one purchase per week – Corriere.it

Maddened, more and more. At the rate of one purchase a week, as per the effective definition of the president Paolo Scaroni, the new Milan takes shape. With a very precise and defined strategy: to strengthen the team from the midfield up to make it more solid and European, but above all more competitive on three fronts, unlike what (not) happened in the troubled last season. One month from the start of the championship, 21 August in Bologna, we are already making six signings: the last one is called Noah Okafor, he is 23 years old, Swiss and already speaks Italian, he comes from Salzburg and will share the role of center forward with 37-year-old Olivier Giroud.

The Austrian club of the Red Bull group, with which the boy still had one year of contract, will receive 14 million plus bonuses. Last season he scored 10 goals in 32 games, including one against Milan in the Champions League in September. Not very many, true. But a good deal, for two reasons. The first is that the purchase of a ready-to-use point of view was an urgency that could no longer be postponed. The second hers community passport, which will thus allow the very active ad Furlani and his market man Moncada to accelerate now on Chukwueze of Villarreal – Nigerian and therefore non-EU – for the role of right winger. The advanced negotiation, like the one for Musah, the New York midfielder of Valencia.

The term revolution in the AC Milan house is not liked, as is the concept of year zero, but the truth is that the break with the past is very clear. Even in the transfer market strategy: having collected the 70 million from the painful sale of Tonali to Newcastle, instead of reinvesting the money in a couple of effective shots – which would have been even simpler – the wise choice was to proceed with more targeted purchases to fill the various gaps in the squad. It is clear that only the pitch will tell whether the idea was right or not, that is to say whether the team will be stronger or not, but it is undeniable that what is taking shape is a more structured Milan. The second goalkeeper Sportiello has arrived, the midfielders Loftus-Cheek and Reijnders who will allow the tactical alternative of 4-3-3, the young Romero and the offensive jolly Pulisic, more precisely Okafor. For now we are about seventy million reinvested. And not finished yet.

The main unknown concerns the time. There are many changes and they will have to be metabolized quickly, also because the start of the season is uphill, with five direct matches in the first 10 days and a Champions League to be faced in the third pot. The good news for Stefano Pioli – increasingly central to the project, he was the one who strongly wanted Okafor like everyone else – that the reinforcements have already arrived and therefore he will be able to work on his new Milan already during the tour in the United States which kicks off today. Patron Gerry Cardinale’s trip to America will not be just business: the friendlies with Real Madrid (July 24), Juventus (28) and Barcelona (August 2) it will be three precious crash tests.

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I want a happy and dominant Milan, Pioli said clearly to Sky before boarding the flight to California. The Rossoneri coach returned to the farewell of Paolo Maldini (the club has decided to change the page, but history is not forgotten) and to that of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (he was the pack leader, a leader can be Mike Maignan) but now he looks to the present and to the future. Naming the player who more than anyone else represents the link with the past: From
Leao I expect further growth. Milan believes in Rafa and for this he did everything (and more) to keep him close. Now it’s his turn. In this revolutionary season, his smile and his goals must be a certainty.