From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
At 41 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.36, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Omari Hutchinson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luka Modrić 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Koni De Winter, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Bruno Gatti: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AC Milan will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market21 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adrien Rabiot signs something — a contract at AC Milan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
AC Milan ran out of time with Lazio. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 41 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.61, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market14 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.
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.
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 4‑3, and it was Gonçalo Ramos’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AC Milan.
Match12 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AC Milan and Venezia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Cardinali has just signed for AC Milan, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$22.8M settles it between the clubs for Mattia Zaccagni
Lazio 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
AC Milan asked and Lazio 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
A move Adam Marušić 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. Adam Marušić is living that version at AC Milan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 3 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.0M — a club that wants Reda Belahyane enough to be asked twice.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Adrien Rabiot 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.
Market7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adam Marušić and AC Milan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$11.6M on the table at Lazio. 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 targets31 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for AC Milan, 1‑0 the final word against Frosinone in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
International break empties AC Milan
7 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dino Delkić 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bruno Gatti could afford to be generous.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Matteo Gabbia
Nobody at AC Milan is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AC Milan asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.98, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.26, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
2 academy graduates step up at AC Milan
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mirko Damico is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market24 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alessio Valentini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Werder Bremen pay $55.7M, 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.
Transfer targets17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lechia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $55.7M sale of Christian Pulisic
He is going to Werder Bremen, the club has $55.7M 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Adrien Rabiot 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at AC Milan would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager comes out for Mike Maignan
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mike Maignan has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
Home comforts ahead for AC Milan
Sassuolo, position 20, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
AC Milan asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
AC Milan say no — this time
The offer from Atalanta for Davide Bartesaghi 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.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at AC Milan
Luka Modrić 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Villarreal 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 targets3 Aug 2026
AC Milan asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luka Modrić stands down from international duty
“202 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 40 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with AC Milan.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giacomo Bonaventura has, at AC Milan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market3 Aug 2026
Luka Modrić 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Modrić and AC Milan agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Adrien Rabiot 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexis Saelemaekers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Fikayo Tomori's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.