Summer Mercato

[ACMILAN1983]

Just listened to the latest BTP podcast which was centered primarily on Italian football and there was a special segment dedicated to the sad state of affairs at Milan: http://www.beyondthepitch.net/podcasts/e...014/05/17/

Here are a couple of the salient points:

1. They believe Clarence and Montella are going to stay in their respective positions because it would be too expensive to release Seedorf or acquire Montella.

2. Opinions are split regarding whether Mastour is just a PR stunt to take the spotlight away from the bigger issues at the club. If Mastour does get minutes today, the other youth products who have been working their butts off all season will definitely feel insulted if they didn't get any (referring to Saponara, Cristante, Petagna, etc)

3. We are low balling Rami & Taarabt and may have to settle for Alex who I was reminded that we actually wanted since 2005 -_-

4. If we do lose Seedorf, then the options aren't great. Spalletti is making big bucks..while Pippo is just as inexperienced.

5. Of all the players that we own, Balotelli will be the most likely to be sold if he has a great WC as he could command a large transfer fee.

6. Generally though, we can be expect a summer of free transfers and bargain buys.

I am probably missing some other things that they mentioned but it is definitely a good listen. They also touched on other Italian teams (Juve, Roma, Napoli) and some of the rumours surrounding them (Conte, Insigne, Hamsik, Destro, Immobile, etc)

I listened through the Podcast, was very interesting indeed.

Points 1 and 2 in your post seemed to be the focus of their discussion. Regarding Mastour, I think it was interesting that the guy from GianlucaDiMarzio.com was insistent he thought it was a PR stunt, while Anto was suggesting it might be more about warding away interest from other clubs and give him a sign of faith. Certainly, my view is with Anto on this, as I've mentioned prior to Sassuolo. Given that Mastour didn't get any minutes yesterday and the stories about him getting offered a contract by Barca (I've posted a link in the Mastour thread), I feel more confident this was about protecting an asset, although obviously some of it was for PR. Had Galliani been boasting about signing Mastour to the first team etc, then I'd be talking about this being more about PR.

That leads me nicely to point 1, as the talk about Seedorf's future was centered a lot around Galliani's role in the club and whether or not it's been marginalised. They don't shy away from saying Galliani is pulling the strings to get Seedorf out (something Marcotti also suggested), while Barbara may have spoken to her father about keeping him, hence the recent change in tone from Silvio (that and we can't afford anyone to replace him).

What really interested me was their discussion about Galliani's role being marginalised, hence we're seeing much less of him of late and Seedorf's (and actually Balotelli's) position maybe symbolic of the ongoing political battles at the club. Whether this means Galliani's still at risk in the summer or not I don't know, but certainly the turmoil in the club stems down to this whole dual CEO nonsense, which is destroying the club from the inside, even if it's less visible to the public. Marcotti recently said Seedorf was a victim of the power struggle at the club and I'll also post two quotes from Maldini in his "controversial" interview:

“Should Galliani stay or go? It is not for me to say. I think that when you feel all powerful, it is not clear that the results were obtained thanks to others. To win, we want ideas, design, passion. At Milan there remains only passion. It is not enough"

Now we hear Galliani wants to promote some puppet to replace Braida, meaning there's no threat to his power in this regard.

“It is logical that he does not have experience, he has great courage and personality, but even Guardiola could not do anything. Do not blame Clarence. There is a lack of clarity in objectives.

“Maybe at the end of the season there could be a more conservative Coach, then a good start to next year. So there is a risk he will get burned."

He said that Clarence would risk getting burned during a phase when there was a great deal of good press surrounding Seedorf. Now we're talking about Seedorf losing his job because of this power struggle, possibly not reaching EL (despite us looking down and out when he came) and showing character (a character he's shown his whole career as a player).

When it comes down to it, a huge number of the immediate problems always point back to a bald headed fool.