Summer Mercato

Originally Posted by Milano84

abate i still wonder his position. Theres talk of wingback? but i agree w/ you... he is more a side mf. I dont know. IF carlo uses his right he canbe a VERY valuable sub. He has lots of pass, and gets involves immediately. Think what babel was to liverpool and walcott to arsenal.... or ba to milan

You're comparing this young upstart to our Legendary Winger ? What next Roberto Carlos to Favagol

i'm hoping we make 2 more ACTUAL signings.... although galliani and braida are saying nothing. History shows me they will. Like it or not we have splashed "SOME" money every offseason. If its the appropriate amount or on the right players... is largely argueable. but the effort is sort of there...
pato, oliviera, gilardino, gourcuff.... going back a few more years.... nesta cost alot, pippo, kaka was a steal, pirlo etc

I cant think of a single summer mercato we didnt buy atleast 1 player for over 15 mil. I think all these thrifty moves r lining us up for a big striker bid. Personally i want to see 3 signings..... Zapata or a FAST wb (15 mil... whichever we dont purchase this year, will be top of list next year), van der vaart or joao moutinho (what can i say... i really like versitile attack minded midfielders....), and i'm really thinking Jo, Podolski, huntelaar (or even quagliarella) would be better striker signings at 17-20 mil (david villa welcome as always too :-D).
I know they are all far riskier than adebayor, drogba or eto'o. But if those come at the cost of other reinforcements....i say no. I dont know. I don't like boriello. But if our managment is really keeping pippo and boriello, then they must believe the ycan contribute.... so if we have 2 contributing strikers Plus young pato. We can afford to take a risk.

Of course i believe pippo cannot play more than a 3rd of a season....and boriello will not give us much..which makes you wonder...why our team is dependent on them.

my sinings only propose 55 mil in speniding. but considering we are still close to 20 mil made on mercato.... plus the oncoming sales of brocchi and emerson (easily another 2 to 3 mil combined!!!) we'd have only spend in the high 30s....

I know thats alot... but look what the other big clubs are doing. perhaps best example. Bayern munchen spent over 70 mil i believe after there uefa cup season.... if we are not on the same level (stature wise) as a bayern munchen..... we have problems

Originally Posted by drucurl

the thing is our midfield is so concentrated towards the centre that we depend on our wing backs to cross.....this results in gems courtesy Favalinho, Oddo, Kaladze

its true. but those 2-3 times a game they make it up there to cross..... brilliant!

I suppose we should go look in brazil. They basically created the attack minded WB. For our formation to work we basically need the next cafu and roberto carlos running the flanks. Or you know.... we could always just adjust our tactics and not play with so many defensiver mfs.

sorry if my ideas are becoming to radical

Tuttosport claims Juventus are planning a bid for Schalke midfielder Ivan Rakitic.

If we want to be cheaper. this guy is an immense talent.

Absolutely agree with your earlier post, Dru. In current system, our wingbacks were responsible for the service, and I wouldn't give a 1% tip for the service we got this year. I guess I'm thinking ahead to a time where we can have a winger, thus allowing for 3 of our 4 defenders to concentrate on defending. Stam used to just chill at home for the most part, it worked out well, because we were blazing all over the rest of the field.
This season showed us that without service, we're nothing. We were longball merchants and it was hopeless. I'm not entirely convinced by borrielo, but if he gives it a go i don't care; as long as he doesn't do drugs or throw a fit, i'm fine with him. I think we're surely to get another striker (huntelaar, please) so we won't have all of our eggs in his basket.
Why not Van der Vaart? Besides Kaka' we have nobody who will run at defenders; this destroys our pace. Even Park Ji Sung would do it for ManU, and their fans really valued his contributions. I'm not saying he's for us, but you can see the effects on a match that a player that will run can have.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

That Ba to Milan part scares me.

I think Abate will be more the Serginho's role but on the right side. Who knows, maybe he can switch to the left too.

I heard that Ba was brought in only for "charity" as he was having a rough time in his personal life. He was paid 1500 euros a month. So there is nothing scary about that, I hope.

Regarding Abate, he seems to have the quality, including the mentality, which is more important than skills in a big team like us. He was the youngest ever Milan player (younger than Maldini) in a CL game. I remember that game (in 04-05?), and I didn't see any fear/anxiety on his face. Let's hope that he will stay and turn into something good for us.

Originally Posted by jtelly

Why not Van der Vaart? Besides Kaka' we have nobody who will run at defenders; this destroys our pace. Even Park Ji Sung would do it for ManU, and their fans really valued his contributions. I'm not saying he's for us, but you can see the effects on a match that a player that will run can have.

i san see galliani saying "why do you want van der vaart or ji sung park? we already have brocchi and gourcuff?!"

reminds me of what the owner of blackburn once said to his manager... "why do you want to sign zidane. you already have tim sherwood!"

I think what the team really lacked last season was HEART. They really did not have them esp. in the first half of the season. Last year was the first time in a long time that I actually turned off Milan games even if they were winning or tie, b/c I really could not find any passion or heart in them for most of the season. Yes, there were exceptions like the Juve game or the Inter game and the one in Tokyo(I actually saw that live, it was great). But thats not acceptable. And to think that the team combines earn 120M, their display just made me sick. Actually, beside the Tokyo Trip, I did not buy any Milan products over the past year, I usually get tons.

Having said all that, I am quite happy about what they are doing sofar. I just wish they do continue and pls send players like Dida and others packing b/c they are a true disgrace. I mean, if I act like them and perform below par at work for one month, I will be fire for sure.

Originally Posted by Milano84

i san see galliani saying "why do you want van der vaart or ji sung park? we already have brocchi and gourcuff?!"

reminds me of what the owner of blackburn once said to his manager... "why do you want to sign zidane. you already have tim sherwood!"

Well, I think Gourcuff is still talented.

But having someone like Park is actually pretty awesome, b/c u know what to expect from them, non-stop running and chasing.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

I think what the team really lacks last season was HEART. They really did not have them esp. in the first half of the season. Last year was the first time in a long time that I actually turned off Milan games even if they were winning or tie, b/c I really could not find any passion or heart in them for most of the season. Yes, there were exceptions like the Juve game or the Inter game and the one in Tokyo(I actually saw that live, it was great). But thats not acceptable. And to think that the team combines earn 120M, their display just made me sick. Actually, beside the Tokyo Trip, I did not buy any Milan products over the past year, I usually get tones.

Having said all that, I am quite happy about what they are doing sofar. I just wish they to continue and pls send players like Dida and others packing b/c they are a true disgrace. I mean, if I act like them and perform below par at work for one month, I will be fire for sure.

i 100% agree w/ you. I wrote a long entry on this on another forum a while back. but its completely true. I love nesta, gattuso, pirlo etc. but when we play siena or atalanta. We are better off playing our youth squad. They CLEARLY dont care. They are soooo complacent. Galliani elluded to it, the players passion on a europe ngiht as opposed to a sunday in genoa is night and day.
Obviously thats always going to exist to a degree... but not to the extend we had. The same way ronaldinho doesnt seem to care at barca.... our players do that here. And in all honesty why? They've won everything. Only maldini and pippo play like every game is a championship. Unfortunately w/ there injury problems. those 'every games' are once a month....But really its a rare rare mentality to find. Players like scholes at manUtd. Raul for Real Madrid.... that is why teams constantly bring in talented younger youngsters... to challenge your complacent veteran, to learn from, and to take over.

Thats y i harp so much on youth. Perhaps we'll still get more youth... But i just dont get why we havent already? We have such a solid core of older players. It wouldnt be in arsenal where young players run wild, and then mentally collapse. There is no better defenders to learn from than maldini and nesta...

Right on Gabriel...it was embarrasing watching this year. Most games at home we didn't start playing until the opposition scored, and then it was pretty half-assed. The team looked like a team that has won alot, gets paid alot, and doesn't really feel like much will happen to them if they don't perform (ie they won't get benched/sacked/yelled at). I think that we lost our momentum and there wasn't really any will to get it back. Now we're in a new cycle, but it needs to be done in a refreshing way. I'm happy with Carlo, but please man, show us something new. Yes, we won everything with the Christmas tree; well, teams know how to beat that now, so we must evolve. Prove to us that you are a once in a lifetime coach by being able to reconstruct a team, reformat a new system, and regenerate Milan.

Originally Posted by Milano84

Tuttosport claims Juventus are planning a bid for Schalke midfielder Ivan Rakitic.

If we want to be cheaper. this guy is an immense talent.

Juve and Rakitic is an old love.
Last year it was all over the news that Juve are after Basel's young star Rakitic. Then one day most of the media claimed that the signing is officially done and that Rakitic needs only to pass the medical.
Suddenly something has changed, Juve went for Almiron and Schalke made a better offer to Basel than what Juve offered and Rakitic ended up in Germany.

We discussed that here, in the old summer mercato topic, and neither me nor Mrki knew anything about Rakitic, even though he's a Croat.
He had a good season for Schalke and now Juve are , if we trust the reports, again after him.
Too little too late.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

Well, I think Gourcuff is still talented.

But having someone like Park is actually pretty awesome, b/c u know what to expect from them, non-stop running and chasing.

I hope gourcuff has a great year at bordeaux and then we can sell him. I agree he has talent, but he is so slow. If he's slow at 22, you know what will happen when he gets older.... Althoguh there are plenty of slow players who are successful....I just dont see him as next zidane, controlling game like that

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Juve and Rakitic is an old love.
Last year it was all over the news that Juve are after Basel's young star Rakitic. Then one day most of the media claimed that the signing is officially done and that Rakitic needs only to pass the medical.
Suddenly something has changed, Juve went for Almiron and Schalke made a better offer to Basel than what Juve offered and Rakitic ended up in Germany.

We discussed that here, in the old summer mercato topic, and neither me nor Mrki knew anything about Rakitic, even though he's a Croat.
He had a good season for Schalke and now Juve are , if we trust the reports, again after him.
Too little too late.

well that little mistake will probably cost them 10 mil more.... but hey. I'm okay with that! Doesnt take away fact hes talented though...

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

I think what the team really lacked last season was HEART. They really did not have them esp. in the first half of the season. Last year was the first time in a long time that I actually turned off Milan games even if they were winning or tie, b/c I really could not find any passion or heart in them for most of the season. Yes, there were exceptions like the Juve game or the Inter game and the one in Tokyo(I actually saw that live, it was great). But thats not acceptable. And to think that the team combines earn 120M, their display just made me sick. Actually, beside the Tokyo Trip, I did not buy any Milan products over the past year, I usually get tons.

Having said all that, I am quite happy about what they are doing sofar. I just wish they do continue and pls send players like Dida and others packing b/c they are a true disgrace. I mean, if I act like them and perform below par at work for one month, I will be fire for sure.

No we didn't lack heart...we lacked legs (looks at Pirlo)and pace and stamina and backup and Quaresma (sorry guys couldn't help that one ) . Our boys give their all I'm pretty sure about that one.....except for Gila who I always thought his heart was elsewhere. I think if anyone lost heart it was Pirlo....he made the most amount of silly decisions I have ever seen.....he was the worst player on the pitch vs Arsenal and his free kick form has gone south. He was sort of a midfield Gila all season....but in his defense he is probably the most overworked with the body least suited to such rigours...I can't see how a player who could do the hit the post trick at will take such bad free kicks...did I mention that a certain player from Porto takes GREAT freekicks