The summer is upon us and as we embark on a summer of change I thought it would be smart to set the baseline and get a health check of sorts for where Milan stand. Coming off a season where Milan finished an unacceptable and disappointing 8th, clearly there’s lots of room for improvement.
Milan, per usual, is slow out the summer mercato gates signing players. In previous seasons under Redbird, Milan seem to get started in earnest in July. We of course have seen Milan appoint a new sporting director and the return of an old face to lead the team on the sidelines since the end of the last season, on top of the sale of Tijjani Reijnders. Still, no new incoming players to speak of yet and I know that’s always at the top of everyone’s mind.
So for this edition of the Milan Wellness Check, I’ve pestered a retired Nonno to get off his rocking chair and I’ve also asked Pete Acquaviva, of Max Allegri’s Favorite Blog, to join us as we tackle some offseason/summer mercato questions. I mostly just asked the questions as there will be plenty of time to share my thoughts on these topics now that this is my blog (all mine!). But, needless to say I think these guys knocked it out of the park even if I would push back or offer slightly different takes on a few things.
Below is a lighted edited transcript of our conversation. Let’s dive in.
Alright, let’s get started with the most divisive offseason move so far…and Pete, I know this is a topic you’re…umm…familiar with…how are we feeling about the appointment of one Massimiliano Allegri?
Pete Acquaviva: This would have been a disappointing hire any time before 6 months ago. It’s somehow a decent stabilizing option but it’s never great to need to be stabilized in the first place.
Michael Lisi: I’m all for it. It’s been a country club this whole season where the complainers seem to have won. Or lost I guess. Finally a real coach is back home after a season of romper room. Some discipline will finally be back in order
gillis: So both of you clearly see his hiring as a relief of sorts. Not your first choice so not a relief of satisfaction but more a relief of ending the mediocrity of last season. I posted recently the numbers of Allegri’s return to Juventus and how that wasn’t really a success, given where they were and how they performed under him in comparison, so what gives you confidence his Milan return will be?
Pete Acquaviva: Confidence is not a word I’d use. Blind hope, perhaps. There’s so many ways this can (and I think eventually will) go off the rails, but there’s also a chance this has some of what this team needs. You’re basically starting over with most of the old core of the team being shifted. This means they’ll need a different type of manager than they’ve had but it’s hard to know in advance if Max is the guy to get them back to a cohesive group.
Michael Lisi: I like the word relief. Relief from the country club atmosphere where the lazy people somehow got control over the hard workers. Relief from Conceição and the idiotic move to take his boy toy on loan. Relief from a coach with no tactics or plan. Relief from going down 1-0 or 2-0 every fucking game. Relief from general humiliation week after week. Dumping that clown is addition by subtraction of the highest order. Is Max the guy? No idea, but he has an excellent track record.
gillis: This Q&A could easily turn into an Allegri-only post but let’s move on to the next question…
Coaching changes and player moves get all the headlines but let’s turn our attention to what may end up being the most important offseason move: what do you guys think of the appointment of Igli Tare as sporting director? Does his record at Lazio (gross) give you any confidence or hope in what lies ahead?
Michael Lisi: I like it because this is a guy that always had Lazio competing for 4th despite a limited budget and insane owner. One would think that with more money and a less controlling ownership he should be able to do really good things.
What gives me pause is what happened with Monchi at Roma. That’s another guy that did wonders on a limited budget at Sevilla then went to Roma and got a giant bag to spend. Well it was a disaster and he was chased out quickly. Overall I think it’s a good appointment. Lord knows we need an actual personnel guy after the last 12 months of rudderless decisions.
Pete Acquaviva: Yeah I agree, the bar is so low right now. Literally having SOMEONE in this role is an upgrade. He could waste the entire budget and it wouldn’t look too far off our recent transfer windows. My hope is there’s some semblance of a coherent strategy sporting wise. The real strategy has always been on the business side and that is turn a profit.
Michael Lisi: Totally agree. Any plan is better than no plan at all.
gillis: We could touch on squad priorities and targets now but I have a question on that later.
Sticking with Tare/sporting direction, I wanted to ask about Tijjani Reijnders. I know he was universally appreciated by the Milan fanbase and this is now the second quality midfielder sold in the last 2 years. Two questions: (1) should Milan have done it, and (2) how do you feel about it?
Pete Acquaviva: Should they have done it? It’s hard to argue with blowing a hole in the budget in the last year of FFP regulations. But they shouldn’t have been in a position to be finishing halfway down the table and losing all this future gate and competition revenue. As this became more apparent, this need to sell arose. I’d have tried to do it just about any other way personally, but I think they plan to retool the squad entirely since the cycle is clearly over. No one is motivated…besides Pulisic and Pavlović.
Michael Lisi: They should not have had to do it but it’s the position we are in after bringing in an idiot coach mid season. You reap what you sow. I’d rather they sold Theo and Leão. I can always find a LB and a wing. World class mids don’t grow on trees and we’ve now sold 2 of them in 2 years.
Also completely agree on Pete’s last point. Other than those 2, the rest of the remaining players on this team took large stretches of the season off. Those 2 put the work in week in and week out all year long.
How do I feel about it? When’s the last time we had a mid score 15 goals in a season? Ever? I know for sure we’ve had whole seasons where the entire midfield didn’t score 15 goals. I feel like it fucking blows. I would have sold almost any other 3 players in the team to raise funds.
Pete Acquaviva: But to play devils advocate, half the issue with the team this year was a lack of depth, if they don’t sell a starter they probably sacrifice that depth even more which is a self-sustaining negative cycle.
Michael Lisi: It didn’t help we gave away our depth in dumping guys like Calabria, Salad, Adli, and Pobega and replacing them with absolutely nothing. Not that any of them were world beaters but clearly better than what we brought in. The midfield especially was decimated.
I know we have yet to truly see what Gerry & Co. have planned this summer but do you believe a squad revamp is needed or just strategic addition/subtractions?
Michael Lisi: The back line needs sorted out. That’s for sure. I feel like we went months without keeping a clean sheet down the stretch. Sort that out and I think everyone’s job gets easier. The mess back there was a giant weight dragging the whole team down all year long.
Whether that’s a 3 back or a 4 back it’s hard to say. What we do know is that Allegri is not married to one formation or system.
Pete Acquaviva: I think you have about ten different individual issues all in a knot. We can pull on one at a time and maybe some of that might untangle but it’s much more complex. I can’t stress this enough, there was active mismanagement to the point to needing a revolution in the first place. The work was already done, we’re now watching these same incompetents (no one was fired besides the coaches) reinvent the wheel to get us back to where we already were.
Michael Lisi: So the same fuck ups that fucked it up in the first place are going to try and unfuck the things they fucked up while trying not to fuck up anything else? God bless Igli Tare.
gillis: So Pete, it sounds like you think a squad revamp is probably necessary – never mind who’s doing the revamping – and Mike, it sounds like maybe you think some targeted addition/subtractions would be enough even if a squad revamp might indeed be coming?
Pete Acquaviva: I think we walked players who are professional and motivated into a situation where they felt like it was ok for them to not give their all. And that happened over and over. Now, I think the genie is out of the bottle.
Michael Lisi: Agree.
Well this all leads to everyone’s favorite topic: the mercato. Milan won’t be able to turnover 20 positions this summer even if that’s what you both believe is needed. With that in mind, as much as we can while not knowing what Allegri’s preferred formation will be, and knowing what players are likely to stay and go, what positions should be a priority for Milan this summer?
Pete Acquaviva: I think the answer to that question is tied directly into the ambitions of the club. They claim they want to win it all, and if that’s the case more than 15 outgoing/inbound transfers will be needed. Personally, I don’t believe them, and if you do, I have some beachfront property in Colorado to sell you.
Realistically they need to get to fourth place until Cardinale has a coronary or he finds a sugar daddy to bail him out of Elliot’s vendor loan. They’ll swap some CBs, sold and bought, they’ll bring in two new wing backs and probably churn last year’s starters, and the midfield will need at least one if not two new starters. Leão and Pulisic stay, so you’ll need to replace Chuk and maybe also Okafor…then you need an alternative to Santi that isn’t Jović.
How much they actually do, will be interesting to see. I’m curious if they’ll overcorrect here, but my gut is they’ll under prepare and find themselves between a rock and a hard place mid-August after moving too slowly to negotiate every deal to Furlani’s satisfaction.
Michael Lisi: To me it all starts in the backline. I feel like we could see a massive overhaul. If all 4 spots had new guys I certainly wouldn’t lose any sleep. Most likely Theo and Pavlović remain and we find another CB and a RB. Who those new guys are is anyone’s guess.
The midfields needs some love too. Reijnders leaves a giant hole, certainly one that can’t be addressed internally. I’m ok with the attack because I’m always ok with the attack if the midfield and backline are in order. We have more than enough up there to score goals.
Honestly until we have some idea what formation Allegri will go with it’s hard to to sort out what direction the club will want to go in. Right now I imagine Allegri and Tare going into the war room with giant white board and a box of dry erase markers and not coming out until they have a plan.
gillis: Gotcha. Ok, last question…
We obviously can’t predict how Milan will do next season with so much still undetermined. But, let’s have a little fun and try to predict how the summer will go for the Milan mercato. You both seem relatively content with Allegri and Tare, how confident are you they will make enough correct moves…and overcome Milan’s inept ownership…to tangibly improve the squad relative to last season?
Pete Acquaviva: Very confident. I don’t think they even need to solve it in the market; they have several outs. Just fixing squad morale alone will push them up to 6/7th. Depth at key positions can move them up. I think the last bit will require correct transfers.
I worry about Max being central to the team, I think it raises the floor but lowers the ceiling. For every Rabiot you’d like to avoid, there’s a Vlahović who could be a real hit if at the right price. I think just throwing shit at the wall gets you up a few places. I think retaining the rest of the core moves you up.
We’ll need to see how things go but this has third to fifth place squad vibes. Which is more than enough for Cardinale, he just wants the money train to keep on plowing.
Michael Lisi: First of all, I think it’s important to note that with the club world cup this summer it’s going to be a very strange market, much like the 2020 Covid market. To me the first goal is always top 4. You can keep all the super cup and Coppa Italia trophies you want. I could care less. I just want Allegri and Tare to get this team back to giving a shit and working together again. Those that can’t or won’t do that need to go ASAP. You do that and top 4 should be a breeze.
You lock up the back end and get us keeping clean sheets again and then a title chase will be in order. You nail replacing Reijnders and you are talking Scudetto. Maybe I’m a little positive but I have that much belief that the talent is there, that Conceição was a fucking disaster and that Allegri is the cure for what ails us. IN MAX I TRUST!!!
Pete Acquaviva: There is going to be a run of five or six 1-0 or 0-0 games in the middle of the season and the more they get to the 1-0 the more likely they can finish second or third. I think the scudetto is out of reach, but you never know. Juve turning over, Inter starting a new coaching cycle, Conte due for the Conte Crash this season…it’s there…I just don’t know if I can believe this is the group to get it together enough to take advantage over the rivals.
Michael Lisi: Totally agree on that midseason lean period. We had that stretch this year and Conceição totally shit his pants. Draws became losses. I also agree that the coaching carousel in Italy has left a vacuum for someone to take advantage. The title race is wide open. You could convince me almost anyone in the top 6 can win the league. Then again you could convince me almost any of those coaches gets fired before Christmas. It’s wide open.
Pete Acquaviva: The opportunity is there. The environment favors a reshuffle. Let’s see if they can actually take advantage.
Michael Lisi: Agree.
Wrap Up
This was fun to do, bringing back Nonno so he can pause yelling at kids from his porch and share his thoughts, as well as welcoming Pete as a new and insightful voice around all things Milan.
As a reminder, Pete has his own blog that he started up again after a long hiatus and his return post summarizes beautifully why he’s back. I suggest you all drop by and give his site a read as I always find his thoughts, insights, and writing style to be one of the best out there.
Forza Milan
gillis