AC Milan have made significant progress in recent months, with Gennaro Gattuso reigniting the belief, confidence and enthusiasm at the club.
After struggling under former boss Vincenzo Montella, the Rossoneri are battling desperately hard to remain in the hunt for a top-four finish in Serie A this season, while they will face Juventus in the Coppa Italia final next month.
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While they have shown real improvement in their performances and results, they have fallen short in big games against Arsenal in the Europa League and at Juventus over the weekend, with a 3-1 defeat ending their 10-game unbeaten run in the league.
In turn, although they’ve shown plenty of positive signs in those games, they were ultimately undone by the more experienced and deeper squads, and Leonardo Bonucci believes that is where the hierarchy need to focus their attention this summer to take Milan to the next level.
“[Sporting director Massimiliano] Mirabelli and [CEO Marco] Fassone don’t need any advice, If I have to give some I would say to buy top international players, so even in training the level is raised, it’s a fundamental thing,” he is quoted as saying by Calciomercato.
It’s a fair point, as this is still a very young Milan team which doesn’t have a great deal of experience at the very top level in Europe.
While they’ve shown great desire, passion and quality to put themselves in their current position, there is still a feeling that they’re not yet capable of challenging the best teams, and that has been evident against Arsenal and Juve in particular.
They’ll be hoping that they can secure a positive result against rivals Inter on Wednesday night as it’s essential if they want to catch them in fourth place. As far as the summer transfer window is concerned though, they’d be well advised to listen to Bonucci, depending on what the budget is as they brought in 11 new faces last summer and will arguably need to adjust their plans if they don’t qualify for the Champions League.