MN: Lesson emerged from Higuain, Piatek and Paqueta signings that Milan continue to follow | OneFootball

A lot of scrutiny has been placed on the current AC Milan management for their strategy regarding signings, but the mistakes of previous ownerships have in large part driven the current stance.

MilanNews highlights how the signing of Dusan Vlahovic by Juventus and Robin Gosens by Inter were ‘two hard slaps in the face’ of the Milan fans, who are hungry to win trophies and feel that the leap in quality towards that is really close. There is also a belief among some that in order to make the jump from being a contender to a winner, expensive purchases are needed.

However, since the summer of 2019 to date there has been greater prudence in investing certain amounts on signings. Before that, Leonardo’s tenure as the Rossoneri’s sporting director saw him put forward considerable sums for Gonzalo Higuain of Juventus, Krzysztof Piatek of Genoa and Lucas Paqueta of Flamengo.

There is no doubting that those three signings generating a lot of excitement at the time and all three had an impact to a certain extent, but then things went sour for each of the trio and their stay at the club didn’t end up being a long one.

That’s not to say that Elliott Management haven’t sanctioned sizeable deals too though, such as Rafael Leao (€28m from Lille), Theo Hernandez (€22m from Real Madrid), Sandro Tonali (€20m roughly, given the renegotiation) and Fikayo Tomori (€29m from Chelsea).

These are all signings that are considered to be part of the core moving forward and have had longer success than Higuain, Piatek and Paqueta already. To that list we can also add the €14m for Mike Maignan and the €16m for Ismael Bennacer – all serving as prove that investment is not forbidden but guarantees are sought.

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