09-02-2014, 11:41 PM
Holy cow, the board is so divided on the mercato this year. Sort of refreshing, considering we have all been in agreement as to how badly our previous few mercatos sucked, lol. Just wanted to share my two cents on some of the topics discussed here.
Cristante sale is perhaps one of the most controversial moves we have made this year, which is interesting to me, because even Balotelli sale didn't resonate as much negativity. Personally, I did not rate Cristante all that highly, and I was having a discussion about this with another poster here about it just before the sale. To me, Cristante was touted highly, partially because of his talent starved our fan base has become. We wanted a high level midfielder so badly that we looked at Cristante as the second coming of Pirlo. For the record, Cristante could turn out to be quite excellent, but to bank on a 19 year old to turn the fate our of team around is a little over-doing it.
That being said, the way he exited, and was handled were just shameful for Milan. Looking back, I guess Milan had always been lousy at bringing up youth players since Berlu took over. Yes, we had the Maldini, Baresi, Tassotti and gang class, but those guys were really the only stars our academy produced in like 30 years. Only difference was, we had the deep wallet back in the days to offset the lackluster youth academy. Can't produce a good defender? Buy Nesta! Can't produce a good midfielder? Buy Rui Costa! Can't find a good striker? Shevchenko to the rescue! Now that the funding has dried up, partially due to Berlu's cut back and partially due to Galliani being a finance idiot, our only way back to relevance again seemed to be relay on our youth academy, Galliani said as much. And yet, when we look at Cristante, the guy barely saw the field in 2, 3 years with the first team. It is one thing for young players to swallow his pride and play second bananas to Rui Costa, Seedorf, Kaka and Pirlo. But to glue him to the bench in favor of Essien, Muntari and Nocerino? That is inexcusable. I don't think Cristante is really some arrogant punk kid who thinks he should be starting every match for us. But 3 games in 3 years is really quite insulting for a young talented kid who worked hard to get playing time. Under those circumstances, his request to leave is very reasonable.
The case of Cristante is a perfect way to illustrate the problem with Milan and Italian football in general. In Italy, seniority and relationships trumps abilities and potential. The issue of young players never getting a chance over senior players no matter how much better they are has been ongoing for a long time now. If we think back, we have all had questions such as why was Seedorf always playing when he hardly ever ran on the field? Why is Bonera such an essential part of the team when all he did has been sucking since he signed with us? And yet, the only reason these players had their special treatments was because they had seniority. They had special treatments from the organization that says "don't worry about training or working hard. You are a champion, and we will never bench you!" Any company or organization that employs this kind of favoritism is doomed to fail, there can be no other way around it. When your team selects players based on who is friends with the president instead of performances, you will get unmotivated players on the field, and talented players leaving the team for better organization. Without changing this culture of favoritism, we will never be able to truly relay on our youth to bring us success.
Lastly, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts on the mercato overall. I felt like this team has improved, and considering the resources we had, Galliani did well. Now of course, we have lost a lot of talented players, but the players we brought back seem to fit with one another pretty well. It is clear that Inzaghi is going to transform this team into a defend-counter attack type of team. So speed up front with ELS and Torres will come in real handy. Bonaventura can play midfield or winger, and adds some technical element to a midfield that desperately needs some.
But to me, the real interesting thing is always the money. We had budgeted for Iturbe at one point, pending Kaka and Robinho leaving. They both left, and we were said to have 10M euros to spend. Then we sold Balotelli, and should have had some more money. But, the only transaction that we spend money on (Bonaventura) was funded by the Cristante sale. So the question is, where did the rest of the budget go? Galliani is good at getting players for free, but money always seems to disappear when he touches them. This lack of financial accountability is really starting to bother me. No organization in the world will stand for this kind of financial trickery, and it is about time Milan recognizes it too. If we had money, we had money. No CEO should make 30M euros disappear out of thin air and not be called out for it.
Cristante sale is perhaps one of the most controversial moves we have made this year, which is interesting to me, because even Balotelli sale didn't resonate as much negativity. Personally, I did not rate Cristante all that highly, and I was having a discussion about this with another poster here about it just before the sale. To me, Cristante was touted highly, partially because of his talent starved our fan base has become. We wanted a high level midfielder so badly that we looked at Cristante as the second coming of Pirlo. For the record, Cristante could turn out to be quite excellent, but to bank on a 19 year old to turn the fate our of team around is a little over-doing it.
That being said, the way he exited, and was handled were just shameful for Milan. Looking back, I guess Milan had always been lousy at bringing up youth players since Berlu took over. Yes, we had the Maldini, Baresi, Tassotti and gang class, but those guys were really the only stars our academy produced in like 30 years. Only difference was, we had the deep wallet back in the days to offset the lackluster youth academy. Can't produce a good defender? Buy Nesta! Can't produce a good midfielder? Buy Rui Costa! Can't find a good striker? Shevchenko to the rescue! Now that the funding has dried up, partially due to Berlu's cut back and partially due to Galliani being a finance idiot, our only way back to relevance again seemed to be relay on our youth academy, Galliani said as much. And yet, when we look at Cristante, the guy barely saw the field in 2, 3 years with the first team. It is one thing for young players to swallow his pride and play second bananas to Rui Costa, Seedorf, Kaka and Pirlo. But to glue him to the bench in favor of Essien, Muntari and Nocerino? That is inexcusable. I don't think Cristante is really some arrogant punk kid who thinks he should be starting every match for us. But 3 games in 3 years is really quite insulting for a young talented kid who worked hard to get playing time. Under those circumstances, his request to leave is very reasonable.
The case of Cristante is a perfect way to illustrate the problem with Milan and Italian football in general. In Italy, seniority and relationships trumps abilities and potential. The issue of young players never getting a chance over senior players no matter how much better they are has been ongoing for a long time now. If we think back, we have all had questions such as why was Seedorf always playing when he hardly ever ran on the field? Why is Bonera such an essential part of the team when all he did has been sucking since he signed with us? And yet, the only reason these players had their special treatments was because they had seniority. They had special treatments from the organization that says "don't worry about training or working hard. You are a champion, and we will never bench you!" Any company or organization that employs this kind of favoritism is doomed to fail, there can be no other way around it. When your team selects players based on who is friends with the president instead of performances, you will get unmotivated players on the field, and talented players leaving the team for better organization. Without changing this culture of favoritism, we will never be able to truly relay on our youth to bring us success.
Lastly, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts on the mercato overall. I felt like this team has improved, and considering the resources we had, Galliani did well. Now of course, we have lost a lot of talented players, but the players we brought back seem to fit with one another pretty well. It is clear that Inzaghi is going to transform this team into a defend-counter attack type of team. So speed up front with ELS and Torres will come in real handy. Bonaventura can play midfield or winger, and adds some technical element to a midfield that desperately needs some.
But to me, the real interesting thing is always the money. We had budgeted for Iturbe at one point, pending Kaka and Robinho leaving. They both left, and we were said to have 10M euros to spend. Then we sold Balotelli, and should have had some more money. But, the only transaction that we spend money on (Bonaventura) was funded by the Cristante sale. So the question is, where did the rest of the budget go? Galliani is good at getting players for free, but money always seems to disappear when he touches them. This lack of financial accountability is really starting to bother me. No organization in the world will stand for this kind of financial trickery, and it is about time Milan recognizes it too. If we had money, we had money. No CEO should make 30M euros disappear out of thin air and not be called out for it.