ACMILAN1983

A few points about the discussion in this thread. For starters, I don't think we'd get him for anything less than 15m as Porto are hard negotiators. Like Lyon, if you want their players then you have to pay for them. In this regard I'm inclined to believe Galliani that negotiations were hard.

We're taking a big gamble with this guy, but it's a gamble that seems to be worth taking. Put aside the Man Utd performances where he made his name, from what I've heard about him from anyone who's seen him on a more frequent basis, he's more than just a normal talent, and has huge potential. He's also incredibly keen to learn constantly, which bodes very well for his development.

His rise is interesting too. To have come from nowhere and be thrown straight into the Porto team is no easy feat. More importantly, there's been a strong correlation between him playing for Porto and their rise during the season. From what I gather, they were struggling before he joined and then after he joined in the 15 games he played, they won 13 and drew 2. Whilst I'm not going to attribute all this success to him, it cannot be denied that's quite a "coincidence".

This signing is a gamble, but it seems we made an educated guess before taking a gamble with him. These are the kind of gambles we should take when making purchases.

Forgot to add, Galliani may not be lying that we've been after this guy for a year. Cissokho has said that he became aware of interest from Milan which motivated him a lot in the league and CL.

I don't really have an issue with keeping Favalli for another season on the bench. The role he should be given is similar to what Costacurta had in his final years. Essentially a Coppa player, but an experienced head should we need it.

If you mean Hurtado, he left us quite a while ago. As far as I know Galliani confirmed Senderos, Mattioni and Sheva have gone lately.