AC Milan will continue the Futuro project, regardless of the relegation to Serie D, it seems. However, the idea may change slightly.
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The will of the management is clear: the investment of approximately €15 million in the first year cannot be abandoned. For this reason, talks are underway between the club, the coach Massimo Oddo and the senior advisor Mauro Tassotti.
Optimism filters through for the permanence of both, with the sporting director, Jovan Kirovski, already confirmed. The line is drawn: continue to grow young talent, despite the hard sporting blow of relegation.
The drop’s impact
After the defeat in the playout against SPAL, technical director Geoffrey Moncada downplayed the impact of the relegation.
“Playing in B, C, or D is not that important for us. For us, it is important to create talent, create players.”
A legitimate attempt to save the sense of the project, but which had raised more than one doubt. The difference between a professional category like Serie C and an amateur one like Serie D is not debatable: everything changes, from the level of the opponents to individual growth.
However, we can actually look at the Barcelona line of talent, where the B team’s position is not important. As a report stated previously, the framework will change, but the actual idea remains the same.
Like it was last summer, the goal continues to encourage youth improvement and development – which it did, look at Alex Jimenez, Mattia Liberali and Davide Bartesaghi – and probably prioritises that more, over sporting performance.
So, in a way, Moncada is actually right with this. The goal is not to create a competitive team in Serie B, C or D, but rather to create a platform for competitive players to continue to grow towards the first team or reassessment.
Real minutes needed
The most striking case concerns Francesco Camarda and Kevin Zeroli, two of the brightest prospects of the Rossoneri youth sector. Both are looking at a season on loan, likely in Serie B, where they can find space and continuity.
For Camarda, author of 235 minutes in the first team last season, and for Zeroli (12 minutes before moving to Monza), Serie D does not represent a training context up to par. Playing time, as always, will be the key to their evolution.
So, the midfielder’s move to Monza makes perfect sense, continuity (and probably importance) in familiar settings. Then, Camarda has Serie B suitors, as well as Lecce. A loan is almost definite after renewal talks.
What would have changed with salvation?
The failure to stay up has interrupted a virtuous path that was just emerging. If Milan Futuro had remained in Serie C, perhaps Camarda and Zeroli would have remained in Rossoneri, gradually accompanied towards the first team.
Now, instead, they will opt for a ‘classic’ path, that of a targeted loan to professional clubs, a path already taken by many other top European clubs without second teams.
Perhaps, the moves for Alex Castiello, as reported earlier this month, and Kevin Pasalic, who is also targeted by Roma, would not be as pressing.
However, Igli Tare’s ideas are clear. He wants to build around the future, and this showed before he even took the job. For him, it is vital to mix the current and the future, and the Futuro still provides a bridge for the brightest, regardless of its position in the footballing pyramid.
