Simic, Jimenez, Bartesaghi, Zeroli – Pioli’s plan for the ‘four musketeers’

AC Milan went through a phase of injury emergency last month in which a number of Primavera players were not only called up but also made their senior debut.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, Davide Bartesaghi was the first to be promoted and stay after the summer tour in the USA, a trip that Jan-Carlo Simic and Kevin Zeroli were on too, then summer signing Alex Jimenez got his chance to shine too.

The quartet have three things in common above all: they are all players officially included in the Primavera squad, but then they all ended up under Stefano Pioli’s orders and for each of them after this season their footballing life will no longer be the same.

Custom says that usually in the summer there is always an enlarged group at the start of preseason preparations, partly to boost the numbers but also to get a look at those who have developed. Then, in the vast majority of cases, the ‘kids’ are then returned.

This wasn’t the case for Milan in 2023-24. The opportunity came from the massacre in the treatment room, when Pioli at a certain point found himself forced to call up the young players in order just to fill the bench.

Not only that: in order to manage the minimum amount of rotations, the Rossoneri coach also started sending them onto the pitch. Some were forced choices, but then other teenagers earned his genuine trust.

The winter mercato was expected to see Bartesaghi and potentially Simic leave on loan, but in the end they both remained, as did Zeroli who is the Primavera’s captain and Jimenez who is on loan.

Across all competitions, the quartet have have made 19 combined appearances for a total of 540 minutes: numbers that illustrate how it wasn’t a matter of token appearances.

The most used so far has been Simic (239 minutes), followed by Jimenez (197), Bartesaghi (77) and Zeroli (27). There are two gems: Simic’s first goal in Serie A (at Monza) and Bartesaghi’s debut in the Champions League (at Newcastle).

Outlook for the last few months of the season? With the return of the various long-term absentees, the room for playing time will be reduced a little but Pioli will not put them in a drawer and close it.