The summer mercato is now open, and following last summer, work must be done to carry on improving the team, rather than allowing it to regress. Unfortunately, Carlo Pellegatti believes that AC Milan may be in line to do the latter.
Looking at the two summers which have just passed, there are two tales. 2022’s summer mercato was awful, money was wasted, funds were allocated poorly, and there were screams for better in the summer of 2023, and thankfully, it was.
Although Sandro Tonali departed, the window was much more favourable, and the money spent was not only well allocated, but the talent that arrived hit the ground running. Christian Pulisic, Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were fantastic on numerous occasions and rarely looked like league debutants.
This summer, several areas will receive investment, and they are key positions, which means the risk is much higher, but if Milan gets it right, they will be rewarded significantly. However, Pellegatti is worried about the situation, and when speaking to Radio Rossonera’s YouTube channel, he criticised the ambitions of the club.
On the management’s ambitions in the market…
“I don’t think it will go away. If Milan were to take Zirkzee, Calafiori, etc. there might be a break, but after that we’ll be back to the same point. Even in Elliott’s first year, the mood was sceptical. Ibrahimovic seemed to be able to give the same guarantee as Maldini, but instead, he seems to be sucked into the negativity of the others.”
On market names…
“It’s the striker who unlocks the market. When they know how much they’ll spend on the striker then they’ll move for Emerson Royal, who from what I’ve been told seems quite close. As for the midfielder, André Trindade likes him, while for Rabiot they told me during the week to keep it alive. My big Milan dream is that if you get 30/35 million for Thiaw, you add 5/6/7 and go and get Buongiorno or Calafiori. Like you did with Tonali last year.
“Calafiori on a media level would be a great coup…you steal him from Juventus, you convince Bologna, he is the player who is now the symbol of Italy. Then I personally would keep the 20/25 for Royal on the right, continue with Calabria and Florenzi, and add 15 to go on Buongiorno anyway.”
On the winning mentality…
“I like profiles like Rabiot, Morata…we’ve rightly invested in Kjaer, Ibra, Giroud, older players when they arrived. These are the players who make the difference. With all the love we have for Okafor, Chukwueze, Pulisic…they don’t have that stuff there, they don’t make a difference.”
Yes, forget about the royal Royal and use the money on Calafiori (or Buongiorno).
Looks like an attacking RB is a direct request from Fonseca.
It’s not the first summer we are linked with Royal so it’s probably someone in the management that is in love with the guy. As you imply Fonseca probably asked for a position and then the management is like “we got you”.
Like last summer when Pioli probably asked for a midfielder like Kessié and a striker and they were like “we got you”, then sold his best midfielder so Pioli had to lock Krunic in the locker room, then recruit some random players that didn’t fit the profile, or struggled all summer for a striker to finish with Jovic five minutes before the mercato closure haha
Pioli reportedly also wanted Milinkovic-Savic but got RLC instead. He did great last season with the tools he was given. 2nd place with this midfield and all the injuries is an overachievement.
Yeah at RB we have loads of options
Calabria
Florenzi
Kalulu
Jimenez
Terraciano
Alexis
Kalulu would offer balance, as Theo likes to go forward and we can morph into a back 3 when in possession
Jimenez is 19 and more than capable of filling in for certain games and getting experience
Calabria will stay as captain.
It is foolish not to try out the options available before spending money.
Exactly! We’ve got bigger issues and it would be insane to waste 20M€ here. Especially when we haven’t bought the most important player yet (striker).