Rasmus Højlund would rather sit on the bench (or in the stands) at Manchester United than start for AC Milan: strange, but true.
"Then let the Rossoneri directors forget about this striker," says Arrigo Sacchi to the microphones of La Gazzetta dello Sport, "and focus on someone who truly wants to wear the Rossoneri's shirt. You must love Milan, it cannot be a second choice."
Sacchi has very clear ideas about how a team should be built and the type of players it should target...
"The first quality required: reliability. Then everything else. But if you are not reliable, if you don’t have fire inside, if you’re not willing to sacrifice yourself for the club and your teammates, you might as well stay home."
What’s your view on the Rasmus Højlund case?
"First of all, we’re not talking about Van Basten here, nor one of Europe’s best strikers at the moment. He’s a decent player, nothing more. So, I find this chase to sign him a bit over the top. That said, since there’s a shortage of strikers, I understand the Rossoneri directors’ desire to get one. But he should want to come to Italy, without throwing tantrums…"
It seems, instead, that he prefers Manchester United’s shirt, even though the coach doesn’t rate him highly.
"I don’t understand his choice. If Milan calls you, you pack your bags and get on the first flight to Malpensa. Milan is a mythical name in the football world. I would make every player who is signed take a tour of the trophy room, so they fully grasp where they have landed. They should be grateful for being signed, not the other way around. Am I clear? First comes the club, then the player. Of course, Manchester United is also a legendary team, no doubt. But on one side you have Milan offering you a guaranteed starting spot, and on the other you have a club doing everything it can to sell you. What would you choose?"
Perhaps Rasmus Højlund, pride wounded, wants to prove to Manchester United that he’s no worse than the new signings.
"That could be an explanation, but sometimes following your instinct isn’t the best way to go far. I think it would have been important for Højlund to seize Milan’s opportunity. Hesitating? Not convinced? No problem. He stays where he is, and Milan will look for another player who genuinely wants to wear the Rossoneri shirt."
As happened with Modrić and Jashariة players who truly pushed to join Milan.
"Modrić, at forty, after everything he’s won with Real Madrid, decided to take on a starring role at Milan because, for him, Milan is a historic club known worldwide. He wants to be part of that history. The same goes for Jashari, who did everything he could to convince Club Brugge’s directors to let him go. These are examples of players whose attitude also benefits the group. And you can already see it in their first appearances: they may not yet be in peak form, but they’ve shown desire and determination, embracing their role. Højlund, instead, turns up his nose when he hears Milan’s name… No, that’s not good."
You’ve always said that when signing players, you must look at the head before the feet. This is proof of it... Sacchi answered:
"The feet, one way or another, you can work on with hours and hours of specific training. The head, no. One day, in my first year at Milan, I spoke with Berlusconi and asked him to sell a player who didn’t behave properly. The president said: ‘But he’s in the national team setup.’ And I replied: ‘I don’t care. He’s unreliable. Would you want an unreliable employee in your companies? I don’t think so, and neither do I.’ In the end, that player was sold, and we replaced him with his backup, without spending any money."
With Højlund out of the picture, what now?
"I repeat: we’re not talking about Van Basten. There are other strikers out there. What matters is that they fit the style of play the coach has in mind. The club makes the signings, but always in harmony with the coach’s ideas, because he’s the one who has to deal with the players afterward."
In your view, who is the right striker for Milan?
"I won’t give names, but I invite everyone to reflect: the striker is a fundamental element in a team because his movements shape the play of the whole group. So the choice must be made with great care. Look at Mbappé: considered the best striker in the world, he went to Real Madrid where he won nothing, while PSG, the club that sold him, won the Champions League. The important thing is that the striker fits the project."
