Lucrative gamble: AC Milan’s Romagnoli pursuit worth the hassle
After an impressive campaign with Sampdoria, Roma-owned defender Romagnoli has become a popular target of this summer’s transfer window.
The 20-year-old centre-back Alessio Romagnoli played under the tutelage of Sinisa Mihajlovic at Sampdoria and the new AC Milan coach wants his former pupil to join him.
The Giallorossi have asked €30 million for the Italy Under-21 international, and despite the hefty price tag, Romagnoli could be a great investment in the long run.
Napoli have offered €28 million for him but Roma have thus far snubbed all offers inferior to their asking price. Premier League clubs Chelsea and Arsenal have been linked with the defender but nobody has been as persistent as AC Milan.
The Rossoneri initially offered €15 million for Romagnoli, which the Giallorossi promptly rejected. Then AC Milan increased their bid to €20m, but only for Roma to rejected it too. What happened when the AC Milan offered €25 million? You guessed it. Roma rejected that too.
Paying €30m for a defender who has had only one excellent season in Serie A seems very excessive indeed, but AC Milan need to look at Romagnoli as a long-term investment. The Milanese giants have been spending millions this summer, with former Italy star Fulvio Collovati arguing that some of that money should have been used on Romagnoli already.
The Roma defender has been compared to Italian great Alessandro Nesta, but still needs to prove to fans that he can be a great player in his own right.
Going to AC Milan is probably the best choice for Romagnoli as opposed to going anywhere else. He will be more familiar with Mihajlovic’s training methods after his experience with Sampdoria and he won’t have to adapt to a system that is totally unfamiliar to him.
Romagnoli’s strengths are his clean tackling and his ball control. He is not thuggish or cynical like Philippe Mexes, he is more than capable of passing the ball out of defence, and he can also be an asset on set-pieces. When he scored his first ever Serie A goal in 2013, he scored it with a header in Roma’s 3-1 win against Genoa; he also scored two goals for Sampdoria last season.
The young centre-back’s main flaw is that he can struggle in a defensive line positioned too high. As a result, Romagnoli has struggled to play the offside trap properly.
In Roma’s recent pre-season friendly against Manchester City, he failed to push up in time to play Raheem Sterling offside, a mistake which the former Liverpool winger capitalised on within three minutes. Even at Sampdoria, Romagnoli would have trouble dealing with counter-attacks and showed discomfort when defending from in midfield.
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If Romagnoli were to flop and AC Milan lose matches because of him, Mihajlovic could be in trouble; but this represents the type of gamble the Rossoneri must take. Instead of being short-sighted and recruiting veterans on free transfers as in previous years, AC Milan need to look towards the future.
At 20 years old he cannot be expected to play consistently well every week. Romagnoli is still likely to make mistakes but even if he does, Mihajlovic would probably persist with him and give him the benefit of the doubt to earn valuable experience.
Alessio Romagnoli might be considered to be expensive at €30 million but if the Rossoneri acquire him and Mihajlovic can develop him more, the benefits could become more evident and a bargain over time.
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