The Serbian national team coach Dragan Stojkovic has revealed that he advised Strahinja Pavlovic to join AC Milan, and he believes that it will be a good signing for the Rossoneri.
Pavlovic was spotted in Milano last night, after reports had emerged suggesting that the Rossoneri had struck an agreement with Red Bull Salzburg at last. He will arrive for a fee of €18m plus €2m in bonuses and will sign a long-term contract, per multiple reports.
Milan have finally got their man given that negotiations had been ongoing for weeks. Pavlovic has international experience and has played in the Champions League, he is young at 23, physically dominant and left-footed, which means he ticks plenty of boxes.
The Serbian national team coach Dragan Stojkovic gave an interview in today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) and expressed his opinion on the imminent signing of Pavlovic for the Rossoneri.
What is Pavlovic like?
“Pavlovic is not just a defender, he is a warrior . I am not surprised, I will tell you an anecdote from this summer so you can understand why. In Germany, during the European Championship, Pavlovic asked me for advice for his future.
“Strahinja told me that he could choose between several Premier League clubs and Milan in case of leaving Salzburg. I told him: ‘If you can choose, go to Milan. It is a top club and Serie A is the university for a defender’.
“He thought exactly like me, he had an experience in Italy in mind. I am always happy when a player from my national team lands in a big club, but in Strahinja’s case I would be even happier.”
What is his best quality?
“With his imposing size he combines a notable elevation, useful in both areas, and a quick step. He is good at defending in the open field. And then he is left-footed: there are not many young, high-level, left-footed central defenders. Pavlovic is one of these and signing him is a bargain.”
How important will it be for him to join a club like Milan?
“Milan is history and playing with the shirt that once belonged to Baresi, Maldini and Costacurta is a great responsibility. Pavlovic is ready for this leap because, beyond his technical qualities, he is serious and focused on football. On the pitch he is a true warrior, it is a bit like he plays with two hearts. He never leaves you alone.”
Finally, a word on another Milan target, Lazar Samardzic?
“Milan’s interest doesn’t surprise me. Lazar is a protagonist in Serie A with Udinese, they know his qualities. Samardzic has crystal clear talent and I’m convinced that he would excel even more in a top club. Sooner or later, he’ll get there. We’ll see.”
Dragan Stojkovic himself was a quality midfielder back in his playing days. Not sure whether that makes him necessarily a good talent spotter or coach (maybe a Serbian here could comment)
🇷🇸 team didn’t impress much at the recent Euros. But Milan seem to be going for 2 of their gems I hope we get Samardzic to add to Pavlovic
RS team never impresses because they’re in each others hair before even starting a tournament. Serbians are know to be full of themselves while having nothing to be proud of in general.
Morata, Pavlovic, Fofana, Samardzic and Royal (I suppose because Moncada seems to have tunnel vision on him) would be another great mercato in my book.
Morata IMO is one of the best strikers that we could’ve gotten for less than 60M€. I might be in minority but I did prefer him to Zirkzee.
I don’t follow Serbia much, but Pavlovic seems to be a great signing, plus he was a primary target and we got him.
I’m not that hot on Fofana. The few times the guy played in a 4-3-3 he was an 8 rather than a 6 and he did play alongside the likes of Tchouaméni, Kanté, Camara,… which makes me think he isn’t the defensive profile who should aim for.
Samardzic would be great, but we will need to offload a midfielder from the squad.
I suppose we will have to deal with the fact that Royal is coming….
I’d have taken Morata and 100m DM personally….
Obviously the stable geniuses (multiple) in charge of our transfers have the number 6 as their unlucky number.
Except that we don’t have 100M€ in total let alone for a DM.
But I’m starting to think that our management doesn’t know what a defensive midfielder (a N°6) is.
By now do people on here really not get my tendency to exaggerate for dramatic effect?
Whatever we’re spending on Pavlovic + Fofana + Samardzic + Royal + The rest = Budget for a DM.
A profile like Pavlovic (a left footed CB) was specifically requested by the coach, plus we already lost Kjaer, Simic and perhaps we will sell Thiaw. I wasn’t for a CB prior, but we’ve lost enough CBs to justify a new one and we’re never too far away from an injury (we already lost Florenzi).
For Samardzic to come, we need to sell Adli and or Pobega, so I don’t think he is linked to the budget.
For what we could have spent on Fofana+Royal we could have gotten a good DM. Heck Hojbjerg would have costen us less than Fofana.
Is the left foot the thing that makes you think he’s got different characteristics to Gabbia?
You know some of/most of the best CB partnerships in history were both right footed!
(I also find it amusing when commentators freak out about two left footed CBs)
A good CB pairing is Pace + Positioning (and 50 plus games together).
Tomori provides the Pace + Gabbia provides the positioning.
Kalulu should be our back up RB and CB (and if possible LB) so he gets about 40+ games next season swapping seamlessly for the others.
Simic could be a 4th choice CB.
We’d have a tight back four of:
Calabria Gabbia Tomori Theo
with Kalulu covering, plus Simic and Bartesaghi and Florenzi to return.
“You know some of/most of the best CB partnerships in history were both right footed!”
Yes but that was a different era. Now defense is less about defending and more about building-up or whatever crap.
We’ve lost Simic as 4th choice CB, so getting a new CB isn’t irrational, and if we want a new CB, there is no reason not to aim for a good one.
“Simic could be a 4th choice CB.”
Who? You mean the ANDERLECHT player????? There are no Simices in Milan.
Thanks Gabbia for all your service.
There was the briefest moment where the club was forced to back you (albeit for some unknown reason Pioli kept resting and subbing you off) but alas it’s now time to bring in your replacement who will replace in a few years with another replacement to replace the replacement of the replacement of the replacement.
This comment is so absurd i can’t even come up with a proper response.
What’s absurd is people not understanding that football teams can only play with 11 players (or learn anything whatsoever from the last 15 seasons).
What’s absurd is accepting our defense from last season and passing up on Pavlovic. A high quality defender with significant experience who is also young. Pavlovic isn’t going to cost Gabbia. Thiaw is the one that is looking to exit. And we already lost Kjaer.
We need a DM.
Our defence played last season with nobody in front of them.
And then half the time Calabria and Theo weren’t even in position because of the stupid inverted full back thing.
We are about 50 games behind having an established CB pairing ready to compete against the best teams in the world.
Every time we change our mind about our CB pairing (or suffer injuries) we basically just thread water not improving.
Really Tomori and Kalulu (the Scudetto winning pair) should’ve been the answer for the past 3 years but injuries denied that.
Thiaw also disrupted that pair and it’s not clear if we benefited much.
Gabbia was our best CB last season and he’s just been rewarded with a season on the bench (before being sold next season).
We have seen this happen so many times now I really don’t get why people are struggling to see a familiar pattern.
Do you see Gabbia as our first choice CB pairing next season yes or no?
Right, if we sell Thiaw we have 4 CBs and are in 3 competitions. He’s so dumb, very emotional, low-teste individual.
Do you honestly believe Gabbia has a future at the club?
He had just established himself as a starter and now we’ve signed an obvious starter with the exact same characteristics.
How many CBs have we been through in the past 15 years?
What do so many people on here refuse to learn from very recent history?
If you think Pavlovic and Gabbia have similar characteristics, you’re even more ridiculous then I thought. They aren’t similar.
What are you even smoking? Gabbia isn’t leaving.
Not this season.
He has a whole season wasting on the bench before we can sell him next summer.
Honestly we have been through about 20 CBs in the past 10 seasons. This is like Groundhog Day.
I think they’ve missed your point and I believe there’s some truth to it. It sucks for Gabbia. With Pav he gets relegated to backup even though imo as it stands rn it should be Gabbia starting alongside Tomori. The club likes to only use ppl when it’s convenient to them/in a pinch and discard afterwards
I do agree with this, but on the other hand with so many of of central defenders gone (Kjaer, Simic and possibly Thiaw) just having Tomori, Gabbia and Kalulu isn’t reassuring enough. Plus Kalulu might also play as a right back now that Florenzi is injured.
And speaking of injuries, we’re never too far from those, and I don’t really want to see Theo as a CB again.
Getting a new centerback does seem to make sense in this context and if we were to get a new centerback, there is no reason not go for a reasonably good one.
It might suck for Gabbia, but he can still fight for a starting place. Fonseca isn’t Pioli and maybe he’ll be less stubborn and give more chances to our youths.
I also agree with you Giga to an extent. But I also wonder if we were over stacked last year notwithstanding the injury crisis. We really didn’t need 6 centrebacks. We currently would have Tomori, Gabbia, Thiaw, Kalulu and now Pav which to me is overkill. But let’s say Kalulu is emergency and that leaves us with 4 which to me is adequate. I also see why Simic and Nsiala left. There’d be no space for them. And when emergency strikes they didn’t use them. Theo should have never played CB, Simic should.
However I believe it might mean the end for Thiaw as Pav is similar to his prototype in terms of physique but without the pace.
Of course they have because they feel obligated to defend the transfers!
It’s worse than this.
We still have not got an established CB pairing. It’s been, what, 20 years since we had a CB pairing that played together for more than one season: Nesta and Maldini.
Then we signed Stam and broke up that CB pairing and have struggled ever since.
In the meantime:
Bonucci and Chiellini played over 200 games together
Ramos and Pepe had over 250 games together
And Pepe and Bonucci were awful defenders.
But it didn’t matter.
They played so many games together they could finish each others sentences.
Every time we press the restart – which has been nearly every season for 20 seasons – we are starting 50 or so games behind the teams we’re trying to catch up with.
That’s what’s so infuriating.
It’s like we’re stuck in quick sand.
Yes, individuality and co existing are two different things. I’m glad you brought up the Stam comparison because not alot ppl here (cough cough) were around to recall those moments in particular. Stam and Nesta just did not gel well in-game. Maldini and Nesta was by far the better pairing in terms of chemistry, but can’t leave Stam on the bench right? On paper the backline looked phenomenal (the ol’ Cafu, Nesta, Stam, Maldini) but thats because ppl are thinking in individual terms. But in reality the CB pairing was an issue throughout the season. Yes they brought us to the UCL final but going into the following season Ancelotti was working on switching it up and tried to accomodate Maldini and Kaladze as either 3 at the back or as partnering Nesta who at the time was undoubtedly the best defender in the world so he gets first dibs. That following season Kaladze was paired more with Nesta than Stam did and even that chemistry was better than the latter. (Probably because they were both aggressors while Kaladze and Maldini tended to hold back).
Playing time together is a heck of a thing. It takes a long time to develop, even Nesta and Maldini. There doesn’t seem to be enough patience around management when it comes to these things. Maybe because theres either no experience in terms of sport or a proper director who understands how to build a team. It would take Pav maybe an entire season to gel or if he works out immediately then kudos. But if I were a betting man…
That’s exactly my take on the Stam transfer.
It’s not about patience or money or logic.
The modern transfer system has become THE SPORT. The football is secondary to it.
No other sport is like this including ones with transfers.
We don’t see turnover like this in either rugby disciplines or the US sports. It’s uniquely a football thing.
And people get so defensive when I criticise the SYSYEM.
Sure I’m in a broken, sarky record but the responses I get are hilarious!
So much anger!
Milan is looking like what I want to see in defence, reduce the midfield by two and add two top quality midfielders, and please add an attacking striker not a pure 9, but a striker whose skills and hold up play speaks more volume than his goal prowess and we are good to go!!! Most of all keep Alexis
Mediocre player from mediocre national team
Instead Buongorno we decide to save money accepted lack of quailty