Sky journalist Manuele Baiocchini has spoken about the planning phase that AC Milan are currently going through with Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading, and the idea that a big sale could occur this summer.
Milan have found themselves in the strange and rather glum position whereby the season is effectively over in terms of objectives to fight for, after the defeat to Roma in the Europa League and the derby loss against Inter on Monday.
It is now being widely reported that Stefano Pioli will not be the head coach for next season and that a replacement is being sought by the management group, but in the meantime there are still five games to play.
Speaking from Milanello on Sky (via Radio Rossonera), Baiocchini talked about about the presence of Ibrahimovic and the arrival of Cardinale to discuss Milan’s summer plans.
“Ibrahimovic was also present at training this morning, a link between the present and the future, for which there will be a very clear plan with the arrival of Cardinale to discuss together the indications on the next head coach of Milan,” he said.
“But also on the players who will leave, who are doubts, and those who will arrive. And it will probably be another revolution. As for the players whose contract is expiring, certainly many will leave Milan, from Mirante to Kjaer, through Giroud and with the uncertainty of Jovic.”
Sky then showed a graphic which had Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez, Ismael Bennacer and Rafael Leao on, suggesting they are candidates to be sold.
“The Tonali case teaches us that this club is also available to sell if large offers arrive. Maybe to then improve and strengthen with different players,” Baiocchini added.
I would wait to see what a better coach has to offer and how the players develop under him before deciding who to cut loose…
Example: Bennacer can’t go from stellar to subpar in one season. He’s still a good player that developed under Pioli and started dropping under him too. Same with the rest of the team.
That argument goes both ways though. The question is not only if our paper strength is 17 points worse than Inter, but also if we are 14-20 better than the likes of Roma to Napoli.
I think we can safely say that the big games haven’t been it this season, but overall performance is a different animal. Napoli have Osimhen and Kvara among others and are now at their 3rd coach, who is still worse than Garcia who they thought underachieved.
Same time firing Mou has made Roma come alive.
Complicated way to say that the coach impact is not really calculable and that the players should be judged individually first.
“Bennacer can’t go from stellar to subpar in one season.”
He can and he did. People have been saying Kjaer hasn’t been any good since his surgery. Who says Benny will return to his best form? He was 1 000 000 miles from that guy before his surgery this season. It’s 50/50 whether he’ll stay on his current level or get better. It’s far easier to get worse than better.