Zlatan Ibrahimovic's retirement announcement hardly had time to sink in for the fans before the early summer days dropped an incredible bombshell. The pace of it all was too quick for Milan fans to process. Sandro Tonali was having medicals at St James' Park just days after the news of Newcastle United's interest in him initially hit the media. The Magpies had to persuade the new Rossoneri management to release the 23-year-old for many days and for 7 million reasons. And then he vanished in an instant.
But the issue of how long Pioli can continue to conjure these surprises still stands. It's true that Milan cannot compete in the transfer market with wealthy Premier League teams. They spent the whole 2022 summer attempting to sign Charles De Ketelaere before Leeds United, just for the sake of argument.