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AC Milan have reason to hope that the players out on loan currently can generate a ‘treasure’ to be reinvested in the summer.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) speak this morning of ‘€80m in cash, and it has nothing to do with the Champions League prize money’. To get it, Milan didn’t have to do very much: instead they were able to just sit back and watch as their loanees did the rest at their various clubs.
The certainties
Those players who risked finding little playing time in Massimiliano Allegri’s squad proved invaluable in other ways. Even on the weekend without a league game, Milan were able to celebrate: Alex Jimenez’s 18th appearance for Bournemouth triggered the obligation to buy.
He was seen as ‘too undisciplined for Max’, but Jimenez was invaluable from afar. Bournemouth spent €19.5m plus over €5m in bonuses, to be split equally with Real Madrid, who sold him to Milan in the summer of 2023. It will bring in around €12m, therefore.
Exactly double that amount could come from the permanent sale of Samuel Chukwueze, currently on loan at Fulham. The Premier League club could provide the coffers with another €24m if Chukwueze maintains his strong performances in the second half of the season.
He has scored three goals and four assists despite a season hampered by a few physical ailments, which saw him play extensively at the Africa Cup of Nations (finishing third with Nigeria), forcing him to miss six Premier League matches.
Since returning to England, he has played three more times, starting twice against United and Everton. Chukwueze can now be considered a regular starter, and Milan are confident that Fulham – currently 10th in the league – will choose to exercise their option to buy him. The likelihood is high.
The others
The conditions for completing Tommaso Pobega’s sale to Bologna had been finalised well before yesterday, when the player was sent off in the Emilian derby against Parma. The Rossoblu will finalise the purchase this summer for €7m.
At the end of the season, another €3.5m will come from Cremonese for Filippo Terracciano, presuming that they do not get relegated. Genoa must also achieve survival for all the conditions of Lorenzo Colombo’s buy-out to be met, and that would yield another €10m.
Money will also pour in from Como and their obligation to keep Alvaro Morata on the lakeside, despite a season that hasn’t been particularly rich in goals. Factoring in the paid loan and the buy-out clause, Milan will get €15m. The total is around €70m, i.e. the number that the directors can bank on.
The doubts
The incoming money could rise further, but Milan would have to be lucky. For example, Ismael Bennacer – who is no longer part of the Rossoneri project – will have push Zvone Boban’s Dinamo Zagreb to keep him for €10m having been sidelined by quite a serious muscle issue.
For Yunus Musah, it’s also more likely that Milan will pay his return ticket from Bergamo. He has 12 league games for Atalanta, but only two as a starter. It’s unlikely the Nerazzurri will spend €26m to keep him in the squad next season.
Among the Milan players on loan is Warren Bondo, a regular starter for Cremonese. He will return to Milanello at the end of the season. The same fate awaits the young players Milan is watching develop elsewhere in order to find them again, like Christian Comotto who has 13 appearances for Spezia in Serie B. Allegri has publicly confirmed he expects him to join the squad.
There’s obviously the injured Francesco Camarda, on loan at Lecce with an option to buy and a buy-back, which Milan will use. The future of Kevin Zeroli, currently at Juve Stabia, is yet to be decided. He scored his first Serie B goal against Padova this weekend.
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