Yet another report has claimed that AC Milan are on course for big changes in the summer transfer window, including the sale of three stars.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes this morning, Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao are experiencing their most complicated moment since they arrived at Milan, which has impacted the club’s fortunes overall.
Milan are out of the Champions League and seventh in the league, the kind of results that cause the seed of doubt spread not only among the fans, but also within the club. The directors are asking themselves, is it worth continuing together? Those in favour of ‘no’ are growing strongly.
A season of struggle
Stefano Pioli talked about in a recent interview how much Theo and Leao were able to impact, positively or negatively, the outcome of a match. This was certainly true during the 2021-22 Scudetto win and the run to the semi-finals of the Champions League the next season.
The problem is that in 2024-25 the matches in which the contribution of the left-sided duo was deficient far exceed those where they played like stars. Maignan meanwhile has had a big dip in form, making several previously uncharacteristic errors.
One of the hallmarks of Paulo Fonseca and now Sergio Conceiçao’s Milan sides is that they were betrayed by at least one of their stars. Whether it was Maignan letting an easy goal in, Theo’s madness or Leao’s constant apathy.
The last time the three lived up to their talent together? We need to go back to January 6th. Hernandez started the comeback against Inter with a great free kick, Maignan blocked Dumfries shot at 2-2, then Rafa set up Tammy Abraham for the winner. Result? A trophy.
The two roads
There are two roads. The first: find a way to get Maignan, Theo and Leao consistently back to the level of the title-winning season. It is easier said than done, at least seeing the failed attempts of Fonseca and Conceiçao so far.
The two Portuguese coaches reserved Pioli’s direction by being quite tough with the two outfield players in particular, yet it does not seem to have boosted consistency. It must also be noted that even towards then end of Pioli’s tenure Theo and Leao were faltering a bit too.
The second path is to sell the stars. It will be a painful decision given what they have brought and the level everyone knows they are capable of, but there are economic factors too. Maignan and Hernandez, for example, have contracts expiring in 2026.
For the goalkeeper, an extension agreement was found some time ago (€5m net per year until 2029, with the option for a further season together), but it is still not a guarantee that he will remain at Milan 100%.
For Theo, the negotiation for the renewal has instead stalled due to the horror performances of the Frenchman and it is unlikely that he will restart. Leao has a long contract (expires in 2028) and a €175m clause that is unlikely to be paid by anyone, but the club could accept less.
Okay so the most ‘expensive’ players are being blamed for failure… Lol
Do they know that they ARE the problem?
Cardinale, Scaroni, Furlani.
Which top club would hire Scaroni or Furlani now in Europe? Nobody.
Which top club would want Maignan or Leao, anyone!
You can see who are the problem.
Theo should be sold at all cost by the way
No, you can’t see who the problem is, you can’t see past your childish agenda against the owners. These players have been inconsistent under three coaches at Milan and for their national teams.
Look who can’t see past his idiotic agenda.
Leao and Theo were key players in the scudetto year.
The difference between now and then is simple, just remember when Spalletti attacked Leao during HT who replied to Spalletti, who was there next to the players and protected them.
The best fertilizer is the farmer’s footprint. It is as simple as that.
With a name like Cardinale out you can’t be calling out ppl for having an agenda
He has the correct agenda, however. The Redbird model is to spend zero and sell plenty. They’ll happily jog along using the Milan name for profit whilst the actual club itself never achieves more than qualification for UCL if they’re lucky, and not next year.
Yeah, Cardinale took the idiotic double yellow and Scaroni keeps making blunders between the posts. Furlani hasn’t scored in ages. Yes. They are to blame here. Definitely not the best-paid players who are performing worse than the 20-year-old Jimenez. 🙂
Just to remind you, Leao was the MVP of the scudetto year and Theo was one of the best left backs in the world that year.
Look at Napoli, Spalletti turned there squad into stars then what happened when he left. Rudi Garcia turned them into trash. Then look at them now with Conte.
You can’t deny Leao and Theo’s talent, they have a scudetto to prove it. But you have tons of examples of great players who wasted their talent due to bad management decisions and this is exactly what is happening in Milan.
Leao Théo and Mike have both been steadily regressing since the Scudetto season under the same coach using the same tactics. They have all been hugely inconsistent.
Poor motivation under three different coaches?
What is the definition of “best leftback”? Because even in his best season with us, Theo did not hold a candle to Maldini. A left back is a DEFENDER first. Theo has never been great at defense, even if he has improved since he arrived. Theo’s entire “thing” is pace and being an attacking threat. That has evaporated this year. He regularly gets beat for pace and he doesn’t register in attack much anymore.
His discipline has always been terrible. This guy is supposed to be Maldini’s heir. Do you know how many straight reds Maldini received in his entire career? Three. THREE straight reds in 24 seasons as a professional, and at a time when tackles were tackles. Further, he was NEVER yellow carded twice in a game. Just let that sink in. 94 total yellow cards in 24 seasons. Meanwhile, in 9.5 professional seasons, Theo “Scudetto MVP” Hernandez has 77 yellows, 4 second yellows, and 6 red cards. These things affect your game. When you take a yellow in the 20th minute of a game, the remaining 70 mins are conditioned. When you get ejected, your team plays a man down and then you’re not available for at least another game.
You also forget that the scudetto team had a midfield of Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer. All three could play DM. The current defense does not have a proper screen.
Well said. I agree 100 percent with your take on this issue. This inconsistent started under Pioli and couldn’t effectively motivated them. This current situation no coach can fix it right away without making big call and sacrifice
Management has to take some responsibility to this given that they never properly replaced M&M.
It’s the management to blame
🙂
No one in the top flight would want Maignan or Leao.
Especially in the premier league.
They would both get drestroyed.
You can make the argument that these guys can be game changers for us, but that’s just it: CAN. Not will. More often than not, they are a shackle mote than a help. Leao only has about 10 good minutes in him per 4 matches, theo has become ungodly lazy and I capable of even doing his basic jobs right, and Mike is looking shakier than 2012 De Gea. On the qages these guys are demanding, they’ve been performing not even close to warrant it. They’re not even worth half their money demands atm. It’s sad but true, they look finished already
The way we emotional make decisions is not good enough, Becos of a season not going well . This news papers and propaganda. If they sell the trio they will either use the money to buy another trio they will put the whole burden of the club upon or spread it buying very averages just as they did with tonali. The question is want is the commitment of the management to bring quality players to the team irrespective of their cost. Its not coincidence madrid, Mancity , liverpool have been sucessful ov er the years. A proverb goes thus ” Soup that is sweet its money that made it”
This season is worse of it. Last season was the same under Pioli. It’s not a propaganda it’s just plain obvious
Sometimes a club needs to make these tough decisions, especially if a cycle has come to an end and the rot starts setting in. It is Unfortunate to lump Mike with these two players but the problem with Theo and Leao is mental, they just don’t seem to have the energy to apply themselves…their play is very mechanical, the joy is gone. In that case it is best for the club to sell and start all over again. My biggest criticism is Milan’s recruitment strategy where they will not attempt to get similar quality to replace those leaving and that could set the project back sometimes. Tough Times call for tough measures…
This club will be running a cycle every maximum 5 yrs with this management. Having Mike, Theo, Tomori and Leao from Scudetto-season will sadly be gone to this summer because of the insecurities this club have had these years. Look at Liverpool and Bayern for example, they have been having a core of players of at least 5-6 yrs and implemented some new players here and there, coaches with ideas as the club etc
Maybe stop blaming players dont start another cycle of empty buys and sells. How about we implement an actual style of play? All we do is play in a slow tempo with 0 idea of what to do with the ball. Maybe work on actual passing and tempo. It doesnt matter which players you buy or sell if you dont have an actual game plan.
Well… It seems every coach tries the “get the ball to the left side and hope Theao will deliver” -tactic. Too bad it hasn’t been working for over a year now.
Move them on. The narrative of relying on one or two players is a thorn in our side.
Since RedTurd took over two seasons ago, all we had were changes, overhauls and revolutions. And what have they achieved with this? Instead of being consistent, it got us struggling both domestically and in Europe. And it seems we’re in for more misery.
Maybe we should replace Leao with someone like Mitoma or Borja Sainz…
Paixao. Nico Williams.
This is just newspaper click bait
Who new that Red Bird will offload Balo Toure before official announcement by the club?
We’ve missed a proper DM for a while – last year we could have picked up Ao Tanaka for pennies but he went to Leeds Utd and is now undroppable – I thought these goons were good at Moneyball or whatever it is?
Keep all the stars and buy out Felix and Walker. Bring De Zerbi and bring a Sporting Director with couple of Scouts that know how to build a squad with a strong core of good Italian players. A Sporting Director that would have brought Ricci, Calafiori, Kayode, Casadei to Milan and not sell Tonali.
Sell Maignan if you can bring Donnarumma for free. Sell Tomori and bring Calafiori. Sell Emerson Flop, Terracciano and bring Kayode. Sell RLC and Musah and Bring Ricci and Tonali. Sell Chukweze and bring Bakayoko. Give back Abraham and Sottill bring back Colombo and bring Chiesa. Now you can play with 3 back line or 4 with this players.
This is possible with those sales and the money from loaned out players and Cardinale not being Cheapinale.
Maignan/Donnarumma
Walker Thiaw Calafiori Theo
Ricci Reijnders Tonali
Pulisic Gimenez Leao
Subs: Sportiello, Torriani, Kayode, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Jimenez, Casadei, Bondo, Felix, Bakayoko, Colombo, Chiesa
And against Lowblock teams or teams under 12th place in the table
Maignan/Donnarumma
Thiaw Gabbia Calafiori
Kayode Reijnders Tonali Jimenez
Bakayoko Gimenez Felix
Or
Maignan/Donnarumma
Kayode Gabbia Pavlovic Jimenez
Casadei Felix Bondo
Bakayoko Gimenez Chiesa
There is so many rotation options or tactics with this squad because it has footballing IQ which todays squad lacks and it has a strong Italian core that understand what Milan is and know how to defend as a unit.
Todays Milan
French
English Germany Serbian French
French Dutch
American Portuguese Portuguese
Mexican
Sub: GK: Italian, Italian,
Def: Brazilian, English, Italian, Spaniard,
Mid: Italian, French, English, American,
Att: Nigerian English Serbian Italian Italian.
So AC Milan from Italy has a Italian core of Sportiello, Torriani, Gabbia, Terracciano, Camarda and on loan Sottill.
This is why Milan are weak because its core is weak. It needs to be upgraded. Milans DNA is strong Italian core mixed with great foreign players.
U are speaking sense
I don’t agree with a lot of this. Donaruma is not very welcome in milan, walker is a experience pkayer at best, Felix is still in decline, calafiori is injury prone, sottil would be a good sub, chiesa will be impossible with wages, and tonali as well. I wouldn’t sell teraciano and musahl, even they aren’t the best they can still provide man to man coverage against better teams. Even tittle winning man utd had not so great players in their squad that had one job during certain matches(ie tom cleverly. Anderson, Niki butt,). I don’t believe we have a back three squad and it’ll mean a complete overhaul of players and maybe another year or two of Mid table until we get the right coach and everyone on the same page tactically and positionaly.
The answer for LM is already there… Saelemakers is playing a great game at Roma and is perfect for Conceicao’s system. Just hope they give Conceicao a season to implement his drill when egocentric Leao and Theo are gone. At this point in the season where every inch counts, even Sottil looked better than Leao
Bulls**t this management
An overhaul to this management should come before any overhaul of the squad.
I do not trust these clowns that spent money on Emerson Royal, Morata and Abraham to replace ANY player in this squad.
Bring Maldini back, like it or not he was the only one to be able to get Milan back to where it should.
As long as Milan still under RedTurd / Cardinale, Maldini will not comeback.
Another bum american doesn’t think bum owners who fire Maldini is the problem of the club !!! Watch some baseball and leave our clubs owners and American fans who never heard of Milan before their overrated overhyped average player dragged his butt out Chelsea bench to play for us
Sell Leao !!!? Sell Leao and watch what happen next, baseball fans !!!!!
Milan close to repeat banter era again thanks to RedTurd.
This is worse than the banter era. This management had a scudetto team and destroyed it.
There is no player(s) bigger than milan, let’s sell off theo and leao, until then milan will still be divided
Well they seemed fine under Pioli obviously Fonseca and Concertina are useless Gerry needs to be a silent partner or just sell the club next sack ibra and coaches bring in a World class coach Klopp or Anchelotti and rehire Maldini.
Explain fine under Pioli?
Last season we almost finished outside top 4 if it was for team struggling. Or maybe we didn’t watch the same team playing
Leao is a stunningly beautiful athlete on the counter in open field, and is increasingly ineffective in any kind of set offense near goal. Yes, he helped win the Scudetto and will always be remembered. That was then. This is now. I don’t think Milan loses anything by selling him.