Reports have been present in recent months about AC Milan’s desire to create a B-team. Today, multiple reports have suggested that this is something which could come to fruition soon, and here are the reasons why this is a positive thing.
As reported earlier, there is a concrete possibility of Milan entering an Under-23 team into Serie C, potentially as early as next season. The Rossoneri are not the first to do this, and it is imaginable that they will not be the last, given the idea behind it.
As MilanNews writes, the plan is beneficial on several levels. Firstly, Gerry Cardinale has mentioned his desire to improve the academy further, and an easy way to do that for existing talent is with a B-Team that is entered into a professional league.
Internally, players develop, and this is a leading factor. The current crop of Primavera talent is exceptional, and they will only get better with exposure to senior football.
However, without needing to go on loan, it means they can be consistently assessed and play in the first team without needing to be recalled. Additionally, they will remain around Milanello, meaning the squad is brought closer at Primavera and senior levels, which only serves as another positive.
Another benefit is the ability to build players further and have more scope on abilities at a senior level. This means that Milan can further assess their players, especially at a senior level, and then could save on having to spend fees for players, given the potential talents of their youth at a senior level.
Furthermore, with the FIFA restriction of seven loans to a single club, it means there is less ability to have something like a feeder club in a lower division. Instead, Milan would act as a feeder club in essence, which provides little pressure for the players, making development more natural.
The Diavolo already have the facilities to make it happen, and it looks increasingly likely that the proposal can become something concrete soon – potentially as early as next season.
Second team under 23 is critical for us. After reaching the age of 18 it is very difficult to keep all the players from the Primavera team and give them professional contracts and find them in all the teams where you can loan them and where they can develop and play regularly. It’s even harder to do that year after year with 20 players finishing the Primavera training. In this way, you have to give up most of them and let them go for free, but you record financial losses after spending years of money with them during the junior period. Most young footballers develop mentally and physically after 21-23 years and even if they don’t end up being good enough players for Milan’s first team you can include them in other transactions as exchange players by subtracting the amount of the player you get you want or you can sell them individually for amounts between 2-10 million euros depending on their individual value, thus recouping the amounts spent on junior training, even obtaining a very good profit that can be used for other purchases. The U23 team allows you to keep as many of the players who finish the Primavera stage as possible and develop them further to see what their maximum potential level is and not to loose them without exploiting their sporting and financial potential to the maximum.
Well written!