CM: 4th place the minimum – ball passes to Conceicao and squad after €48.5m spend | OneFootball

AC Milan were among the most active sides during the winter transfer window and they sent a strong message in the process: top four is the minimum aim.

Calciomercato.com begin a report by recalling what Zlatan Ibrahimovic said at Santiago Gimenez’s presentation: “We are not happy with our position, we have made five signings and five sales. This is the team that must change the situation. What we have done is more or less what we had set ourselves.”

RedBird Capital and the management have understood the difficulties and have intervened, investing €48.5m (without bonuses, the tenth-most of any club in the world for spending in the winter), so now it’s up to the team. Sergio Conceicao and the players are called to do more to save a season that has been below expectations so far.

The Supercoppa Italiana is in the bag already, but for a club like Milan it cannot be enough. In the league, having said goodbye to the Scudetto too early, the priority is fourth place, or the last spot to qualify for the next Champions League (which could be fifth).

The minimum objective is to finish in the UCL places, and not getting there risks being extremely damaging for the accounts, The chances for today remain live: Milan re currently eighth in the table with 35 points, seven points behind fourth-placed Lazio, but with one game less played.

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Reversing the trend is the imperative, but it is clear that Milan must try to go all the way in the other two competitions: the Coppa Italia and the Champions League. February, in this regard, will be a fundamental month: it starts tonight, with the quarter-final against Roma, then there is the play-off versus Feyenoord.

Perhaps an extra midfielder was needed to make the January mercato a perfect one, but the squad is now functional and up to the task of doing well right away. Adding Joao Felix, Santiago Gimenez and Kyle Walker to a core with the likes of Mike Maignan, Rafael Leao, Tijjani Reijnders and Christian Pulisic brings with it an obligation to dream big.