A familiar feeling has descended at AC Milan, one whereby there are numerous obvious gaps in the squad to fill, but none are close to being resolved.
The Milan leadership made the decision to entrust Igli Tare with the sporting director role, and naturally it was presumed that he would be the one calling the shots when it comes to the summer transfer window.
While we have no doubt that Tare is operating and working on multiple different negotiating tables at once right at the very moment you are reading this, the lack of progress is there for all to see and all while the clock keeps ticking.
In one week, the Milan squad will leave for a tour of the far east. At present, the only new signing available to Massimiliano Allegri is Samuele Ricci, given Luka Modric won’t join up until early August. So, is there reason to panic?
In a press conference given off-camera to journalists present, Tare made it clear that a lot of studying had been done ahead of time to establish the shortfalls in the current squad and identify the areas that need fixing.
With Tijjani Reijnders’ sale to Manchester City being the first big move of the summer and Theo Hernandez’s exit following, the shopping list became as follows: two new starting full-backs, three new central midfielders, a striker, plus a winger and/or centre-back if a player in either position left.
The midfield was given priority, and rightly so with the Reijnders-sized hole to fill. This is the area where there have been steps forward: Ricci became the first official signing from Torino, Modric will soon follow on a free.
It looked like there was progress being made on other fronts too, as countless right-backs and left-backs were linked, same with strikers. Ardon Jashari looked set to become the final piece of the midfield jigsaw too.
In the past few days, though, Milan have hit the buffers. Theo’s replacement was identified as Archie Brown, yet Fenerbahce won the race for him overnight. Guela Doue seems to be the preferred right-back, though a second improved bid won’t be enough.
The Jashari saga meanwhile has descended into farce over the sake of a couple of million euros. Meanwhile, the management seem to have already accepted that the centre-forward pursuit will take them into August, which will not be music to Allegri’s ears.
We wrote at length last summer about how Milan’s principled stance against paying more than what they believe they should is both courageous and risky in equal measure. Tare may have the reins now, yet it feels like we are seeing a familiar story play out.
If reports are to be believed, Jashari is not yet through the door because of a €2m gap over the fixed transfer fee, Brown chose Turkey because of the commissions and they are doing the ‘let’s raise our offer a bit at a time’ thing over Doue as well. All while not realising time is money.
A race against time
Why could the lack of progress be so important? Well, Milan’s first official match of the season is on August 17 against Bari in the Coppa Italia. Over a month, you might say, though that time will pass very quickly and there is a tour of Asia and Australia to do in between, plus games in Ireland and London.
The most ‘worrying’ situation concerns the striker position, which Allegri identified as an area to intervene. Milan will play almost all of their summer friendlies without a centre-forward who will be part of the team for the new season, as it stands.
Santiago Gimenez finished his commitments with Mexico a few days ago and will return to training at Milanello only in early August, when the rest of the team returns to Italy from their tour. He will have little time to train with the squad and, above all, understand what the coach wants from him.
The only striker available to Allegri for these games will therefore be Lorenzo Colombo, but he will not be part of next season’s squad as his future lies far from Milanello. It is not an ideal situation, simply put.
Milan must also try to secure two full-backs quickly, as both the right and left sides will need two potential starters. Alex Jimenez and Alexis Saelemaekers can fill in if needed but it seems obvious that they are not considered as nailed-on to take either full-back role, given they are better further forward.
As the Diavolo got right to the finish line in the talks over Jashari, Allegri probably banked on at least being able to have a full midfield contingent (barring Modric) to work with, though as mentioned this too has hit the brakes.
If time is money, then training sessions are the currency. Not everything will fall into your lap in a summer window, especially if transfer fees, commissions and wages are always deemed excessive in every negotiation.
Perhaps when the case is repeated time after time the problem is not the selling club, it’s a lack of understanding of the market. Not buckling to every request and demand is obvious, but then you risk losing out and have to begin another negotiation to try conclude another deal.
Panic alarms needn’t be pressed just yet, given how long is left of the window. That being said, the notion of Allegri having an almost-ready squad to work with for the preseason tour is falling away like grains of sand through an hour glass, each of which is worth a valuable bit of time.
