The AC Milan management are working on strengthening the attack in January and there are a couple of options that stand out at the moment: Serhou Guirassy of Stuttgart and Jonathan David of Lille.
According to Sky, Milan have been scouting Guirassy for some time and watched him in Stuttgart’s 2-0 DFB-Pokal win over Borussia Dortmund, in which he scored the first goal and left a positive impression.
There were doubts about the ‘magical’ year that the Guinean striker is having given that he is on 18 goals across all competitions out of nowhere (given his previous scoring record), but Milan are convincing themselves that it is not a flash in the pan.
If Milan have warmed to the idea, they need to convince Guirassy too who several doubts about moving in January. In his contract with Stuttgart there is a clause worth €17.5m, and new contacts are expected with the player’s agents who are waiting for feedback from Milan to start a real negotiation.
It has therefore become a two-horse race with the other objective to strengthen the attack: Jonathan David. Lille consider him untransferable in January, but not next summer given that his contract expires in June 2025 and is unlikely to be renewed.
That’s why his price is going down from the €60m requested last summer to around €40m now, a figure more in line with RedBird Capital’s plans.
David isn’t worth 40 should be around 20 otherwise they should keep him.
They rly should go with Guirassy the guy is a goal hunter like Harland trust me. Striker in his DNA. Also has some impressive passing qualitys up front.
Pavlidis is the one
Both these targets are unproven beyond a single season high…
Milan needs the league, and this guy will help Milan mount a serious challenge for it, if they can get him in January. Milan needs the league to boost their revenues, and image. David can still come in the summer, while we allow Jovic to move on. Milan needs to start planning for the future, and these two guys will improve our attack. These two will not cost us as much as some of the players we have bought. We don’t have to wait for other clubs to flock around before making the right move.
Perception is a funny thing.
No doubt that 16 goals from 11 appearances cannot be assumed to be sustainable.
But Serhou Guirassy’s records of the previous 2 seasons actually stacks up quite well if you scratch the surface.
In 21/22 he made 48 appearances across all competitions for a total of 1,553 minutes, which equates to an average of 32 minutes per appearance (this drops to 26 minutes per 37 league appearances made). He scored 12 goals with 3 assists which is a goal contribution every 104 minutes. That’s a very good rate for goal contributions off the bench.
In 22/23 he made 29 appearances across all competitions with an average length of appearance of 70 minutes. He scored 14 goals with 2 assists which equates to a goal contribution every 127 minutes.
If this is going to cost about 20m Euros, I see no downside. He’s a much better profile for the way Milan plays than David with a solid record (which is what David’s record is if you take out the 10 penalties) who has potentially caught fire as a bit of a late bloomer . He seems to me something like Mbala Nzola as a style of player which I like.