Winter mercato 2022

[Artan]

let it happen,. ASAP pls.

[Arildonardo]

Still a bit worried by Renato Sanches' physique. He has had a lot of smaller injuries (muscular, hamstring, thigh and so on) every season during his career so far. Still hasn't played/performed consistently for one whole season straight.

[Codazzi]

I guess Maldini thinks ligue 1 is more than sufficient for our mercato. There wouldnt be any difference if we were allowed to sign players only from France lol.

[nefremo]

We gotta go where it's "cheap" to shop. We have close to no chance of signing talents from the PL. Tomori is a good example. Just take a look at what he cost us (close to 30M) and he wasn't even a first team player at Chelsea. Abraham at Roma is another example.

Bundesliga is attainable, but the clubs there are always in a healthy financial status so they don't just sell for cheap either. They are also able to hold off Serie A bids and are happy to wait for big money offers from the PL. The bigger talents are all snapped up by Bayern anyway. Either that or Dortmund and Leipzig own them already and good luck buying from them without draining the bank acct.

Spain has never really been a market for us. Traditionally, Spanish players have never done all that well in Italy....although Maldini has done well there as of late (Diaz and Theo).

So we are down to the French league...where there seems to be an abundance of talented players and they don't cost an arm and a leg. Of course, naturally we have to be active in Italy as well (and have been).

There is also the smaller leagues (Belgium, Dutch Eredivisie, Sweden, Norway, etc) where we can go to and get some talented players (and we have)...but the problem is that these guys are typically too green and used to playing competition of a much much lower level...so even if talented (see Saelemaekers), it takes them a while to ramp up to Serie A quality (let alone CL quality). And here, I'm excluding big clubs like Ajax or PSV because they don't sell for cheap and when they do, they do business with PL clubs.

[Zio Fester]

Lol Italy are terrible. In hindsight its a group of average players who got lucky at the Euros.

Will need play-offs to get through to the WC. Mancini turned into Ventura.

[nefremo]

It's a good squad I think. Not as good as some in the past that tdidn't win anything (1994, 1998, 2000 and 2002 come to mind), but still...there is a lot of talent there and they managed to win a Euro. Gotta give them that.
The problem has become that the way they play has gotten into their heads (or Mancini's I guess). Always short passes. Side to side passing. Passive mentality JUST to retain possession. Zero risk. The 1st thought in players' heads is ball retention and possession and instead it should be penetration. Very much like Montella's Milan. Mancini thinks the better team is the one that has possession...even if that possession is 50 meters from goal and sterile. It's as if Italy has turned into Spain...but not the Spain that dominated the world with possession AND chances in 2010/2012. I'm talking about the Spain following those years that couldn't get out of their own ass with the short passes even when they were losing games by several goals.

[ACMmike]

Lol Italy are terrible. In hindsight its a group of average players who got lucky at the Euros.

Will need play-offs to get through to the WC. Mancini turned into Ventura.

lol they're far from terrible, but their performance today was not good for sure. 

I wouldn't say lucky, they dominated every opponent in the Euros tbh. Verratti, Jorginho arguably top 5 midfielders in world, Insigne Chiesa Immobile isn't a shabby attack either. In def Italy has always been the world leaders, they are tactically above every other country defensively for decades. It's a strong team. 

Italy has never had a problem with quality but rather motivation, they have to get hurt or ridiculed to come back and annihilate everyone.. Recall 06 World Cup, the scandal put so much criticism on them and they went and shut every critics mouth right up. They missed last World Cup and came back to absolutely dominate this Euro, other than Spain they looked levels above Belgium/England/Swiss etc.

 I'm pretty sure they won't miss this WC, and will put on a good show there. They need to get their heads in it and put a strong performance from the get go for this knock out. These qualifiers are a combination of being ill-prepared, perhaps unmotivated as well. Portugal is suffering the same fate & are also far from an average squad.

[Zio Fester]

And Belotti looks absolutely awful at international level, so lost and out of his depth. Doesn't do much in a mediocre Serie A either.

Signing him even on a free would be a backwards step.

[porcho]

Milan appear to have chosen the man they want to replace Franck Kessie as they are targeting Lille’s Renato Sanches, according to a report.

According to this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport, the more time passes the more it seems that Kessie will leave the club on a free transfer and the management want to prepare for his exit just like they did by swooping to sign Mike Maignan as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s replacement.

Kessie’s replacement could come from the same club as Renato Sanches is now the main target. The Portugal international has a contract expiring in 2023 and wants a new challenge in his career with Lille languishing in mid-table having won the title last season.

yes please although my guess is that he ends up injured all season given Milan Lab's track record. 

Portugal is suffering the same fate & are also far from an average squad.

Portugal's problem is lack of a proper coach. One that will play the right players and push the team to move their ass. 
The talent is there, just not able to make it work. I mean how can Bruno/Jota/Bernardo kill it in the EPL, yet be mediocre to decent for the NT no matter what the opponent?
We also need a coach with balls. I mean the idiot throws on Leao, Pepe gets unfairly red carded, takes off Leao despite the fact he was the only attacker that looked energetic and dangerous. The alternative would have been to take off Ronaldo who was terrible and tired/lazy but Fernando Santos lacks the balls to make the right calls. 

And Belotti looks absolutely awful at international level, so lost and out of his depth. Doesn't do much in a mediocre Serie A either.

Signing him even on a free would be a backwards step.

He'd come to play backup. He's not NT quality but would be a good depth signing. I wouldn't take too much notice of his Torino form last season or so. Cairo refused to sell a player who didn't want to be there. Hard to play your best when you're playing somewhere you don't want to be and have no assistance.

[ACMmike]

And Belotti looks absolutely awful at international level, so lost and out of his depth. Doesn't do much in a mediocre Serie A either.

Signing him even on a free would be a backwards step.

This I agree with. I'm not sure why Kean doesn't get minutes over Belotti. Baffles me