AC Milan need a win today against Lecce, but it seems that the focus could be elsewhere for some, with the mercato still open.
There is a need for Milan to focus on tonight’s game, but with the mercato closing soon, the Rossoneri need to continue to consider potential deals. Christopher Nkunku seems like he will not be the only arrival late on, with talks ongoing for Manuel Akanji.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
It also seems like the Frenchman may not be the only forward to arrive in the final days. Recently, the idea of a swap with AS Roma, concerning Artem Dovbyk, has been considered, and it would see Santiago Gimenez leave the club.
However, Massimiliano Allegri has still chosen to play the striker in tonight’s fixture. Though, it could be his last game for the Rossoneri, despite joining only in January.
Gimenez may leave?
Ahead of the game, Igli Tare spoke to Sky about the final situations to solve, and the game, as MilanNews relays.
Nkunku has arrived, where does he fit in?
“The hardest thing, as always, is making the right choice. He’s always been on our radar, and we tried to complete the attacking lineup, especially after Rafa’s injury. We saw a lack of pace, which is why we considered making this move. Up until three or four days ago, it wasn’t possible because the costs were completely different. Then we took advantage of the situation he had with Chelsea, and we were able to close the deal.”
Is the attack complete? Can Dovbyk replace Gimenez?
“Numerically, as we stand now, I think so. However, we’re also evaluating the alternative of a swap deal with Gimenez: we’ll know if that’s feasible after the match. Keeping them together? It won’t be possible. Playing one game a week, we need to have the right squad: only in the event of a swap deal, otherwise we’ll stay as we are.”
Did you get a response from Akanji?
“Not yet, but this change in formation in the last few days has put us in a bit of difficulty: we need to be good in the last 72 hours to bring in an experienced player: Akanji has that and also has the quality to play for AC Milan.”
AC Milan’s defence: what’s the problem?
“We also analysed it carefully with Max three months ago, and now, looking at the two goals we conceded against Cremonese, we’re back to last year, where the goals we conceded were the result of carelessness and marking. That’s why we decided to make this change to the formation to give the team more confidence and security.”
How surprised were you by your debut?
“Shocked? Traumatized. A result like that. It’s been a nightmare week: we have to win because winning gives us peace of mind and confidence. We have to be good because AC Milan fans deserve a competitive team. The club has put us in a position to complete the squad: we have to be good and humble. Tonight we have to win at all costs.”
Is Musah staying?
“We’ll evaluate it after the match. We have an agreement with Atalanta, but Jashari’s injury has complicated the situation: the decision will be made tomorrow.”
The sporting director also spoke to DAZN, as MilanNews relays.
On the defeat against Cremonese…
“We’ve had a tough week, full of tension and anger. Today, we’ll have to be good at getting back to winning ways because it’s crucial to our path. If you look at Milan last year, we made similar mistakes against Cremonese. Today, it will be crucial to play a more focused game.”
On the market and on Nkunku…
“He’s a modern centre forward capable of playing in all attacking positions. He’s a strong player who can bring more pace and unpredictability to the team. We’ll definitely sign a central defender. Musah? We’ll decide between tomorrow and the day after for the good of the team and especially the boy.”
Maybe less is more. Openly declaring giminez isn’t preferred and slamming the coach, tactics and defence. It doesn’t come across well. There’s a crack and it’s already out in full view.
Sorry but is it normal for the sporting director to tell the media everything they plan to do with the team including the future of players?
No player should deserve to have their name out in the public being told on where they are being moved and why, then still having to play with “passion” the same day.
What a joke. Really.
Nice timing pushing Gimenez out just before the match👌
Couldn’t wait 90 minutes or 3 days even
Worst sport director Milan had, ever. Even worse than an empty position last year. He should quit the job after this interview. He is a glorified sales manager, that is it.
@Sure
Yes he is in deed, Tare has done in 3 months more the. Others in 3 years. Besides we get old oeople like Modric Playing for us, and getting rid of Gimenez who has been scoring all goals. I also think it is his fault not to know Jashari was going to get injured, and now he is so pissed at Gimrnez that he want to get rid of him.
Ehat a guy eh?
@Sure, are gou looking for a job? I can speak to Gerry for you, put in a good word for you
Ok re*ard. So the fact that Modric was a Milan fan since childhood and out of contract has nothing to do with that? Tare set that up? 🤣🤣 Glorified sales manager.
And no, I am not looking for a job, my days of working for someone were a few years after college to save enough money to open my own business.
Don’t have a need to work for anyone. Leave your witty sarcasm for Tare, he’ll appreciate you defending him like that. Maybe send him a screenshot of this, he might hire you.
I don’t think anyone here signed up for a deep dive into your private life. The sarcasm part you understood; decent, I’ll give you that—but the oversharing? A bit much. Who knows, maybe I am Tare in person.
Some people, like you, prefer endless chatter. Others let results and facts do the talking. Pity they didn’t cover that part in your college curriculum.
Anyone can understand what you meant, don’t flatter yourself. Which facts? You didn’t state a single fact. You let results and facts to the talking without actually providing facts? That is brilliant. Also from what I understand Tare just talked in public, instead of letting the results and facts do the talking? Right? 😀
Really, what the actual ffff is going on here?!?! Openly saying right before the match Gimenez is not wanted and needs to go, Allegri changed the planned for the season formation, carelessness in defense. Not sure who will leave the ship first, my bet is on Tare.
This guy is doing a good job.
Telling people to their face they are not welcomed.
Gone are the days of just hanging around and not delivering.
You clearly don’t work in management.
That’s not how you approach these things. Say whatever you want in private. Then in public support the team. It’s not only professional, it’s also classy. This ain’t a small or mediocre club like Lazio. Now all teams know we want Giminez to go….how does that help us fetch a good price for him …if that’s was the objective. Not to mention you have an unhappy or affected player who could very well choose to stay and run out his contract because you spoke out of turn.
This is plain amateur hour by Tare.
He is not running an office. He needs Gimenez’s manager to start looking and he needs those Arab money to know if is willing to take it.
I’m a direct manager for 25 employees in a team of 75 people in a company with 700 employees. So i do know a thing or two about human behaviour and management and the need to get rid of the rotten apples sometimes in order to save the rest.
Our beloved club have for a long time been used by players and their managers.
Tare needs to make an example otherwise we will have 20 Orrigi’s in our team.
You think other clubs are classy when it comes to money??? Look at psg and donnarumma, look at Newcastle and Alexander Isak this transfer window. Trust me its normal, when we get on the other side of this transfer window, players will have more respect for the club and our colours.
We are not talking about your call center agents that are ruining your team’s KPIs (pls let me know how close to reality is this).
You can deliver whatever the message is without causing a storm. He effectively and completely unnecessarily 1) told a starting player before the match he is not needed; 2) said our starting defense is terrible; 3) confirmed there is 0 alignment with the coach; 4) blamed everyone else that we spent the whole summer building a team we will not use.
It may be all true but it shows your weaknesses as a sporting director and the public statement can only ruin the team’s atmosphere. What are all the newcomers thinking when the director says they bought the wrong profiles…
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yes, saying publicly the fee is agreed but you’ll see if you’ll sell the player is amazing. Why didn’t others come up with that? Atalanta is super happy. What kind of company is it? Which industry? I’m sure it is a great comparison, can’t wait to hear.
I want to believe it’s a translation problem and that this man didn’t actually say this. Wow!
Swap Gimenez for Dobvyk you are dump.
Both not good but Gimenez is better twice then this Dobvyk. Also Gimenez not have chainces because we not have players wjo will make to him.
I hope he not agree go. He need stay here and if you dont like him,he just need training for himself.
This Tare and managment is totaly idiots.
Let see tonight Camarda when score and when we draw or lose.
With Tare and this managment we are midle club and that is. When i see you bring great players( if posible not at 40 years) then we can talk about great Milan.
Today is sad watching Gabbia and others players( exept Leao,Maignan,Pulisic and Modric) at this club.We not better then Lecce
Tare, you are such an embarrassment. Just quit the job, please. I have never heard a sporting director talk such rubbish in the media. Musah, maybe, we’ll see. This is more embarrassing than any “banter era” ever. I don believe what I have just read.
Too much information. Plus the timing is absolutely horrible considering Santi is our only option up front. What’s the point of telling the world he probably won’t play for us in the next week minutes before he takes to the pitch for us?
Did he actually say he want to see if Giminez – Dobvyk swap was possible? Out loud? Bro let his intrusive thoughts win or he still thinks he’s at a small club or both. Insane. He still cooking right?
He is a literal re*ard. I have been critical of him because I had a feeling about him and I was right. He is also a piece of sh*t.
After this match he’ll be sure as hell to let Musah go. On the other hand, it might be Atalanta who’ll pull off the deal lol.
You had three months and made 200M in sales, yet still cant give the coach what he wants. Now whats with these amateur hour comments? Not something we expect to hear from a seasoned director.
1. So Nkunku was solely here because the opportunity arised itself, not based on the character that we need
2. If Dovbyk can’t exist together with Gimenez, why did we approach Hojlund? And they also said they needed a Giroud-like striker. So the plan was to get rid off Gimenez all along?
3. Jashari issue is not related to Musah. Different characteristic, different position. Musah was also mostly used as wing back by Allegri
4. You don’t need to intervene as far as formation, let the coach do his job peacefully
5. The press should ask him about the Boniface fiasco as well, as it was a pure amateur move
5. The CB issue was the only thing he got right
Nkunku came cause Okafor left and Chukwueze is next.
Musah wing-back role, pushed Jimenez out… not a bad performance for once.
Gimenez is blind… 2-3 chances wasted in first half… defending that guy is insane. how is he better than Dovbyk? At least the Ukranian performed in LaLiga and not Dutch league, where Santi was good but still worse statistically than the Ukranian in Spain… (funnily enough Santi’s mom is also Ukranian)
[Dovbyk: 32 games – 23G/8A; (At Roma: 45 games – 17/4)
Santi: 105 games – 65G/14A; (with us: 21 games – 6/4)]
I think n9 will come, he just can’t make it that obvious. I think Vlahovic will come after Akanji.
Again, Okafor and Chuk were never our regular starting eleven. It will be impossible to imagine that 40 mil player will be just a rotational player. It’s not like Leao will be out for months.
Jimenez is not correlated with Musah as he can cover both sides and mostly used in left by Allegri. His transfer is more towards economical value, with that buy back clause from Madrid and what not.
I critized Gimenez a lot. But to put your player under the bus like that is just amateur. Just like the Boniface case.
Nkunku is our new ‘no 9’. Juve SD already said that Vlahovic will 99% stay at Juve. Suprising? Not really. As he still deliver goal after goal for ‘em.
again?
Okafor was SS during friendlies… maybe watch games, than just checking flashscore
Musah staying is cause of Allegri’s preference and if he leaves we have no wingbacks after losing Jimenez (Alexis, Estupinan, Athekame, now Musah as well)… the 25M that they wanted to collect will come from his sale and not from Yank’s
Gimenez was worst player today along with RLC, who at least scored…
Nkunku isn’t n9… SS sure but not n9, that’s why even though he said no additional signings, he’s not really insane to give them his actual plans… he said Giroud-esque, we will go for classical n9, cause even if Gimenez stays we don’t have many attackers…
I said ‘again’ because several members here repeatedly saying that Nkunku was a replacement for Chuk and Noah, which he is not. As he’ll be our regular starting eleven, one position or another.
Yes, that’s why I put ‘no 9’. It’s hard to see another attacker comes, as we need to offload Gimenez first and we’re already approaching the end of the window.
Do you even check your own stats?
“how is he better than Dovbyk? ”
Well check your own stats for the two in the same league:
“[Dovbyk: 32 games – 23G/8A; (At Roma: 45 games – 17/4)
Santi: 105 games – 65G/14A; (with us: 21 games – 6/4)]”
So that’s Dov 21 goal contributions over 45 games or 0.47 per game
And for Santi: 10 GC over 21 games or 0.48
Santi’s better by your own stats 😂🤷♂️
1%… that’s such a confidence boost to us all…
my point is that during their careers if you take into account other seasons as well, Dovbyk is in general better due to his success in harder league not Dutch farmer’s league
Just admit your math is below basic level. We can all see that.
Sure crawl back to your hole… you are delivery guy at best
King you can’t do basic math. I’d hire you out of pity but I don’t know what could you do. Can you do chat support? I need agents for my business.
I know, you can be an affiliate for my business and bring in customers, you could probably do that, it just depends from where you are. Let me know so I can hire you. I know your dream is to work for me.
Tare if you my director you never see me score for you,olso i will not go anyware.
Play golf like Bale
Totaly idiot is Tare
I said we should have kept Jovic. Gimenez is complete failure that we paid 35 million. We got Jovic for free and never gave him proper chance. Instead, portugeses coaches favoured Camarda and gave him all the possible minutes and his impact was 0 goals and 0 assists. Then they favoured Morata and Abraham. Jovic was our best striker. But he was mostly benched. Now everyone is sold and they are hunting some no name players like Harder and similar, danish leauge quality.
Everyone is mad at Tare because of the mercato, and they are right. But in terms of this interview? He is absolutely right. Losing to f’ing Cremonese, at san siro no less, is literally a nightmare. Nothing less. And everyone should be on their tows. Gimenez? Start scoring goals to shut everyone’s mouth, or get the hell out of here. If he can’t handle the pressure that is Milan, let him go play at Lecce.
100% except for blaming him for mercato…
garbage was taken out except for Tiji and soon Bennacer, Adli and Chukwueze will follow… only questionable signing he made was Athekame
Ricci, Jashari (unfortunate to lose him already for 2 months but will be key this season), Modric, Nkunku, (Akanji, N9 and maybe-maybe Rabiot)…. how can anyone call this a fail? not done yet… without the final 3 still solid 7-8… last season was 4
Estupinan looks shaky but quality is there, he needs to find balance between defense and offense.
forgot about deWinter
Akanji said no to Milan. Rabiot not coming.
The Sporting Director shouldn’t be talking about the coach’s formation. That’s not his role. And he threw Gimenez and Musah under the bus, minutes before they had a game to play. That’s amateur hour.
This was a huge disappointment. Tare is supposed to be an experienced DS. Allegri is A LOT classier in what he says to the press.
he said truth about Gimenez…
Akanji and Rabiot can happen… more on the Swiss-side who hasn’t said no yet…
Well he scored didn’t he? And he’s been Serie A best per 90 minute scorer since January….🤷♂️. But yea….
My bad, forgot was disallowed
Still though
Milan from top to the least is catastrophic…I’ve never seen things like this since my many years a Milan fan. This is way too funny. Milan what next?
@Baresis Dream This 100% true!
How can they be so disrespectful? It’s embarrassing.
Another clown in … 😂😂😂😂
Semua pemainnya di jual dan di pinjamkan. Santiago Jimenez kasih waktu bermain secara reguler,baru bermain selama 6 bulan. Tau-tau main dijual saja,minta manajemen nya untuk mengeluarkan dana besar untuk membeli pemai berkualitas. Kalau tidak mampu dan pelit memberikan subsidi,cardinale,furlani beserta jajarannya pergi dari kepemilikan MILAN dan dijual ke pengusaha yang memiliki modal besar
You must be fair to Santi G. How do you expect him to give his all with respect to this disrespect?
Is Jerry listening to this his employee? He will destroy your club if you don’t do something about it
He shouldnt have said that before the game however gimenez is really not making himself any favours piatek story all over again i really hope im wrong becouse i do like santi but he needs to start banging im goals i just dont see the hunger in him after the first few goals
Is it just me or does nkunku slot right in in a 4-2-3-1 ricci modric/jashari
Puli. Nkunku. Leao.
Whoever we get 😂
Back in June-Jul people were praising tare. ‘class act tk go tk Croatia take the bus for modric’. ‘how nice it is tk have a real director’. Fast forward to present day and they’re all bashing him for a horrible mercato after praising him. Why don’t we let the mercato finish first and see where we are after 10 games? Players have joined late and have had injuries and that’s why I’m even giving time to allegri. Do I think tare said a little too much even before a game? Yes, but I don’t think we need to go off the rails like we are. Give it 10 games before we start accusing…
Where are all the ppl who went crazy over Tare earlier in the summer
….this is what you guys were clamouring for? Lol
It was clear months ago Allegri doesn’t want Gimenez. He’s already been undermined, there’s no point in him staying. Although I’m annoyed about Nkunku, the mercato has been a huge success. Hopefully they can get the dud Musah out.
These statements are straight up bizarre by Tare… Wowza. This is behind the scenes talk, not press declarations. What is he doing?
This would be a masterclass if Tare can pull if off
apart for his ability to sold players.. I think he talks too much about his own kitchen.