Federico Mattiello
I know that right now AC Milan doesn’t actually need a right back, but thanks to their exclusion from the Europa League they have a chance to hit the reset button n this squad. That reset should include the sale of Andrea Conti, which I discussed in AC Milan’s players to sell article, and a younger, cheaper replacement for Conti.
With no Europa League on the schedule this season AC Milan won’t have all that many situations where they will need to rotate out their starters in Serie A matches. That means Conti will spend most of his season on the bench and see his transfer value dwindle.
That won’t be much of a problem for Federico Mattiello. At only 23 years old Mattiello still has plenty of time to continue developing and doesn’t really have a chance of getting playing time at Atalanta anyway.
At Milan, he would be able to carve out a nice backup role, get some occasional starts in Serie A, and start every Coppa Italia match. He’s not going to challenge Davide Calabria for the starting spot, but he would at least be able to carve out a nice role and gain experience playing for a top team.
Milan would be able to make a profit on this move too. They would most likely be able to sell Conti for 10 million euros more than they’d spend on Mattiello, which would open up some room in their budget for the rest of the moves they need to make.
Atalanta could also want to just loan him out for another season, which would open up even more room for profit on Milan’s end. It isn’t a great situation for Mattiello, but it seems like a logical next step for a player who has shown enough potential to attract both Juventus and Atalanta over the course of his career.