Milan confession on Gimenez-Dovbyk swap, Musah and Akanji doubts
Milan director Igli Tare admits they ‘will decide tomorrow’ whether to swap Santiago Gimenez with Roma’s Artem Dovbyk, sell Yunus Musah to Atalanta, and wait for Manuel Akanji.
Their Serie A match against Lecce kicks off at the Stadio Via del Mare at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Cremonese vs. Sassuolo on the Liveblog.
The pressure is already on after the worst possible start to their Serie A season, suffering a humiliating 2-1 home defeat to newly-promoted Cremonese.
Tare knows Milan have a lot of work to do
The focus is all on the transfer market too, because Christopher Nkunku completed his move from Chelsea today for €37m plus €5m in difficult to achieve add-ons.
“The most difficult thing is making the right choice,” Tare told Sky Sport Italia.
“Nkunku was always on our radar and we tried to complete the attack, especially as we saw that after Rafael Leao’s injury, we were really lacking pace in attack. This is why we took this option into consideration.
“It was not possible until 3-4 days ago because the costs were completely different, but then we made the most of the situation that Chelsea were dealing with, and did well to conclude an agreement.”
There have been strong reports that Milan and Roma are trying to make another swap of forwards after Tammy Abraham and Alexis Saelemaekers last season, this time between Gimenez and Dovbyk.
“In terms of numbers, we have the squad that we want. However, we are evaluating an alternative with an exchange involving Gimenez. If it’s feasible or not, we’ll know after the game,” confirmed Tare.
“It wouldn’t be possible to keep both strikers, as we only have one game per week. It would only be in case of an exchange, otherwise we are fine as we are.”
Yunus Musah had been close to Napoli, Nottingham Forest and Atalanta this summer, but starts tonight against Lecce and might be staying.
“We’ll evaluate that after the match. We do have an agreement with Atalanta, but Jashari’s injury complicated the situation. We’ll make a decision tomorrow.”
Milan are also in talks with Manchester City for Manuel Akanji, but while the club would accept a €15m proposal, the player seems unconvinced by coming to San Siro.
“We haven’t received a response from him yet, but this change of system in the last few days caused us a few problems. We must do well in the last 72 hours of the transfer session to bring an experienced player. Akanji has experience and also the quality required to play for Milan.”
Max Allegri is looking at different tactical systems, switching between three at the back and four against Cremonese and Lecce.
“We analysed the situation carefully with Max, both three months ago and now, seeing the two goals we conceded against Cremonese. We’ve gone back to the past, conceding goals with distractions and poor marking. So we decided to change the system to give more confidence to the team,” continued Tare.
“I was traumatised by the defeat to Cremonese, it was a nightmare week. We have to win now, because the Milan fans deserve a competitive squad. The club put us in a position to complete the squad, we must be strong and humble. We must win at all costs this evening.”