It has been a busy summer for AC Milan with some notable exits, eight new signings and a tour of the USA, while in amongst all this some youth sector products are trying to establish themselves in the first team.
MilanNews writes how there were four players from Ignazio Abate’s Primavera team that reached the Final Four of the UEFA Youth League that Stefano Pioli wanted a look at: Jan-Carlo Simic, Kevin Zeroli, Chaka Traoré and Davide Bartesaghi.
All of them were part of the tour in the United States, also finding a few minutes on the pitch and giving some bright performances, such as that of Simic against Real Madrid and that of Bartesaghi against Barcelona.
Milan’s idea, perhaps obviously, is to try and create a pathway between the Primavera and the senior side so more and more young players made the big stage.
Bartesaghi, for example, could act as a deputy Theo Hernandez, while the others mentioned will be available to Pioli for any role that he might see fit, while loans cannot be ruled out.
Abate said it quite succinctly during his interview yesterday: “Seeing the great champions, you always manage to steal something from them and off the pitch, I hope my boys have done it, but they are intelligent boys.
“Every year some boys leave as an aggregate to the first team, we work to see one on a permanent basis one day. It would be my dream and that of the whole environment.”