Zlatan Ibrahimovic has insisted that AC Milan trio Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao will stay at the club, in an important boost for Paulo Fonseca.
It’s a pivotal summer for the Rossoneri with the appointment of a new coach and the change that comes with that, and so constructing a squad capable of suiting his ideas will be of paramount importance.
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Ideally, Milan wouldn’t have to spend a significant part of the summer replacing key individuals and filling glaring voids in the squad, and so the priority was likely to be to keep hold of our best players and build around them.
Fortunately, speaking at his press conference this week, Ibrahimovic seemingly confirmed that Maignan, Theo and Leao will stay beyond this summer, and should that prove to be an accurate assessment of the situation, it will be music to the ears of Fonseca as he plans his strategy moving forward.
That said, it’s a boost in itself that they will stay, but it will only prove to be as important as hoped if they’re able to get back to their best form on a consistent basis, and emerge as fundamental influences in Fonseca’s side.
Maignan’s issues have been more injury related, and so his focus must be on preparing himself as best as possible for the new season to try and avoid any further lengthy setbacks, as his presence is undoubtedly missed when he’s absent.
For Hernandez, but particularly in Leao’s case too, they now face a fresh challenge to meet the demands of a new coach who may well have a different approach and expectation of what they offer in the Milan XI, and that adaptation process will be critical in determining how impactful they are moving forward.
As with every coach, Stefano Pioli had his own personality and management style which saw both Theo and Leao develop and evolve into top players, but time will tell if Fonseca is able to take them to the next level and thus improve the team as a collective, or if it proves to be an unstable match that doesn’t fit the style and identity of the team that the Portuguese tactician is trying to build.
