After years of having very few quality players come through our youth sector, Milan struck gold when Francesco Camarda came through. The striker, a lifelong Milanista, whose father brought him with him in the Curva Sud at San Siro and even has a Curva Sud tattoo, became a prolific scorer in the youth sector, scoring 485 goals in just 89 matches. As a Milan and Italy generational talent, his development was being carefully supervised under Maldini. But once he was sacked, things went downhill quickly, and last year, the club failed him completely. So Milan sent him on loan this season to Lecce, with option to buy and Milan retaining a buyback clause. But to incentivize his playing time, Milan are reportedly paying Lecce bonuses of €75,000 for each appearance and €100,000 for every goal he scores. And seeing how Milan cleared out all but one of our strikers, and are still scrambling to find one more, it has been noted that we could have really, really used Camarda this season on our roster. Instead, on Friday night at the Stadio Via del Mare, we will literally be paying for Camarda.
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| It hurts so much to see him wearing another jersey. |
Lecce are no dummies. They have invested in young players and have the team with the youngest average age in Serie A this season. Their manager, Eusebio Di Francesco, actually managed Lecce briefly and very unsuccessfully in 2011. Later, made a name for himself developing young players at Sassuolo. Since then, he has had mixed success, most recently seeing two different clubs relegated in the past two seasons. But, Lecce, having very narrowly avoided the drop themselves last year, have taken a chance on him again this year.
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| This is not Di Francesco's first stint at Lecce, he's hoping this time goes much better. |
They have also worked well within their limited budget to bring fresh talent in as well, including Camarda and our loanee from Fiorentina last season loaned to them this year, Riccardo Sottil. New players they have purchased include right back Christ-Owen Kouassi from Ligue 2; center back Jamil Siebert from the Bundesliga second division; and midfielder Álex Sala from Spain's second division. Both Corrie Ndaba, a left back signed from Scotland, and Matias Pérez, a center back signed from Chile were presented on Tuesday, while Nicola Štulić, a center forward, was just signed on Wednesday coming from the Belgian League. Apparently, he was signed to replace Krstović, whom they sold to Atalanta for a cool €25 million, which was amazing, considering they have only spent €15 million in the transfer window.
Štulić will create competition for Camarda, but considering Milan are paying Lecce for him to play, he should still get plenty of time. Camarda was the youngest ever player to debut in Serie A, and also the youngest Italian to ever play in the Champions League, having scored a goal that was tragically ruled offside. He was also a major part of the Italy U17 team that won the Euro Tournament last year. But last season, he spent most of his time on the bench for the first team, which prevented him from playing many of the Milan Futuro matches as well. Our most talented young player got the least playing time.
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| He made history, but that was not enough for this management. |
This after Ibrahimović had specifically promised to oversee his development. At his presentation for Lecce, Camarda specifically said, "At Lecce, they treat me like a professional player," a damning statement on Milan and Italian football on the development of young players. He is one of 15 Futuro players to have left Milan this summer, with 11 of those players on permanent deals after Milan Futuro were relegated to Serie D.
And Di Francesco started him in Lecce's opening league match. Last week, Lecce were away to Genoa, where they played to a 0-0 draw. For that match, Di Francesco lined up a 4-3-3 with: Falcone; Danilo, Gaspar, Tiago Gabriel, Gallo; Lassana Coulibaly, Yiber Ramadani, Berisha; Lameck Banda, Camarda, and Morente. Camarda played 83 minutes in this one, but Milan only owe Lecce €75,000, as he did not score, obviously. Di Francesco will be without Gaby Jean and Marchwinski, who are out injured.
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| Camarda wanted to keep playing for the fans he was once a part of, now he is the opposition. |
Allegri is back with a vengeance. Our Starboy, Leão, developed an elongated calf muscle after scoring in our Coppa Italia win over Bari, and will not be back for this one, either. We have two players now injured in training. Torriani received a finger injury in training the week prior to that match, it is unknown when he will return. But the worst possible news came on Thursday, when it was announced that Jashari had broken his right fibula after a collision in training. It is reportedly not a displaced fracture, and the decision was made not to have surgery, but the player that was the "Transfer Telenovela" of the summer, will miss a bare minimum of eight weeks. And Christian Pulisic is reported to have an ankle problem, and his starting spot is in doubt.
But it gets worse. As the powers that be are already scrambling to fill the gaping holes in the squad after 25 players from the first team have left thus far, Allegri has already caused irreparable damage to his relationship with Álex Jiménez, reportedly over the young 20 year-old being late to training a few times. There were never any problems reported under Pioli, Bonera, Fonseca, Conceição, or Massimo Oddo. Jiménez has worked with five other managers in the past two years alone. But Allegri was also the reason cited for most of the Senatori leaving all at once in 2012, too.
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| Apparently, this may be the last time we got to see Álex Jiménez in a Milan shirt. |
So, Allegri has once again banished Jiménez to Milan Futuro for a week, as the club are working on a deal to move him on to another club completely. A huge loss, especially on top of all the other Milan Futuro they've already let go this summer. And, yet another spot to fill, although reports are that they may just keep Musah instead of selling him to Atalanta for €25 million as planned. Musah and Jiménez are not the same. And, that also means that without Jiménez, we are down five players for this match. It's only the second match of the season, and we are already missing five players. Just call it the Allegri Effect™.
Allegri has called up new Futuro right winger Cheveyo Balantien to help bolster his incredibly threadbare attack, though he is unlikely to see playing time. It is unknown as of this writing which other young players he has called up, but Primavera goalkeeper Pittarella will undoubtedly be called up again if Torriani is, in fact, still out. Predicted lineups show that Allegri learned nothing from the Cremonese match, he is reportedly going to do the exact same thing, but put Musah on the right wing and Saelemaekers in Pulisic's spot. Like it didn't work last week, so let's try a worse version? I hope the predictions are dead wrong, or Milan are dead in the water.
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| Here's hoping Jashari heals quickly and well. |
This season was supposed to be better. We were "guaranteed to win" with Allegri, whom we are paying more than double either of our managers' wages last season. We got a real Sporting Director finally, too. But after so many players were so unhappy with last season, the record high amount in player sales only reflects the vapid, greedy, soulless feeling that has replaced what Milan used to be. And none of that includes a properly built team or quality players.
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| Milan has turned its back on its young talent. |
And nothing represents that better than the club's treatment of Camarda. They ignored him and failed to show him any appreciation all last season, causing his value to drop. But, like rich parents who do not know how to parent, they shipped him off to Lecce like a boarding school, and are now paying them to do Milan's job for them. All Camarda has ever loved was Milan, but Milan hasn't loved him back. And that same Milan is so dysfunctional, they have sold so much of their quality for a giant bag of money, so they cannot even find 23 players for their own first team now. Having finished in eighth place last season and without Europe, then seeing so many players leave, Milan truly need Camarda worse than ever. Instead, they are facing off against him, and quite literally paying for Camarda.
This post inspired by the music of Abor & Tynna's "Baller"
Reviewed by Elaine
on
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