Summer Mercato 2011

[ElMago99]

Mister X è meno X


Ganso, Hamsik, Pastore, Schweinsteiger, Fabregas... Nomi su nomi, decisamente altisonanti, hanno accompagnato l'estate rossonera, alla ricerca di quel fantomatico Mister X del centrocampo. Lo stesso Allegri, nella giornata di ieri, ha ammesso che qualche obiettivo è sfuggito di mano al Diavolo: nessun indizio o riferimento, ma la sensazione è che il grande rimpianto sia Cesc Fabregas. Gli ultimi due "papabili" hanno duellato in uno "scontro" tutto italiano: tra Montolivo e Aquilani, nonostante inizialmente il primo fosse più che favorito, ha vinto il ventisettenne romano. Traferitosi nel 2009 al Liverpool per 20 milioni più bonus, l'ex giallorosso è andato incontro ad una fase sfortunata della sua carriera, tra esclusioni ed infortuni. La scorsa stagione, nonostante i risultati poco nobili con la Juventus, Aquilani si è rilanciato, riconquistando anche la maglia della Nazionale. Una "risurrezione" che non è stata tuttavia sufficiente per una conferma, dato che la dirigenza bianconera, che deteneva il diritto di riscatto, ha preferito lasciar andare il mediano. Ora il suo ritorno in Italia sembra sempre più vicino, ma con una maglia diversa. Forse non sarà l'unico aquisto di Galliani, probabilmente non sarà stata la prima scelta, ma l'ormai ex Liverpool offrirà comunque il suo contributo alla causa, rimpolpando di energia e freschezza un reparto attualmente claudicante.


Basically article says that Mister X is not quite X Like. The whole thing was a joke, and we're left with 2nd rate player panic buy. It's quite embarassing to claim Aquilani as Mr X when you were before linked with Fabregas, Pastore, Hamsik, Ganso, & Schweini. I think Aquilani was a good buy, especially under 10 million euros. However, that's not Mr X. That's a 3rd or 4th buy to replenish the bench (merkel & Strasser gone), and to replace aging Senatori. NOT Mister X, our Trequartista. Proves how broke we actually are. I believe everyone here should re-evaluate their projections for this year.

[el fre]

Its not Aqualani Bashing , for the TENTH! Time its the cheap policy , I have nothing against Aqualani But I do against the embarassing cheap tactics year in year out.Teeth Books Panic buys ridiculous expensive contracts stupid MGT decisions year in year out.

CLEARLY Im pissed off my brothers.

So now, in August 2011 you realized that Milan is owned by a cheep con man, a sleaze ball who made it big with his tricks?

No offense, but how old are you, son?

[ElMago99]

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/201...-days-with

Taiwo out for 1 month lol

Helllloooo Antonini

[Arildonardo]

Its not Aqualani Bashing , for the TENTH! Time its the cheap policy , I have nothing against Aqualani But I do against the embarassing cheap tactics year in year out.Teeth Books Panic buys ridiculous expensive contracts stupid MGT decisions year in year out.

CLEARLY Im pissed off my brothers.

I've been a fan of Milan almost as long as Berlusconi have been our owner and the one who prodives the money needed to be a top club. We've had almost the same management all this time. I'm not saying our management is flawless or anything, far from it, but I think this kind of criticism is a bit unfair after what the club have been going through over the years I've been following. Anyway, constructive criticism is good even though I don't agree with everything. Forza Milan!

PS!
Barcelona "B-team" (kind of) - Napoli 5-0 today...

[Siregar]

I am still with my thought, if the players/management could be praised, they could be also jeered, criticized. That what fair is. They will get according what they did (have done). Management gave Milan countless trophies in the last 20 years but it shouldn't stop fans think objectively especially when something went (is going) wrong like post 2007-until start of season 2010/11. That was the worst achievement from Berlusconi co., not only from trophies won but especially from how they managed Milan in that time.

Aquilani as replacement of Pirlo is just a step back from what Galliani co. started last year. I said it again, if we really don't have money, we should use it wisely. Deals like Ibra, Taiwo/Mexes are great but they shouldn't splash money for Robinho type of transfers if they don't have money to reinforce the team (to sub former stars like Pirlo, Seedorf). They should really focus on problems, not how to boost up their image. If Milan really lack of money, they should start buying players in term of the level of Milan's need, not the level of image Milan could build, worse Berlusconi could gain.

Management should know that dealing with players in the end of August is very risky. They should have learned it when they got Oliviera as replacement of Shevchenko. The Brazilian costs almost half of Shevchenko's price but gave average performance for Milan, something they should know if they did trackback the player's record and they could avoid if they didn't play with time.

[ElMago99]

I am still with my thought, if the players/management could be praised, they could be also jeered, criticized. That what fair is. They will get according what they did (have done). Management gave Milan countless trophies in the last 20 years but it shouldn't stop fans think objectively especially when something went (is going) wrong like post 2007-until start of season 2010/11. That was the worst achievement from Berlusconi co., not only from trophies won but especially from how they managed Milan in that time.

Aquilani as replacement of Pirlo is just a step back from what Galliani co. started last year. I said it again, if we really don't have money, we should use it wisely. Deals like Ibra, Taiwo/Mexes are great but they shouldn't splash money for Robinho type of transfers if they don't have money to reinforce the team (to sub former stars like Pirlo, Seedorf). They should really focus on problems, not how to boost up their image. If Milan really lack of money, they should start buying players in term of the level of Milan's need, not the level of image Milan could build, worse Berlusconi could gain.

Management should know that dealing with players in the end of August is very risky. They should have learned it when they got Oliviera as replacement of Shevchenko. The Brazilian costs almost half of Shevchenko's price but gave average performance for Milan, something they should know if they did trackback the player's record and they could avoid if they didn't play with time.

Excellent post. What I can add to that is that I feel last year our 5 strikers (Ibra, Robinho, Pato, Cassano, Inzaghi) is what won us the Scudetto, along with the fact we had a wall by the name of Nesta-Silva which seemed to really shut down other teams attacks.

Where we lacked (and it was exposed) was certainly the midfield. I think Berlusconi was willing to spend ONLY when it was a flair player like Robinho, but for some reason our midfield has been a huge issue. The reason why we need so many strikers is that we use them in our midfield because our midfield has 0 creativity. Therefore, we have 2 or 3 strikers always playing who are very creative. This is not enough for a full season and certainly against big teams in Champions League where the game is won and lost in midfield.

Something's going on under the surface we do not know about. Just because Berlusconi & Galliani have been Milan legends does not mean they will escape criticism. This is now 4 years strong of rather bizzarre transfer policies, and our holes grow wider and wider. 2 Midfielders (1 being World Class) was a must I feel for this Summer. Unless Hamsik comes on the 31st, it will be a sub-par transfer campaign.

As others said, what is the point of owning a club if you have your hands tied behind your back financially. I remember before 2 seasons ago no one showed up to the games and then Galliani complained that was the reason for no transfers, meanwhile it was vice-versa...

[HO-YOUNG]

How can i get to watch the entire 90-91 season??? i need a link to those tapes... i will be living in the past for all of this season... in my own Milan fantasy world...

[WCmilan]

Berlu usually spends big on a REALLY big name, robinhos world wide his name is probably one of the most popular, plus his style of play which berlu i gues likes. then ibrahimovic, another big name, ronaldinho.. i guess there just weren't anyone we could make a deal for who he liked.. c.ronaldo,kaka,schweini,fabregas..

anyhow apart from the most likely disappointing mercato, if we end it with just aquilani i still think we have a lot to look forward to next season.. aquilani will be good to have to rotate within midfield and as acm, we also have cassano,mvb for cl which is a big help but wont be enough to beat off manu,barca,real hopefully we get lucky to not get them or if we do more luck to win those games, the schudetto schould be a breeze this season.. apart from all that we have things to look forward to like improving players we already have.. emmanuelson looks much more improved and im sure will help out , boateng looks great i mean he's one of our star players imo

[Aficio]

Cheap and free strategy works if you are already a great team like Barca or Real but not a team who is retooling to challenge the top. Stam is a great player no doubt but he did not help Milan win anything, Cafu on the other hand did but Emerson was a huge failure. Taiwo might be better than any of the LB in Milan but he is not a huge upgrade from last year. Mexes does add depth but do Milan really need another injured CB to add depth? He might be fine when he comes back but he might not. Either way it is a huge risk for Milan to pay him about 8 mil a year with taxes for 4 yrs. Instead of spending 8 mil on Zapata where his wage is about 4 mil with taxes a yr max. Cheap or free players are pretty much hit and miss, for every JDT there is a Javi Moreno, for a Cafu there is Contra, Boateng then Emerson, MVB to Flamini to some extent....Problem is that whenever you miss, you ended up being struck with them and must pay their wages even though they contributed close to nothing. Of course that could happen when you pay transfer for a player too, but that's where your scouts earn their wages.

Cheap and free is one thing while panic buy or bargain buy is another. Taiwo is a solid buy while I am mixed with
Mexes, esp since Zapata only gone for 8 mil or less. RO was a panic buy while Ibra was a bargain. Aqua is a panic buy No matter how you look at it and Milan is a club that should never be in a position to get panic buy due to their statue. Something just hits me, if Pato is not dating a Berlu, he is probably already sold to the highest bidder and in return Berli will sign either Adebayor or Mario from City, whoever is cheaper.

Thanks for the Aqua answers. Just more questions, if he is as good as you are making him to be and how he was
the MVP of that friendly match, why would Pool sells him to anyone, as they lack creativity themselves?

---

In short, Juve think Pirlo is a better option than Aqua while Milan think Aqua is a better option than Pirlo, mainly
based on last yr performance.

As for CL, I don't mind Milan being in pot 2, my point is that Mian will most likely be in a group of depth. Over the past two yrs Milan was did okay two seasons ago and just barely got through last yr( beating one team). Imagine Milan being in the same group as Real, and City?

Oh please. There is nothing 100% good or 100% bad in this world so you and I can criticize and praise at the same time.

I'm not making Aqua a good player. He is a good player himself. He has two problems: his injuries and his abilities. We all know the former. The latter means he is good at every requirement for a midfielder, BUT he has no quality of world class level.

Liverpool need a creative player. I agree. But Aqua is not a creative player. His creativity is good, same as his passing, but he is not at Xabi Alonso's level, even Montolivo is better than him. In Roma, there are Pizzaro behind him and Totti in front of him. Aqua started as DM along with De Rossi, he can tackle well, but not world class like De Rossi. His best technique is the longshoot with both feet, so Roma move him to AM to get the best out of him.

I must admit: Roma love their son, but they can afford to sell him, and after the sale, Roma had their best season in 10 year with being runner up in both Serie A and Coppa.

Aqua can play everywhere in the mid but he can't shine anywhere in the mid. He can't take Milan to the next level, but we have no good LCM besides Seedorf, so he can help. He is a cheap addition. I don't care about Mr.X or related rumors.


IMO, Milan now have 3 strategies for developing:
1. To invest in the young. Future.
2. President's gift. Present, to win.
3. Cheap & Free. Present, to fill small needs.

1 deserves praising. We should evaluate 2 after 31st, August. 3 also deserves praising. We shouldn't pay attention too much on 3.


The possibility of Man City in the same group as us is 1/8. And IF that is true, the chance that they continue and we are out is only 50/50. I can conclude that the chance we would not qualify is lower than 1/16 or 6.25%, so the chance of qualifying NOW is 93.75%. It can rise much higher if Pot 1 is Porto or Arsenal, a bit higher with Bayern, Chelsea or MU.


EDIT: IMO, Zapata is only a good CB, nothing more. He hasn't won any thing, intenational, club or personal. His positioning need improving and he is injury-prone. Only Villareal want him, other rumors were baseless.

[ZvonimirBoban]

Its not Aqualani Bashing , for the TENTH! Time its the cheap policy , I have nothing against Aqualani But I do against the embarassing cheap tactics year in year out.Teeth Books Panic buys ridiculous expensive contracts stupid MGT decisions year in year out.

CLEARLY Im pissed off my brothers.

So now, in August 2011 you realized that Milan is owned by a cheep con man, a sleaze ball who made it big with his tricks?

No offense, but how old are you, son?

Contrary to Jay, I'm supporting this policy where we can get as much as possible while spending as little as possible. Don't be such a spoiled brat. If you'd rather have a 20M Aquilani or 45M Pastore then I can't say anything anymore.