Ranking AC Milan's 2014 Summer Transfer Window Signings on Last Season's Form
With the 2014-15 season done and the summer transfer window set to open, teams such as AC Milan need to look forward but also look back. As important as what this summer will bring is, it's also necessary to look at what the team did the last year and see whether their moves filled holes—or created them.
Milan made a decent amount of moves last year. A few turned out quite well, but others were utter disasters.
B/R is going to look at the 2014 transfer window to see just how much of an impact the new players had. For the sake of brevity, we will exclude players such as Andrea Poli and Adil Rami, who became fully owned by Milan last summer after having previously played for the club on temporary deals. Likewise, players such as M'baye Niang, who returned from a loan, will not be considered. The focus will be solely on players brand new to Milan's books last summer.
Also omitted from this list are players such as Stefano Gori, Gianmario Comi, Michelangelo Albertazzi and Michael Agazzi, who didn't take to the field for Milan last season. The ranking criterion is simple: How much better did the player make the club?
Who was the team's best acquisition last summer? Read on to find out.
7. Fernando Torres
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Milan's desperate search for a striker since the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2012 has gone down a dark and thorny path. In 2013, they grossly overpaid Juventus for Alessandro Matri. Mario Balotelli could never really get his head totally straight after the blistering start he made upon his arrival in the winter of 2013.
Last summer's solution was Fernando Torres, whose time at Chelsea had run out after the acquisition of Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid and the re-signing of Didier Drogba to back up the Spaniard. Torres was loaned to Milan—and what a mistake it turned out to be.
He did give fans some false hope. His first start against Empoli produced a man-of-the-match performance.
After that? Nothing.
In eight more appearances he produced absolutely nothing. During the winter transfer window, Milan claimed his full rights for free and sent him on an 18-month loan to Atletico Madrid, receiving Alessio Cerci on an identical deal in return.
Torres was supposed to be a marquee player but turned into a black hole when he was on the field. It was a truly terrible signing.
6. Pablo Armero
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Pablo Armero is another player who simply didn't produce after arriving on loan from Udinese in the summer.
The Colombian ended up garnering more yellow cards (three, two of which came in one game) than he did assists (one) during his time with the Rossoneri. He only played for Milan eight times and didn't appear in any games after January 24—a 3-1 loss to Lazio.
In April, Milan allowed Armero to go out on loan to Brazilian side Flamengo.
This attempt to beef up the back line was a complete and utter dud.
5. Marco van Ginkel
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Chelsea loanee Marco van Ginkel could have been higher on this list, but injuries held him back. He only played twice before New Year's Day and didn't become a first-team regular until mid-March.
When he did play, he made a good contribution. He played 90 minutes in every game he played from March 16 until the end of the season, and by May, he had become a top performer. WhoScored.com named him Man of the Match in two of the team's final four games of the season.
If he had been healthy, Filippo Inzaghi might have been able to limit the playing time of dead-weight midfielders Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien. The young Dutchman impressed in the last few months of the season, but it's unlikely that he'll stay at San Siro.
The latest reports, from Britain's Metro, stated that Milan aren't going to activate the permanent option in the loan deal. That was in February. Inzaghi did express an interest in extending his loan in May, but now that he is out and Sinisa Mihajlovic is in, the Serbian is likely to have his own plans, and there's no indication that Van Ginkel is in them.
He was a good worker when he was on the field, but he wasn't on it enough for his move to be considered anything more than a modest success.
4. Alex
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Arriving on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain, it was hoped that Alex would bring a solidity to the back line that had been absent in recent times. The results were mixed.
When he was in the lineup and in front of the ball, Alex did indeed help the Rossoneri back line improve. According to WhoScored.com's detailed statistics, he was hardly ever broken down on the dribble—an average of once every 10 games. He also did an excellent job distributing from the back, completing 89.6 percent of his passes.
On the downside, he only managed 18 starts because of various injuries, and at 33, he's a bit of a plodder. If someone got behind him, it was rare when he was be able to recover.
The Brazilian certainly performed better than some of the team's other center-backs and could be a good contributor for the next few seasons, but at his age, he's really only a stopgap, and shifty young forwards such as Alvaro Morata and Domenico Berardi might end up being too much for him to cope with.
Still, he was a good initial improvement to the lineup, and if he stays on the field more, he should be a consistent performer next year.
3. Jeremy Menez
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Jeremy Menez's numbers—particularly the "16" in the goals column—make his season look better than it really was.
Yes, he did score 16 times, but half of those goals came from the penalty spot. It was more common for him to run a breakaway into a dead end than for him to latch onto a ball and score in open play. The fact he only assisted four goals—compared to the seven notched by Juventus' leading scorer, Carlos Tevez—underlines how his goal total is more window dressing than substance.
Still, the goals he did score kept Mlian from falling even further into the abyss. He was certainly an asset, and considering the fact he cost the team nothing but wages, it was definitely a good return.
2. Giacomo Bonaventura
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Acquired for €7 million on deadline day, Giacomo Bonaventura has been a Swiss Army knife of a player, playing all over the midfield and on both wings. In the process, he scored seven times and provided four assists.
He's also proved to be one of a precious few players at Milan who can really provide a creative spark. He drew fouls at an impressive rate—2.1 per match, according to WhoScored.com—and was one of the few creative dribblers in the team.
Bonaventura's contribution was vital, and he can be a major building block for the Rossoneri in the future. Present production and future value—a perfect package.
1. Diego Lopez
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There really isn't any question as to whom Milan's best summer acquisition was.
Diego Lopez was a massive upgrade over the aging Christian Abbiati in goal. Real Madrid let him go on a free transfer, solving their 'keeper conundrum. He turned into Milan's best player.
Few 'keepers were under siege the way Lopez was behind Milan's shoddy defense. According to Squawka, he averaged 2.22 saves per game and made 60 overall, including a season-high six in the team's April 29 match against Genoa. The fact that they lost that game 3-1 tells you what kind of defense Lopez had in front of him.
The team conceded 50 goals last season, but that number would have been much higher had Lopez not been between the sticks.
Lopez was Milan's best player in 2014-15. The Rossoneri would have been even lower in the standings than 10th if not for him, and he'll be important during the club's rebuilding efforts.
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