(06-02-2021, 09:39 PM)slifersd Wrote: You would think with the infusion of cash from finally getting CL, we would at least try to spend money on a marquee signing. But instead we are being linked to nothing but young players and cheap veterans. I frankly don't even think De Paul is good enough to really elevate us but he is at least better than freaking Hakan. Are we really expecting to roll into next season with basically the same squad and be competitive in CL?
I think we have the funds to make 1 big signing. But the problem is that we have other holes to plug. We also have to take care of the loans which we either want to extend or make permanent. We are paying the price of 7-8 years of absolute shit revenues and especially missing out on CL during those years. Paolo was clear. We can't expect big signings until we've been in the CL for several years in a row. What we don't want happening is for the management to pull "an Inter" and get into all sorts of financial trouble. Look at them now. They are on the verge of defaulting, seriously.
Anyway...the squad is young and getting better with time. Even if we roll into the CL with the same team, I think we can have our say. I don't expect us to win it (although of course I hope as a fan and believe anything is possible...otherwise what's the point of watching), but depending on draw and some luck, we can have a positive tournament and make it to the later stages.
The most important part is to keep our best players, keep growing, and confirm ourselves in Serie A next year by having an even better season. That can mean the Scudetto or at the very least being contenders until the very end. Then we can start thinking about marquee signings. I think we are at least another year or two away from that....if we were to do it responsibly.
But we can not and must not get ahead of ourselves. Far too often teams make it to the CL and think they've struck gold, only to miss out the following season and see that money evaporate as quickly as it came.
(06-02-2021, 10:31 PM)nefremo Wrote: I think we have the funds to make 1 big signing. But the problem is that we have other holes to plug. We also have to take care of the loans which we either want to extend or make permanent. We are paying the price of 7-8 years of absolute shit revenues and especially missing out on CL during those years. Paolo was clear. We can't expect big signings until we've been in the CL for several years in a row. What we don't want happening is for the management to pull "an Inter" and get into all sorts of financial trouble. Look at them now. They are on the verge of defaulting, seriously.
Anyway...the squad is young and getting better with time. Even if we roll into the CL with the same team, I think we can have our say. I don't expect us to win it (although of course I hope as a fan and believe anything is possible...otherwise what's the point of watching), but depending on draw and some luck, we can have a positive tournament and make it to the later stages.
The most important part is to keep our best players, keep growing, and confirm ourselves in Serie A next year by having an even better season. That can mean the Scudetto or at the very least being contenders until the very end. Then we can start thinking about marquee signings. I think we are at least another year or two away from that....if we were to do it responsibly.
But we can not and must not get ahead of ourselves. Far too often teams make it to the CL and think they've struck gold, only to miss out the following season and see that money evaporate as quickly as it came.
Inter's situation is quite a bit different than your usual club going bankrupt. Their owners basically decided to stop spending any money on the team, even disbanded their chinese super league team that just won the championship because of it. The club financials might be ok (by european soccer standards), but ownership is the main issue there.
I generally agree with what you are saying, Maldini does seem like the type of director who is more of a slow and steady instead of being ultra aggressive with his approach. But while slow and steady is good for the most part, it also carries its own risk. Looking at the Serie A landscape, are we sure we are good enough with this current roster to be a top 4 team year in and year out? I wouldn't exactly bet my money on it. Napoli finished outside of top 4, and it can definitely be argued they have a superior roster than we do. If we are hoping for young players to develop and take a leap in quality, who in our starting 11 or even in the main rotation is capable of doing that really? Leao? I know this season got a lot of fans excited but we had some clear deficiencies that we needed to address. I am not saying we need to spend 150m on a superstar player, but we can at least get one player that is higher level than Giroud.
Our biggest issue is the RW position, and all we are linked to is Ilicic. You honestly cannot expect a team of that quality to be competitive at all in CL. Hell, this team couldn't even beat a woefully one dimensional Man Utd team this year, what can we do against Bayern/Barca/Man City? Again, I am not saying we go on a crazy bender and dump 200m on players this summer, but if all we end up signing are Giroud/Ilicic/Papu/whatever young French player they like at the end of the summer, I would say we should temper our expectations for next year.
I think a lot of players can make a leap in quality. Not putting words in your mouth, but from what you said, do you consider Bennacer's, Kessie's, Calabria's, Theo's, Gabbia's, Saelemaeker's growth to be done? All of them are in their early 20s. CL exposure, confidence, etc, etc are all recipes for great growth.
I agree that this current squad is not a shoe-in for CL next season. I don't thin we'll stay as we are either. I believe we'll improve the team. That's all we can ask for. That may come in the form of younger or older players. Or both. But I also don't think that the linked players are all that we are after.
At the end of the day...I don't disagree we need a top player at RW and a much better ACM then Hakan. Also, some depth almodt all around. But my comment was more within the lines of...in order to see a marquee signing, we need to wait a year or two.
Its impossible to talk about competitive mindset or progress on quality as long as we keep players like Krunic and Hakan.
(06-02-2021, 10:31 PM)nefremo Wrote: I think we have the funds to make 1 big signing. But the problem is that we have other holes to plug.
But we can not and must not get ahead of ourselves. Far too often teams make it to the CL and think they've struck gold, only to miss out the following season and see that money evaporate as quickly as it came.
This. We've just made UCL. that's a boost to our $$$ but our problems haven't just magically gone away. We've got a few positions to sort out this season with a limited budget.
Give it a season or two and we'll be in a position where we only need to replace 1-3 players and then we can invest a full transfer budget on the one player and get those Marquee signing.
(06-03-2021, 12:12 AM)nefremo Wrote: I think a lot of players can make a leap in quality. Not putting words in your mouth, but from what you said, do you consider Bennacer's, Kessie's, Calabria's, Theo's, Gabbia's, Saelemaeker's growth to be done? All of them are in their early 20s. CL exposure, confidence, etc, etc are all recipes for great growth.
Yep. A lot of our players still have a lot yet to improve. I would add someone like Rebic to the list. If we can keep him injury free and get him playing at his best all season. Plus Tomori has just arrived and still has room to improve. as does Tonali. We've got a lot of young players that are on the way up so even if we do nothing, we'll likely improve next season anyway.
Also, for the record, I don't want Hakan to stay. was bnad enough having to deal with him last few seasons
From what I've read we've already spent our CL money on Tomori and Maignan. That's not to say I think we're broke at this point, but obviously we still have to stick to the strategy of buying young and talented players.
The advantage we have is that unlike smaller clubs who follow the same strategy, we're more likely to be able to keep these players for the long term. But this project will require patience. I will be satisfied with another top 4 finish next season – then we'll really be able to start building a solid foundation for the future.
One CL that has not even started doesn't offer that much money. It is not for nothing that even Tonali is not 100% to stay. Money is still tight but of course better than Europa League or no Europe money. Like mentioned we have 'already' spent over 40 million (Maignan and Tomori) so I don't expect much.
If you ask me we need 2 spots for young AND cheap players. For example replacing Meite and Romagnoli with *well scouted* under 21 players. But if they are going to rot on the bench like Kalulu and Hauge then may be it's pointless?
(06-03-2021, 01:36 AM)reza Wrote: One CL that has not even started doesn't offer that much money. It is not for nothing that even Tonali is not 100% to stay. Money is still tight but of course better than Europa League or no Europe money. Like mentioned we have 'already' spent over 40 million (Maignan and Tomori) so I don't expect much.
If you ask me we need 2 spots for young AND cheap players. For example replacing Meite and Romagnoli with *well scouted* under 21 players. But if they are going to rot on the bench like Kalulu and Hauge then may be it's pointless?
Getting young players is pointless. We never give them a chance. Imagine if it wasn't for Miha , Donna probably on loan or bench warming to this day.
We need to start using coppa italia as our bench/young players games.
Tonali and hauge I am very hopeful for. I hope they stay and get a real chance. Kalulu , I wouldn't miss him if ge left. Kurnic, meite and Roman sold and buy some players with that money.
OcMilano
News about exchange deal; Gomez papu and samu.
The deal is nearing success.
Donnarumma for the Calcio page:
I left Milan to win titles, not for money, as the newspapers say in Italy ?
|
