Winter Mercato 11'/12'

[Gio-mania]

Gattuso/Nocerino, Van Bommel, Seedorf/Aquilani, Prince
Average age: 31.5/27.5

De Rossi, Khedira, Prince, Montolivo
Average age: 25.5

I'm not sure if the first line-up is our best one, since it remains to be seen what quality Aquilani and Nocerino have in comparison to Gattuso-Seedorf. Either way at the youngest our best midfield line-up today would be no younger than 27.5 years.

The middle three players just feel so right. No raw creativity but they are all players who can pass well enough and most importantly they have dynamism. Each player runs a lot and can be useful both in his offensive and defensive duties. Really the only doubt I have is Montolivo. The guy is 26, close to what should be his prime, and he has never quite taken his game to the next level. Even with such dynamism we need a player with creativity and the ability to change matches; I'm not sure Monty is our man. The same can be said about Aquilani.

Just for consideration, Carletto's winning trio was Gattuso-Pirlo-Seedorf, being around 25 years old in 2002 when our Golden Age started. Considering it lasted until about 2006-2007, they were about 30 when it ended. That should be a frame of reference for our future team. The only player who really sticks out is De Rossi, who is almost 30. He can only really expect to be a starter for 2-3 years after that we either rely on Nocerino (much worse) or get someone else. But knowing our management De Rossi would probably be a starter for 10 years, he is a "champion" after all. So much speculation, we probably wont even get him lol

[JuanShoe]

I disagree juanshoe, because boateng when we've faced these big clubs has played well, and let's stop underrating him please, let's put it this way// he did great for ghana in a world cup even against the bigger clubs, he scored a few important goals for us, his work rate is great he's a good all around midfielder,the only thing he really needs work on is his shooting, him and robinho both,, robinhos problem i begining to notice is he never puts enough power into his shots but rather tries the perfect placement type shots and sometimes they dont work out..we shouldn't be negative and begin to bash our better players because of our first few games.. barca hasn't been doing too well either, are we going to start saying messi isnt the best player in the world? or that xavi and iniesta and mascherano won't get starts for clubs like real and manu.. no, im not comparing our midfielders to them and yes we can improve but we also can't blame our rrecent run up of results on having an absolutely horrible midfield.. lately our whole team itself hasnt been working.. abbiati arguably the best goalkeeper with handanovic probably last season in seria a, he's been sort of bad this season.. he's made nice saves but also a few mistakes and some slow reactions like on messis pass to pedro for the equalizer, that was tbh BS because it passed almost right infront of him and was going so slow too, abate has also had not quite the joyride down the right either and hasn't been putting to much in for our forwards etc.. let's just see where we stand midway through the season, if we're not first i guarentee we'll be in the top 3 and not off first by many points.. juve is off to a goodstart but they also have like no injuries plus they have something to prove , we might be carried away because of how easy seria a was for us last year because really apart from a few games we brushed off napoli and inter pretty easy, udinese was always a problem for us..

I think he has done exceptionally well for us. But he is not the kind of player who can dominate and destroy teams. He's a hard worker and valuable member of our squad but if we want to be the best we need better players. Not saying he couldn't play with them but with him and the others we currently have is not good enough to be up with the top clubs.

[Gabriel426]

Interesting stuff going on, I think I was the first to say Gotze would be great in Milan, and now it seems there is someone talking about Gotze n every page. Personally, getting Gotze is probably harder than getting CR7. First I don't think he is available for Milan budget and secondly, if he is on sale, I am pretty sure Real will probably sign him before us.

As for getting Torres? Have any of you seen him play over the past three yrs? Also, have you know the style he plays? He is the best striker for a counter attack team due to his height, holding the ball, and one on one skill. Over the past yrs, due to injuries and forms he had been crap and playing for Chelsea did not help at all. Having him in Milan is a waste of money, I am not saying he won't score goals but no matter how cheap Milan could sign him, those money should be spend on a midfielder instead.

Monty and Constant, although they are probably signed with Milan but unless it is official, they are not Milan players yet. On top of that, both are just box to box Mids, and as of this moment, they are not WC and probably won't make it there. Allegri might mold them along with Nocerino, Boateng and Aqua into a great midfield unit but individually none of them are WC players like Hernanes, Bastian, Ozeil, Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Xabi, De Rossi, Sneijder, Essien, Pirlo, Lampard, Gerrard or have potential to be one like Gotze, Ganso, Ramires, Sahin, Honda, Kagawa, Nasri, Young, Hamsik, Pastore, and Gourcuff. To me, I think Milan needs to play more as a team rather than try to sign WC players and hope they play well and lead the team. Having Monty, Aqua, Boateng and Nocerino as the four midfield might not sound as intimating as Xavi, Xesc, Iniesta and Sergio but winning games is the ultimate goal. I said it before and I am saying it again, As long as Ibra is spearing the attack of Milan, Boateng can re define the CAM position much like Pirlo did with DM almost ten yrs ago. Of course having Hamsik and Hernanes will probably be better than Aqua and Monty but fact is, Milan is poor and can't even allow to make long distance calls.
As for discount deals, well, I am pretty sure if Torres and Kherida are available, Milan won't be the only team after them. Torres will probably head back to A. Madrid. While Kherida is a very good box to box mid.
Lastly, age has nothing to do with how a players play the game. Conditioning, forms, hard works, and talents will always come before age. Bonera and Kala is always younger than Maldini and Nesta, you don't see them play ahead of the latter two due to being younger. Milan is not Arsenal or Napoli or Juve where they are satisfy with just finishing in a CL places, Milan is win now or bust. If Milan finishes in second in Serie Apand made the semis in CL, it is a failure season while teams like Arsenal, Napoli, Juve, Pool, and Valenica will consider that a success. Thus, Milan must win now and continue their winning ways, anything less is a step backward. That's why Milan should careless about player X and Y could probably only have three great yrs left since that's still three more great yrs than the current players. Of course it would be great to get players like Cesc, Gotze, Hamsik, and Pique since they have at least 7-8 great yrs left in them but they are either not available or cost too much.

[xudong]

It is not possible to get Khedira. Mourinho really likes this player. Even if he didn't like him, he would not sell him to Milan. Remember Pedro Leon?

[will4li]

Anything can happen in football,remember ibra's 24 mln deal?

Torres is on his way back to peak days lately,he was amaing last night before he was sent off. along with pato,he will be the ideal player to counter barca.bad thing is better he plays,further he away from us.

Real don't need gotze, they got cr7,kaka,ozil,sahin all play that role.gotze's agent will weigh the situation there. after watched few game videos of dortmund,gotze's play impressed me. strong,pacy,quick at decisions,all important qualities to beat barca's press trap.germany is manufactureing modern midfield players.

[Gabriel426]

I won't say Torresis on his way back since he scored against Swanea, but he is certainly looked better.

As for Gotze, Dortmund is not selling him anytime soon and when they do sell him, I am sure it will be a few seasons down the line. By then a lot could happen in football, like Barca might not be Barca any more, Slowdorf will finally retire but I doubt Real won't over spend though.

[will4li]

Considering their core players average age and spending power,barca will be the team to beat within next 5 years.and messi is younger than ibra,silva,abate...we are a team to win now.

Dortmund just sold sahin,argubly their best player last 2 seasons, this summer.they won't hold big talents too long.

Between 12 mln khedira and 25 mln hernanes,I think the management will choose khedira.A quick look at our transfer policy for reference, last 3 over-20 mln spend;pato, ibra and el92(10 mln for half right). an established huge discount and 2 rising younsters.

[WCmilan]

I disagree juanshoe, because boateng when we've faced these big clubs has played well, and let's stop underrating him please, let's put it this way// he did great for ghana in a world cup even against the bigger clubs, he scored a few important goals for us, his work rate is great he's a good all around midfielder,the only thing he really needs work on is his shooting, him and robinho both,, robinhos problem i begining to notice is he never puts enough power into his shots but rather tries the perfect placement type shots and sometimes they dont work out..we shouldn't be negative and begin to bash our better players because of our first few games.. barca hasn't been doing too well either, are we going to start saying messi isnt the best player in the world? or that xavi and iniesta and mascherano won't get starts for clubs like real and manu.. no, im not comparing our midfielders to them and yes we can improve but we also can't blame our rrecent run up of results on having an absolutely horrible midfield.. lately our whole team itself hasnt been working.. abbiati arguably the best goalkeeper with handanovic probably last season in seria a, he's been sort of bad this season.. he's made nice saves but also a few mistakes and some slow reactions like on messis pass to pedro for the equalizer, that was tbh BS because it passed almost right infront of him and was going so slow too, abate has also had not quite the joyride down the right either and hasn't been putting to much in for our forwards etc.. let's just see where we stand midway through the season, if we're not first i guarentee we'll be in the top 3 and not off first by many points.. juve is off to a goodstart but they also have like no injuries plus they have something to prove , we might be carried away because of how easy seria a was for us last year because really apart from a few games we brushed off napoli and inter pretty easy, udinese was always a problem for us..

I think he has done exceptionally well for us. But he is not the kind of player who can dominate and destroy teams. He's a hard worker and valuable member of our squad but if we want to be the best we need better players. Not saying he couldn't play with them but with him and the others we currently have is not good enough to be up with the top clubs.

yeah your right, i have to say though if we did let's say sign a couple of higher class midfielders i'd still make boateng a starter somewhere in their just because a player with his work and effort is always needed but i agree with what your saying our midfield is sort of mediocre atm..


anyhow, while everyone is talking about hamsik pastore schweinsteiger etc i really had my mind set on bale. we have to admit we do need someone to take on defenders and a really fast player for our counter attacks, if we can make our counter attacks more lethal and quick we can afford to have more players back defending on set pieces etc, imo so far we've been terrible defending set pieces .. i think bale would be a great signing because hes quick he can take on players pretty easily and if we slot him in at left mid he can also help out on the defensive front because he did after all come from a lb position right? mngment probably sees this i hope, maybe why we were linked to krasic as he can do the job to, but i think the krasic rumors r complete bs the only reason i half believed it is because we did after all sort of let pirlo go to juve and we have a better relationship with them now then back when they were our main competitors

[Gabriel426]

Considering their core players average age and spending power,barca will be the team to beat within next 5 years.and messi is younger than ibra,silva,abate...we are a team to win now.

Dortmund just sold sahin,argubly their best player last 2 seasons, this summer.they won't hold big talents too long.

Between 12 mln khedira and 25 mln hernanes,I think the management will choose khedira.A quick look at our transfer policy for reference, last 3 over-20 mln spend;pato, ibra and el92(10 mln for half right). an established huge discount and 2 rising younsters.

Sahin left at free transfer or the low release clause. Gotze is another story and quite frankly if Dortmund rejected a 40mil bid this summer for Gotze, don't see him leaving cheaper than that.

Is Kheridra even being link with Milan? Bc I think the only ing I read so far is that he got into a verbal fight with JM. While I doubt JM wants to lose him since he was JM first purchase.

[will4li]

Sahin left at free transfer? good news for us,it means their management is inexperienced,unlike what viola did to monty.and milan management made a name for something under-table like free transfer poach,direct player contact recently.

What is gotze's current contract situation?