The signing of Alessio Cerci from last season’s Champions League runners-up Atletico Madrid is expected to give Milan the tonic they need to outsmart their direct rivals for a place in the Champions League next season.
As widely expected, this season’s title contest immediately took up the shape of a two-horse race with Juventus and Roma being the sole protagonists.
However, it is anyone’s guess who will finish third in the 2014/15 Serie A, with no fewer than seven teams involved in this particular ‘competition’ for positions.
One expects the race to go straight to the end, with fallen giants Milan and Napoli and Lazio among the front-runners.
Napoli, buoyed by last month’s Italian Super Cup triumph over league champions Juventus in Doha, have brought in two quality signings in Italy international striker Manolo Gabbiadini, previously co-owned by Sampdoria and Juventus, and Croatia left-back Ivan Strinic (free agent).
Milan’s response has been purchasing beleaguered Spanish striker Fernando Torres, scorer of just one goal in 10 appearances since the start of the ongoing season, on a permanent basis from Chelsea and, while continuing to pay his salaries, they loaned him out to his former club Atletico Madrid.
In return, the seven-times European champions have acquired Cerci on loan from Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid for the next 18 months at no additional cost.
This transfer move has enabled the Rossoneri to finally put their hands on Cerci, who only started one league game for the Spanish champions since last summer’s protracted move from Torino for €15 million.
This time Galliani finds himself in a tricky situation of third-party ownership which FIFA wants to ban entirely
In the off-season, Cerci, a Roma youth product, had made no bones of his intentions to join Milan but the club’s dire financial situation was a major obstacle for the transfer to happen.
At the time, new Milan coach Filippo Inzaghi had identified Cerci, key behind Torino’s ascendency last season, as the ideal reinforcement for the Rossoneri attack.
Now, Inzaghi has finally got his man without his club having to fork out a transfer fee for the Italy international winger.
Since club owner Silvio Berlusconi turned off the tap to his rich funds, Milan have made a living off these kind of negotiations, with club chief Adriano Galliani using his numerous contacts all over the world to get players either on temporary deals or at hefty discounts.
Some of the moves backfired but others left rich pickings.
For instance, in January 2007, Milan had signed Brazilian ace Ronaldo from Real Madrid.
At that stage, Ronaldo was clearly in the twilight of his career and was also cup-tied and thus could not be utilised in the Champions League.
Indirectly, however, Ronaldo was instrumental in Milan’s seventh Champions League triumph.
The Brazilian became a regular starter in the Serie A, thus enabling then coach Carlo An-celotti to rest ‘veteran’ Inzaghi for Europe.
Eventually, the current Milan trainer was instrumental for the Rossoneri to lift their seventh European Cup after scoring a double against Liverpool in the May 23, 2007 showdown in Athens.
A similar move that worked wonders for Massimiliano Allegri’s Milan in January 2011 was the arrival of Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel, from Bayern Munich on a free transfer, and Antonio Cassano from Sampdoria.
These two players were key behind Milan’s 18th scudetto – their first since 2004.
Among the January bargains that were ineffective for Milan was the signing of David Beckham in winter of 2009 and 2010 and, more recently, Michael Essien.
The signing of Cerci, 27, is somewhat different, however, because Milan have landed a player who is still in the prime of his game.
Cerci made his debut for Milan in Serie A yesterday. He replaced Michael Essien in the second half but his contribution was not enough as Inzaghi’s team were surprisingly beaten 2-1 by Sassuolo at the San Siro.
From a financial perspective, the deal might not pay off in the long-term because Milan do not have an option to buy Cerci outright. Also, the player’s rights are jointly owned by Atletico Madrid and a Qatari fund.
Thus, this time Galliani finds himself in a tricky situation of third-party ownership which FIFA wants to ban entirely.
But on the field, Cerci will provide Inzaghi with new options up front, where Jeremy Menez and Giacomo Bonaventura have been impressive since the start of the season.
Stephan El Shaarawy is ex-pected to only get better.
This month, Cerci will cover for Keisuke Honda while he plays for Japan in the Asian Cup.
Cerci can either be deployed as a winger but he seems to be on top of his game when given a free role just behind the main striker, as happened last season with Torino.
Whatever the role, Cerci has all it takes to be a valuable addition for Milan in their quest to finish third and win the Coppa Italia, Berlusconi’s chief objectives for the season.