Lorenzo Torriani's strong preseason has put his immediate future back on the agenda, and Milan will soon have to decide whether a third-choice role still fits a goalkeeper of his age and promise.
The situation has become familiar. Every summer the academy goalkeeper impresses, and every summer the same question returns about how best to use him. With Mike Maignan away on post-World Cup leave, Torriani has had the stage to himself again.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, he has been among the standout performers of this preseason. In Glasgow he conceded twice from mistakes made by team-mates, but kept his side in the game with at least two important stops of his own.
Now 21, he has reached the age where the present starts to matter as much as the potential. So far the club has issued no new instructions, and the season has opened with the same order in goal: Maignan, Pietro Terracciano and Torriani behind them.
The awkward part is the question underneath it all. Is it right for a goalkeeper of his age and ability to remain third choice, when even the role of Maignan's deputy might hold him back? At this stage of his development, he needs regular starts more than a place on the bench.
Last season Milan built him a specific path. Torriani was officially part of the first-team squad but was mostly fielded by Milan Futuro, with Pittarella kept as the emergency option on Massimiliano Allegri's bench. The point was to give him minutes through the second team, exactly the purpose it was created for.
His rise began two summers ago, when Paulo Fonseca called him up for the US tour. Marco Sportiello's injury pushed him into the starting line-up against Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and he answered with decisive saves in all three, including the shootout against Barça that sealed the third win of the tour.
Then came the debut he had dreamed of, in the Champions League against Liverpool at San Siro, on for the injured Maignan. His return from this summer's tour puts his name back in front of management for a fresh assessment.
Another year in third place, or another loan into the lower divisions, is unlikely to be judged the right move, which is why a decision is coming rather than being deferred again. From here, it is Milan's call on whether he stays, deputises or goes out to play.