AC Milan: Will There Be Major Changes to the Rossoneri Front Line Next Season?
AC Milan seriously lacked punch on their front line this past season.
Jeremy Menez scored 16 times, but a full half of those goals came from the penalty spot. After Menez, the next two spots on the team's scoring chart were occupied by Giacomo Ventura (seven goals) and Keisuke Honda (six), who have played on the wing but are originally midfielders. The next-highest-scoring forward on the team was Giampaolo Pazzini, who netted just four.
Injuries played some part. The team was deprived of Stephan El Shaarawy for much of the year due to a foot injury, and his play in a late-season cameo suggested he might have helped augment those numbers to some degree.
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But beyond El Sha's training room woes, Milan's forwards simply underperformed. It's likely that the entire unit will be massively overhauled in the summer.
It's difficult at this stage to see who will stay and who will go this summer. The most likely player to stay is El Shaarawy. In spite of his brother/agent's comments to Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) last week about his desire to see his sibling play abroad, El Shaarawy seemingly has no desire to move on and could be a major piece in Milan's rebuilding effort.
His sparkling effort against Torino two weeks ago reminded Milan fans of just what he can do if he's firing on all cylinders, and if he manages to stay healthy and play consistently he could yet rediscover the form he had when he broke onto the scene two years ago.
If some team from the Premier League offers a stupid amount of money for him it'd probably be difficult for Milan to say no, but that seems unlikely until he proves himself further.
Menez is an interesting case. The Rossoneri would probably like to keep him around, but after his success this season he has also become the team's most bankable chip. The team needs more than one piece to rebuild, and that magic number of 16 goals disguises a lot of flaws in Menez's game.
The Frenchman's value is unlikely to ever be higher, and with multiple reports—the most recent of which coming from La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia)—connecting him with former club Monaco, who need a boost up front themselves, it's conceivable that he won't be on the team.
Beyond him, Pazzini and Mattia Destro are almost certain to leave. Pazzini is out of contract this summer, and while he has expressed a desire to remain, it is more likely that Milan will use his wage money elsewhere.
Destro has severely disappointed since coming to Milan on loan from Roma, and there's no way Milan is going to spend €16 million to make his move permanent. The striker is almost certainly returning to the capital, where he'll probably search for another place to try to deliver on his potential.
Alessio Cerci cut a forlorn figure this season but could be a major piece of Milan's rebuild. Acquired in a swap of loans with Atletico Madrid that saw Fernando Torres go the other way, Cerci didn't get much playing time under Filippo Inzaghi, certainly not enough to knock the rust off after he spent the first half of the season warming the bench for Diego Simeone.
He did contribute four assists in a Milan shirt and was playing in a position on the wing that history has shown isn't his best. If he's given regular time at his best position as a "seconda punta" behind the main striker, he still has the talent to give the Rossoneri strike force a big boost.
There were reports from Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) that Atleti has asked Milan to find Cerci a new home for next season, but Football Italia reported Cerci's emphatic denial of those rumors on Twitter two days later. As it stands it's likely he'll stay, although moving his loan could mean a lot of savings for Milan's wage bill.
The last player to discuss is, of course, Hachim Mastour. The 17-year-old wunderkind was expected to make his Serie A debut at some point this season, but injury and Inzaghi's intractability kept him eternally on the sidelines.
He's not an instant savior—indeed, he shouldn't be playing a full schedule at his age under any circumstances—but if he gets onto the field he may well manage to shoot the club in the arm with a goal or two.
Who will come in to fill the places if Pazzini, Destro and Menez all depart? The team should first look to their own rolls.
M'baye Niang may be best known to Milan's fans for clanking the post with the goal gaping against Barcelona at the Camp Nou in 2013, but he's made strides on loan at Genoa this year. He recorded five goals and two assists in 12 starts with the Grifone and displayed remarkable versatility, scoring from both wings and as a center-forward.
Niang represents a low-cost upgrade and a good piece, but if Milan are going to truly revitalize the front line they're probably going to need to get an impact player from outside the current structure. One option would be Borussia Dortmund want-away Ciro Immobile, who according to Tuttosport (h/t Football Italia) has been in Milan's crosshairs since May.
Two other big names have come out in recent weeks as options. The highest-profile of that duo is Carlos Bacca.
Milan's connection with the Colombian international has lasted since early May, when Bacca himself shot such rumors down. It may have begun much earlier than that—last year Italian pundit Giancarlo Marocchi (h/t Football Italia) reported that Bacca had been considered by the team to replace Mario Balotelli.
He's certainly the kind of player Milan would have targeted in the past. He has scored 28 goals in all competitions for Sevilla this year, and his brace against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the Europa League final is what clinched the team's second consecutive title.
He would certainly be a huge upgrade to Milan's striker position, but a move would be unlikely. For one thing, Milan would probably have to shell out a huge fee, something they're not necessarily able to do at the moment.
For another, Bacca's current team is going to be playing Champions League soccer next year, whereas Milan are missing out on Europe entirely for the second consecutive year. That's going to be a hard sell to the player. Last year might have been the time to make this move.
The other man is Mario Mandzukic. A Champions League winner with Bayern two years ago, the Croatian scored 12 times this year for Atletico Madrid and has apparently made an impression on Adriano Galliani. The team's vice-president was visiting Madrid last week and was seen at Atleti's offices, and when queried by reporters from AS (h/t Football Italia) said, "Mandzukic? Yes, I like him very much."
This, at the moment, is the sum total of the connection between the player and Milan, but it does seem clear that Atleti could be willing to let him leave this year. Marca (h/t Football Espana) reports that the team is prepared to meet the €20 million release clause of Villarreal starlet Luciano Vietto.
The same report also connected the team with Gonzalo Higuain, Mauro Icardi and Christian Benteke. Another report from France Football (h/t Football Espana) connected Mandzukic with Monaco, possibly with Radamel Falcao moving in the other direction back to his former side.
Again, the lack of European competition is going to work against Milan if they make a play for the Croatian. Mandzukic has started the Champions League final and would expect to be shooting for Europe's top prize on a regular basis—something Milan simply can't guarantee at the moment.
One way or another, an overhaul is coming. Whether it's with a big name like Immobile, Bacca or Mandzukic, a smaller signing or the promotion of youth talent, Milan's front line is going to look a lot different when the new season opens in August.
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