El Shaarawy: Should He Be Sold?

Arguably the most liked player on Milan, Stephan El Shaarawy has been a fan favorite ever since he arrived from Genoa. He's always been a highly rated player around the world, but among Milanisti, he's especially ranked. At just 21 years old, he's shown plenty of potential, with his immense pace down the wings and his ability to score. However, is he really as good as we think he is? Has he shown enough to deserve all the love he's been given?

In the first half of the 2012/13 season, Stephan scored an incredible 16 goals, carrying Milan on his shoulders, keeping them out of the relegation zone. However, other than that, what has he done? His first season with Milan (only being 19-20yrs old), he scored just 2 goals in 22 games. The second half of the 2012/13 season, he completely disappeared and went on a goalless drought of nearly a year. He's also known to be very injury prone, getting injured very early this season and still has yet to return.

Teams have shown strong interest for him, including Manchester City last summer, who reportedly offered between 35-40m euros for him. With a player who's always injured, inconsistent and that kind of money on the table, why not take it and run?

Then there's the squad itself. With Seedorf's 4-2-3-1 formation, people are expecting El Shaarawy to be very effective in it, with his pace down the left wing. This is very true, but with Balotelli and Pazzini in the squad, two players who are better in a striker pairing, Seedorf maybe consider changing the formation to accommodate them. This could eliminate a winger's position, thus leaving El Shaarawy out of the squad. Selling El Shaarawy could open up a few striker options to upgrade from Pazzini to pair up with Balotelli.

If the prices being thrown out there for El Shaarawy (30-40m) are true, I wouldn't think twice about selling him. It would help Milan financially by clearing some of their debts and could be reinvested into the team to bring in more players. Milan seems pretty set in attack with Balotelli, Taarabt and others, so by selling El Shaarawy, they could upgrade the back-line and midfield, Milan's two biggest problem areas.

I want to make it clear, I love El Shaarawy. I think he is a great player, but I don't see a successful future for him at Milan, at least right now. He is bringing back memories of Pato, but with much less goals and a lot more inconsistency. Selling him could immensely help not only Milan, but him as well. He's still very, very young, so there's still plenty of time for him to grow and the injuries to clear up, so keeping him could be a good idea, but if there's a lucrative offer on the table, Galliani should take a close look at it. In the end, I don't think Stephan will be sold, at least this summer. We have yet to see a lot of him and Balotelli together, which has been regarded by many writers as a potential world class attack for the next decade. Only time will tell, but every player has his price. No one is ever completely off the table. Money speaks louder than words.

Stephan El Shaarawy Career Statistics for Milan in Serie A:

2011/12: 22 appearances, 2 goals
2012/13: 37 appearances, 16 goals
2013/14: 4 appearances, 0 goals

18 career goals in Serie A

Stats from acmilan.it