Gattuso: Niang signing indicative of AC Milan problems

Gennaro Gattuso believes AC Milan's signing of French teen M'Baye Niang in the summer is a perfect illustration of the problems that have engulfed his former club this season.

Gattuso made over 400 appearances in 13 years with the Rossoneri before joining the exodus of 'aging' stars who left the San Siro during the summer.

Following the release or retirement of Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta, Gianluca Zambrotta, Clarence Seedorf, Mark van Bommel and Filippo Inzaghi, not to meention the big-money sales of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Milan have endured a torrid start to the campaign.

A 3-1 defeat to Fiorentina at the weekend was their fourth at home in Serie A this season and left them languishing in 13th place in the table, a whopping 17 points behind leaders Juventus.

Gattuso points to the clearout of experienced campaigners and the signing of sub-standard players, like Niang, as being the reason for the club's current malaise.

Niang joined Milan from Ligue 2 side Caen in the summer with last season's Serie A runners-up seeing off competition from Arsenal and Marseille to land his coveted signature. But Gattuso has not been impressed from what he has seen so far.

"In Milan players only had to think about playing football, behind us was an organization that thought of everything else. If I left Milanello this is also a reason for the failures," he said on RMC radio.

"He's very good, but every day something happens with him. A few years ago, Milan would never have made the mistake of taking a player like that."

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