AC Milan are still feeling the effects of the transfer flops that were carried out while Leonardo was in charge of recruitment, a report claims.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write about how Charles De Ketelaere, Divock Origi and Yacine Adli have become the face of what many consider to be a bad 2022 summer window with money wasted, but their costs do not seem as bad compared to what came before.
The paper recall how Leonardo was in charge when the likes of Gonzalo Higuain, Mattia Caldara, Lucas Paqueta and Krzysztof Piatek were brought to the club, resulting in over €130m being burned through.
The Brazilian was called in the summer of 2018, when Elliott Management had just taken possession of the club after Yonghong Li’s disastrous ownership. Paolo Maldini was appointed director of strategic development, and it seemed a good team to move forward with given their experience.
Higuain and Caldara arrived from Juve, presented on a terrace in Piazza Duomo. The Higuain operation was potentially gigantic: a loan of €18m with an option to buy for €36m, plus a salary of €7.5m. Then, €35m were invested to sign Caldara. To that sum must added the €14m spent for Diego Laxalt.
Six months later, Gattuso – at the time Milan coach – found himself fighting for a spot in the Champions League with none of the three playing a part. Caldara was always injured, Laxalt a reserve and Higuain was at Chelsea.
After a good start (4 goals in the first 6 matches across Serie A and the Europa League), the feeling between Pipita and the Devil soon faded away and the call from west London allowed Milan to limit the damage.
In January 2019, after having tried in vain to bring Ibra back to the Rossoneri, Leonardo decided to turn to Piatek of Genoa. He spent €35m on the Pole, who scored seven goals in his first month but his season ended in decline.
His time at Milan ended at the beginning of 2020, after five goals in 20 appearances, when he went to Hertha Berlin and Milan made a capital gain given the €27m received, albeit a minimal one.
Piatek was not the only failure of that 2019. In the same January window, Lucas Paquetà landed in Milano from Flamengo, costing €38.4m and becoming the third-most expensive signing ever in the club’s history as well as Elliott’s biggest expense.
It went very badly for him too as he never settled and said goodbye in September 2020, joining Lyon for €20m after 44 appearances and four goals in two seasons.
