Who Will Go And Who Will Stay

Last week La Gazzetta dello Sport published an article looking forward to Milan’s 2016 summer transfer window. The paper aimed to identify and categorize players that are sure to stay, unsure and certain to leave.

Here is the list of players as categorized by the newspaper:

Certain to stay: Abate, Antonelli, Bacca, Bonaventura, Donnarumma, Kucka, Locatelli, Montolivo, Romagnoli.

Uncertain future: Abbiati, Bertolacci, Calabria, De Sciglio, Honda, Menez, Niang, Poli, Zapata.

Set for exit: Alex, Balotelli, Boateng, Lopez, Ely, Mauri, Adriano, Mexes.

It is telling that the ‘certain to stay’ list features only 9 players. Fans should be hoping that some of the ‘set for exit’ and ‘uncertain future’ names are just loans because there is surely little point in giving up on players like Calabria, Ely and Mauri. There are plenty other questions too, for example, who is going to be next season’s second or third choice goalie if Lopez is definitely leaving?

The identity of the Milan’s 2016-17 season coach is still up in the air and based on recent results so is the likelihood of any European participation. One must presume that on a normal team a coach will have a lot to say about his players and if Mihajlovic is not returning a lot of this list is or should be pure speculation. A non interfering owner will provide the best possible for his coach and step out of the way but with Berlusconi this is of course not guaranteed.

It is already certain that Milan will suffer massive losses and a drop off in revenue is just as responsible as any over spending. Champions League action is out of reach. Any revenue provided by possible Europa League action will come nowhere near enough to cover the losses.

Bright future? Another active but anticlimactic summer more likely.