Summer Mercato
(09-03-2014, 11:57 PM)Jokka Wrote: Face it Galliani is an absolute disaster. I solely blame Berlusconi for rejecting his resignation last October. If he'd gone we wouldn't have signed Essien and Balotelli and Cristante would still be here.

Only thing i disagree on is Balotelli would of been sold regardless ,Berlu doesnt like him wanted to sell him or cash in on him.
Siregar, again, I'm not comparing us with Man U and Barca and their situation and squad and what not. I just gave an example of how they lost players for the same reason we lost Cristante for. I said they world class players in place, so it was less of a big deal for them. (even though in Man U's case Tom Cleverley and Carrick are hardly world class to begin with)
Like Mystik said, I think we differ in our opinions because I don't think Cristante is a better player then Muntari for example (this season, right now). I don't think he is ready to be a focal point in the team and I think he should've been a player that was going to get minutes to develop and possibly turn out as a good player for us in a year or two. Believe me, I don't like the fact that we lost hiim too....but I don't think it's the end of the world.
In any case, we'll see how things develop during the coarse of this season and we'll know more then if the club made good moves this summer or not. I do not completely disagree with you guys about most of the points you are making.....I think I'm just a little more accepting of what happened with Cristante and don't view it as something huge.

@Jokka, I have bombarded Galliani for a couple years now and have always said that he has been a problem. He made some terrible decisions. However, looking at this summer alone, in my opinion he did a good job with what he was allowed to work with. He gave Robinho for free because nobody was willing to pay for him. Same with Birsa, Noce and Matri. The mistake with these guys was made in previous mercatos (when we signed them), something we can't do anything about now. It's not like Galliani can forcefully make teams buy these guys. He did good to get them off our wage bill (or most of their wages at least). Nobody wanted these guys. Again, the mistake with these guys was made before this summer. Judging this summer alone, I'm just glad they are not here anymore.
Galliani may be a disaster and he definitely was for the last few years.....but I maintain my stance that he did a decent job this summer. All "experts" and newspapers are also ranking our mercato up there at the top with Roma's. Time will tell if this summer was good. We will know more during the season and when results start coming in.

(09-04-2014, 10:44 AM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: Simple question, open to anyone with answers. Yesterday I posted what I think is a very important point about the age of this group of players. In two years, less than half of this squad will be under 30 and almost a third will be into their mid 30s. The chances of all of those "young" players having a status of being important players is very slim, not just because a lot of them have yet to show they can grow to the expected level, but also that experience and history generally shows that getting 100% success in developing players is next to impossible. Knowing the financial situation and the direction and management seen in the past few years, how does the club rebuild towards a competitive future?

Above is also my thought, what will happen to this team? Do this team have future? As I said, assuming we could get top three and what? Money from CL did not give impact to our transfer budget (last season for example). Either we build a team for the future from our best prospect or buying quality players which cost a lot of money. The first mentioned option is available for us but unfortunately we don't follow our set up policy, youth policy.

I do understand change of your interest for this club. The reason for me is this team have no future due to very bad management (not due to our ability). I was so motivated with our new team under Inzaghi (actually not the team but the spirit they have now) but suddenly the motivation get lost. Angry
(09-04-2014, 01:29 PM)nefremo Wrote: Siregar, again, I'm not comparing us with Man U and Barca and their situation and squad and what not. I just gave an example of how they lost players for the same reason we lost Cristante for. I said they world class players in place, so it was less of a big deal for them. (even though in Man U's case Tom Cleverley and Carrick are hardly world class to begin with)
Like Mystik said, I think we differ in our opinions because I don't think Cristante is a better player then Muntari for example (this season, right now). I don't think he is ready to be a focal point in the team and I think he should've been a player that was going to get minutes to develop and possibly turn out as a good player for us in a year or two. Believe me, I don't like the fact that we lost hiim too....but I don't think it's the end of the world.
In any case, we'll see how things develop during the coarse of this season and we'll know more then if the club made good moves this summer or not. I do not completely disagree with you guys about most of the points you are making.....I think I'm just a little more accepting of what happened with Cristante and don't view it as something huge.

@Jokka, I have bombarded Galliani for a couple years now and have always said that he has been a problem. He made some terrible decisions. However, looking at this summer alone, in my opinion he did a good job with what he was allowed to work with. He gave Robinho for free because nobody was willing to pay for him. Same with Birsa, Noce and Matri. The mistake with these guys was made in previous mercatos (when we signed them), something we can't do anything about now. It's not like Galliani can forcefully make teams buy these guys. He did good to get them off our wage bill (or most of their wages at least). Nobody wanted these guys. Again, the mistake with these guys was made before this summer. Judging this summer alone, I'm just glad they are not here anymore.
Galliani may be a disaster and he definitely was for the last few years.....but I maintain my stance that he did a decent job this summer. All "experts" and newspapers are also ranking our mercato up there at the top with Roma's. Time will tell if this summer was good. We will know more during the season and when results start coming in.

It is ok that you rate Muntari for example better than Cristante, his exact quality or talent is debatable but all should agree that he is a talented midfielder, the best one we have that has quality to play for this team, at least a year or too like you said. I also agree that he is not ready to be a focal point to current team but he could be useful as sub or squad rotation. If we can't produce player like De S (debut, not long time to wait turn to regular starter) but if our youth products could contribute to our team, we should include them. If we can't find space for them, players who could contribute to our team in a couple of years, we can loan them out.

It is about how we strict to our policy, our intention to build a team from our youth or young players we buy.

We clearly see that we sold him just in 1 maximum 2 days. It is just shocked that we all of sudden sell him (the rumour was a loan) and we all know we get Bonaventura (Galliani said Cristante's money to seal the deal). We are also informed that Zacardo rejected to move which should mean we have to increase our offer to Parma for Babiany. In my opinion, sale of Cristante is all about money, a little money (actually big amount for us).
"When Costacurta and Maldini won they didn't celebrate much. They were thinking about winning the next game" - Alessandro Nesta
(09-04-2014, 10:44 AM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: Simple question, open to anyone with answers. Yesterday I posted what I think is a very important point about the age of this group of players. In two years, less than half of this squad will be under 30 and almost a third will be into their mid 30s. The chances of all of those "young" players having a status of being important players is very slim, not just because a lot of them have yet to show they can grow to the expected level, but also that experience and history generally shows that getting 100% success in developing players is next to impossible. Knowing the financial situation and the direction and management seen in the past few years, how does the club rebuild towards a competitive future?

Change of philosophy. That won't happen with two people in charge for 20-30 years. The answer is therefore a complete change that starts at top.

(09-04-2014, 05:32 AM)Lilly Wrote: […]
Some people are saying that Galliani did a GOOD job with the resources he had at his disposal. Let's put aside the fact that he's the reason for our financial troubles to begin with and see what other club executives have accomplished with comparable resources:
- Hummels: €4million
- Lewandowski: €4.5 million
- Reus: €17.1million (cheaper than Balotelli, lolol)
- Sahin: €7 million
- Gotze and Durm: free
- Coman: free
- Pogba: free
- Arturo Vidal: €12.5million (cheaper than SES)
- Diego Costa: €1million

We certainly don't have to spend big to put together a very competitive team that can win titles for quite a few years and make us tons of money through transfers. These are the sorts of deals a capable executive should be making on a regular basis. Smart clubs buy players who are cheap because they are diamonds-in-the-rough whereas so many of Galliani's purchases are cheap because they actually are worth nothing. Galliani didn't have any big brain-farts this summer by his standards and tried to do things that are more or less logical/sane. He did a good job compared to the disaster of last year and I'm trying my best to go the "glass half full" route but let's not kid ourselves into thinking his level of performance is anywhere near satisfactory. As a Milan fan, I think our club deserves better than what Galliani has been able to produce.

I think this is an unfair comparison. First of all these players minus Nuri Sahin weren't available this mercato so it says nothing about Galliani's mercato; we must consider what was available this mercato. If we didn't spend our € 13M on the players we did get, who could Galliani have gotten this summer?

Secondly it is very easy to look back in hindsight and say we should've gotten this and that player. Who could really tell all those players, when they were bought for those sums, were going to become as good as they did? Before joining Atletico, Diego Costa scored 8 in 34 at Valladolid and continued with similar stats for 3 years at Atletico before exploding last year. And in the case of many of these transfers there were particular circumstances allowing them to happen. Like Hummels and Sahin going back "home" to Borussia. Also Gotze came through the Borussia youth academy before going to Bayern for a big sum.

Some these signings also date back 4-5 years, when our situation was different. Lewandowski, top scorer in Poland, for € 4.5M is a great deal, but back in the day we had Zlatan so a centre-forward wasn't really on our radar.

With that said, you really have to wonder why Galliani didn't scoop up Pogba or Coman. He has to step up his game with Bosman youngsters and not just snatch oldies.

Not trying to deify Galliani, but we have to consider what his actual budget was this mercato and who was actually available this mercato.


One thing that's clear is Milan won't be investing any money in transfers in future. If ever there was a time to invest it was this summer and we didn't. After finishing a disastrous 8th, there was talk of getting back into CL immediately. Even Paolo Berlusconi said he believed Silvio would be opening a new cycle of investment. Instead, we picked up other teams' unwanted trash again for free and finished the mercato in surplus. This' the 3rd summer running Milan hasn't spent money. There's even talk of Milan having tied up Suso on a free transfer next year.

We were led to believe that Milan was developing youth into first team players. Only last summer Barbara said the club aimed to promote one player from the academy each year. She believed it would be Cristante's turn last year. DES/SES became first team regulars aged 19 so I truly believed Cristante would get his shot. Instead Galliani sold our best youth midfielder in 20yrs to cover Cuntari's wages. After Barbara's interview, I believed our 3 best youth prospects after DES/SES (De Santis/Locatelli/Mastour) would be promoted when they reached 19. It was exicting to think half our squad would consist of quality Italian academy players by 2016/17. But since Cristante was overlooked I can't see the other's becoming regulars for at least 5 years if Galliani doesn't sell them. Cristante had an amazing physique for a 19yo. The other 3 are nowhere near as well developed so seriously doubt they'll be regulars at his age.

This leaves us picking up other teams trash on free transfers/expiring contracts without investing for the next 5 years. We'll probably keep extending mature players like Bonera, Muntari, Alex until they can't walk. The best result would be another disastrous season and hopefully Galliani quits for good. It would be great to see Maldini/Albertini brought back into the set up. They've been saying publicly for years Milan lacks quality and can't rely on free transfers. I imagine they'd permanently axe the fodders and start taking a bet on youth. After all, one of Albertini's main selling point's as FIGC chief was the need to rely on youth.

http://www.rossoneriblog.com/2013/05/03/...ayers-but/

I think one of the posters brought up a good point about this team, the age of the leadership of the team. Both Berlu and Galliani are in their 70s. Their life, nevertheless their career, could conceivably be over any day. Since this is indeed their last shift on the job, it is unlikely they will actually do a long term project that will pay off in 3-5 years. I mean, hell, Berlu might not even live long enough to see through a 5 year project. That is why we always seem to go after the biggest name we could find, instant results. This strategy really isn't all that different than the way we did it back in the glory days. Only difference is, we no longer have the cash to buy those front line top end big name stars any more. So, we look through people's garbage cans to get any big name guy on steep discount.

I guess this is the debt we have to pay for the last 20 plus years of glory. There is, truth be told, not really much we can do. Berlu and Galli will never do a long term project, not unless we somehow shave 20 years off of their age. We also won't really have money because Berlu has so many other things going on and a divided family who won't want to spend a penny on a soccer team. It's been a fun ride, but I guess we have to pay the toll now.
(09-04-2014, 03:20 PM)Gio-mania Wrote: I think this is an unfair comparison. First of all these players minus Nuri Sahin weren't available this mercato so it says nothing about Galliani's mercato; we must consider what was available this mercato. If we didn't spend our € 13M on the players we did get, who could Galliani have gotten this summer?

Secondly it is very easy to look back in hindsight and say we should've gotten this and that player. Who could really tell all those players, when they were bought for those sums, were going to become as good as they did? Before joining Atletico, Diego Costa scored 8 in 34 at Valladolid and continued with similar stats for 3 years at Atletico before exploding last year. And in the case of many of these transfers there were particular circumstances allowing them to happen. Like Hummels and Sahin going back "home" to Borussia. Also Gotze came through the Borussia youth academy before going to Bayern for a big sum.

Some these signings also date back 4-5 years, when our situation was different. Lewandowski, top scorer in Poland, for € 4.5M is a great deal, but back in the day we had Zlatan so a centre-forward wasn't really on our radar.

With that said, you really have to wonder why Galliani didn't scoop up Pogba or Coman. He has to step up his game with Bosman youngsters and not just snatch oldies.

Not trying to deify Galliani, but we have to consider what his actual budget was this mercato and who was actually available this mercato.

Well I'm thinking these players' clubs thought they were going to be good, which is why they bought them. That's why scouts and sports directors get paid the big bucks, right? They're supposed to uncover talents that fans might not necessarily know about and develops them into stars. I mean, even casual football fans knew Messi was going to be big, but it takes more skill and vision to see what some of the guys I listed are capable of. Young players with potential are coming through every year, and in a few years, we're going to be talking about how "back in 2014, it would have been nice if we got Coman or some other guy for free instead of say.....Fernando Torres". I don't believe that this summer, there were NO good young players we would have gotten through smart scouting and purposeful planning (I mean, Juve is already starting to look smart by getting Coman). I'm willing to admit this part is speculation, so I guess we'll have to see in a few years.

Anyways, I'm just using these examples to illustrate some smart actions we haven't been taking: giving patience to young players (Costa), giving chance to academy players (Gotze), getting free/cheap youngsters instead of free/cheap oldies (Pogba). This summer, we're still not showing signs of doing these things except maybe #1 (Niang). Galliani hasn't made a single move that shows us he's thinking more than 2-3yrs ahead. And yeah, I guess maybe he isn't expect himself to see a 5yr project through. That makes sense (somewhat), but it doesn't mean I have to feel happy about it.
I agree 100% of what you said! but then just look at Cristante. Do you think the structure of Milan will allow Coman to play against Lazio? Or someone like. Pogba to even have a game or two to see how effectively useless he could be?

Bale didn't become the 100million transfer bc of one great season, he went through a lot of okay season before that great season. Same thing goes to Ibra, Di Maria, Ozil,Neuer, Messi, Lahm, Kaka, Silva, Hummels, Costa and even CR7. Yes, some of them might be praised as the next big thing when we first noticed them but when you look at their first few real competitive games and games during their peak seasons. You will notice that their games at their peak seasons are more polished and pretty much mistake free. All players have learning curve, playing regularly gaining exp, injuries and off the pitch work ethics are the differences between someone who didn't live up to his earlier promises or someone who fulfilled their potentials. Playing regularly is something that Milan and most IT teams in general won't do. Now if you are a young player like Pogba, would you go to a top team which plays youngsters like himself or a top team which does not.

That's why Milan at this point will never have any interesting youngsters emerging unless there are a huge injury crisis.

Sad thing is, Milan could have gone the youth movement this summer by holding on to guys like Polashi and Cristante, while signing Merkel back(sure he would come back cheaper), and even getting someone like Darmain. Now when you add those four with SES, DES, Niang and Menez; and actually let them play regularly with De Jong, Honda, Abate, Monty and others, it will send signals to all promising young players that a big club like Milan will play you as long as you work hard. Milan might not get into CL, but at least it will begin to attract good young players.
After watching yesterday's game, isn't it funny 2 other youth players (Darmian + Astori) are starting for Italy? I would rather have Astori playing than Zapata, Mexes, Bonera or Rami. I also wish we would've sold Abate and replaced him with Darmian.

I've read quite a few posters hyping Niang and can't see why. For me, Niang is a mediocre player. Not good, not bad just plain average. He's just another example of bad youth scouting along with Gabriel, Vergara and Saponara. That's what's most frustrating about Cristante's sale. Niang was given 28 Serie A games and couldn't score once. His decision making's poor and finishing awful. Also never seen somebody take so many inconsistent corners/free kicks.

I can already tell Coman's far superior and has great player potential. Same as Keita from Lazio. Keita scored 5 goals and 5 assists in less games for Lazio last season and he's Niang's age. I even read posters on Forza Inter forums praising Coman saying "let's hope he's another M'baye Niang not Pogba lol". Let's not even mention Niang's unprofessional behaviour off the pitch. Even Balotelli was much better behaved and had serious talent yet was sold.