‘I wasn’t ready’ – Sergino Dest offers honest reflection on Milan loan spell | OneFootball

Sergino Dest has offered an honest reflection on his time with AC Milan, admitting that it was a move that he perhaps wasn’t ready for.

Dest joined Milan on a season-long loan from Barcelona and he made 14 appearances without getting a goal or an assist, playing both as a right-back and as a left-back but struggling to ever really find any consistency or good form.

He returned to Barca at the end of the season but didn’t stay there for long in the end, instead joining PSV Eindhoven on an initial loan spell that was made permanent in the summer.

Dest gave an interview to The Athletic in which he also spoke about Milan and his loan spell during the 2022-23 season, with his comments relayed by MilanPress.

“I really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t ready. It was a very important lesson. If I go somewhere else, I have to be mentally ready. I couldn’t communicate with Pioli. He only spoke Italian, so we had to use an interpreter,” he said.

“I didn’t play much and, being on loan, I wasn’t that motivated to learn Italian. I started to think I wouldn’t stay long. Mentally, I wasn’t ready. I was too focused on Barcelona and I didn’t realise what a great club Milan was.

“I hadn’t left Barcelona in the right way and I felt hurt. Milan would have been a perfect club. It’s a shame that it went that way. I was 21. At the time, I didn’t even understand why I wasn’t playing. I thought they had brought me on loan to play.

“I learned a lot from that experience. Later, I got into the rhythm with the team and it went very well. I was one of the best in training and then I started playing, they gave me the ball more on the right, on the left there was Leao.”

One of the games in particular that fans criticised him for was the 3-0 Champions League defeat away against Chelsea in which he really struggled on the right side of the defence, something he is happy to admit.

“That night I played my worst game ever. I was new to the team and the players didn’t understand my style of play. With one-twos and everything, I didn’t feel the connection and I wasn’t focused, not just on the game. It still makes me angry. I give myself a 3 as a grade that night. I did terribly and I know it, I accept it.”