From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
20 appearances away from home and 23 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match13 Feb 2027
Napoli made AC Milan work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Both jobs done by Luka Modrić — 7.14
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.14, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
24 appearances at RB Leipzig and the goals keep coming. AC Milan are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and AC Milan know now that the thought has arrived.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Giménez’s exile
22 goals in 19 games at Porto — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AC Milan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Gonçalo Ramos
15 goals and a season average of 7.43 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adrien Rabiot commits to AC Milan for another 3 years.
Market8 Feb 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Pietro Terracciano reports back to AC Milan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Mike Maignan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market8 Feb 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AC Milan can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Gonçalo Ramos’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AC Milan.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 8.56 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and AC Milan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AC Milan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 7 in, 2 out at AC Milan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Giménez’s exile
19 goals in 18 games at Porto — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AC Milan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Andrej Kostić’s exile
19 goals in 23 games at Sparta Prague — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AC Milan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Dejan Kulusevski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Ramos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 54. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Jan 2027
AC Milan through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Como, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market25 Jan 2027
The fee is $14.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lazio drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market25 Jan 2027
The chase for Alex Amorim ended with $8.6M changing hands and Genoa out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market25 Jan 2027
Koni De Winter has left for Fiorentina in a $10.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Kian Fitz-Jim gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kian Fitz-Jim has just signed for AC Milan, and for once the answer mattered.
Market25 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AC Milan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
AC Milan spend $70.8M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $70.8M has been paid because Rodrigo Zalazar is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Match16 Jan 2027
Reiss Nelson had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Hellas Verona were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Genoa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Rodrigo Zalazar arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rodrigo Zalazar has, at AC Milan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Gonçalo Ramos is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.43 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market18 Jan 2027
Bra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AC Milan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Fiorentina have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Koni De Winter. The answer from AC Milan has not changed — yet.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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The terraces
The town asked, and AC Milan paid $70.8M
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Giménez’s exile
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Player ratings
Reiss Nelson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
AC Milan and Sporting CP have settled on $70.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market11 Jan 2027
AC Milan spend $18.1M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $18.1M has been paid because Cristian Shpendi is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Match9 Jan 2027
Pisa will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. AC Milan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
AC Milan have gone to Lazio with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad11 Jan 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A move Cristian Shpendi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cristian Shpendi is living that version at AC Milan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market11 Jan 2027
AC Milan say no — this time
The offer from Juventus for Lorenzo Torriani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$26.1M was the most the club would pay and Atalanta were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
AC Milan have gone to Cesena with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$13.5M on the table at Fiorentina. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
AC Milan asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Luka Modrić yet — 7.85
At 41 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mike Maignan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for AC Milan. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Dejan Kulusevski falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑1 to AS Roma, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match26 Dec 2026
After 4 games, AC Milan finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against AS Roma; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Match28 Dec 2026
The half-term report on AC Milan
Position 6, 39 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AC Milan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Davide Peretti to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Dec 2026
4‑1, and Gonçalo Ramos took the headlines on an afternoon when everything AC Milan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play AC Milan right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at AC Milan
Dejan Kulusevski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Reiss Nelson beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Dec 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.39. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Gonçalo Ramos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for AC Milan. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match9 Dec 2026
AC Milan win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 119th minute. Campobasso will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Omari Hutchinson takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omari Hutchinson provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Dec 2026
AC Milan cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market14 Dec 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrien Rabiot was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Andrej Kostić’s exile
15 goals in 17 games at Sparta Prague — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AC Milan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Dec 2026
AC Milan are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AC Milan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AC Milan heard it as anything else.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mike Maignan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Kulusevski is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match5 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for AC Milan. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for AC Milan, 1‑0 the final word against Cagliari in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
11 appearances at Porto and the goals keep coming. AC Milan are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Nov 2026
After 15 games, AC Milan finally taste it again
The first defeat in 15 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Como; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Dejan Kulusevski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Gonçalo Ramos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match28 Nov 2026
A bad afternoon for AC Milan against Como
0‑1 to Como, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Íñigo Martínez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AC Milan told Dejan Kulusevski something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, AC Milan do not lose
15 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Reiss Nelson takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Reiss Nelson provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Adrien Rabiot falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Reiss Nelson. 3‑1 against Cremonese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.53, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation AC Milan did not have in the autumn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mike Maignan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Nov 2026
International break empties AC Milan
8 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Nov 2026
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Gonçalo Ramos
9 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Dejan Kulusevski is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation AC Milan did not have in the autumn.
Match9 Nov 2026
AC Milan are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 26 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Davide Bartesaghi at 20 — 7.82
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Davide Bartesaghi did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dejan Kulusevski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Gonçalo Ramos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Adrien Rabiot: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AC Milan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match31 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten AC Milan
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market2 Nov 2026
Adrien Rabiot wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AC Milan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Dejan Kulusevski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Gonçalo Ramos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad2 Nov 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at AC Milan
Something was said to Luka Modrić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Luka Modrić gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luka Modrić is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation AC Milan did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Kleyber Cuesta arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kleyber Cuesta has, at AC Milan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Inter next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
8 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Reiss Nelson beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.77 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten AC Milan
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Francesconi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Lazio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Omari Hutchinson at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AC Milan.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at AC Milan
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AC Milan, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, AC Milan do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luka Modrić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mattia Zaramella is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrien Rabiot was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A quiet fortnight at AC Milan
With 9 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ruben Loftus-Cheek's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match3 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Napoli, and it could have been more.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Luka Modrić yet — 7.97
At 41 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, AC Milan do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lorenzo Torriani is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Kulusevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 47. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Gonçalo Ramos took the headlines on an afternoon when everything AC Milan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Gonçalo Ramos, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Kulusevski is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.86, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, AC Milan do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match26 Sep 2026
AC Milan keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Luka Modrić pops up at the right end — 7.78
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrien Rabiot is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Mike Maignan gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match19 Sep 2026
A goal on 95 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad21 Sep 2026
AC Milan are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every AC Milan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Giana Erminio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. AC Milan will try again when the window opens; Cesena may not be selling by then.
Match12 Sep 2026
AC Milan cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market14 Sep 2026
Mario Gila wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AC Milan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Kulusevski is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at AC Milan
Íñigo Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
Udinese made AC Milan work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.38 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$10.1M settles it between the clubs for Cristian Shpendi
Cesena have accepted the money. What AC Milan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match5 Sep 2026
4‑0, and Omari Hutchinson took the headlines on an afternoon when everything AC Milan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad7 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at AC Milan until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
Empoli come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AC Milan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AC Milan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
AC Milan asked and Pescara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Dejan Kulusevski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 AC Milan players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 9 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and AC Milan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.33, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $5.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cesena drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matteo Francesconi is living that version at AC Milan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at AC Milan
Dejan Kulusevski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Adrien Rabiot falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gregorio Toscano and AC Milan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
AC Milan spend $74.8M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $74.8M has been paid because Dejan Kulusevski is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AC Milan asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Cesena is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dejan Kulusevski has just signed for AC Milan, and for once the answer mattered.
Market24 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mike Maignan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dejan Kulusevski falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gregorio Toscano has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$74.8M on the table at Tottenham. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AC Milan asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
Braga pay $56.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Marco Carnesecchi ended with $19.8M changing hands and Atalanta out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marco Carnesecchi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marco Carnesecchi has, at AC Milan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $56.5M sale of Christian Pulisic
He is going to Braga, the club has $56.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market17 Aug 2026
AS Roma come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AC Milan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mike Maignan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Íñigo Martínez in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AC Milan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AC Milan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$31.0M on the table at Como. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Atalanta this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Como this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
RB Leipzig come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AC Milan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bologna have kept their man, and AC Milan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Íñigo Martínez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Íñigo Martínez is living that version at AC Milan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AC Milan heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gonçalo Ramos and AC Milan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and AC Milan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Reiss Nelson gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Reiss Nelson has just signed for AC Milan, and for once the answer mattered.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luka Modrić and AC Milan agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at AC Milan
Mike Maignan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Pulisic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Gonçalo Ramos knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AC Milan, and both men came out saying it was fine.