Hello all!
I'm new here, this is my first post, altough I have been reading this forum (and it's predecessors) for nearly a decade now. I'm a Milan fan since the '94 CL final, and been through highs and lows along with my team.
I will try to give my views on our transfer campaign so far, especially on this mysterious Mr. X our favorite Golden Tie keeps mentioning.
I think on this forums we all very well aware how Mr. Galliani used to handle our transfer negotiations, ever since we got into the situation that money-wise our club is no longer competitive with the current big spenders in Europe, like Real Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, ect. He keeps it all secret not to play with our nerves, but because that's the only way he can sign top class players ahead of those clubs, and the only way Milan can escape from losing face, if our target goes to another team instead.
If you want an example of this, look at the Ibrahimovic-saga. We nearly got him in 2006, but Galliani and co weren't careful enough, and it was all over the media before he would actually signed the contract. And then Inter got him before us, and it's hard to imagine a more embarassing situation for a Milan fan. Now let's forward the clock to the summer of 2010... Galliani and co were all over on Ibrahimovic again, but instead of the media fanfare they played it quiet, and in the end they made probably the smartest business of the summer, with signing a top class forward for twenty-something million euros, in three installments. And this signing was a major factor in that Milan ended up winning the Scudetto last season...
Now, I'm not saying this to imply that we are sure to sign a midfielder of the same calibre this summer, but to emphasise that if we want quality players with our limited budget, this is the only way Milan can go now.
As for our transfer targets, a lot of names have been circulating... Of course the majority of us would love to see Cesc Fabregas in a Milan shirt. Me too, but to be realistic if he moves away from Arsenal, he will probably sign only for Barcelona. He is a catalan, I guess he would sign for them even if it means a bench-role for him and a significant pay-cut. That's football-love right here, and there is nothing Galliani and co can do to change this. As for Barcelona, of course with their midfielders they don't really need Fabregas, they're just acting like Berlusconi's Grande Milan acted in the past... Buying players just for the sake of keeping them away from their rivals.
There is another world class name mentioned for the left midfield role, Bastian Schweinsteiger. However, Galliani's comments about Mr. X being a player not at his top, excludes the german, as he is already at the prime of his powers. Maybe he could be even more improvement on our team than Fabregas, but unfortunately Bayern would never sell him.
A lot of Milanistas think that Bale will be our Mr. X, but I don't really see that as a possibility... In our current line-up, he could fit into the left back role, but since we already signed Taiwo, I don't see this transfer happening. Anyway, his price would be astronomical, and I'm a bit skeptical about whether he could perform well in the midfield role.
Let's move now to the more realistic targets. There is the Italian duo of Aquilani and Montolivo. I'm on the view that they are not really the players Milan would need right now to make a big jump in quality... But on the other hand, if we cannot sign anyone better, I would still welcome one of them (or both), because they would reduce the possibility of Gattuso and Ambrosini on the field at the same time. Any solution that prevents this nightmare happening is welcome by me, and this Italian duo might do just that by giving Allegri more creative solutions in the midfield.
The other somewhat vacant position in our midfield is the central attacking role. We have many players who are capable of playing there, but none of them are established trequartistas. Maybe the most capable is Robinho, but I always saw him more of a support striker / striker. Cassano has the vision, but he is also more of a striker by instinct. Boateng likes to play there, but with his characteristics he is more of use in the right midfielder role. As for Seedorf, the man is still a genius, but he is too old to rely on as our main creative force, as we would need someone who can play most of the games in the season, consistently. I have high hopes for El Shaarawy and Valoti, but they are not starting materials yet.
Of course our management is also aware of the problems there, that's why Milan were interested in signing Pastore... Unfortunately, what I wrote about our financial issues is reflected here too, as our beloved Leonardo simply outbid his former club and got him before us. It's too bad, because he was young, already had Serie A experience, and our management always saw him as the potential new Kaká...
Speaking of Kaká, he was mentioned too with a return to red and black, but I think that would be the same misstep when we bought Shevchenko back from Chelsea. He is injured almost all the time, out of form, and only got older since we sold him. So, no thanks to Kaká from me...
Also, there is another trequartista linked with us, the brazilian kid Ganso. I confess apart from the Copa America I never seen him play, but the management apparently holds him in high regard. In the Copa he didn't really shine, but that was just a few games, and the whole Brazil team were somewhat out of shape, so I would not make conclusions from that... But I can't escape the impression that Ganso seemed somewhat slow to me in that tournament... If that's anything to go by, then he is not more suited to our league than a certain Juan Roman Riquelme... So with the figures of 40-50 million mentioned, I would skip on Ganso too, he would be too much of a risk for that amount.
And one last thing I wish to reflect on... Is this whole Balotelli - Cassano viceIbra thing. Honestly, I don't think there is any problem with our attack. Maybe Cassano is a bit out of shape now, but we should give him a full season to prove his worth. He's just too much of a talent to waste just because he flopped in the Audi Cup. Also, I would much rather keep Paloschi at the team, while we have Superpippo here to teach him a thing or two, than putting another potential dynamite under our bench (Balotelli). With Cassano and Paloschi in the team, and Robinho capable of playing in the attack, we don't really need to buy a striker.
We should focus our efforts and limited finances to strenghten the midfield, with possibly two quality signings enough to keep the team ahead of Inter, Juve, ect... I would not think about winning the CL this season, that seems far too unrealistic. A realistic target would be to reach the semis there, and go for the victory next season.
That's it, sorry for beign this long in my first post
