM1899
What is with this Camarda nonsense. Hold the line until he gets good? We don’t know how he’ll turn out. The as.sumption that he’ll guarantee a great goal scorer 3 years out shouldn’t be why we shouldn’t have ambition now in the current. You’re basically saying you’re ok with status quo until hope in a 16 yr pan out to be a generational striker? In sport, the future is always now, not later. Seen this happen many a time in soccer and NBA. Raptors come to mind. The banked on Siakem to come great instead of trading him to keep Kwahi….who was the actual difference maker.
55mil for almost the same goal tally Jovic got playing 15min cameos…get lost
Difference you’re not understanding is that Camara is ours. No need to splash 55m for him. Makes it easier to take the risk and wait for him, no?
If you read all my comments you should get it. The assumption was that Camarda will be ready for the next 3-4 years. While we wait for him, why don’t we also invest in a more promising name. A name that has the potential to reach even higher MV.
By the time Camarda is ready, we’ll have 2 high caliber strikers. As I also said, sometimes healthy competition makes an even stronger player. Or if we really want to go all in and create all the space for Camarda we can simply sell that other striker with an already high value.
Something that we can’t ever get if we’re talking about Morata and Nicolas, on whose value will only goes downward from now. Yes of course the risk is much lower (and much cheaper) to bet on the likes of Morata and Nicolas. But back to my first point, high risk high return. Low risk low return.
Dont take it seriously dude . Fabrizio romano only say pavlovic,fofana are AcM target while lazar only target if benna or adili leave, no mention about fullkrug. The other media are just rumour. JZ cost MU more than ACM , MU offer salary 1,5m nett euro more than ACM and in 5 years contract. Of course JZ will choose MU if salary offer more than ACM , just move on . Low risk low return you say but we got scudetto with 4th total salary in italy below juve , inter,napoli total salary so it is high return .
How is this sensible when we already have players for backup in that position? Why not just spend that money, given its limited, to a position we don’t have a player for like DM.
Its almost guaranteed that one of these guys WILL suffer in performance as they both play the same role and will compete for starting time. So one of them will not have the same impact he would have had at their previous club. And they both crave loads of game time in order to be effective unlike Jovic and Okafor who are effective subs and don’t need to start or have loads of minutes to have an impact.
Seems like anything management do is sensible to you even if it’s not. it’s so weird.
With Giroud last season we needed Oli’s replacement and a reliable alternative. That’s what’s happening so far by the looks of it.
We play A LOT of games and the efficiency drops off when a player is overused. See Giroud. If Fonseca is smart about it, he rotates Fullkrug and Morata often with the starting wingers so they all develop chemistry together. Unlike Pioli who would rotate marginally and when he did it was so wholesale that no one knew how to play with each other.
Fullkrug coming in isn’t prohibitive of a DM coming in. We need DM’s 100% and still believe the Fofana deal goes through.
Okafor isn’t a 9. He’s a backup winger, who too scored a lot when the opponent box was overloaded with players. Both him and Jovic worked as kitchen sinks for Pioli.
I criticize this management when I feel it’s due. Like the fact that we don’t have a sporting director to tie everything together. Or for the fact that they went for Fonseca after being late to the Motta train….
I naturally look at things as glass half-full. Especially keeping in mind what a disaster banter era was and how far we’ve come under the American clean up crew.
I was kinda hoping that Jovic would be the person used more often in rotation, but maybe it’s because management are not exactly convinced with Jovic, hence why we’re after Fullkrug. That’s just my guess. And yes, Giroud definitely saw his effectiveness drop off.
First of all lemme say thanks for the reply and that I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of where we stand as club as opposed to the banter era days. That stuff still haunts me. And the work done to get us out of that mess was very well done..so any angst against our current direction pales massively in comparison to those dark days. We’re waaaay better now. I definitely do not feel as stressed or depressed as those years. It just hurts me to see us not taking the bull by the horn Though, yes we also need a real director of sport. Anyways here are my thoughts:
“With Giroud last season we needed Oli’s replacement and a reliable alternative.”
Why do we need an alternative? This is the logic that befuddles me. We’re only replacing ONE outgoing player. And Morata’s output/goal contributions is the same as Giroud on average for the last 4/5 years (G+A Avg 23 for Morata and 21 for Giroud). In terms of minutes, Morata has played more than Giroud so it’s not like he can’t handle the workload. Even if he relinquishes say 500 minutes, that’s not enough minutes for a striker like Fulkrug. Plus we have reliable alternatives already in Okafor and Jovic as shown last season (so their minutes will be impacted too). We also had ample goals, goals were/are not the problem.
The other issue you mentioned on offensive efficiency, guess which season was Giroud’s best in terms of efficiency….last season when he played his most minutes. Now I’m not saying he wasnt “overused” in the eye test but he was old and should have played less. The only reason why he played so much was that it took a long time for Okafor and Jovic to be fit. Morata is much younger and for now should be able to handle the workload and some minutes can go to the subs seeing as they’re starting the season fit which is an additional reason to not get another striker.
“Fullkrug coming in isn’t prohibitive of a DM coming in. We need DM’s 100% and still believe the Fofana deal goes through.”
It may or may not be directly “prohibitive” but we do have a very limited and fixed budget. Anything spent on one part of the field means that less money is available to another part. It’s basic economics ie scarcity. Based on the figures reported for us bidding for players, it seems we don’t have a whole lot to spend. Fulkrug would cost us the same as we’d spend on a proper DM. The priority IS THE DM. The striker situation is already solved. The DM isnt.
“Okafor isn’t a 9.”
Who said so? You? How about lets look at the evidence.
Based on Transfermarkt, Okafor has played as a CF/n9 76 times, LW 78 times and RW 39 times. That seems to me like he can play at the 9. Plus not all players will be like-for-like swaps. Okafor brings something different to the attack AND he can play false 9. And based on last season itself clearly he did well in any role we played him up top including CF (goal contributions were same on LW as at CF..matter of fact for his entire career his best output is at CF and yes I can provide the stats for that if u want).
” Both him and Jovic worked as kitchen sinks for Pioli.”
Exactly, you need your subs to produce, these guys did. Jovic is a striker, there’s no way you can call that a kitchen sink. He’s literally playing where he should be.
Anyways I guess we’ll have to disagree on the approach taken here. But whoever we get I’ll obviously support them.
Fabrizio Romano only say ACM seriously target fofana & pavlovic while lazar only coming if one from benna,adili,pobega leave. No mention about fulkrug, i predict fulkrug only coming if jovic leave ( mourinho ask fenerbahce to buy jovic ) . For okafor i agree , if he have more chance as striker he can surpass joshua zirkzee in stat. I prefer chaka traore as leao back up so okafor can be used as striker . For morata he is not my first choice or even enter my list but sesko not posible anymore for ACM because high price over 65m euro . Haaland best poacher striker but well maybe we can bring him after he is 33 years +++. Ibra recomended dusan vlahovic but juve only want to sell him 75m euro . Guirassy,dovyk,gimenez,,jonathan david i think not better than morata. JZ type already in okafor so i dont really care if MU get him , lauriente 5-8m euro from sassoulo can be leao back up too if they want okafor as striker
Oh crap didn’t realize it was so lengthy. Sorry bro. TLDR at the end basically haha 😂
With that kind of money we could easily get Guirrasy. Yes the one that made this transfer feasible at the first place. The one we chased last winter. With several years younger.
Another proof that all the management do is everything but properly planned and targetted one.
Yup, some ride the management’s bull with the horns up their backsides here though.
We pick scraps up and overpay for that then turn around to offer Fofana’s team, a player who should be a primary target, half of their asking price.
Nicolas Fullkrug makes 6 million a year at Borussia. That is more than what Morata is getting, then add on top of that Borussia asking for 15 million or more – I seriously doubt this is a deal Milan will agree to.
Nicolas is also 31, I mean this deal only makes sense if he agree on a 3 million a year contract for 3 years with maybe an additional year as an option. I seriously doubt he will want that if he is getting 6 million a year.
Who ever Milan decides to go with, he cannot be getting anywhere close to 5 million a year and the cost in transfer fees is going to have to stay under 30 million at least.
6M Gross not Net, Morata is around 5M net
This happens EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
People fail to understand that in Italy they talk about net salaries while (most) other countries use gross.
I think he’s quite good and would help us mount a serious challenge for the championship if we get him.
Agreed…
Fullkrug and Morata together might finally give us a 15-20 goals striker, who knows
Love this move. Get fullkrug! Top class old school striker he’s a very good option to rotate with Morata and a great option when chasing games or playing vs deep Serie a defences.
Keep Jovic too. Sometimes we need both Fullkrug and Jovic off bench to get crucial winners
Gives me Bierhoff vibes… dude is a beast. But I thought he wasn’t too fond of Milan? And if he wants a starting place here it’ll be a fight for him.
He can easily score 15 goals.
6M Gross right? While Morata around 5M Net
Fulkrug over Abraham all day long, for various reasons.
Little does he know….
He will be a backup for morata too….
So why… why…?
But, if we play 2 strikers…. It is a whole different story. In which i believe we won’t.
So… As long as we beat inter twice (hopefully in coppa and chmps league too), i dont mind whatever strategy fonseca is using, and i dont even care who the coach is.
Simple. On point.