BONUCCI: AC MILAN STILL BEHIND JUVE AND NAPOLI

Italian national team central defender Leonardo Bonucci has praised AC Milan for their “journey of growth” but still feels they are behind Juventus and Napoli.


Milan signed ten players this summer as the new owners are keen on helping the club back to their former place in the Serie A and on the continent. However, the pace of delivery is still slow.

Milan needed Suso to score a free kick 20 minutes from regular time for them to scrap a 2-1 result against Cagliari. It was not a show of brilliance yet, though they earnedtheir second successive victory in the league.

The coach Vincenzo Montella is working at integrating the new signings and develop a strong winning team. Bonucci, who is the skipper of the side, is pleased with the progress so far but admits that they are “only at the start.” He claimed Juventus and Napoli are “a little ahead” of them so they would need to improve and become more of a team.

Nikola Kalinic, Ricardo Rodriguez, Lucas Biglia, Mateo Musacchio, Andre Silva, Andrea Conti, Franck Kessie, Fabio Borini, and HakanCalhanoglu are players that joined recently and must be fully integrated into the team.

The team are hoping to finish in the top echelon and possible return to the Champions League at the end of the season. They would have to battle Juve, Napoli, AS Roma, Inter and other top Italian sides though. They could get a straight ticket if they win the Europa League that they are in competition for. They were recently drawn in a group alongside Rijeka, Austria Wien and AEK.

The Chinese owners would need to be patient to get the fruits of their labour but Coach Montella knows decent achievements would feed the will to wait.