Tuttosport: Why Pioli blocked Singo operation despite Moncada’s approval

By Oliver Fisher -

Stefano Pioli has rejected the potential of signing Wilfried Singo from Torino for one key reason, according to a report.

According to this morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan), there have been talks between the Milan management and their Torino counterparts Urbano Cairo and Davide Vagnati over a deal for Singo.

More specifically, the Ivorian was brought up as part of talks that would have seen Junior Messias go the other way, given that he is a target for Torino head coach Ivan Jurić as he wants a winger.

Milan CEO Giorgio Furlani and chief scout Geoffrey Moncada were intrigued by the idea of ​​signing Singo because he is young, has good potential, great physical strength and counts as a home-grown player.

Torino and Milan had also found an agreement on the figures, with Messias valued at €4m plus €8m in cash to reach Cairo’s demands of €12m for the right-back.

Pioli, however, made it clear that he does not want Singo. He sees the 22-year-old as a wing-back and he intends to use a back four, where Milan already have two more natural right-backs in Davide Calabria and Alessandro Florenzi, plus Pierre Kalulu who can fill in.

Pioli wants a deputy to Theo Hernandez if the management are to sign another full-back and thus they dropped the Singo operation, while Torino have now gone cold on Messias too.

Tags AC Milan Wilfried Singo

36 Comments

  1. Good, isolated the deal would have been sweet but especially with FB it is important that Pioli approves since he uses them in a very progressive way.

    1. Both Calabria and Florenzi are both injury prone and Calabria is in fact injured. So it is a bit of a concern. But I do think Pioli had a point about Singo being more a wingback.

        1. Bring Simic into the team as CB and Kalulu to be 1st choice right back, seems simple enough why convolute matters for no reason whatsoever

          1. Because Pioli is an idiot. Simple as that
            Having WB could help in changing/putting more pressure on opponents. With 2 solid Back. Deep laying midfielder should be the way to balance Milan backyard not that mishmash thinking to attack then conced next min. That’s exactly what has been happing in most games milan n played under that moron

        2. PPPPPPFFFFF. Calabria is the best right back in serie a. Or at least top 3..
          Rubbish are the fans who cant see that

          1. Calabria best right back? Is a joke, insnt’it? How many goals concedet are on his fault? To many… . When he start playing for milan he was much better but now is a a weak leak. One good game and four five with to many mistake.

  2. Good news, cause still we can use Calabria and Kalulu needs space to more grow.
    Messias now obviously realise that he doesn’t have space to play and that must accept any offer that possible can arrive from maybe Turkish club. With 4mil to 7 mil for him Milan would covered the money invested in him.

    Good sign is that manager want new LB. That would open eyes Ballo Toure for his departure also.

  3. If this is true, so Saelemaekers will leave for sure.
    I thought Saelemaekers will be Calabria’s Deputy and Florenzi will be Theo’s Deputy.

    And about Kalulu, he can be the best first-team cover because he can play anywhere at back. He will stay.

  4. This isn’t an issue at all.
    No need to buy for the sake of just buying.
    Good call Mister. We have other areas to fill up.
    I’m happy with the window SO FAR! They can still do more💪🏿💪🏿
    The ball will be in Pioli’s court after this. No excuses.
    I’ve got a feeling we’ll eventually go back to 4231 but I don’t care what formation we play as long as we get 3 points.
    Forza Milan

  5. I get it that we have Calabria and Florenzi, but one is already injured (Calabria) and Florenzi is not in great form at all.

    I guess Pioli had in mind converting Kalulu into a RB.

    Which means we may want to sign another CB at least.

    1. Just this season he spoke rejected player. It is better if he do that faster before ACM signing adili,origi ,cdk

    2. I think he probably has always spoken up. The issue is whether management listened. Obviously M&M didn’t really care what Pioli had to say, as they were bent on bringing in players they fancied without taking Pioli’s opinion into account. Now we have a set of managers who are collaborating with the coach.

      1. In my opinion, the biggest issue is having good players so that after Pioli gets sacked the new manager has good parts to adapt with.

        Pioli is a mediocre manager at best. He’s a good motivator but he lacks the tactical skills needed at the highest level.

      2. While I could buy that story Vero at the same time we dont know that actually happened. It could very well be the case he approved of players, got them and then found them to not be what he expected and then ended up not using them thereby frustrating said M&M in the stands who must have wondered that they just went out of their way to get a player for him that he doesn’t use correctly (hence the rumours of firing him and bringing in someone else). There are many storylines 😁

  6. Wait, so he’s rejecting Singo because he has Florenzi?! That’s a joke, right? Kalulu and Davide have both been inconsistent. Why not offload Grandpa Flo and bring in Singo? By the looks of it, Kalulu will be needed in Central D.

  7. Dingo is a beast going forward, I hope Milan gets him, because Calabria and Florenzi ain’t always fit, one should be sold.

  8. I think it’s a bad decision. Could have added a young attacking RB with experience in the league with room to develop and higher resale value, at a decent cost while offloading dead weight in Messias at a good value (4M) and dump his salary. Love Calabria he is a warrior but is too limited offensively and he has been hurt (groin) more often than you would like to see. A Singo/Chukwueze combo on the right opposite Theo/Leao on the left would have been devastating. Hope we can add another RB and are not relying on Calabria/Florenzi all season – injuries and lack of offensive capabilities should be a big concern. Yes Kalulu can play RB but then we are really thin at CB – Kajervis 34-3M and Simic is a 5th choice and Pioli doesn’t see Kalulu as a RB. So maybe we are looking at another profile. We shall see.

    1. I think you raise a good point on the surface, but there is such a thing as having a too offensive minded lineup. We aren’t Barcelona 2008-12. We’re going from our offense basically being Leao, Theo and maybe Giroud to Leao, Theo, Giroud, Pulisic, Chukwueze and two CMs who are better known for their play going forward than their defense in Reijnders and RLC. It may be better to have have a defensive minded RB so that there’s somebody home in addition to the centerbacks when Theo’s gone walkbout.

      1. I understand your concern. Don’t want to just be offensive team – so we must be careful. But I also think that assumes Singo cannot be taught to defend. A player can be taught how to defend but cannot be taught offense – you either have the offensive talent or you don’t. Similar to Theo who was terrible defensively when he first came but he learned how to defend and now look he’s the best LB in the world. Not saying Singo is Theo but you understand the point. If Pioli is the “master” at developing talent as Ownership have said – then he should be able to develop a physically imposing offensive player in Singo to: a) learn how to defend and: b) learn how to play in a back 4. In addition, Pioli stressed the need for versatility. Well what better than to have a player capable of playing Wing-back in a 3-5-2-1 – a formation we used last season when it served us. Aside from Singo we also dump Messias (4M valuation) to avoid a capital loss. Now we are lucky to get 1M from Turkey for him and will lose $$$. It was a great deal by Moncada/Furlani and no reason not to do it IMO. So respectfully I think it was a bad decision by Pioli. Hope we can get someone else for RB instead because for now it looks like Calabria/Florenzi/Salesmakers rotation.

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