A report this morning has outlined a few of the reasons that Christopher Nkunku’s move to AC Milan has not worked.
La Gazzetta dello Sport have published a piece on Nkunku which begins with the news of a decision made by the management: after discussions with his agent Pini Zahavi they have put him on the transfer list, hoping to pocket €40m from his sale this summer.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Nkunku at Milan: Why it has failed
Things didn’t work out for Nkunku at Milan for a number of reasons, following his €37m (plus bonuses) move from Chelsea late in the most recent summer transfer window.
The first was his arrival at Milanello last summer after missing the entire summer training camp with Chelsea, who had dropped him from the squad. The result was that he didn’t get up to match rhythm for a while.
Once the Frenchman began to thrive at the start of 2026, Milan inexorably regressed. Nkunku was sucked into the decline as his own individual performances declined, but above all the strikers stopped getting any service.
Another misunderstanding was the belief that he could be deployed as an alternative in the centre-forward role. This is despite the fact that he has played almost exclusively as a winger or as a second striker/attacking midfielder in his career. The hasty pivot to Niclas Füllkrug in the winter transfer window confirms this error of judgment.
Finally, Allegri has always seen Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic as the starting pairing, which has left Nkunku with relatively few starting opportunities. Hence, after all of this, the club’s decision to put him on the market has come.