Summer mercato 2012

[Siregar]

The Top 5 Worst Mistakes by Berlusconi & Galliani in Recent Past
by Michele Misiti

1. Andrea Pirlo:
Pirlo should have been resigned 1 OR 2 years before his release. It is one thing to let go of Seedorf at 35 on a Bosman, but Pirlo was still young enough and very much hungry to continue on his career. Letting him go for Free caused two distinct problems; he left for a rival team, and secondly, he did not generate any income to be used for further transfer money to strengthen the aging midfield. Surely a 3 year extension could have then allowed us to negotiate a 20M Euro deal to send him to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City, or Manchester United. Surely he would have been interested in the challenge, and we could have generated a lot of revenue on the sale. Letting him leave, only to perform greatly for our direct rival was almost unforgivable.

2. Mister "X" Saga:
After a 5 month spell (April-August) in 2011, all Milan fans across the globe heard about was a mysterious Mister "X". Hair texture, height, characteristics were all given, but never a name. Was it Marek Hamsik? Cesc Fabregas? Marko Marin? Alex Witsel? The biggest cat and mouse game Galliani has ever played with the fans backfired after the Berlusconi-owned company Fininvest was caught in the Mondadori scandal which cost them €560M cash on the spot. Shortly after, Berlusconi was involved in yet another scandal at the same time as his country was entering the biggest European Debt Crisis in its History, with massive debts piled up from unknown spending. He has recently stepped down as Prime Minister. After the saga ended, it was later revealed by Super-Agent Mino Raiola that it was indeed Marek Hamsik who was Mister X. As if the story isn't bad enough, Galliani later told the media that Mister X was Alberto Aquilani all along. Really?!?!?!?

3. Loans w/Options, Bosman's, and Asking Owners to Release their Players from Contracts:
Milan has technically spent zero Euros so far this Mercato. Gabriel, the Brazilian goalkeeper was bought for an undisclosed fee to be paid in deferment for 1 year, while Kevin Constant, Bakaye Traore, and Riccardo Montolivo were all signed for Free. Sulley Muntari was signed after his year-ending injury playing football with his friends in Africa, while Milan have not been consistently linked with anyone else at the moment. The Antonio Nocerino buy for €500,000 was certainly a steal nearly 1 year ago, but we cannot expect singings like that to come often. In regards to Alberto Aquilani, it's quite embarassing for Adriano Galliani to be asking for Liverpool to release him from his contract because we could not afford the meager €4M buyout of his contract after the Loan, which of course was all agreed upon nearly one year ago. Aquilani, while not a world-beater is certainly a better player than €4M, and has proven it in his time in Milan, Juventus, and Roma. In summary, the signings of the last 2-3 years have shown that Milan's project may not revolve around a type of player, a formation, or characteristic they need in the squad, but rather if that player is free or not. Carlos Tevez would only have came if he came on another Ibrahimovic-esque deal which included all sorts of loans, option to buys, and deferment of payments, which was never to be. This type of behavior in the transfer market not only shows how weak we've become, but has certainly angered the owners and managers of clubs around the World.

4. The Wage Bill:
In the 2011-2012 Season, AC Milan boasted a €160M wage bill which included taxes. The next highest team was nearly €50M behind them, and this includes the very many deficiencies that exist in the squad. With a 34 year old Mark van Bommel, a 35 year old Massimo Ambrosini, a 36 year old Clarence Seedorf, and not to mention Luca Antonini as your starting left back, €160M seems like a tough ask for any Director, but Galliani managed it. The problem all started with the Bosman and Loan policy. By signing players out of contract, you must pay them higher wages. Once a player like Mathieu Flamini is making close to €10M per season (Taxes included), everyone will demand it. To keep players Galliani then had to run the club into massive debt which ruined its transfer campaigns. Considering the talent on Roma, Napoli, & Juventus, there is no reason why we can't have a World Class team for around €100M Euros. Unless players are a Champion of the highest order, there is no reason for them to be over €2M-3M per year. A player like Muntari should be ecstatic with €1.5M, and only players like Nesta, Thiago Silva, and Ibrahimovic should be above 4M Euros per year.

5. Selling Thiago Silva:
AC Milan had ever right to sell Ibrahimovic. At 30 years of age, closing in on 31, Ibra was at the back end of his Prime. After the best goal-scoring season of his life, Ibra was looking for Champions League glory. With Milan being in a border-line financial crisis, his wages were not only too high, there was no room to bring in the 2-3 players needed for Ibra to win his first UCL Trophy. Moving on was always inevitable. Secondly, playing with Ibra is like playing with Pirlo. The system often becomes revolved around the one player, which can be very risky when you don't have any other World Class players on the team. In the case of Barcelona, when one gets injured, he's almost forgotten, as they have multiple ways of replacing him. This model works best for the long run, so in this sense it is not all that awful to see him go, no matter how talented he is, or how much swag he possesses. On the other hand, Thiago Silva is clearly the Top 3 best defenders in the world. Most think he is the best defender, myself included. To sell him for any price sends a message that we are willing to sell our best players in their prime despite the project we have or wish to have. There is no player that can replace him, and no one of World Class stature that will be under 30M Euros. Therefore, selling him does not really do any good. Without any further explanation, his sale is nearly the worst sign given by Management that not only will they not sell the club, but they're going to continue running it in the poor manner that has been demonstrated for the last half-decade.

I don't understand the reason why Pirlo is in the first place. Yes, we didn't get money from him (he went for free) but you can't get 20 mil euros for a 32 years old player. He went to our rival but we didn't miss him miserably. If we didn't have so many injuries last season (meaning: it was expected we scudetto), people won't say as much as nowadays about Pirlo's going out from Milan.

I will say the wage bill (very bad management in giving wage to our players) is our biggest mistake since this thing influence so many thing and give really deep shit to us. (Mostly) because of wage bills we have been so bad in mercato in recent years. We kept red in our financial balance. We could imagine, about 60 mil euros in a season. With that money we can get 3 quality players.

Number 2,3 and 5 in that post is mostly influenced by our poor wage management.

[xudong]

The Top 5 Worst Mistakes by Berlusconi & Galliani in Recent Past
by Michele Misiti

1. Andrea Pirlo:
Pirlo should have been resigned 1 OR 2 years before his release. It is one thing to let go of Seedorf at 35 on a Bosman, but Pirlo was still young enough and very much hungry to continue on his career. Letting him go for Free caused two distinct problems; he left for a rival team, and secondly, he did not generate any income to be used for further transfer money to strengthen the aging midfield. Surely a 3 year extension could have then allowed us to negotiate a 20M Euro deal to send him to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City, or Manchester United. Surely he would have been interested in the challenge, and we could have generated a lot of revenue on the sale. Letting him leave, only to perform greatly for our direct rival was almost unforgivable.

2. Mister "X" Saga:
After a 5 month spell (April-August) in 2011, all Milan fans across the globe heard about was a mysterious Mister "X". Hair texture, height, characteristics were all given, but never a name. Was it Marek Hamsik? Cesc Fabregas? Marko Marin? Alex Witsel? The biggest cat and mouse game Galliani has ever played with the fans backfired after the Berlusconi-owned company Fininvest was caught in the Mondadori scandal which cost them €560M cash on the spot. Shortly after, Berlusconi was involved in yet another scandal at the same time as his country was entering the biggest European Debt Crisis in its History, with massive debts piled up from unknown spending. He has recently stepped down as Prime Minister. After the saga ended, it was later revealed by Super-Agent Mino Raiola that it was indeed Marek Hamsik who was Mister X. As if the story isn't bad enough, Galliani later told the media that Mister X was Alberto Aquilani all along. Really?!?!?!?

3. Loans w/Options, Bosman's, and Asking Owners to Release their Players from Contracts:
Milan has technically spent zero Euros so far this Mercato. Gabriel, the Brazilian goalkeeper was bought for an undisclosed fee to be paid in deferment for 1 year, while Kevin Constant, Bakaye Traore, and Riccardo Montolivo were all signed for Free. Sulley Muntari was signed after his year-ending injury playing football with his friends in Africa, while Milan have not been consistently linked with anyone else at the moment. The Antonio Nocerino buy for €500,000 was certainly a steal nearly 1 year ago, but we cannot expect singings like that to come often. In regards to Alberto Aquilani, it's quite embarassing for Adriano Galliani to be asking for Liverpool to release him from his contract because we could not afford the meager €4M buyout of his contract after the Loan, which of course was all agreed upon nearly one year ago. Aquilani, while not a world-beater is certainly a better player than €4M, and has proven it in his time in Milan, Juventus, and Roma. In summary, the signings of the last 2-3 years have shown that Milan's project may not revolve around a type of player, a formation, or characteristic they need in the squad, but rather if that player is free or not. Carlos Tevez would only have came if he came on another Ibrahimovic-esque deal which included all sorts of loans, option to buys, and deferment of payments, which was never to be. This type of behavior in the transfer market not only shows how weak we've become, but has certainly angered the owners and managers of clubs around the World.

4. The Wage Bill:
In the 2011-2012 Season, AC Milan boasted a €160M wage bill which included taxes. The next highest team was nearly €50M behind them, and this includes the very many deficiencies that exist in the squad. With a 34 year old Mark van Bommel, a 35 year old Massimo Ambrosini, a 36 year old Clarence Seedorf, and not to mention Luca Antonini as your starting left back, €160M seems like a tough ask for any Director, but Galliani managed it. The problem all started with the Bosman and Loan policy. By signing players out of contract, you must pay them higher wages. Once a player like Mathieu Flamini is making close to €10M per season (Taxes included), everyone will demand it. To keep players Galliani then had to run the club into massive debt which ruined its transfer campaigns. Considering the talent on Roma, Napoli, & Juventus, there is no reason why we can't have a World Class team for around €100M Euros. Unless players are a Champion of the highest order, there is no reason for them to be over €2M-3M per year. A player like Muntari should be ecstatic with €1.5M, and only players like Nesta, Thiago Silva, and Ibrahimovic should be above 4M Euros per year.

5. Selling Thiago Silva:
AC Milan had ever right to sell Ibrahimovic. At 30 years of age, closing in on 31, Ibra was at the back end of his Prime. After the best goal-scoring season of his life, Ibra was looking for Champions League glory. With Milan being in a border-line financial crisis, his wages were not only too high, there was no room to bring in the 2-3 players needed for Ibra to win his first UCL Trophy. Moving on was always inevitable. Secondly, playing with Ibra is like playing with Pirlo. The system often becomes revolved around the one player, which can be very risky when you don't have any other World Class players on the team. In the case of Barcelona, when one gets injured, he's almost forgotten, as they have multiple ways of replacing him. This model works best for the long run, so in this sense it is not all that awful to see him go, no matter how talented he is, or how much swag he possesses. On the other hand, Thiago Silva is clearly the Top 3 best defenders in the world. Most think he is the best defender, myself included. To sell him for any price sends a message that we are willing to sell our best players in their prime despite the project we have or wish to have. There is no player that can replace him, and no one of World Class stature that will be under 30M Euros. Therefore, selling him does not really do any good. Without any further explanation, his sale is nearly the worst sign given by Management that not only will they not sell the club, but they're going to continue running it in the poor manner that has been demonstrated for the last half-decade.

Without perusing the article, I will make some quick comments that came to my mind:
1) Pirlo wasn't exactly all our management's fault.
2) Yep, I hated that stupid Mr. X saga; I feel that it was totally uncalled for.
3) Embarrasing yes, but I thought they are good moves, if not very good.
4) Wage bill is Galliani's fault, and I resent that very much.
5) As painful as it is (and it is all management's fault that we had to sell him), I am trying to justify the sales (I feel that things could be worse, and this probably had to be done); and hoping for the fund to be re-invested.

So, for me, I would rate them as follows: (out of 5, higher number represents the level of stupidity and incompetence by Galliani)
1) "Pirlo": 1/5
2) "Mr. X": 4/5
3) "bananas": 0/5
4) "wage": 5/5
5) "Silva": 2/5 (if Ibrahimovic stayed in the end, then I would not forgive Galliani, this would become 5/5 for me)

[Gabriel426]

I think pt 1. He meant to say Milan should have cash in on Pirlo when he was 29 or 30, while still relatively young and under contract with Milan.

Pt 2 is pure stupid.
Pt 3 is really hit and miss but again free players mean playing them way above their wage.

I think this article basically stated Milan should have sold players who were still valuable and get proper replacements, the wage structure in Milan is pure madness and those reasons pretty much resulted in the selling of Silva.

[ACMILAN1983]

Just read Udinese will now build their stadium, which is great for them and maybe Italian football, but sadly still nothing to suggest we'll be getting our own stadium.

true, but he's out so it doesnt matter what he's got. We cannot rely on him, as sad as it is becouse he is talented for sure.

That's too dismissive imo. He got the injury in training after a bad tackle from Inter's Juan. However, the ankle injury isn't too serious and he could be ok for the opening match for the Olympics. More importantly, this isn't a muscle injury which is what has been Pato's problem over the years, so there is still hope yet.

You're right about not being able to rely on him given his recent past, but at the same time we need to be fair and not dismiss him.

AC Milan News ?@Milanello
Gattuso: "Nesta and I left Milan because Allegri didn't want us to stay."

Just to reiterate what I said in another thread about this:

Gattuso when making his comments also said he had a good relationship with Allegri, and if I'm correct his actual comment was that he felt he was seen as a more useful presence in the dressing room than on the pitch, which is why he decided to leave.

I think we'll need to be very careful, as the press will twist Rino's words to say it's all Allegri's fault they left. If I'm totally honest though, it was time for the senators to leave, if not a couple of years too late.

I always like how gab marcotti look at things

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_...e-marcotti

Whilst a fair article I don't see anything in there that hasn't been said before. Also I think the argument for selling Ibra's fine, but he doesn't expand with many details of how selling Silva is sensible.

The Top 5 Worst Mistakes by Berlusconi & Galliani in Recent Past
by Michele Misiti

1. Andrea Pirlo:

2. Mister "X" Saga:

3. Loans w/Options, Bosman's, and Asking Owners to Release their Players from Contracts:

4. The Wage Bill:

5. Selling Thiago Silva:

In response to these arguments:

1) The Pirlo argument is illogical. He's suggesting we should have extended Pirlo's contract a few years ago so we could have sold him last summer for cash? Thing is we didn't know how Pirlo's career would progress and offering an extension would have been a major risk and costly. Especially if like Dida, Pirlo declined rapidly and we were left with a costly salary to pay. Pirlo was offered a deal and rejected, I don't see why the management should be blamed.

2) Beyond making the club look pretty idiotic, the Mr X saga wasn't a massive mistake as it didn't really damage the club. It wasn't good for PR in the end, but at the same time it did provide a lot of press time on the club.

3) Our "thrifty" spending again isn't necessarily a flaw, at least about how we dealt with Aquilani or whether we anger the management of other clubs (something which I don't believe). The concern, which he touched on, is whether we buy based on technical needs of the side/squad or whether we just assemble groups together based on them being cheap.

4) By far the most important point in this list. Our wage structure has been poor over the years and hasn't helped with debt, as has the squad size and the fact that free players will command higher salaries (e.g. Flamini or Mexes).

5) Fair point

Essentially, I agree or at least partly agree with 3, 4 and 5. What we can agree on is that the club hasn't been managed as it should be over recent years.

[Revolver]

To comment on the article posted by Elmago...

This writer didn't write anything that is not known already.

For Pirlo 20M part, it's bullshit. Pirlo was in decline since 2006/2007 season, I really can't recall he played one great match after that, he only had glimpses of his old self.
Pirlo needed a change. He needed a motivation. Period.
If we offered him a new deal, we probably wouldn't be able to cover his salary with his sale afterwards.
Selling him to Juve and not offloading him abroad was a big mistake, everyone knows that, Allegri and Galliani are aware of that too, but it's time to let it go.

[Warro Bantan]

Rolando is saying "I only want Milan" according to footballitalia.....is he any good?

[Gio-mania]

It is absurd to think we could've gotten 20 mln for Pirlo.

Rolando is saying "I only want Milan" according to footballitalia.....is he any good?

Normally that would mean B&G are about to sell him, but I'm not used to seeing it from this perspective

[Hasan Rossonero]

@Dev

Have you been able to confirm that the new stadium will be Udinese's own stadium. Or has the city council merely said they can refurbish some parts of it?

I know the city gave them the green light, but I still don't know if Udinese will actually own the stadium.

http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Squadre/Udinese/

The first story just says that work will begin without being specific about ownership. I fear this may just be one of those things where the city council still holds on to the stadium, and Udinese builds on it...kinda like how we're planning to do with the San Siro currently.

[Nalx]

To comment on the article posted by Elmago...

This writer didn't write anything that is not known already.

For Pirlo 20M part, it's bullshit. Pirlo was in decline since 2006/2007 season, I really can't recall he played one great match after that, he only had glimpses of his old self.
Pirlo needed a change. He needed a motivation. Period.
If we offered him a new deal, we probably wouldn't be able to cover his salary with his sale afterwards.
Selling him to Juve and not offloading him abroad was a big mistake, everyone knows that, Allegri and Galliani are aware of that too, but it's time to let it go.

The renewal negotiation started late in April (?) when Pirlo was practically a free agent so we weren't really selling him nor did we have power to offload him abroad. We made our offer, Juve made theirs, and who knows perhaps other clubs did, and then Pirlo freely picked one.

In hindsight it might seems we make mistake but at that time, considering his injuries and lukewarm display the last few seasons, a one year extension was a rational decision. Extending for more than one year in the hope for some transfer money like the article suggested is like a shot in the dark IMO. Besides had he stayed there's a chance he would have spent much of his time on the treatment table thanks to our crappy San Siro pitch and Milan Lab..

Now that he's fit and back to his old self with Juve, well, that's part of the risk. After silencing his critics, he might lose his motivation again go to hibernation mode for the rest of remaining contract. Who knows?

[reza]

To comment on the article posted by Elmago...

This writer didn't write anything that is not known already.

For Pirlo 20M part, it's bullshit. Pirlo was in decline since 2006/2007 season, I really can't recall he played one great match after that, he only had glimpses of his old self.
Pirlo needed a change. He needed a motivation. Period.
If we offered him a new deal, we probably wouldn't be able to cover his salary with his sale afterwards.
Selling him to Juve and not offloading him abroad was a big mistake, everyone knows that, Allegri and Galliani are aware of that too, but it's time to let it go.

The renewal negotiation started late in April (?) when Pirlo was practically a free agent so we weren't really selling him nor did we have power to offload him abroad. We made our offer, Juve made theirs, and who knows perhaps other clubs did, and then Pirlo freely picked one.

In hindsight it might seems we make mistake but at that time, considering his injuries and lukewarm display the last few seasons, a one year extension was a rational decision. Extending for more than one year in the hope for some transfer money like the article suggested is like a shot in the dark IMO. Besides had he stayed there's a chance he would have spent much of his time on the treatment table thanks to our crappy San Siro pitch and Milan Lab..

Now that he's fit and back to his old self with Juve, well, that's part of the risk. After silencing his critics, he might lose his motivation again go to hibernation mode for the rest of remaining contract. Who knows?

I agree with these posts, I wouldn't rank Pirlo's departure as such a big mistake as some believe. And by the way you can not count his NT form really, because that's a different set of circumstances as it was in 2006 too. His Juve form is difficult to watch but that's it. There was really no point in breaking our 30+ year old contract situation.