After the Mattia Liberali saga, AC Milan are keen to avoid a repeat in the future and will operate differently with their youth players.
In recent years, Milan have focused on young players on the mercato, gambling on potential. Now, the model appears to be different. However, the club will not stop hoping for proteges to arise, albeit with a different focus now.
Cardinale’s new position
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Cardinale now wants to promote the inclusion of youth players in the first team, using Davide Bartesaghi as a model. Indeed, the train of thought will now be: if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
The money has already come from the Rossoneri this summer, but Cardinale does not want to make this the only focus of the club. Instead, he wants an ecosystem which allows recruitment from external and internal sources.
Moving forward, then, the Futuro will be used to create ‘more Bartesaghis’ – due to the way he adapted to the first team immediately from the youth reserves, it’s not a demand for a team of left-backs.
Andrej Kostic, Francesco Camarda, Alphadjo Cissè, Aurelien Guernier, Yahya Idrissi and Lorenzo Ossola will be the players to watch immediately. Cardinale has made his stance clear, they do not want any more mistakes where young potential is involved.