AC Milan agreed to send Lorenzo Colombo out on loan in the dying days of the summer mercato. The youngster joined Monza and has started well, prompting the Rossoneri legend Massimo Ambrosini to question the decision.
Milan were in talks with Porto over Mehdi Taremi in the final days of the summer window and after initially delaying Colombo’s exit, they agreed to send him to Monza. And when the Taremi talks broke down, the Rossoneri had to settle for Luka Jovic.
In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport this morning, which you can read in full here, Ambrosini shared his thoughts on the outcome. He questioned the decision amid Colombo’s positive start, scoring three goals in ten games for Monza.
“The perfect centre-forward would have been Taremi. Jonathan David is certainly an interesting profile. But I ask myself: are we sure that Colombo wouldn’t have been useful in this context?”, the club legend stated.
Jovic, as we know, is yet to find the back of the net for Milan. Stefano Pioli has been forced to overwork Olivier Giroud, who ideally would have a few games of rest. A hungry and young striker like Colombo could have been perfect, especially since there would have been playing time up for grabs.
I’ve watched Colombo last season at Lecce and this season at Monza and I’m not a Colombo fan, nor I have an issue with Colombo being loaned out.
Don’t think that his production for the minutes he would have gotten at Milan would have been any different than Jovic. At best he is a 3rd choice striker at Milan.
But, the hype and narrative around Colombo reminds me of the hype and narrative around Pobega couple years ago.
Pobega also was loaned out to a serie B team Pordenone before 2 loans to serie A teams Spezia and Torino. Fans were also saying Milan should have kept Pobega instead of loaning him out and playing Krunic instead, and they were against his sale when Torino wanted to buy him.
These are Pobega stats during his loan spells, and keep in mind he plays as a midfielder.
19/20 Pordenone , 2500 minutes, 34 games, 6 goals , 4 assists. age 20
20/21 Spezia, 1238 minutes, 6 goals, 3 assists. Age 21
21/22 Torino, 2237 minutes, 33 games, 4 goals, 3 assists. age 22
Colombo stats on loan.
21/22 Spal, 2150 minutes, 35 games, 6 goals, 1 assist, age 19
22/23 Lecce, 1550 minutes, 34 games, 6 goals, 2 assists. Age 20
Very similar numbers even though one is a box to box midfielder and the other a striker.
And even if we compare Pobega numbers in his 1st season back at Milan with Colombo numbers so far at Monza.
Pobega last season in only 1000 minutes, 27 games had 3 goals, 0 assists.
Colombo so far this season at Monza, 758 minutes, 10 games , 3 goals, 1 assist.
After all the hype, Pobega comes back to Milan, and people call him Slowbega, how he should never ever play again for Milan, and he should be sold for whatever money Milan can get for him.
That’s why I’ve said that if Colombo stayed at Milan this summer instead of them bringing Jovic in, everything that is said about Jovic today, it would have been said about Colombo.
At least at Monza the kid gets to play regularly, he is a starter and he is allowed to make mistakes without being subbed at half-time in those few games, once in a blue moon, he would have started under Pioli. Also, he is spared from the anger of the fans who instead of looking at the so called top players on the team when the team plays bad, they wanna look and blame the players who barely play.
Positive response
We need Colombo. We never should have entertained “has been” crap like Jovic. Colombo has qualities, he’s from the youth and he’s Italian. His greatest threat will be Pioli wasting him.
It would have been a much better decision to bring Cutrone back than see Jovic on the pitch.
It’s a pity that Taremi fell through. But having a formation with only 1 striker makes it really hard for younger strikers to get playing time. I would like to see a formation change to include 2 strikers so that non-starters can find playing time and help their development. Otherwise, you will constantly have the to find Strikers that can also play on the wings or as a CAM in order to find meaningful playing time. If you gave Jovic starting player minutes, you’d see better numbers from him.
@Z, crushing indictment of the fanbase here. I agree.
Yeah. I agree with everything and add that any team that relies on Italians for their top positions (especially strikers) cannot go very far in Europe. That’s the simple truth these days.
@Z: yes, he should be 3rd choice behind Giroud and Okafor.
Is something wrong with the comment section? Why can’t I reply directly to comment?
“Is something wrong with the comment section? Why can’t I reply directly to comment?”
Same issue here.
“We need Colombo. We never should have entertained “has been” crap like Jovic. Colombo has qualities, he’s from the youth and he’s Italian. His greatest threat will be Pioli wasting him.
It would have been a much better decision to bring Cutrone back than see Jovic on the pitch.”
Yes. Agreed. Colombo can conjure goals out of nowhere. And Cutrone had the attitude that makes the others play better too. Plus he can score a goal when the chance comes.