An eye on the January transfer market, another on the expiring contracts renewal. The AC Milan management is already active and, in this sense, the Europa League match versus Dudelange has been very useful for some initial reflections on the matter.
As reported by Il Corriere dello Sport today, in particular there are five special observed players at Milanello. That is: Ignazio Abate, Cristian Zapata, Jose Mauri, Riccardo Montolivo and Andrea Bertolacci. All these players have agreements expiring in June 2019.
Among these, however, only Abate could be indeed close to signing an extension. Also because, considering the return of Andrea Conti, set for early January, in fact he is the natural substitute of Davide Calabria as right back. The club may want to take precautionary measures while waiting the return of the unfortunate fortunate talent of Atalanta.
Evaluations in progress for all the others. Leonardo and Paolo Maldini are analyzing carefully the situation of Jose Mauri and Bertolacci. Both started from the first minute in Luxembourg but if the Argentine youngster fared well enough, the same can not be said for the Italian midfielder, back at Milanello after a one-year loan at Genoa. Opaque, inaccurate and suffering for the entire match despite playing against a modest opponent. Not really an encouraging signal for the management.
The most particular case is that linked to the former captain, Montolivo. The 33 year old defensive midfielder has fallen down the pecking order and throughout the summer negotiated without success the termination of his contract. Too high his economic demands for Bologna and Werder Bremen. The Rossoneri on the other hand were unwilling to pay him to leave. He remained at Milan knowing he would have little chance to play. Coach Gattuso mentioned Montolivo in yesterday’s press conference: “He is not in the squad list because he comes from an injury and has just started to train regularly. I have to make choices and I prefer to trust those who are in better conditions“, said Rino. Words that confirm Montolivo’s future is far away from the Rossoneri.
About to depart is also the Colombian defender Cristian Zapata. Leonardo is looking to bring in a new defender and is scouting in Brazil for a replacement. The 30 year old centre back was close to joining Cagliari this summer and negotiations could restart in January or else Zapata would leave San Siro on a free transfer.
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