Summer Mercato

Originally Posted by Tony29.

I think you guys should accept the fact that Milan won't play CL next year. The money Milan can offer can be easily matched by the other great teams and for people who used to win CL or played year after year trying to win it (Eto'o, Drogba etc) it's not easy to suddenly find themselves in UEFA Cup.
People use Bayern as an example but did they buy a world class superstar that demanded very high wages and was wanted by every club out there ? They bought Toni who was 30 and never played CL in his life. Apart from the Italian teams who should have payed 2 or 3 times more in order to get Toni, no other team wanted him. They bought Klose from their domestic league and Ribery from Marselle. They didn't do their shopping in Barcelona, Real, Chelsea, Lyon or Arsenal, like Milan are trying to do. They were shopping in Fiorentina, Werder and Marselle.

Still both toni and ribery adimently said they would only leave there present clubs for champions league football. Although you may not convince drogba or eto'o... majority of players at the right price/wages would come to milan because its a typically strong club, like barca, real madrid, Juve etc etc etc. If they miss for 1 season you know they will be back...

that being said, juve off Serie B, splashed ALOT more cash than milan is now.... and admitintly they needed to... but it is a bit ridiculous...when milan is currently in the negative in spending (aka we've made money). i've come to grips w/ the signings and am fine w/ them, should 2-3 more reenforcements come. my biggest problem/fear has been no more will come.

But your bayern example is prime. instead of shooting for adebayor or eto'o. look to huntelaar, berbatov, pavlyuchenko...(names r really meaningly but a player from a midlevel club who is ready for the spotlight). Look to van der vaart or arshavin etc etc

Originally Posted by Milano84

Thats the double edged sword w/ older players. although you cant replace exerience off the bench in big games (granted i'm opting more for pippo, oddo exerience than brocchi emerson) it comes at a price. Someone once wrote this about american baseball but ithink its completely applicable. When players sign contracts its based on what theyve done in past. not what theyll do in future.

Dinho for example, may never hit his form again but will still be 1 of 3 highest paid players in world because of his 2 seasons w/ barca.

I agree Milano84. Ronaldinho can still command a high wage because of his marketability and image rights. Whichever club he ends up at should make money out of him assuming his new contract is handled correctly and that his new club is run professionally.

@Jtelly and tony29

true but should be leave and be succesful he'd be a national hero. Good point, not all players want to leave (like landon donovan(...douchebag) in LA) but majority of players who have ability to play at top flight in europes big leagues typically want to test there chances.... also i dont recall arshavin getting major looks like he is now

Tony29

back on abate. The only time i truly watched him play was toulon tournament recently. (I may have seen him at empoli, but i never really noticed him). I agree w/ your assessment on his speed. but from what i saw in the tournament he was cutting inside a fair amount and provides some great thru balls and service. I realize the competition is far below serie A or any big league, but i dont know. I think he seems more technical than you give him credit for. and possibly better suited at a side mf position?

Maybe he'll be Zenit's answer to Maldini??! I don't begrudge a player not wanting to leave, it is something that I love to see. To hear Kaka' speak of being Milan for life, to make a commitment, shows me that is a person that has a good heart. (Donovan on the other hand, he's a fraidy-cat and knows he can't cut it).
I'm curious as to the percentage of footballers who actually fulfill contracts; i think it would be a fascinating study, not just for economics, but for team success, etc. I mean, things are nuts-you sign a 5 year contract, then leave in a year. some players have a 'shop-window' mentality, it's just really weird. I guess it has to do with how much we have inflated players' egos, to the point that they all think that they're kings of the castle and all should be playing on contendors.
sorry for thinking too much....!

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

I think it was during the Russia v Sweden match, they discussed this point and they had a club manager on the panel who had enquired about Arshavin and he said he was on around £50,000 a week. Wether this is accurate or not i don't know but considering we pay Emerson a similar wage i'd rather have the Russian and let the Boar go!

Yes, i heard about this yesterday and a good friend from Russia immediately told me that it's BS and that even in Russia they don't know exactly how much he earns but they know that in Zenit all the better players, especially Arshavin, earn much more than they'll be getting in other leagues.
You know, with all those billionaires owning the russian teams and with the money laundering going on, you could never be sure how much players earn, but it's sure that they earn a lot.

last off topic post on landon primo-donovan. He's totally scared, but hisform this last year plus has been incredible. Clearly a class above whole mls (not saying much). This only makes me hate him more. but from a nonbias point of view. I think he could be a successful player for a midtable club in any of the top 3 leagues (the aston villas, sampdorias, espanyols of europe) which ultimately would help american soccer.... which is not a bad thing. i personally cant wait for the day i can actually watch sportscenter w/o sarcastic soccer highlights....

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Yes, i heard about this yesterday and a good friend from Russia immediately told me that it's BS and that even in Russia they don't know exactly how much he earns but they know that in Zenit all the better players, especially Arshavin, earn much more than they'll be getting in other leagues.
You know, with all those billionaires owning the russian teams and with the money laundering going on, you could never be sure how much players earn, but it's sure that they earn a lot.

I have to admit after hearing this and reading what you've written about the Russian league in the past, i was surprised by this amount as in today's market £50,000 is a common wage for big clubs. However, the manager who was talking about this never said when he made this enquiry, so it might have been anything from 4 months to 2 years ago. But i agree that if it was a recent quote then it must have been wrong information, he's surely on more money that that.

Adu has been linked to Genoa, i think this would be an interesting move and i would love to see another american in serie a again...Donovan was in Germany but had a hissy fit and had to come home.
For all the talk of bringing in new players, i am actually more concerned about getting rid of lots of wasted space. only then can we accurately asses personel-wise and financially what can be done. Are Brocchi, Simic, Favalli, Emerson, Dida, going to go? That would go a long way to clearing out our wages and give us breathing room. I think it's time to get a bit tougher with this aspect of the club.

Originally Posted by GeoTav

Some of you need to go to beach to relax !! lol
We'll have a new striker, we just don't know who he will be (we can't know if it will be Eto'o or Adebayor, Drogba or Mutu, or someone who isn't in our targets list).

My frend you are pretty optimistc..I think the only men who could come to Milan is Ronaldinho(article 17) or some sout american young talent for 6 milions euro by scauting of Leonardo.

We don't have comperative squad for scudetto,we are 10-20% stronger than last year that is enoguh for 3-4 place but scudetto no!!

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...548988&cc=3888
This isn't really transfer market news, but since Galliani just said we're poor and serie a has no cash...
Some interesting thoughts here...i always find it curious that in the US, which is so free-market, our sports have things like salary caps, revenue distribution, drafts, etc...in order to keep the spirit of competition going. If you look at the NFL and how many different teams can go from being crap to being good, it's a nice thing for fans to have. We don't have to worry about a Messina, which will never win serie a. Take the smallest market in the NFL, Green bay, and look at what they've done. Yet in europe, which seems to be much less free-market in the economy, has this totally free system. It has allowed for the transfer system to get out of whack, and the average wage for some mediocre players seems a bit high. I'm not saying one system or the other is better, but the point about 85% of clubs being run in the red is a frightening aspect. NFL teams in total are about 9 billion in debt, yet the structure of the league allows for this to be ok because of revenue sharing and owning of stadia, etc.

offtopic

what happened to Donovan after that 2002 WC ?

I think what Galliani is a big smoke screen so deals we want don't get messed up. Remember when the whole business about Hugo Lloris got out? He didn't end up coming to Milan. I think that Milan will get a top name striker this season... maybe we should look at the Russians (since the last Slav we had did quite well with us)... Pogrebynak or Arshavin... I really don't think that Americans have what it takes to play in the Serie A (no offense)...

But then again I might be a stupid optimistic as some say here...

He was playing for San Jose, then he went to Germany for a year (he was only on loan to MLS) then he came back because he wasn't playing.

i think 1 day american players will be good enough. probably freddy adu the first

its just reality.... 30 years ago no1 thought african players would be good enough