GONZALO HIGUAIN HAS joined AC Milan in a three-player swap deal between the seven-time European champions and Juventus that will also see Leonardo Bonucci return to Turin after just a season away.
Milan signed 30-year-old Higuain on a one-year loan deal worth a reported €18 million euros that gives them the option to buy the striker next summer for a further €36m.
On top of that, Bonucci has been swapped for Mattia Caldara just weeks after Caldara arrived at Juve following his transfer from Atalanta, which was agreed in January 2017.
Italian media reported that Higuain’s transfer had been structured to allow Milan to comply with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations, which they fell foul of last season.
Higuain left Juventus, where he won two Serie A titles and scored 40 goals in 76 league appearances, following the shock signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid that made the Argentine surplus to requirements.
Last season, Milan scored only 56 goals in Serie A, a figure which put them at a serious disadvantage compared to major rivals Juventus, Napoli and Roma as well as bitter city rivals Inter Milan who all claimed Champions League places.
“A new adventure begins,” said Higuain after undergoing his medical.
The Argentinian’s move opened the door for Bonucci to return to Turin, where the defender won six league titles and reached two Champions League finals.
The 31-year-old Bonucci returns to Juve after just one season with Milan, who could only finish sixth last season and missed the Champions League despite spending over €200m on new players last summer.
A reported €42m of that was spent on Bonucci, who was made captain but fell short of the imperious form he showed at Juve.
“Turin and Juventus are home for me. It’s difficult to imagine that this has happened,” said Bonucci. “I am delighted and excited to be back.”
Milan are trying to bounce back after a troubled spell following the sale of the club to Chinese owners in April last year, but poor performances on the pitch were compounded in recent months by fears over their financial survival.
Uefa booted them out of next season’s Europa League for violating the financial regulations, only for the ban to be overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following hedge fund Elliott Management’s takeover.
The American firm took control after the Chinese consortium led by Li Yonghong that ran Milan, long rumoured to be struggling financially, failed to repay €32m lent by Elliott.
Elliot has pledged to inject €50m to bring financial stability to the club.
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Full confidence in the team to perform very well for the rest of the tournament!
@Jasper Conroy: Really???
2007 comparisons are lazy. We hammered Scotland in our first match. People seem to have completely forgotten that.
11 points from a possible 15 after 3 games. Not a bad return at all. Time to get behind the team and stop the moaning. #COYBIG
Some load of negative tosspots in the media. Same goons who downplayed the grand slams, dismissed wins over NZ/SA and cheered for Racing over Leinster are now delighted. It’s like they are in competition to be the new Tom Humphries.
The social media campaigns from the sponsors are grating, but they always are no matter the sport or team.
It never ceases to amaze me how the commentators/pundits swing, we beat a poor Scotland and we are set for a quater final against SA no account taken of Japan who should be tier one nation and who accounted for SA in 2015, who are also hosting. We then put 35 points on Russia get the bonus point and Eddie is not satisfied, the same Eddie who presided over the debacle of 2007 in FRANCE. Give this squad a break and get behind then nothing is to be gained from negativity. Bestie and the Boys Abú
Just 22 points and one try conceded in 3 games is a very healthy stat .
@Limón Madrugada:
“Just 22 points and one try conceded in 3 games”
And we scored 11 tries to 1 conceded :: if we stated that before the WC we would have been happy :: but in that, there was 1 loss !!!!!!
Yeah the negativity is getting to me also. Can we do a bit of analysis on the positives? Also aside from Samoa game we probably won’t go into another game as favourites no matter how far we go in the tournament and that is just fine by me. That’s where the Irish pysche is more comfortable and more dangerous. I hope we play well against Samoa and get the result needed to put pressure on Japan and then we put the fear of God into our opponents in the quarters!
@Brian O’Driscoll: have to agree, finally watched the Russia game. There was a lot of good variation in attack which ended with a poor handling error or a Russian infringement (often not penalised – for Henderson’s knock on over the line, it was actually good Russian D but the 7 knocked on in the preceding ruck). The evidence is there that Ireland are about to kick on. Everyone would take a loss in the group if it meant peaking at QF stage and you can see Ireland are starting to ramp it up.
Hugh Cahill’s and Donal Lenihan’s rugby commentary is also very poor and schizophrenic. The keyboard warriors and Ed O Sullivan’s of this world will be the biggest fans when we put Samoa to the sword by at least 30 points. COYBIG
@Brian O’Driscoll:
@Brian O’Driscoll: have to agree. I finally watched the Russia game and the evidence is there that they are beginning to vary their attacking play which often ended with an error or Russian infringement. They played good ball. Russia was not the game to correct the Japan loss. What good would it be to go out and put 70 on Russia. It’s better they tried to evolve the game. No one wants 4 pool wins if it means a QF loss. I can see Ireland ramping up their game plan ahead of a QF showdown and surprised others who are professionals in the game don’t see it.
People like Ed O Sullivan and the keyboard warriors who think the Russian game was the game to correct the woes of the Japan loss are fools. The time to do it is at the QF.
We’ll put 30 on Samoa.
I’m sick to the back teeth of all the negativity. The final straw for me was Sean Farrell on the42′s rugby podcast yesterday moaning that Ireland’s first try against Russia was an old Joe Schmidt strike move. Some people will always find something negative to say.
Completely down to the players themselves, their mind set, body language, which to date hasn’t been great.
They’ve done it before so they can up it again.
Ah Martin you should know more than anyone that negativity does nothing for any teak.
Team that is