The ghost of the old guard is haunting the San Siro

If you spent any time at the Bar Magenta this week, you probably heard the same two words repeated until they lost all meaning: ItalMilan. It’s the kind of phrase that makes old-timers weep into their espresso while thinking about Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini. Matteo Moretto just threw a fresh log on that fire, reporting that Milan has made signing Italians a guiding principle for the upcoming summer window.

On paper, it sounds like a dream. It’s romantic. It’s the identity we’ve been missing since the locker room became a United Nations meeting without the translators. But if you look at the price tags and the actual talent available, this guiding principle starts to look like a recipe for a very expensive disaster.

The most interesting part of Moretto’s report wasn’t just the Italian focus. It was the specific caveat that Milan is not looking at the Napoli star currently doing the rounds in the rumor mill. Whether that’s Giacomo Raspadori or a late-career Giovanni Di Lorenzo, the message is clear. Milan wants the passport, but they aren't willing to pay the Aurelio De Laurentiis tax to get it.

The high cost of a local passport

Let’s be real for a second. Being an Italian player in Serie A right now is like being a mediocre house in a gentrifying neighborhood. You are automatically worth **30 percent more** than you should be just because of where you were born. We’ve seen this movie before, and it usually ends with a 20-million-euro benchwarmer who can’t find a pass in a crowded midfield.

Milan fans remember the era of Andrea Bertolacci and Alessio Cerci. Those were the days when the club tried to buy its way back to relevance using local names that didn't have the quality to lace the boots of the legends they were replacing. Trying to force a national identity into a squad usually leads to overpaying for floor-level talent instead of chasing the ceiling.

If Milan is serious about this, they are looking at guys like Alessandro Buongiorno or Samuele Ricci. These aren't bad players. In fact, Buongiorno is probably the most solid defensive prospect the country has produced in five years. But the moment Milan shows interest, Torino’s asking price will jump from reasonable to astronomical faster than you can say 'mercato madness.'

The Napoli snub is the smartest move on the board

Avoiding the Napoli star mentioned by Moretto is the only part of this plan that actually makes sense. Dealing with De Laurentiis is like trying to negotiate a peace treaty with a hornet’s nest. You’re going to get stung, and you’re going to walk away feeling like you’ve been robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight. Napoli players don't come cheap, and they certainly don't come without a year's worth of legal drama.

If the target is indeed Raspadori, what are we even doing? He’s a 'tweener' who doesn't fit the current system. He’s not a pure nine, and he’s not quite a creative winger. Bringing him in just to check a box on an 'Italian quota' is the kind of mid-table thinking that gets managers fired by Christmas. We need players who win games, not players who make the FIGC happy.

The reality is that Milan's most successful recent run was built on the backs of a Frenchman, a Portuguese winger, and a Canadian-born Englishman. Identity comes from winning, not from the color of your passport. When Rafael Leao is burning a fullback for pace, nobody in the Curva Sud is checking his birth certificate. They just want the ball in the back of the net.

The Sandro Tonali wound still hasn't healed

The obsession with an Italian core is really just a collective trauma response to the sale of Sandro Tonali. He was the chosen one. He was the guy who slept in Milan pajamas and took a pay cut to stay. When he was shipped off to Newcastle for **70 million euros**, it broke something in the fanbase. People felt like the soul of the club was sold for a tidy profit and a new data-driven scouting algorithm.

Now, the management is trying to buy that soul back. It feels like a PR move designed to quiet the critics who say the club has lost its DNA. But you can't fabricate DNA by overpaying for players from Monza or Sassuolo. You find it in guys like Matteo Gabbia, who actually improved after being sent away and came back with a point to prove. That's real, and it didn't cost a record-breaking transfer fee.

The timing of this news is also incredibly distracting. We are exactly three days away from the second leg of the UCL Quarter-Finals. The squad should be focused on the tactical nuances of stopping a high press, not wondering which Italian international is going to take their spot in July. It’s classic Milan noise at the worst possible moment.

Why the 'Guiding Principle' usually fails

Look at the most successful teams in Europe right now. Real Madrid doesn't care if a player is from Madrid or Mars, as long as they can win a Champions League final. Manchester City’s 'English core' is largely a byproduct of having enough money to buy literally whoever they want. Milan doesn't have that luxury. Every euro spent on the 'Italian Tax' is a euro not spent on a world-class talent from the French or Brazilian leagues.

There is also the tactical problem. Italian football education is great for defenders, but we are currently in a drought of elite attacking talent. If Milan wants to compete at the highest level, they need game-changers. Right now, the best Italian attackers are either injury-prone, inconsistent, or playing for Inter. Settling for the third-best option just to satisfy a guiding principle is a recipe for finishing fourth every year.

The 'guiding principle' should always be quality. If the best player for the job happens to be Italian, great. Sign him. But the moment you start filtering your scouting reports by nationality, you are intentionally narrowing your vision. It’s like trying to win a Formula 1 race but insisting that your tires are only made in Milan. You're going to get lapped by the guy who just bought the best tires available.

The verdict: Proceed with extreme caution

I want to see more Italians in the red and black. I really do. I want to see a captain who understands the weight of that armband and can scream at a referee in perfect Milanese. But I don't want to see a squad that is bloated with overpriced 'prospects' who never fulfill their potential. We’ve had enough of the Mattia De Sciglios of the world—decent players who were weighed down by the expectation of being 'the next someone.'

Milan is at a crossroads. The stadium project is a mess, the ownership is constantly under fire, and the on-field identity fluctuates from brilliant to baffling every other week. In times of uncertainty, people crave the familiar. They crave the Italian core of the 90s. But that core existed because those were the best players in the world at the time, not because of a quota.

If Furlani and Moncada think they can find value in the domestic market, I wish them luck. They’re going to need it. Between the greedy agents and the provincial clubs who think every 21-year-old with a decent touch is the next Andrea Pirlo, the Italian market is a minefield. Snubbing the Napoli star is a good first step, but the rest of the path is covered in trap doors.

Ultimately, the fans will forgive a team of foreigners if they lift a trophy. They will never forgive a team of Italians if they finish sixth and get bounced out of the Coppa Italia by Empoli. The guiding principle needs to be excellence, or we’re just setting ourselves up for another decade of 'what ifs' and nostalgia-fueled disappointment. The **2026 summer window** is going to be the ultimate test of whether this management knows what they're doing or if they're just pandering to the crowd.