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AC Milan’s Monumental Moves: Modric & Ricci Arrive
68 Plays9 days ago
AC Milan are making headlines in the 2025 summer transfer window — but are they building a contender or taking a gamble? In this episode of Calcio Culture, we break down all of Milan’s biggest transfers, departures, and rumors so far.
We analyze what Luka Modrić, the 39-year-old Ballon d’Or winner, can realistically bring to the Rossoneri midfield, and whether Samuele Ricci has the potential to take the next step in his career after his move from Torino. We also discuss what Milan are losing with the sales of Tijjani Reijnders to Manchester City and Theo Hernández, as well as other key exits like Camarda and Jović.
We also cover the latest rumors around Jashari, the search for new full-backs after missing out on Guela Doué and De Cuyper, and the ongoing hunt for a new striker. Finally, we look at how Milan’s midfield shapes up after all the changes and whether these moves are enough to close the gap in Serie A and Europe.
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Transcript
00:00:06
Speaker
Ciao, Paizans. Welcome back to another episode Coucho Culture. am your host, Logs. I'm here with both my co-hosts, Matson Vos, and today is episode number two in our series ah summer transfer series. Today, we are covering one of the worst run teams of the 2024-2025 season in AC Milan.
00:00:29
Speaker
Very excited to go over what we think that this garbage fire, dumpster fire of a team is going to do in this next Scudetto run. It's been a actual very busy transfer window for AC Milan so far, even in this short, short while here.
00:00:46
Speaker
Aside from Napoli, I would say Milan has done the next most business, most of which has been through the exit door, through the back door of Casa Milan. We have seen Dijani Rinders unfortunately leave us after two phenomenal seasons.
00:01:00
Speaker
We'll wish this man ever the best, leaving us to Man City, 55 million plus add-ons out the door. A little cha-ching, a little cash in the bag for AC Milan and another big name to take the walk.
00:01:15
Speaker
is Teo Hernandez going to the Saudi league. Al Halal, 25 million, a little less than what I think we should have gotten for him. But in any case, that saga is over after six great seasons. Thank you, Teo. I know that we left you out to dry on the way out. You were not happy about it.
00:01:32
Speaker
So be it. We move on. couple other names that have left the door. Camarda, Francesco Camarda, 17 years old on technically essentially a loan, but it is a, we sold him with a buyback that we're going to buy him back next at the end of the season. He goes to Lecce, hopefully get some playing time on the pitch.
00:01:48
Speaker
Luka Jovic contract expired. Davide Calabria after being loaned to Bologna for the second half last season. His contract expired. We are done with him. Thank the Lord. And unfortunately, Tammy Abraham loaned over back to Roma. He has left since left Roma.
00:02:02
Speaker
But in any case, he will be missed. A lot of news there, guys. A lot of news. What do you think? 98 million in the door, which I think is definitely positive. it kind of is tough that you did lose these players.
00:02:15
Speaker
But with the Reinders one especially, it really has set the stage for where the club is at. They're not capable of keeping their best players. um This happened with Tonali before. It's now happened with Reinders.
00:02:26
Speaker
So I think it's a little bit of a hard reset on maybe from a fan base, what we can expect from Milan, which is a little bit difficult. But Matsu, what you were saying before we hopped on here, i think is really the key to all of this.
00:02:39
Speaker
That i don't know I don't know how to feel about this team. that Yes, I think that that is it. but before Really quick, I think the Reinders thing is a little different ah in terms of compared to Tonali. They couldn't keep Reinders because they missed the Champions League.
00:02:53
Speaker
So in order for them to kind of bolster the team, they had to sacrifice him. Tonali, I don't think he wanted to stay. It was more of a the ownership or the club saying, let's let's cash in on him and then buy other players.
00:03:07
Speaker
But not a good theme. That being two out of the last three seasons, Milan's best player has been or one of their best players have have left have left the door. Yeah. And then if you go back, like even in thatcent that area, like you're talking about other best players not even being sold, losing out on free. Gigi Donnarumma and Kessier, the two immediate guys that come to mind that had huge price tags and Milan, they just fucked it up.
00:03:33
Speaker
Like they fucked it up and they lost him for free. Yeah. But yeah, so going back to what what you said in terms of the direction, that's what I currently I'm not seeing any direction.
00:03:43
Speaker
The one thing that i will say has some direction is they did what this podcast echoed Every single week we got on here and we said, you got to make a decision, Liao or Tio.
00:03:57
Speaker
Pick one of them. You cannot have them both anymore. They made that decision. They sold Tio for $25 million, like Logue said. So at least they made a decision there.
00:04:08
Speaker
There's some direction with, hey, Liao is the guy we're going with for the future. Then they got Allegri, who we've seen been been able to take teams that kind of don't have all that talent and somehow...
00:04:19
Speaker
Somehow finished top four, right? He did that with Juventus in his second run. So they're trying to move in a specific direction, it looks like, but it's still hard to find what that direction is.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, and when we go into talking about here who they who they did bring in, I think one thing that is difficult when we talk about Milan, and I think that this is, I think everybody's probably in the same boat as so much went wrong last year.
00:04:45
Speaker
But then when you look at the core, there's still so much good there. You have a front three right now of Leao, Jimenez, and Pulisic. And of those, Jimenez is really the only kind of question mark.
00:04:55
Speaker
But I think for the most part, people say there's a player somewhere in there. He just hasn't shown that yet. Now, the midfield group even last year was was pretty good. I mean, you have Fofana. You brought in Bondo. Ruben Loftus-Cheek is going to be 100% healthy.
00:05:08
Speaker
Ben Asser is back. It's going to be question marks around here around him. But then they brought in two more players we're going to talk about. And then once you get to the back line, that's really the disaster area because they don't have a left back.
00:05:18
Speaker
They don't really have a right back. They kind of have one good center back maybe. So that's the scary area. So I think that kind of sets the state for this actual conversation about who they brought in and what else they really need to do, because it's a it's a weird situation.
00:05:34
Speaker
Very weird, very unsteady still, I would say. The one promising thing that I've i've noticed in this you know in these last two months is the fact that I believe that Max Allegri and Tare are on the same page in terms of where they want to go, how they publicize that, not so much. So I don't know what kind of formation we'll be working with on day one coming up here in in a couple of weeks.
00:05:54
Speaker
But again, I think the biggest point what Mons brought up is that we are going full steam ahead with layout. We put a huge price tag on him for the teams that had come after us for him. I think Byron was certainly interested, but we said 125 million or nothing.
00:06:06
Speaker
And that certainly scared a lot of other teams away. So looking at what we've done to bring in so far, it certainly seems like we're following in the steps that, as we covered in the last episode, Napoli have taken.
00:06:19
Speaker
And number one, bringing in a lot of experience, bringing in a lot of past talent, as well as bolstering an area that we've already excelled in. bolstering an area that we might not necessarily had been too concerned with coming into this summer, and that we've now brought in officially Luka Modric, 39 years old, Real Madrid legend, Ballon d'Or winner, to come in and be the maestro of this midfield.
00:06:44
Speaker
I think that this pickup is huge. It's immense. Modric seemed to have been in on the project ever since the end of the La Liga season. Of course, he he wanted to stay and play in the Cold War Cup, so he did play for Real Madrid in very limited minutes.
00:07:00
Speaker
But in any case, he wanted to you want to end his Real Madrid stint on a high note. Very happy to see him come in, commit to this Milan project for the next season or so. and really be the guy that everyone needs to lean on. One of the big factors last season that we talked about at length is the fact that no one in that locker room was able to take the bull by the horns and really lead from the front.
00:07:20
Speaker
Modric is going to be that guy. We saw Kyle Walker do it in some games. However, doing it from right back position is not so much as as an effect as what you can do at the 10 position. So having Luka Modric come in and be that guy is going to be A huge benefit, especially for a very young midfield that we've now built out with Fofana, with Bondo, and then the other name that we'll talk about in second.
00:07:41
Speaker
But Modric officially in, taking the number 14. What do you guys think about this?
00:07:47
Speaker
There's a couple ways of looking at this because I think one of the biggest benefits is what you said, the locker room presence. This is one of the best players in the world for the last 10 years, kind of like Napoli did with O'Brien.
00:07:59
Speaker
Ballon d'Or winner, it's won the Champions League, it's won the league, has been to World Cup finals. That presence is going to be life-changing in practice, in the locker room, off the field, all that sort of stuff. What I'm particularly worried about is how he fits into an Allegri system.
00:08:15
Speaker
Because Allegri's midfield in Juventus 2, this last time, there was no place for Luka Modric in that midfield. You kind of just need legs. We're going to be a counterattacking team, which Modric has been a part of counterattacking teams.
00:08:27
Speaker
but not in that cover a lot of ground on the field kind of sense. So I'm a little bit worried there. The more I look at this team, the more I hope that Allegri is doing a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, because I think that's really the core of it. And we we're not going to know until preseason starts what that actually looks like.
00:08:43
Speaker
And then the third part of this with in which is, I think, part of the reason why Modric did end up choosing Milan one game a week. Modric can play one game a week right now. He doesn't he struggled fitness wise because they had so many games.
00:08:56
Speaker
But on one game a week, he can game plan. He's a core guy that's going to command the pitch. When you're going to have a lot of the ball, you're going to see a heavy, heavy reliance on Modric, kind of like what they had with Reinders last year.
00:09:07
Speaker
I think in a lot of ways, the best part of Reinders were the best part of Montres. So I think there is some some similarities there and they needed to replace that. So I think this is a good guy to replace it. But again, my biggest concern is how Allegri uses him um because I'm not sure what Allegri is going to do and it it could be a problem.
00:09:25
Speaker
I think those are valid points, especially with the way that we see it we saw Allegri set up the last time he was a manager at Juventus, and it was very, very defensive, almost too defensive.
00:09:36
Speaker
um So you definitely don't want a guy like Modric, who's 39, that close to the your own goal all the time, especially when he thrives in possession. and We know Allegri doesn't always play possession-style football.
00:09:48
Speaker
With that said... I've said it. I said it time and time again last season, um just like I echoed in the beginning part that they needed to choose between Liao and Teo.
00:09:59
Speaker
And I think I said that they also needed true out and out leader in the locker room on the pitch. I said that with for a lot of clubs in the Serie A this this past season.
00:10:10
Speaker
And that is what Luka Modric is at the very least, even if he's not on the pitch. He is leading the guys. He is rallying the troops. He's giving them someone to go to to answer questions, to just show them that I've been here. I know what I'm doing.
00:10:26
Speaker
And that is they needed to do that as well. Those were the two things, bare minimum, they needed to address in the summer for me is they need a lot more, obviously. But those were the two the top two issues.
00:10:39
Speaker
Liao or Tio, who's going to be the leader? So they have at least addressed those issues, how he fits in the system, how much he plays, things like that. That will be seen when the season starts.
00:10:51
Speaker
But they at the very minimum, they got their leader in Luka Modric, who's been there and who's done that. I think from a tactics perspective where Modric fits in the best and where I think the main difference he's going to make is, and again, he does not have the legs that you need in an Allegri midfield. I do agree with that.
00:11:09
Speaker
But one thing that I always noticed last year, at least in our and our play style, that was not necessarily even defined at any moment in time, was that we had an inept ability, an ineptitude from getting the ball from our third to the final third.
00:11:25
Speaker
And with Mondridge's IQ and experience, I know that he's to able to pick his spot, be an intelligent outlet, and be able to progress the ball to the right person into the next set of the field.
00:11:37
Speaker
Other than pick having layout pick the ball up at the midfield or having tail drive all the way to the box or in some cases, pool sick, being able to facilitate a little bit of offense. We were completely a miss in moving the ball at the field. So at the very minimum, again, at least from on the pitch, he will be able to help us progress the ball, create some offense in that sense.
00:11:56
Speaker
So, I don't think in any way, shape, or form is this a a bad move. I don't think that he's going to come in and be, he's not a selfish guy. He knows how to just fit in where he needs to. So this isn't one of those locker room issues. Again, we just said it he's going to be an immense value add there.
00:12:11
Speaker
All in all, I'm going to give an A+. I really love this move. I can't wait till my kick comes in, and I can't wait to see him on the pitch. I mean, it's also a free transfer. So like your worst case scenario here is like no harm, no foul. Like you have Luka Modric. He is only going to do positive things, even if it's just from a cultural sense.
00:12:28
Speaker
And then your best case is he he could actually be the best midfielder in the league this year. Like that that isn't out of the question. It's just what what are we going what kind of Modric are we actually going to get? Because he didn't really play all that much last year, even for Real Madrid. no that's so it So that's what I was going to say. is he that's act like Sure, he didn't get the full 90 every single game.
00:12:46
Speaker
yeah Because Real Madrid have a ton of guys. They have too much players now in that locker room. He had the most games played across all competitions this season tied with Bradley Barcalá.
00:12:58
Speaker
So he had 73 matches played. he Obviously, he's not playing the full 90, but he's still got it in his legs. And Milan being on one game a week, he essentially could play every game for 90 minutes because of the amount of matches that he did play this last season. He showed he's still got it.
00:13:14
Speaker
They don't necessarily need him to do that. I don't think it'd be smart for them to do that. But he did play a lot and has has a lot more to give. And then I guess moving it on to the other addition to our midfield here,
00:13:28
Speaker
We bring in one of the brightest rising stars in Syria, Italian at his core. Samuele Ricci comes in from Torino. $23 million, absolute steal of a business. We went into Turin and robbed them.
00:13:45
Speaker
I don't know how we got the business done. We went in there and stole them right out from under their nose. it It was kind of written on the wall. Ricci had already had his interest in Milan since the winter window.
00:13:57
Speaker
It wasn't the right time. They maybe should have cashed in. That's whole nother story. But in any case, business done, $23 million in. We got our new holding midfielder. Very different play style than what we bring in with Modric.
00:14:09
Speaker
Again, giving us a little bit of optionality when it comes to what Allegri wants to do going to next season. Where I see this is if you have Ricci, Fofana, Bondo, even Ben Asser, even Modric is floating around.
00:14:25
Speaker
This is a very stout midfield. Ton of legs, ton of energy, great vision on the field and an ability to... Keep that energy throughout the 90 minutes. I think this is an unreal buy. we've I've had my eyes on him ever since the beginning last season. I think the entire league has.
00:14:40
Speaker
Certainly Spalletti had his eyes on him, bringing him up to the Italian national team. So this was an unreal buy. Bolster the midfield. Young guy. Italian. This was an unbelievable move from my perspective.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, before we talk about like kind of like the midfield as a whole, yeah, let's talk about this particular signing. This is a great signing. I'm a part-time Torino fan, so this is terrible that this happened. They absolutely fucked it. 23 million for this guy is a steal.
00:15:04
Speaker
The other thing with this that I really like that I think a lot of people are forgetting about Ricci is he was the captain of Torino at such a young age. So you're bringing in a guy that is Probably going to be one of your on-field generals, going to be your off-field like culture kind of guy because people aren't just handed captaincies, especially at this young age.
00:15:22
Speaker
So you're getting a guy that clearly is somebody that's going to contribute to the culture. So that's one piece that I really like. The other piece of this that I think is extremely important that I was echoing all season last year, they didn't really have a guy that can be your deep lying number six playmaker.
00:15:39
Speaker
And Fofana was kind of pigeonholed into that position. And I think last season, it kind of exposed why Fofana is actually not great at that position. And maybe his best attribute is more of like a ball carrier and a busy eight, where Ricci is more your slow playing ball handling deep line playmaker, whatever you want to call it. You might call that your regista.
00:15:59
Speaker
And I think where this benefits the team a tremendous amount is Pavlovich and whoever the other center backs are who are terrible on the ball now have somebody to give it to to develop play from there.
00:16:10
Speaker
And that kind of frees up all of your other players to go do other things because Richie's best trait is being that buildup guy. And we saw that all season at Torino, would drop between the center backs.
00:16:21
Speaker
So this brings a player to the team that they haven't had since Ben Asser was at his best. Ben Asser at his peak was kind of this player in a lot of ways, but I think Ricci has probably a higher ceiling than Ben Asser ever had.
00:16:33
Speaker
Love the Italian piece of it. Love the captaincy piece of this as well. So this, the fact that they got this done for 23 million is ridiculous. And this is probably going to be your core midfielder for the next 10 years.
00:16:45
Speaker
Yeah, I echo everything that Boz just said. I agree. Let's Fafana maybe stretch his legs more, gives Allegri more flexibility. Ricci is one of the best midfielders in the league and is going to be that for the next 10 to 15 years.
00:16:59
Speaker
They bought him on a cheap. I don't understand how they bought him this cheap. Great bit of business by Milan here. Mats, tell me this. You've watched, obviously, very closely Allegri's 2.0 at Juve.
00:17:13
Speaker
And what I'm hoping that Ricci gets out of this experience in this next season, again, we don't have a lot of competitions to play for. We're only running for the Scudetto, really. So he has a lot of time to absorb a lot of experience around him, not only from Modric, not only from Ben Asser, but hopefully he gets a little bit more playing time for the Italian national team, playing with Tenale, playing with Rivella, playing with Barella.
00:17:35
Speaker
What do you think Allegri can do for him in terms of his progression as a player? I hope that he's not at his peak and that the peak of his abilities hasn't been what we saw last season at Torino.
00:17:47
Speaker
But given the talents that Juve had at the same time with Allegri, Fagioli, I mean... Locatelli? I would compare him very heavily to Locatelli. Moretti, all these Italian midfielders, what do you think Allegri is going to get out of this guy?
00:18:00
Speaker
Well, before I answer those, were you giggling about? Oh, I'm worried about the Allegri thing because I kind of I think this is probably in Allegri's mind. He is viewing Ricci as like his Locatelli at Juve.
00:18:13
Speaker
And I think we all kind of agreed Locatelli was not great under Allegri at Juve. And that's when I think the biggest question marks were around him because he was sort of pigeonholed into being a more defensive player. And Ricci is kind of automatically going to default to that because of where he plays on the field.
00:18:29
Speaker
So um I am worried about that. i And I think a lot of that is going to be formation. I think reaching a midfield two is probably not my preferred guy. I think the best midfield two is Fofana and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, day one.
00:18:43
Speaker
So little bit worrying there. In a midfield three, it makes a lot more sense. And Allegri did have success in creating one of the best midfields the league has ever seen in Marquisio, Pogba, Pirlo, and Vidal, and managed to get the best out of all of those guys.
00:18:56
Speaker
So he does have that creativity and the malleability to change formation, but he's getting older. People get more stubborn when they get older. And I don't know what this is going to be week one. So that's kind of my Allegri take on this.
00:19:08
Speaker
I think that Locatelli had ah little different attributes than Ricci does. Locatelli, not that Ricci's not good going further up the pitch and isn't good in the final third.
00:19:19
Speaker
Locatelli has that skill set to him, which I think that is what made Locatelli kind of get worse in his career under Allegri because he was so far away from goal. While Ricci's normally there. So one thing that I can say that Ricci will get better at under Allegri is going to be his defensive positioning and his reading of the game because that's just what you guys are going to be doing.
00:19:41
Speaker
But what I would say is that, like, you have to play a midfield three at this point. You can't be doing a two midfield with who you brought in, with Modric and Ricci, having Fafana, having Loftus-Cheek, and you're also linked to another midfielder as well.
00:19:55
Speaker
which you guys very much want because you keep pushing for it. And Club Bruges is kind of not letting you guys have him. But you have to go midfield three here. And I think the benefit there would be the fluidity that they can have with a Modric, a Ricci, and a Fafana.
00:20:15
Speaker
in the and that lineup, or you have the dominant, the Rabiot role of the Loftus-Cheek with the Modric and Ricci that can play off of each other. So I really think that the midfield that you guys have has a lot of balance there, which Allegri will be able to utilize very strongly.
00:20:33
Speaker
And listen, Allegri made, he gets people better. Like I know it was a joke how I said his defensive aspects will get better, they but they 100% will. That and his reading of the game will get better under Allegri as well. So I really like the balance that you guys have in the midfield. I do think that there's a little too many mouths to feed and you got to ship some guys out of there, especially if you do get the main target you guys have.
00:20:56
Speaker
But the flexibility and the um the different players that Allegri will have at his disposal, I think will be beneficial to Milan and Samuel Ricci. Bosa, how do you feel about the midfield in general? I know Mots thinks we got a lot of balance there. I'm interested to see what you think.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's a lot of balance. and There are a lot of mouths, if you'd start to agree there, but there's a lot of room for improvement on a group that was already pretty good, I would say, for the most part. And the bigger question is how they're going to balance that midfield.
00:21:24
Speaker
Because for me... Ruben Loftus-Cheek was out for most of last year. And in the year before, he was one of the best players on the line. The peak Ruben Loftus-Cheek, he could be the key to getting this midfield right all season, especially if Modric isn't a like a ah starting 11 every game kind of guy.
00:21:41
Speaker
He is essentially your creative force as of right now. He's probably the most creative player in that midfield group. but um But not to cut you off, he was very good in the number 10 position under Pioli.
00:21:55
Speaker
And Allegri's not playing that. and He's not playing the 4-2-3-1 type thing. Yeah, but even if you play if you play a three, for presumably, Ricci is your your deep player. Fofana is your box-to-box eight player.
00:22:08
Speaker
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is also kind of a box-to-box eight in that situation, but he's probably your furthest player up the field from a creativity standpoint. i lost I think it's shaping out it's shaping out to be a lot like the Napoli midfield from last year, right? Because you have you had your Labaka, Billy Gilmore holding, and then you had two very energetic box-to-box eights in McTominay and in Zombo. It's seeming to be that that could be a really good recipe for success, just given the fact of They're not one for one, but Zombo, Fofana resemble each other, I would say, a little bit.
00:22:37
Speaker
McTominay and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, when Loftus-Cheek is playing at his best, resembles that McTominay getting forward, wants to score goals, but also gets back and plays defense. And then Labaka and Ricci, with that holding, little bit of a calmness to him, I think that that's where we could really excel. that Then that just brings the question, where does Maldrich play? But that question will be answered, I think, relatively soon in the beginning the season.
00:22:59
Speaker
What I will say, i think the big difference between how Napoli needed to structure their midfield and how Milan will need to structure their midfield is the midfield doesn't need to score goals for this team to be successful.
00:23:09
Speaker
Their goal scorers are their theirre front three. Leao, whoever the number nine is going to be, and Christian Pulisic, those are your kind of goal scoring. This is how we're going to get goals. The rest of the team is just there to facilitate and defend, basically.
00:23:21
Speaker
So I think that is the difference. You need more creative kind of players rather than elusive goal scoring sort of players is the way I would be thinking about it. What i don't love about this midfield, and I think that would benefit them a ton, they don't have a vertical long ball player.
00:23:38
Speaker
None of these guys in this midfield are have ever been that kind of thing. What we saw with Fofana last year was a lot of creative passes in the final third, which I think was a part of his game that he developed over the season. But they don't really have a guy pick up the ball deep, launch a ball to lay out.
00:23:51
Speaker
I don't see anybody really doing that. So that's... that's I would like to see that maybe get done or maybe somebody can develop their game to do that. Maybe that's Modric, but that's just one piece for me that I'm looking for. can definitely do that. Yeah. don't see him playing enough for that to be our consistent play style.
00:24:06
Speaker
So without that being said, it's promising, but that's exactly where we were one year ago. Promising. We had a lot of promise out of the roster and obviously did not come to fruition. I think there's a little bit more continuity going into this season, a little bit more a predictive state rather than where we were with Fonseca.
00:24:24
Speaker
So I'm optimistic, but again, i'm I've been scarred so many times from this team that I'm i'm going to hold myself hedge against it and say that we know we're definitely not there yet. So with all that being said, a ton of activity out of Milan, but there's still a ton of business to do. So to touch on the rumors here, and one of the things that's incredibly concerning to me is that Milan as a badge is undeniably one of the most recognized, honorable, respected badges in the entire Coucho world, not only in Italy, but the whole globe in general.
00:25:01
Speaker
We have now missed out on our top three outside back targets over the last month, which is just not where you want to be. And these aren't big names, so it's not like we're vying for You know, we're not we're not going to bat with teams of the leg of Bayern and Chelsea and Arsenal.
00:25:17
Speaker
We lost a guy, and English right back out of the Belgian league to Fenner. we We sent a private jet there to go pick him up to get the deal done, and he went on the Fenerbahce's jet to go home.
00:25:28
Speaker
So to me, I don't know what this pitch is, and I don't know what's going wrong, and I don't know what the outlook on the entity Milan as itself is, but a little bit of a concern going into the end of this window. So where does that make us stand? So right now, we still need a left back. We still need a right back.
00:25:43
Speaker
Still need a center back for that matter. Maybe two. but Maybe two. And we still need a nine. Right now, the the business that's going on is we're looking at Huubille as a right back. He's a La Liga youngster.
00:25:56
Speaker
Promising, but has never been on a top tier team. So that would be a a decently big jump for him. Looking at about $15 million for that price tag. We've lost out on DeKuyper, who is a ah Belgian left back. He's presumably going to Brighton. And we have now...
00:26:09
Speaker
changed our outlook to go after Stupion, who is now Brighton's left back, who they're replacing with De Kuyper. So we're literally just getting the backup to who we wanted. In any case, both of those guys, 15 million, not sure they moved the needle, but we definitely need but need reinforcements there.
00:26:24
Speaker
Center back, we're at war with basically every other big Italian club right now for a lot of the young guys at center back. So not sure where we're going for business there, waiting for more news.
00:26:35
Speaker
The big name that keeps popping up and that we have been stout about getting is another midfielder out of Belgium, Club Bruges, Dushari. Now he's 22 years old, Swiss national.
00:26:46
Speaker
Bruce put a price tag on this man of 50 million euros. That is too much money. I do not want to spend more than 30 million on this guy. I can't say that I've ever watched him play extensively. I can't imagine that we'd be so, you know, a guy like this, if he wasn't worth the spend.
00:27:04
Speaker
Although we saw CDK, we ruined him. He's still doing well for Atlanta, same team, same situation. We're, where we've been going after this guy for weeks. Right now, the price tag is about $40 million. It seems like we want to get the business done.
00:27:15
Speaker
But again, to Matz's point, crowded midfield, why are we going after another midfielder when we have so much need elsewhere? That, to me, is another blemish on this transfer window. So again, Tari and Allegri, I think, are on the same page. But given the the misses that we've had so far and the fact that we've turned our attention almost solely to a guy that we just don't necessarily need 100% worrisome.
00:27:35
Speaker
is worrisome Really quick, ah he's a good player. I watched him play ah and against Juventus in the Champions League, and he he very much, he kind of is like a younger, very similar player of Modric.
00:27:47
Speaker
um He can also do what Bo said, kind of just like send a long ball to Liao. um But it just doesn't make sense because we literally just covered the midfield and there's our there's a lot of guys already. So splashing the cash there where he is a good player and he is one of the guys that's pushing for to go to Milan. He wants to go to Milan.
00:28:06
Speaker
So little bit, the badge still does have effect on players, but but Club Rouge wants money for him and the amount of positions that you need players in It's tough to throw that much amount of cash in that position to a place where you don't necessarily need it, especially when, as we just mentioned, the right back and left back are gaping holes in the center backs. Whereas you have some of them, none of them, in my opinion, are Allegri center backs.
00:28:39
Speaker
This is how we play organized football. This is the rules. These are the parameters of what you're going to play with. They are all running around with the chicken with their head cut off. They don't know what to do. They don't know how to do it.
00:28:51
Speaker
And that is what Allegri hates. So I think you need to bring center backs in. You need to totally re-bolster this back line. And looking at a midfielder for forty fifty is just and a luxury buy, whereas he is a very good player.
00:29:06
Speaker
I don't think it's needed. You got look at the defense and re-bolster there and and spend your cash there. Yeah, Milan is not in a position to be buying anybody for luxury. We have so many needs.
00:29:16
Speaker
so i think You know what this kind of does remind me of, though? And I i had said this a lot last season. They kind of had, I don't know if it's player level, coach level, club level. They have that mentality of like a Real Madrid that like we're just like better than everybody else. And like we can just get like these good creative players and that's going to get us across the line.
00:29:36
Speaker
And that that kind of still gives me that feel. I mean, that that's I can't prove that. i That's just my feel on it still. Well, if that is the feel, it hasn't worked and they really misjudiced how it looks. cool i I would say, i the I don't think that it's like the badge, and I don't know if this was what we were just talking about, but like, it's not the badge in terms of like, people are aren't picking Milan or Milan think like, hey, we're going to we come in so people want us because of that.
00:29:59
Speaker
It's the fact that, and it just goes to every club. Serie A teams literally have no money. Like, they cannot compete with other teams to buy the players and do it quick enough, whereas other leagues, whether it be and not in just the Premier League, whoever it is, they at least can do it quick enough.
00:30:19
Speaker
you've Like, the Serie A teams... They look at a guy, they think about the guy for the next two, three weeks, and then another team has came in and already met the cost or the price of what the team wants. So I think it's less about that and just more like these guys, just they don't have the money.
00:30:36
Speaker
Hans is still scarred from Toti Bo from last last summer. or So but we'll be talking from that. I think there is one other thing in this kind of getting into into like that they need to improve the back line. I think this is especially shines through in this discussion is that kind of the players they're looking at in who they're competing against are like four players are like the Napoles, the Juventus.
00:30:58
Speaker
What does Milan have to sell these players now? Because when we look at who who should they be in the market for, right? Sam Buchami just went to Napoli, one of the best players in the league. They weren't even in that battle because they're not even in Europe.
00:31:10
Speaker
yeah and bolog like You're better off staying at Bologna than going to Milan at this point. So you have to almost look at worse players, or not not necessarily worse players. You have to look further down the table and try to peel players off of maybe the maybe the Genoas. Yeah, but that not you're not even...
00:31:27
Speaker
Are they going to be able to cough it up? Like can't get to like a Lukumi. They, that should have been the first thing they did at the beginning of this transfer window for Lukumi. Why would you go to Milan?
00:31:38
Speaker
You're in the Europa league with Bologna. You just won Coppa Italia. You're probably in a better position to get top four. So they have to change who they're even looking for.
00:31:51
Speaker
And they're in a different tier when players are looking to go there and they're competing. They have less to sell even at Milan. And I think that puts them in such a difficult situation because they still think they're this massive club and it's there's question marks. Are you?
00:32:06
Speaker
You finished in eighth place last year and it was fucking terrible. So I think that creates a whole nother level to this that makes it so difficult, especially, I think, in the back line position where center backs right now, I think, are being sold for premiums that they had never have in the past. And people are recognizing how important it is to get that right.
00:32:24
Speaker
And there's also not a lot of great center backs out there. Yeah, I'd even say I agree with that. And but like the people that they're not linked to enough guys like you need players and we are we're halfway into July. There's not but another month and a half of the transfer market or half of.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah. a month and a half of the transfer market, and you're not. It takes these Italian clubs, Juventus, Milan's, two to three weeks to buy the guy. You got to get linked with him to then have negotiations.
00:32:55
Speaker
They're not even linked with players either. So they got to, I agree, they got to maybe look at some lower-level clubs that players are ready to take the jump. And they need to, they...
00:33:06
Speaker
both And Juventus is the same boat as Milan here. What they both need to do is they need to do a better job, which they've never had to do because they've had the badge recognition or the players wanting to go there or the Champions League games, is they need to find players ready to take the next step.
00:33:21
Speaker
And those are gambles. And a lot of times what we've seen is they've missed on those gambles. And then it sets them back two, three, four, five years, even less in terms of like less being being less off than where they are now.
00:33:34
Speaker
so And even like, out I think both of these kind of feed into so the point that I'm trying to make is I think the best example of that, like when you look at a whiff like Kalulu, now a year out from, it's so insane that they got rid of him because you're looking at a right back.
00:33:48
Speaker
He would have been your best right back. And he probably would have also been your best right center back at this point. And just like, who do you think you are that like you can get rid of him? And you only sold him for 14 million. yeah Every right back that you're looking at, people want 20 million or 25 million.
00:34:05
Speaker
So you had a very, very good solution there at a cheap cost that you gave away for to let like you didn't ask enough money. And now you've got to cough up more money to replace him.
00:34:17
Speaker
Well, just to round this all out, because I think that Bosa's point of you need to start looking down the table is 100% correct given our situation. But I think one one place where we're doing that, where we have whiffed a ton of times in the past, is at the nine. And not so much at the bottom of the table, but maybe the bottom of the depth chart in a lot of guys that have been written off.
00:34:34
Speaker
So where we have been linked at the nine are the likes of Dusan Vlahovic, Rasmus Hoyland out of mans city out of Manchester United, and ah Victor Boniface out of Leverkusen.
00:34:46
Speaker
So... We definitely need a nine. We are very, very thin there. Let me let me i will let me just outline this. So we have Santi Jimenez, and then everybody else that you saw play the nine for writ for Milan last year is gone.
00:35:00
Speaker
Tammy Abraham, gone. Luki Ovis, gone. Even Francesco Camaro, who had a couple of stints, gone. Why? like That doesn't make any sense. We need a nine. Why don't... why I get it. Milan's on one game a week.
00:35:11
Speaker
Play him. Play him. It doesn't make any sense. what I'm fine him going to Lecce, but we need a nine. This might be a ice-cold take.
00:35:21
Speaker
They don't need a starting nine. I think you have to give Santiago Mendes the full season. You spent the money on him. He was very successful at Feyenoord. I have a lot of question marks around him. if he I don't think he's ever going to be an elite number nine, but I think he can get you through this season.
00:35:36
Speaker
What I would probably try to do was keep Jovic. Jovic was great last this year. I don't understand the purpose of that. The other guy that is 100% available is Marko Anatovic.
00:35:48
Speaker
Two free guys, going to be cheap. If they're only playing a couple games this year, that makes sense. But you have to give Santaymenes that platform and kind of like the backing of him to have confidence and go take the bull by the horns this season and be that guy.
00:36:02
Speaker
The other thing about this, I, there's two guys that we have talked about on here. Roberto Piccoli just signed for Cali rate for 12 million euros. Probably a better solution for 12 mil.
00:36:13
Speaker
And then the other guy is our boy on Genoa. He probably wouldn't cost all that much. And I'm spacing out on his name. Benamonte. Benamonte. Like there's guys like that you can get a little bit cheaper. And this is what I mean about you need to change your mindset about where you're at as a club. You're not going to get all the sexy names anymore. So you got to get creative.
00:36:32
Speaker
Totally agree. And i I like your take on Santi because we've done this in the past and you know we saw with CDKs especially, give the guy some time. you have Now we have time, right? Because we're not, we already suck.
00:36:44
Speaker
We're already terrible. So we actually have a season here where you can you can make a very marginal improvement and give this guy some time. We saw what he could do at Feyenoord, and I think he's a very big confidence guy, as most nines are, so we need to give him the momentum, and totally agree we give him the backing.
00:37:00
Speaker
Because even when he plays for Mexico, he's he's playing behind the other Jimenez. And so it's not like he's getting anywhere else a source of confidence. So one game a week here, a ton of training, need to hone in on that on that skill and build off the fact that he's a phenomenal finisher. There's nothing, there's no doubt about that, that his left foot is unreal.
00:37:19
Speaker
We need to get him in the right spots. He needs to get his mindset right. So to your point though, we do need a backup nine. I don't think Dusan's the answer. I don't think Hoyland's the answer. that's Those two guys are gonna be way too much both from a salary perspective and ah a ticket perspective.
00:37:32
Speaker
um but i And they're both just not good. That's new scene. But maybe they need a new start. We don't know. But in any case, Milan, very uncertain.
00:37:44
Speaker
Slight positivity going into the season. That's where I'll leave it. One other guy I'm just thinking about now is, like, Columbo. And, like, those kind of guys. Like... da was bad but I know, but as your backup nine, like he played a full season last year, they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.
00:38:02
Speaker
Like you need a number one, number nine, but then you need to keep these guys. Like even though they're not the best player, you can't just cash out on them. We should get Shea Adams. Shea Adams would be great. And he had a phenomenal season at Torino. And that was that was a very creative signing by Torino because they're playing in that 8, 9, 10 level space.
00:38:21
Speaker
And that's what Milan are now doing. and They need to think about things differently. And they've put themselves here by being so short-sighted in the players they've let go. And they're kind of doing it again with Camarda. Well, Camarda just needs playing time, and I don't think that where we want to go. They have one number nine right now. so that when you But when you watch Camarda last season, the reason I say that, he needs to have zero pressure on him and no spotlight. He gears. Yes, I agree. i agree. here I agree. He would. But you know who also did that?
00:38:50
Speaker
Yield is. And then he played every single game, and now look what he's doing in the Club World Cup. You need to give them time to ah get acclimated to the speed and the strength of the game. You're not going to... Sure, he could do that at Leche, but why are you loaning him out to go do that at Leche when you have you need a backup nine, a guy that can play a lot. You can get him a ton of minutes as the backup nine, and now you're in a spot where, hey, we've got to go invest money in a backup nine.
00:39:16
Speaker
And the guys, the names that they're looking at, it's the same issue with the midfield. They're looking to spend $40 million 30 million on a backup nine when you need starting right back, starting left back, and probably better defenders.
00:39:30
Speaker
So the math isn't mathing for AC Milan. The other thing with Camarda that... Let me just put to bed. Can you agree that our target right... with a Milan's target has to be top four?
00:39:43
Speaker
Is it not? Yeah. i mean yeah do Do you see Milan getting top four with a backup nine who's 17 years old I don't see one game a week. One game a week. with the Napoli won the Scudetto.
00:39:56
Speaker
um' I'm just saying. I don't get 17-year-old. Napoli won the Scudetto. lot of minutes on a top four team. Napoli won the Scudetto without a backup nine. Gio Signone.
00:40:08
Speaker
and We're going to say Camarda's better than Gio Signone right now. The other thing with Camarda is Camarda's so young in the way he plays and his skill set. He's not only your backup nine. He can be your backup left wing and your backup right wing and a number 10 if you want to use a number 10.
00:40:23
Speaker
Versus Tyler. It's just so... state Napoli, to Bosa's point, to piggyback off on it, they understood, hey, we got one game a week. Yeah. Let's bolster our positions where we're weak and we don't necessarily need that much depth. They didn't have a lot of depth in Napoli.
00:40:40
Speaker
They just had good players or solid players in every spot at the starting position. That is what you guys should be focusing on rather than getting another midfielder and getting a backup nine.
00:40:50
Speaker
Bolster the left back or get a left back. Get a right back. no hundred percent 100%. Get some center backs. Well, it's not even bolstering the left back and the right back. They literally don't have one. that we need it's As of right now, what everybody is saying and everything that I've read is Alex Jimenez, who is much more of a winger than a defender, is going to be ah the left back. He played right back last season. He's a lefty, so it makes sense.
00:41:12
Speaker
Put him there. And then the right back is now going to be Salamakers, who has only ever been a winger, who I think will actually do pretty well there. But you still need... As you would say. You need a lock. And you still need to, yeah, since you've got it.
00:41:25
Speaker
It's just so backwards. And that's what, that's why I said but to start, I don't understand what they're doing because they did great, right? Like, Hey, first two things that we need to address, right? Liao or Teo, let's find a leader.
00:41:37
Speaker
They did both of that. And then it's like, Oh shit. Well now we forgot the other list that like the other main priorities and we're just making up new priorities. Like we just spent 35 million in the winter for a striker. Let's go get another one.
00:41:50
Speaker
yeah We just brought in Modric and Ricci. Let's go get another mid-catherer. And we we bought Fafana last summer. So it's like, what is going on? And that that plays into what we saw game in and game out last year, literally on the pitch of Milan. And it was, what the fuck are we going to see them do today?
00:42:09
Speaker
Because it could be 3-0 in the first half, them winning, or it could be they're down 0-3 in the first half. There's no consistency. And it all trickles down from the top. And I know that they got who a new sporting director and a new manager, but it all trickles down from the top.
00:42:25
Speaker
And no organization from the top means no organization on the pitch. And i don't I think that based off of what I'm seeing in the rumors, who they're targeted, it's even though they got Allegri, who has the system, it's going to more of the same from them.
00:42:39
Speaker
Lokes, one question to you before we wrap here. You have been very much like, we got a new sporting director, Tare. We have Allegri now. Where do you feel about Tarre? Because for me, nothing has changed.
00:42:52
Speaker
And it's maybe gotten worse. Because at least last year, they were signing a bunch of players that seemed like it might start making sense, particularly Pavlovich, Bofana. Like, there was a direction they were sort of going with that.
00:43:05
Speaker
But with this, it's almost like they are so blind to what they're bad at already that um' i just I don't feel a lot of confidence in this. And how are you feeling? Because i you still seem confident in Tarre.
00:43:17
Speaker
Well, like I said, I mean, I just said it 10 minutes ago. We've now lost out on three of our top targets at positions, at the two positions that we've been hammering right now that we should, in in theory, have no problem selling.
00:43:29
Speaker
It wasn't that we didn't get the the deal done with the teams, although Gualadue was just too expensive. Although if you like the guy, just go get him. It's a difference of 5 million euros. I'm still sick of the nitty-picky spending differences here. But like I said, i'm um it's shaky at the moment in terms of what our value prop is. And so I would like to see some...
00:43:52
Speaker
some movement going forward. But the at the moment, it also seems like we're so tunnel vision, so blinders on on Jusari that we have no idea what's going on around the rest of the ah market. yeah And so it happened with the CDK market. We got so locked in on trying to get CDK for the entire summer.
00:44:07
Speaker
It took a full two months and everything else around it kind of just fell to shit. So if this continues, again, like I said, um not I don't know a lot about what Tari's done. He had a long, long stint at Lazio and had a couple of good buys there.
00:44:22
Speaker
As of right now, it's not looking too green on this side of the fence. But I have to think that based on what I've seen in terms of Tari and Allegri's conversations, I think that they have a plan.
00:44:36
Speaker
But and we also said it at the beginning of the episode, we don't know what Allegri is going to do. So is it it's a chicken and the egg conversation. like, okay, do we bring in players and have Allegri move around that? Or does Allegri make up his mind and do we go buy players to do that?
00:44:50
Speaker
We're trying to do everything at the same time, which is the unfortunate situation that we've been in given the manager turnover and the management situation. player management turnover. Again, i'm I've done this time and time again in the pod and I said I wasn't going to do it this season, but here I am.
00:45:03
Speaker
i I just don't want to sit through another season of dread. And so I'm trying to be positive. I'm trying to look on the other, I'm trying to look a little bit to the upside. As of right now, there's not a whole ton to be excited about aside from my Modric kit.
00:45:17
Speaker
Richie, too. I'll say this. going to sit through dreadful soccer on the pitch with Allegri being the manager. So get ready for that. and One thing on on the point you were just making, even do we buy players for Allegri or do we buy players because we like them?
00:45:33
Speaker
Regardless of that, you just need to buy center backs and you need to buy outside backs. So that should just be taken out of the discussion altogether. It doesn't change what you need and what your weakness is.
00:45:43
Speaker
i mean, and for them, to we are trying to buy outside backs. Let's not forget that we are trying. we're We're not having it. We suck. We're too terrible. I think that's more that's not necessarily on Milan, per se, as I mentioned earlier. It's just Italian teams in general.
00:45:58
Speaker
but And I know that we've talked about this like a ton, but they started off so well, Milan. Got the new sporting director. Got Allegri. Made the decision on Liao. He's $100 million.
00:46:10
Speaker
Let's get Modric. Let's get Ricci. And then it's just like... Since the Club World Cup, since like everyone's known that Modric was going to come since the Club World Cup. And they basically were like, we cannot make any moves until Modric gets his jersey.
00:46:25
Speaker
There's nothing since then. Like, you know what I mean? Like they they were doing things. They were making moves. Club World Cup starts. They're like, listen, Modric, people don't think it's true. We got to wait for Modric to come hold his jersey.
00:46:39
Speaker
Now let's go again. Like you just wasted so much time. So we'll see. I mean, still let's still a month and a half left. I would like to get everything done before the season starts, but as we've seen in the past, it's going to just sadly happen.
00:46:52
Speaker
So... Time will tell. I'm going to be a blind optimist, as I always am, even though I said I wasn't going to be. And hopefully Milan comes back and and truly fights for that for the top four. So with that being said... by i just I will have to say, I want to just wrap on this.
00:47:08
Speaker
Having this discussion, this is just so reminiscent of every podcast we did last year when we talked about Milan. It is the same exact thing, and I cannot wait for the next season.
00:47:22
Speaker
It's going to be more the same next summer. So can't wait. Can't wait. Paisans, listen, let us know what you think. There's a lot to talk about with this Milan team and there's a lot of different directions they can go. I just hope that they go down the right path.
00:47:36
Speaker
But let us know. Comment, subscribe and all the socials, you know where to go. You keep following us. Continue, sell it to your friends, tell your family at the dinner table, at the office, whatever you got to do.
00:47:47
Speaker
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00:47:59
Speaker
With that being said, Forza milon sempy Milan, Semperi Milan, Mats, take us away. Paisanos do not be a gagoot and Forza outro culture.
00:48:49
Speaker
you