There is no shying away from the fact that AC Milan have had torrid luck in the striker mercato in recent years. Now, it must change.
Whether Milan have had poor luck or made poor choices can be debated. Santiago Gimenez, on the face of it, should have done much better than he has, considering how he was scoring in the Netherlands 12 months ago.
Alvaro Morata flopped, Charles De Ketelaere was not ready for the move, the list goes on. Looking forward though, the trend cannot follow…
Pellegatti’s view
Under Massimiliano Allegri, the Rossoneri look like credible title contenders, and there is certainly a chance to progress in the future. However, an established (or even competent) No.9 must be brought to the squad.
Carlo Pellegatti spoke about the situation today, via MilanNews, and offered his opinion on who the club should get, and who may not be an option, despite recent links.
“The topic of a center-forward for January and especially for June is undoubtedly a hot one. As for January, AC Milan will be looking for a striker to make up for the lack of physicality, power, and ability to fill the penalty area, which was also lacking against Parma, for example.
“AC Milan will probably sign a striker. Forget Jonathan David, Lewandowski, or Icardi, they won’t come. I looked at how AC Milan has performed in recent seasons, since Inzaghi’s retirement, in terms of investments in center-forwards.
“I’m not counting Giroud and Ibrahimovic, who were the best, but who weren’t investments. I counted the players they cost, starting with Balotelli, the only one who, along with Carlos Bacca, would be a permanent starter today.
“Bacca is very underrated, but in his first year he scored 18 goals and in his second 14 in the league.
“I’ll read the others to you: Torres 1 goal, then there was Lapadula. Then André Silva and Kalinic arrived, for whom €60 million were spent. Total goals between the two: 8. Then it was Piatek’s turn: €35 million spent for 9 goals.
“In the 2019-2020 season there was no investment in the center forward, the same thing in the 20-21, 21-22, and 22-23 seasons. Then Okafor arrived for €14 million and scored six goals. Last year, finally, Morata and Gimenez arrived.
“When investments were made, they didn’t bear fruit. I really hope that next June they start at €50-60 million to sign a striker . €155 million have been spent in recent years, and Milan still don’t have a center forward who can take us to the top in Italy and Europe.”
I don’t even particularly trust them to spend 40mil looking at how they chose nkunku – a player by all accounts wrong for the system. 60 mil? Firstly, yeah right… Secondly, no – no w/ Tare and this bunch.
I’d go to Max and ask him who he specifically needs.
Max clearly demanded Vlahovic during the summer. Nobody answered him. Max has always been very clear with this demands but he is also flexible and improvising with whatever he has. It is on Tare and co for not being able to bring in the requested players. Max will still be chill and not complain.
Exactly bro! Nkunku has no place in our system.
He’s the highest Paid in the squad at 178k per week. He has 5 years left so that’s 46 million.
If he’s a bench player, for us where money is such a huge deal, that’s an astronomical amount to waste!!
Moise Kean and Vlahovic should be our priority next summer.
Sell Leao for 80M to fund Kane. On his day Leao is one of the best if he’s out wide with room to run in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. We’re never going to use those formations with Allegri. Meanwhile Allegri is missing a top no. 9 for his 3-5-2.
Sell Leao, bring in Kane at 65M, assuming Modric retires bring in Verratti at 15M as his replacement, sign a good experienced CB on a free (there will be a few of them available this summer) and buy a Maignan replacement with a 20M budget. That’s only 20M out of pocket in the summer of 2026, or just promote Torriani and spend the 20M on another CM (or recall Bondo) for more depth since we’ll probably be playing in Europe.
Milan 2026-27
Sell:
Leao 80M
Modric (retired)
Buy:
Kane 65M
Verratti 15M
Option:
New GK/New CM 20M
Free transfer:
New CB
Total out of pocket spend: 0-20M.
New GK/Torriani
Tomori-Gabbia-Pavlo
Salad-Jashari-Verratti-Rabiot-Bartesaghi
Pulisic-Kane
Bench:
Terraciano, GK3, De Winter, Odogu, New CB, Athekame, Estupinan, New CM (or Bondo), RLC, Fofana, Ricci, Nkunku, Gimenez
24 players total
Verratti in 2025 🤣🤣🤣
Why 🤣? 32 years old, similar role to Modric, similar experience. Cost? He could be tempted by ending on a high in Serie A.
First sentence is enough to see you’re delusional. Do you know how much is Kane paid? 25M€ per season. What a bunch of nonsense, why are you wasting time on this?
Bro, he has Kane in his Fifa 25 team. That’s why he wants Kane in Milan. And while negotiating in Fifa he gave him a 7 million package following Fifa 25 negotiation videos on YouTube…
@Vero, even if you see your body parts to the highest bidder like Kidneys, Liver and Heart still Kane would be un affordable for Milan.
It’s nice to indulge a delusion from time to time.