Summer Mercato

Early days yet....

Would like us to sign a striker and a CD, but wont count on it.

Not surprised that the attack (minus Pato and R80) would seem static. What concerns me is that with Boriello out for 2 months (or longer) we will start the season with Pato, Paloschi, and Pippo...which, even in a single striker formation, is cutting it rather close.

Add Nesta´s injury, and Maldini potentially being in and out, and certainly another CD would be a good idea...but again, dont think it will happen.

So, my best estimate, with a full squad (As is) would be 2nd or 3rd place in the Serie A, and semi-final of the UEFA cup...not bad for a "transition" year....which I am satisfied that this one represents.

Originally Posted by Siregar

I am still not happy with the defence. Either we strengthen our defence or our GK (both is ideal). With shaky defence like us, I am still worried to only have Abbiati, Kalac and Dida (not the number of GKs but the quality of the GKs).

With our current defence, we need very good GK. Or we can be happy with the GKs if we strenghten our defence by buying very good defender.

With this squad, my biggest hope that Milan can score MORE goals than Milan will concede in every game.

I agree with you on the defender end, the goalie being abbiati makes me happier than kalac or dida. Im hoping with flamini we will stop a lot of the counter attacks and keep the ball in there end.

Im really excited about this coming year..

Channel4 reports that Milanlab strongly considers a surgery for Nesta, which would rule him out for several months.

we absolutely need a new wc cd.

on a press conference Galliani hinted that Carlo may use Ambro as a CB

well, he said he did suggest that to carlo, but who knows if he will be used as a CB

Galliani is both right and wrong. While we do have ample cover in central defence in the absence of Nesta, it is no longer a world class defence. Assuming Zambrotta-Nesta-Kaladze OR Maldini-Jankulovski is the first choice, replacing Nesta with Bonera, Simic or Digao doesn't give it the quality.

My first choice would obviously be to play Maldini & Kaladze together but they can't play all the time since Il Capitano needs breaks. Perhaps Bonera can take his game to the next level this season.

PS: I am still baffled why the Viudez and Cardacio transfers have had such limited coverage.

Arjun - perhaps 'cause it isnt official yet?

I think its time we ring the alarms. When the season ended Galliani promised 6-7 new recruits. Truth is we did not only need 6-7 new recruits, we needed around 4-5 STARTERS. Watching the team in pre-season had me all in awes and kept reminding me of that horrific form we had last year. It was honestly hurting my eyes to watch such terrible football by Milan.

And especially now that Nesta seems to have another recurring back problem, we must dive into the market again. What Milan did so far in the market was 'OK' and not exceptional like all of you claim. Some players need to be benched - Gattuso and Kaladze should be the first on the list. Just like how Dida was dropped to the bench after his poor form, so should these two. They were both so consistently poor last year and costed us so much. As much as I love Inzaghi - I'm afraid we should have brought in a replacement too this summer because he has far too much injury worries.

Unless we don't get a world-class CB (Alex comes to mind) and a CF (even with Boriello fit we would have problems I bet) I think we will struggle badly. I would like to see two of Emerson, Brocchi and Ambrosini offloaded (remember all that talk about cutting the squad size down but increasing the quality? MORE LIES by the management) and bring in someone like Mamadou Diarra.

The keepers are fine the way they are. Abbiati and Kalac is good enough but we need to get rid of Dida somehow. 4m per year for a third goal keeper? I'd much rather have the Primavera goal keeper filling in that 3rd spot..how often have we seen Fiori play as a goal keeper under the Ancelotti era? NEVER. Having 3 world-class GK's is excessive and poor management to say the least (especially considering Galliani's whining every couple of days about how we lack money).

Surprise surprise,

Kaka in tendonitis scare Saturday 2 August, 2008

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Kaka has been ruled out of Milan’s Russian Railways Cup match with Chelsea due to suspected tendonitis.

The club released an official statement this evening confirming he would be undergoing a specialist training schedule over the next few days due to “a persistent inflammation of the left knee.”


This is causing concern because that was the knee that required surgery at the end of last season.


He pulled up during Friday’s 1-0 defeat to Sevilla, also in Moscow for the Russian Railways Cup, and was substituted.


There are reports swirling around the Brazilian media that this latest setback is much more serious than at first thought.


O Globo claim it is tendonitis and Kaka must rest for at least two weeks in order to fully recover. The Milan statement does not deny that is the case, although it tries to paint it in less dramatic terms.


It would be a disastrous blow for the Rossoneri, who already have a major striker shortage at the moment.


Marco Borriello is out for two months, Pippo Inzaghi is sidelined with muscular problems, while Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato are at the Olympics with Brazil.


This means the only fit striker at Carlo Ancelotti’s disposal is teenager Alberto Paloschi.


Milan face Chelsea in Moscow to decide third place in the Russian Railways Cup on Sunday at 11.00 UK time.


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If we dont dive in to the market - Galliani needs to be sacked.

What annoys me from management is that they only think and think the number of players in certain position, NOT the quality of the replacement for every position and the probability of the players to play. Players like Maldini, Nesta, Favalli, Emerson and Inzaghi will be out for many times.

We have 26 players right now (not counting Darmian). We have big squad but still pretty bad at squad depth.

Like someone mentioned, if we had to loose some of our starting players, we would have big problems. Without Kaka, Pirlo and Seedorf (probably R10 too) we will face big trouble in the games.

What can we rely on without them? We would have only defensive midfielders. We could only depend on our fullbacks (with Janku and Zambro) but unfortunately we don't have big targetman.

I still keep thinking, why with the buy of Ronaldinho our tranfer market is closed? He is not that expensive.

This season can get ugly real fast if Nesta and Kaka are out indefinately or in and out of the lineup frequently...

C'mon Berlu, splash cash for Drogba and Thiago Silva

And Galliani *sigh* said that Ambrosini will be the replacement of Nesta

i read milan signed two talented young uruguayans: cardaccio and viudez. anyone knows about them? i feel good about these 2 players.

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

Early days yet....

Would like us to sign a striker and a CD, but wont count on it.

Not surprised that the attack (minus Pato and R80) would seem static. What concerns me is that with Boriello out for 2 months (or longer) we will start the season with Pato, Paloschi, and Pippo...which, even in a single striker formation, is cutting it rather close.

Add Nesta´s injury, and Maldini potentially being in and out, and certainly another CD would be a good idea...but again, dont think it will happen.

So, my best estimate, with a full squad (As is) would be 2nd or 3rd place in the Serie A, and semi-final of the UEFA cup...not bad for a "transition" year....which I am satisfied that this one represents.

How can you be satisfied with 3rd place? We are Milan. We, along with Juve, represent Italian football's duopoly. I think it's an abomination that we would even consider being happy with these results. We aren't even in the CL!!! Milan needed a central defender even before Nesta's injury. If they don't get one now (which they won't), then it would be catastrophic.

we should really get a starting striker and CD...the injury to kaka is bad..because you cannot rush a player back and carlo might do it because there is no one else to play something needs to be done or we are screwed

Sometimes you need to deserve your own luck, even in football. Galliani and Berlusconi didnt deserve it. Right now these are the players that are not up to taks of playing for Milan:

Dida, Simic, Digao, Favalli, Brocchi, Emerson, Paloschi, Boriello. Kalac. Plus - Maldini is 40 and Pippo is 35 and half injured.

When you add Oliveira, Gourcuff ( still I believe in the man!! ), Ronaldo, Amoroso and so on...too much money is spend ( is being still paid ) to players that cannot improve our team.

We have: Abbiatti ( we can thank god Abbiatti showed up in right form somhow!), Oddo ( good for rotation play), Kaladze, Bonera, Jankulovski, Nesta, Zambrotta, Pirlo, Rino, Ambro, Seedorf, KAka', Dinho, Pato. That is 15 players that are worth playing for Milan. We need 18 or 19 players like that. Few players we lack are simply those we all say: forward, CB and more fullback. Sheva, Tiago Silva and could have been Vargas....for example.

Berlusconi is not giving Galliani money and Galliani is doing everything he can to bring in players. When you dont have founds you invent things... We brought plenty of free players ( Flamini was a golden transfer!), but most of them were failure. Its pretty simple: if Berlusconi has given the right ammount of money Milan would be strong enough, this way we arent.

Past 3 years Milan sold Sheva ( 45mln) + Gila And Oliveira ( about 30mln togehter ) - if we only spent those 75(!) mln on players we would be brilliant.

Dinho - 22.5
Pato - about the same
Boriello - 9
Zambro - 9
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more-less, 70mln... in 3 years ( those players are worth something, I dont cound Emerson....and so on...).

That is not enough in my oppinion. We still have to be gretefull as Berlusconi's club Is the most sucessfull european club in past 20 years, but in last years ( as reports say, when his daughter took over the finances) Milan has been strugglčing signing the right players. That is the reason why Carlo is still a coach and so on...

We ned one Cb and one striker...no Dinho's in the world can save you when your defence is like the wind.

yeap, we have 3 key players in defence, midfield and offense injured...
if we don't make anymore singings I don't see us competing for the Serie A title...
and I am pretty sure we won't, now we need to hope for the Uruguayans...