Player Focus: Have Milan Hit the Jackpot by Trading Torres for Cerci?

Adriano Galliani, the Milan chief executive, was coy about the club’s transfer strategy in anticipation of the opening of the January transfer window. After a 2-0 win against Napoli at San Siro in mid-December, a result that kept the Diavoli in the conversation for the third and final Champions League place, he announced his intention to Sky Italia to buy three players to improve the team’s Achilles heel, its backline. “A couple of full-backs, Mattia de Sciglio and Ignazio Abate, and a top centre-back, Alex,” he smiled. “All of them will make their comebacks [from injury] after the winter break.” All will be like new signings.

It was at this stage that the host Ilaria d’Amico turned to one of the show’s pundits, the former Milan midfielder Zvonimir Boban, a regular critic of his old club, to offer his opinion of the kind of player Galliani needs to be bringing in if the Rossoneri are to get back on the podium in Serie A. He suggested Diego Perotti, the No.10 Genoa had picked up from Sevilla for a bargain €350k in the summer, who inspired his team to inflict a 1-0 defeat on Milan upon their last visit to Marassi.

“You’re Milan’s transfer advisor now, are you?” Galliani interjected. “I believe it’s the least you can do with all the money you earned from Milan. You could buy half of Zagreb and all its castles.” Still as quick thinking as he was when he played the game, Boban reminded Galliani that there were no castles in the former Yugoslavia, only communism. Times were hard as they are now for Milan. It’s an age of austerity. Even if the appointment of Pippo Inzaghi has made owner Silvio Berlusconi as enthusiastic as he has been for a long time - Il Cavaliere has visited Milanello more times in the last six months than he had in the last six years - the preference in recruitment is still of the opportunistic sort: free transfers and loans.

Galliani has also indulged in what the Italians call depistaggio, the laying of false trails, the art of misdirection. This is someone who revels in the intrigue of the transfer market, describing the build up to deadline day as like Sydney Pollack’s 1975 thriller The Three Days of the Condor. “I always strike,” Galliani said. And so, just as when he said Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were 99.9% staying at Milan only to make a sudden volte-face and then sell them both to Paris Saint-Germain, perhaps his insistence that Fernando Torres “will not leave even if the market is unpredictable” should probably have raised a red flag.

 

No sooner had Galliani called for fans and the media to be patient with El Niño than he was busy organising to sign the player on a permanent basis from Chelsea purely so he could then loan him to Atletico Madrid in exchange for Alessio Cerci. After scoring on his debut away to Empoli and promising to at least make himself useful in Serie A, he has failed to score in 8 games and Milan have learned what everyone else already knew about Torres. The light that had once burned so brightly has long since been extinguished. Romantic though it is for Torres to return to Atleti, the club of his heart, the realist would bet against even Diego Simeone rescuing a lost cause.

Milan have without doubt got the better end of this particular swap, not least because it appears to have been like-for-like: an 18-month loan for an 18-month loan. A few eyebrows have understandably arched. Questions have been asked. Why, for instance, would Atleti let a player they bought for €16m six months ago leave for a striker of great symbolic and sentimental value to the club though one who represents no challenge to or upgrade on Mario Mandzukic? A striker Chelsea let Milan have for nothing [apart from the €4m a year he is owed in wages]?

While these queries go unanswered, Galliani once again looks like the cat who got the cream and for a couple of reasons. Cerci had seemed destined to wear their stripes in the summer. It was a long-running saga. Inzaghi had placed the Italy international and counter-attacking extraordinaire high on his agenda but Milan couldn’t agree a fee with Torino. Upon failing to qualify for the Champions League, they were struggling to raise the funds. “Let’s say I took the long way around to come here,” Cerci said on touching down at Linate airport on New Year’s Day.

A secondary cause for Galliani’s satisfaction is that he once again outmanoeuvred rivals Inter and beat them to one of their transfer priorities. Inter had lined up the Atalanta winger Giacomo Bonaventura in the summer, a signing that was contingent upon the sale of Fredy Guarín. When that didn’t happen and Milan’s own negotiations with Parma for Jonathan Biabiany collapsed, Galliani swooped at the last minute to take advantage and how it has worked out in their favour. Bonaventura has been one of the signings of the season in his role. To thwart Inter again and frustrate Roberto Mancini, their new [old] coach, who had apparently telephoned Cerci in a charm offensive to let him know that he was top of his wish list only served to double the delight.

For Cerci, emotions must be mixed. Upon him leaving Torino, his girlfriend had written on Facebook: “Goodbye Serie A we’re going to the football that counts.” Is this a step back? Aside from the goal he scored against Malmö, his most memorable moment at Atleti was being unable to clear a set of hurdles in training. Cerci never once started and played only 153 minutes between La Liga and the Champions League. He flopped and now should feel he has to prove himself again. That should work to Milan’s benefit, particularly in their endeavours to finish ahead of a congested bunch of teams who are all scrambling to secure third spot.

With Napoli, they’re the only ones to ante up so far and Cerci, should he recover the form he showed at Torino, represents a decent reinforcement, particularly now that Keisuke Honda is due to depart for the Asian Cup. The only player to get into double figures in goals [13] and assists [10] in Serie A last season, if his teammate Ciro Immobile finished Capocannoniere and earned a move to Borussia Dortmund then a lot of that was down to him. Cerci created the third most clear cut chances [11] in Italy’s top flight in 2013/14. He put 260 crosses into the box - only Lazio's Antonio Candreva attempted more - while also managing the third most shots from counter-attacking situations [11].

Ready to make his debut against Sassuolo on Tuesday when Serie A resumes, Milan will be hoping Cerci has a similar impact to Mario Balotelli when he joined from Manchester City in the spring of 2013, scoring 12 goals in 13 appearances to qualify his team for the Champions League. Do that or help Jérémy Menez et al make even more of a difference and Cerci could come to be seen as the Christmas gift that keeps on giving.

Do you think Cerci will rediscover his form at Milan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below