Summer Mercato 2016

[ACMILAN1983]

Does anyone disagree ? And think Im being a grumpy pessimist ?

Talk of Suso plus €1.5m for Matti Fernandez now.I thought Fernandez was out of contract, he isnt.Thats a bit silly a promising young player for a guy thats 30 not a great move IMO

lol, you've always been a grumpy pessimist Jay Jokes aside though, I'm optimistic the sale will go through, I'm much less convinced of what will be done afterwards in terms of investments.

I was planning to make this point anyway, but let's say we get money, if we get some of the names we're linked to I feel it will be a waste. For example, Mati Fernandez is a good player, very good in fact, but frankly he's reached his best and with all due respect that is of the level of Fiorentina, which shouldn't be our ambition, we need to think beyond. Same with a guy like Badelj, he's a player who imo has reached the heights he's going to reach and frankly we need to look beyond that. I actually really like Badelj, I think he's an excellent player, but I wouldn't want him at Milan as a starter. Montella might like these guys, but he has to understand what the expectation is at Milan and that isn't investing in players who aren't potentially of the highest quality.

That isn't to say I think we need to look at massive names to come in, one or maybe two marquee names, but more importantly I want to see a focused approach to our market. Firstly, I think the so called marquee signings we'd get are the level of Vazquez or Kovacic, I find it difficult for Milan at this point to attract a bigger name. I'm fine with that though, because there's more important pieces to put in place anyway. I'm also against, or at least hesitant, signing a big name like Benatia. Not to doubt the guy's quality, I think he's got a lot of quality, but he's also got a hugely questionable attitude and has a history of basically being a mercenary. We must look at character as much as ability.

I think Pjaca is a must for Montella's new side. It's known Montella wants to play a system with wide players, but Pjaca's physical qualities, technical qualities and versatility (being able to play left, right and centre) is potentially invaluable. He's not a star, but his ceiling is incredibly high, he has the potential to be one of the very best. Unlike Bonaventura and Honda, his pace and direct running will be a quality that this side hasn't had in the wide areas. The fact his agent is pushing the guy to Milan makes me wonder why he's not pretty much already secured.

I also think that's why Paredes should be secured too. As a regista his ceiling is again very, very high. He's shown the ability and understanding this season that I honestly didn't expect. He might not be better than Badelj at this moment in time, but his potential room for growth imo is significantly higher than Badelj.

It's these sort of players I think Milan must look at closely imo. Players who may not be at the peak of their careers, but have the ability and potential to be "world class".

Another I'd really like at Milan is Fernando of Sampdoria. It's said Montella is a fan after working with him this past season and he's caught my eye from the start of the season. I'm doubt he has the potential of Pjaca and Paredes, but that's not necessarily the reason I think we should get him. I'm actually surprised he's not more talked about, although he was linked to Juve back in January. He's not physically big (actually he's quite small), but his strength, athleticism and his battling qualities really impress me. The only "aggressive" midfielder we have in our squad is Kucka, who's a tank when in the mood, but otherwise we don't really have players who have some bite in their game. However, Fernando's ability on the ball is also really impressive, he's got a very good passing game and technically he's proficient. His versatility shouldn't be underestimated either, as he's capable as a traditional DM, a regista and box to box. I think he's probably able to play AM too if asked to.

That's where I can see this management getting it wrong this summer. I can imagine they'll focus on names rather than qualities and attributes, as well as (and most importantly) character. I also think that if Montella asks for players of just the level he's worked with until now, he won't succeed at Milan, because the expectation is higher. What Milan really needs is a sporting director who knows Milan, football and can advise Montella which players are suitable for a club of Milan's stature.

I also think we need to, absolutely must in fact, focus on trying to develop youth talents and a young Italian core. This isn't about nationalism or trying to be Italian per se, but more importantly it's about developing a culture and creating a sense of belonging within the foundations in Milan. You're never going to get that if you build by just buying in players from every corner of the planet. There won't be an identity and a feeling of inclusion and value at the club. You see that already in today's globalised game, just look at PSG or pretty much any big club in England. There's lots of names and quality there, but no real identity. The best sides have always had this, even today Real still have guys like Ramos and Carvajal, Barca in the past generation have been built on names from La Masia, I think Bayern made a mistake under Pep in this regard, but still have Muller, Lahm and Neuer, Juve have a very strong identity in the defensive group they've got. Even the second tier clubs like Atletico (Gabi, Koke, Torres, Juanfran) and Sevilla (Coke, Iborra, even Munoz coming through) have this. I think guys like Donnarumma, DES, Romagnoli, Calabria and Locatelli are invaluable for this reason.

However, I also have a rant around this, because we've let so many talents go to waste. Cristante is an obvious example, even if his career's gone into limbo since leaving. However, guys like Aubameyang, Darmian, even names like Paloschi in the squad could have been useful at Milan to develop the environment in the club. Far too often we loan out talents and they never get game time. I don't think this is as simple as these guys simply aren't good enough, there's some fundamental mistakes being made in what could be a potential goldmine for the club. Firstly, our youth set up in the last 5-7 years has been consistently one of the best in the Italian game. Not only that, but it's improved in that time, as while initially it was mostly the older age group that was making noise, now it's at pretty much every level that the youth teams are doing well.

Then you look at the individuals coming through. For example Davide Di Molfetta. Here's a guy that has been considered a high level promise at Milan pretty much since he joined as a 6 year old (I think he started getting noticed outside of Milan as a 12-14 year old). Throughout his youth career, he's pretty much represented Italy at every level and has played a prominent role in Milan's youth set up. Not just that, he dominated the Primavera for 2-3 at Milan, not just being Milan's best player, but arguably the best at that level during that time. He gets loaned to a Serie C team and doesn't get used (not even a minute if I'm correct). You got to be f'ing kidding me to say this guy isn't capable of playing at that level and not at least worth a minute of play. I don't know why he didn't play, but if I was in Galliani's shoes, I'd be furious that a year of a potentially talented players life has been wasted, he's a resource of ours that's been wasted for a year. Why even send these players to these clubs if they aren't even looked at? That's the thing, management needs to scrutinise and understand how this situation happens, because the fact that it does is our loss, not Benevento's (where Di Molfetta was loaned). We also need to understand how we can ensure this is avoided. Perhaps trying to incentivise clubs we loan these guys to would be an option, such as inserting a clause in loan deals that clubs or penalised financially if they don't use the player a prerequisite set of minutes during the season. Or on a positive spin, the club we loan to effectively get a paid bonus for using the player a set number of minutes.

Just a thought, but basically it infuriates me we don't work to help these kids develop to be the best they can and let so many go wasted.