Pellegatti criticises Milan’s mercato ambitions: “Sucked into negativity” | OneFootball

The summer mercato is now open, and following last summer, work must be done to carry on improving the team, rather than allowing it to regress. Unfortunately, Carlo Pellegatti believes that AC Milan may be in line to do the latter.

Looking at the two summers which have just passed, there are two tales. 2022’s summer mercato was awful, money was wasted, funds were allocated poorly, and there were screams for better in the summer of 2023, and thankfully, it was.

Although Sandro Tonali departed, the window was much more favourable, and the money spent was not only well allocated, but the talent that arrived hit the ground running. Christian Pulisic, Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were fantastic on numerous occasions and rarely looked like league debutants.

This summer, several areas will receive investment, and they are key positions, which means the risk is much higher, but if Milan gets it right, they will be rewarded significantly. However, Pellegatti is worried about the situation, and when speaking to Radio Rossonera’s YouTube channel, he criticised the ambitions of the club.

On the management’s ambitions in the market…

“I don’t think it will go away. If Milan were to take Zirkzee, Calafiori, etc. there might be a break, but after that we’ll be back to the same point. Even in Elliott’s first year, the mood was sceptical. Ibrahimovic seemed to be able to give the same guarantee as Maldini, but instead, he seems to be sucked into the negativity of the others.”

On market names…

“It’s the striker who unlocks the market. When they know how much they’ll spend on the striker then they’ll move for Emerson Royal, who from what I’ve been told seems quite close. As for the midfielder, André Trindade likes him, while for Rabiot they told me during the week to keep it alive. My big Milan dream is that if you get 30/35 million for Thiaw, you add 5/6/7 and go and get Buongiorno or Calafiori. Like you did with Tonali last year.

“Calafiori on a media level would be a great coup…you steal him from Juventus, you convince Bologna, he is the player who is now the symbol of Italy. Then I personally would keep the 20/25 for Royal on the right, continue with Calabria and Florenzi, and add 15 to go on Buongiorno anyway.”

On the winning mentality…

“I like profiles like Rabiot, Morata…we’ve rightly invested in Kjaer, Ibra, Giroud, older players when they arrived. These are the players who make the difference. With all the love we have for Okafor, Chukwueze, Pulisic…they don’t have that stuff there, they don’t make a difference.”