Summer Mercato 2016

[somedevil]

What pissed me off is why we didn't take Samper from Barca on a loan.

[Jay Crisp]

Gabigol & Joao Mario to Inter ...hope we can splash some cash next summer.

[reza]

Inter are Inter, can easily self destruct but Candreva, Banega, Joao Mario and Gabigol is a great summer.

[WCmilan]

Bull shit. Our chinese owners better do something in January. Why is the transfer of our club such a damn process.

Gabigol is a huge signing for merda IMO.

Personally, I liked what I saw from Mauri last season. He's energetic, explosive, and hard working between attacking and defending. I'm sure we'll regret selling him in a few years like usual.

[nefremo]

Gabigol is nothing special imo. A good young striker. Nothing more, nothing less. He can turn out great, or not. Chances are that he will be very useful to them, but i don't think he will turn out to be incredible. It's not as if they signed Neymar. The lack of concrete interest from other clubs in Gabigol and unwillingness to make a substantial bid proves that to be honest.

I have seen a fair amount of Gabigol at Santos, and I have always thought that he is hyped and overrated. Something Brazilian teams do a lot in order to jack the price up obviously.

Again, a good young player. But I wouldn't worry too much that they signed him. Having said that, they did well to keep the price under 30mil. Santos was hyping up the kid so much that they were hoping to spark a bidding war and end up with some "Neymar type of money" again. Too bad for them that everyone saw straight through this one. Gabigol is nowhere near that level.

[slifersd]

Gabigol is a fine prospect, but I am not overly concerned that Inter signed him. Good young players should always be welcomed on a team, but in terms of Inter, someone like Gabigol will have a really hard time making any real impact. Icardi is the team captain and undisputed first option CF at Inter. Unless they are planning on selling him or benching him within the next couple of years, Gabigol is gonna have a real hard time getting meaningful minutes. And if Inter does sell Icardi, one has to wonder if Gabigol is even good enough to replace him. You can never fault a team for getting young talent, but without sufficient playing time available, said young talent will more likely bust than boom.

[reza]

In my opinion it's a question on closing down gaps, like I said Inter can flop, even if they sign Messi, but based on standings alone we are surely not closer.

[ACMILAN1983]

Slifersd I think Gabigol will be used from the right at Inter. Either way, I think I'm with nefremo on him, I mentioned in the past that while he was an interesting prospect I did have some doubts about him. Since then I think I'm quite a bit more hesitant on how much of a success he can be. Not to say I don't rate him, I think he's got more potential than Suso for example and wouldn't have had any issues had we signed him. That said, I've said it many times and continue with this thought, if we're to go for a wide forward, Berardi remains my first choice without doubt (or Insigne depending on how his situation at Napoli evolves). The guy's started the season in incredible fashion.

Joao Mario seems also set for Inter. I haven't watched him too closely, but I don't see anything to concern me with him. I think he's a solid player that will probably be useful, but nothing really more.

As for our market, I'm not really expecting anything much more. My only hope at this point is possibly this:

http://www.football-italia.net/90402/rom...aredes-out

[slifersd]

Oh for sure, we are, in all honesty, not even in Inter's league right now. Even though the standings from last season didn't necessarily reflect this, but the talent level of their squad is far superior to ours at this point. We have a LOT of catching up to do to even be considered a contender for EL at this point. That being said, we do have a few young pieces that we can count on for some internal improvements. This season is all about the maturity of Donna, Roma, Suso, Niang and maybe someone like Gomez to me. We have to be the best Milan we can be first before we start thinking about how we compare to Inter, Juve, Roma or Napoli.

[nefremo]

slifersd, you are not necessarily wrong. As a matter of fact, at this moment, you are probably wright.

But sometimes we put too much emphasis on the performances of the previous season and the players that certain teams have. Many times people talked about (even officials from Milan during the past season) "we had 60 points the year before, we can't expect to gain 80 this season, we have to take it slow, etc".

But let's take Napoli for example, in 2014/15 they finished the season on 5th place with 63 points. 7 points behind Roma and 24 behind Juventus. Fast forward to last year....nobody gave them a chance. The level of the players they had "weren't supposed" to perform the way they did. Nobody thought Higuain was going to score 36 goals. They didn't even sign any "great" players. Allan had some decent showings at Udinese but no way in hell did anyone think that he was going to do what he did for them. Koulibaly was already there from the year before, and HE WAS LABELED A FLOP! They lost Gargano and Inler also.

But Sarri was the game changer. He brought belief, intensity, self belief to the club. Nobody thought Napoli was going to do what they did and push Juventus to the end. Roma as a matter of fact had a "far more talented" squad and was supposed to be the challenger. Instead they needed a change of coach midseason, going on a crazy winning (no-losing) streak to make the CL.

All I am saying is that (even though I am one of the biggest critics of the quality of our team), even though it takes for many things to go your way, improvement (and big improvement at that) is possible.

IF Montella can have a similar influence to this squad like Sarri did with Napoli...IF Gomez proves to be a solid partner to Romagnoli...IF De Sciglio finally answers his critics....IF Niang and Suso can replicate their last seasons.....etc, etc.....than I would not be surprised if we end up far higher in the table than most of us think....and probably end up being higher in the table than teams that probably have more talented squads than us (Inter, Roma).....if things don't go right for them (like they didn't for us last year for example). Don't forget, last year many of us believed that we can push for a CL spot. Nobody gave Napoli a shot and we were supposed to fight it out with Inter and Roma. Instead, us, Inter and Roma had a ton of problems throughout the season (players not performing, coaching changes, etc) and Napoli took advantage simply because things aligned for them. It might be that way for us this year.

I just don't think we should enter the season thinking EL is acceptable. I think we should aim high. I actually think it's wrong for Montella to do what he is doing right now, which is kind of giving signs that we are not good enough. That's the vibe I am getting from his interviews. We need to do what Sarri did! We need to do what Conte did when he took over at Juventus. Play with self belief and with passion. Fight for the colors, for the fans, for yourself. Don't give in and say so and so is better than us so it's ok if we finish behind them. We need some fire in the locker room. We need people to step on the field and say to the other team "YOU? You won't last longer than ME!! You won't fight harder than ME! YOU ARE NOT better than me!" Like I said, Conte and Sarri are the perfect examples of this, and it worked for them!

Obviously it's not realistic to think we can be ahead of Juventus at this moment. But hell, teams like Inter and Roma and even Napoli with the changes......with a little bit of luck (and bad luck for them)...things can be very interesting.

Of course, at the beginning of every season I get amped up and enthusiastic. It slowly fades as the season goes on!