Summer mercato 2009

I'm seeing a lot on this Adebayor alternative. I like the thought of a young, powerful striker, but from what I've seen, he misses a lot of chances. If he can get back to his 30-35 goals/year form, i'd be more than happy

Another downside of Ade is the month he will be gone this winter for the African Nations Cup. I guess all we can do is wait and see.

What does everyone think of D'Agostino? I would personally love this signing. He's already proven himself in Serie A and would add to our Italian and youth contingent.

And on another note, i'm not believing any papers when they say Santacroce to Juve for 5million. There is NO WAY Napoli are giving away that talent for that much.

Off to South Beach, enjoy the afternoon everyone...

Vargas according to Channel4 is up for sale for 12Mil.
To me thats a better deal than Cissohko for 15mil. On top of that Vargas has Series A exp.

If only Milan will go after Vargas, D'Ago and G. Rossi.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

If only Milan will go after Vargas, D'Ago and G. Rossi.

Then we'd have a completely Italian team

--------------------Abbiati
Zambrotta----Bonera------Favalli----Antonini
---------Gattuso-----Pirlo------Ambrosini
------------------D'Ago
-----------G. Rossi------Pippo

Then Berlu will come out and say how we've got all Italians in our squad for each and every position.

And when the season ends and we're like 4th place and Merda have won the scudetto yet again, Berlu will say "We're still the most decorated team in the World"

I honestly want to see what will happen at the end of this mercato. I'm waiting breathlessly on who the heck we'll sign in come July 1st

I think the pessimists really miss the point from us (few) optimists in here. We don't expect players like Dzeko, Cissokho, Di Gennaro, Abate and names like that will save us and give us the Scudetto/CL. These players are not the players that will make us forget about Kaka, or can make us top 5 in Europe. However, these players, whoever will come/stay, shows a turning-point in the thinking of the management. No, it's not the thinking that Milan now should be a 2nd rate team, but that the team should build a future on young players. And yes, given this thinking, Gallianis statements are perfectly okay: we aim for top 3 in Serie A. It takes time to build a team on youth, just like Italy (national team) will need a few years to build a new squad now that the oldies are signing off.

The times of Milan buying players who already are stars are gone, and therefor expecting the club to aim for trophies every single season is unrealistic, and will just lead to a miserable life for those fans who can't adapt to the new position of the club. But why can't some just adapt and still enjoy the ups and downs of a football club given realistic expectations? Millions are doing it all over the world, cause not everyone are fans of the elite few clubs that fight for trophies. Genoa fans must be in heaven after an amazing season that ended up giving them a Europe-spot in the end. They were never close to winning the Scudetto. It's all about realistic expectations, and be happy when we achieve up to or better than these expectations.

And before you start the "but this is AC Milan, a club that should always win trophies like it has for 100+ years". No, Milan has not been a successful club for 100+ years. If you take a look at our history, we had periods with great success, and periods with no success. You don't have to go further back than to the mid-late 90's to find a Milan that almost was relegated, ending in 13th and 11th in 2 seasons in a row (if I remember correctly). And if you look at the team that Milan had those years, it wasn't close to being good enough to compete at the top either. There is not a single team in the history that has had continued success year after year after year. For those that can't accept that, let me suggest playing Football Manager or something.

I truly hope that Milan now will focus on youth these coming years, and hopefully build a great team that can in a couple of years fight for the CL trophy. What would be even better was if we could get some new young players from Italy, or better yet, local Milan players that can compete with the Brazilians etc. Milan started out to be a team for an international oriented players, but there really isn't anything better than having young players grown up in Milano become big stars in the club, and having success.

And for those of you who want Berlusconi to sell the club to the Arabs, so we can do like Chelsea and Man City and buy top stars every summer: don't ask the team to sell their soul like the English clubs did! Milan is an Italian team and it should continue to think, act and be owned by Italians. It may not be the perfect way to run a club, but there should still be national pride in every team, and the belief that the Italian way is the best way (just like the dutch teams should think their way is the best etc). I'd rather see Milan struggle in Serie B than sell their soul to be successful.

Even if it shows a turning point in the management's thinking, you guys are missing the bigger picture.

Italian football as a product is not marketable. Big players will not want to come to Italy in the future because of the lack of money, corruption and violence. Milan are not going to be big players in football for a long time, and things will only change if Italian clubs start to market themselves better. But again, that will take alot of time.

We are being bullied on the transfer market. Chelsea are tirelessly pursuing Pato, and that indicates something. They know that Milan cannot attract players the way they can.

We have to come to terms with the fact that Milan as a club will no longer be a big player in Europe. The sooner the better. Also, we have to understand that Berlusconi does not want to spend money on this club. Things will (hopefully) get better, but that could take up to 10 years.

This is the realistic outlook. Next week Real Madrid will parade Kaka'. The Spanish league is abuzz with excitement. The Premier League will keep snapping up big players also. Italy, on the other hand, will be a distant third or fourth, depending on how well the Bundesliga does.
I am not being unduly alarmist. Look at the coefficient rankings: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/...crank2010.html

Finally, Milan is an Italian team, but I rather it be owned by Arabs than by an unscrupulous lowlife like Berlusconi.

dude do you know how much it is going to cost Milan to to reassert it current position? we probably end up spending 100 million euros on new players just to make the knock out stages of the champions league. Players do want to come to Italy look at Flamini ronaldinho diego these are top players it just Italy lacks the ability to pay high wages and provide a elite class league. more importantly do you really think Pato will want to stay at a club that doesn't compete for major trophies, the management are gambling on a long term prospect but haven't signed anyone to full fill this idea.

I really don't understand why it is a bad idea if Milan or any other Series A club is own by someone who is not Italian? In today's world, this way of thinking is really outdated.
Just because an Arab or a Russian or a Chinese person buy Parma or Milan or whichever team, it is not the end of the world or the club will begin to lose its identity. Unless they change their name and colors and all, but I don't see any of the English teams losing changing their name or losing their crest due to foreign owners.

I just don't see the logic of preventing foreign owners coming to Series A. Why would a team lose their SOUL by having a foreign owner? A lot of Clubs in Italy are struggling with finances and can't run it sufficiently and it seems like there is not a lot of IT takers, if thats the case, would it not be a good idea to have someone who has the money and resources to come in and owns these struggling clubs?

As for Milan, you can be as positive as you like, but it seems like Milan is becoming a feeder club. You are free to get excited about MIlan signing good young players, but isn't that what any competitive clubs should be doing in the first place in order to keep improving their squad. About rebuilding to win the CL in a few years down the line, just wait and see will Milan continue to sell their best players like Arsenal year after year. These rumors about Pato will never go away, unless Milan start winning and signing top stars. PAto might end up staying this year, but what about the following year or the year after that. What if Chelsea or Real really offer 60Mil, or Man City coming in with a 90Mil offer, will Berlu sell then? The chances of that is very likely, and thats a fact.

One last thing, don't compare Milan to Genoa or any other mid table clubs, as MIlan is a big club and is actually one of the biggest clubs in the world. If thats not the case, Berlu or Galli will not keep saying Milan is full of Champions, won the most CL over the last ten years.......

Chelsea offered 60mln for Pato. Ancelotti wants him, Carlitto's love for Milan is huge...

Sale of Pirlo is something that is a reasonable move now, but only if the sub is NOT D'Agostino, but a player like Hernanes - who is possible now when Dzeko will not arrive.

And Benzema is a lot better solution then Adebayor. He is phisically strong aldough not as tall as Adebayor. But has better shot, pass and moves more. Of course, he has great finishing even dough he has lousy past few months. I dont understand how we dont look for this player at all.

And Benzema would allow PAto to exchange positions with CF as Benzema is capable to play depper, while Dzeko and Adebayor are not. Something Messi can do with Eto'o for example. And Ronaldo with Rooney last season.

Vargas is a good player, he can do well for us. But I expect Cissokho to sign as time passes by this summer.

And this Mexes to Metersacker transition is like we dont go for Benzema and sign Klasnic instead. Irrational 100%.

EDIT:

Gabriel: You said some smart things. We all know that Berlusconi will sell Pato once his value gets to the point of huge transfer money. Then they will say we are in red ( are we in red at all???) and Pato will be gone. In a year or two, it doesnt matter. Even now Galliani is bragging how he bravely refused an offer! WOW, you are my hero Galliani, fans need to greed you now every day.

And this "crisis" does not excist in Chelsea, United, L'pool, Barca, MAdrid, Inter, Juve, Bayern. Only Milan has "economical crisis", which is actually a nice way to use that frase to take the money out and still have an explanation for it. In the middle of crisis Inter and Juve do normal and good mercato's, while we cant pay for anything despite earning more then 155 mln alltogether ( if we sell Pirlo ). Players like Benzema, Hernanes, Mexes, Vargas... are withing the react of Milan's money there is no doubt about that. Question is do they want to spend or not? If not - why?

And, if they are not capable of saving Milan's level of football, Arabs can help. Milan was Milan before Berlusconi and will be after him.

Originally Posted by johncharles365

dude do you know how much it is going to cost Milan to to reassert it current position? we probably end up spending 100 million euros on new players just to make the knock out stages of the champions league. Players do want to come to Italy look at Flamini ronaldinho diego these are top players it just Italy lacks the ability to pay high wages and provide a elite class league. more importantly do you really think Pato will want to stay at a club that doesn't compete for major trophies, the management are gambling on a long term prospect but haven't signed anyone to full fill this idea.

Dinho came because his choices were Man City and Milan. Not a lot to pick.
Flamini came, partly b/c he has IT heritage but mostly b/c Milan and Juve offered him more wages than anyone else. If he was a free agent this summer, he probably would have signed by Real already.
Diego is a top signing but I have not heard anything about other top teams wanting to sign him, which to me is very strange.

Series A is having a hard time getting talents and thats mainly due to the marketing of its league and the current image of the league(corrupt, slow, defense oriented and boring).

Apparently Clichy has become available: transfermarketweb.com

I wouldn't be surprised if we were to make a offer for him.

Of the three LB, Vargas, Cissohko and Clichy, I would take Vargas of the three mainly b/c of his Series A exp.

Originally Posted by MVBasten

I think the pessimists really miss the point from us (few) optimists in here. We don't expect players like Dzeko, Cissokho, Di Gennaro, Abate and names like that will save us and give us the Scudetto/CL. These players are not the players that will make us forget about Kaka, or can make us top 5 in Europe. However, these players, whoever will come/stay, shows a turning-point in the thinking of the management. No, it's not the thinking that Milan now should be a 2nd rate team, but that the team should build a future on young players. And yes, given this thinking, Gallianis statements are perfectly okay: we aim for top 3 in Serie A. It takes time to build a team on youth, just like Italy (national team) will need a few years to build a new squad now that the oldies are signing off.

The times of Milan buying players who already are stars are gone, and therefor expecting the club to aim for trophies every single season is unrealistic, and will just lead to a miserable life for those fans who can't adapt to the new position of the club. But why can't some just adapt and still enjoy the ups and downs of a football club given realistic expectations? Millions are doing it all over the world, cause not everyone are fans of the elite few clubs that fight for trophies. Genoa fans must be in heaven after an amazing season that ended up giving them a Europe-spot in the end. They were never close to winning the Scudetto. It's all about realistic expectations, and be happy when we achieve up to or better than these expectations.

And before you start the "but this is AC Milan, a club that should always win trophies like it has for 100+ years". No, Milan has not been a successful club for 100+ years. If you take a look at our history, we had periods with great success, and periods with no success. You don't have to go further back than to the mid-late 90's to find a Milan that almost was relegated, ending in 13th and 11th in 2 seasons in a row (if I remember correctly). And if you look at the team that Milan had those years, it wasn't close to being good enough to compete at the top either. There is not a single team in the history that has had continued success year after year after year. For those that can't accept that, let me suggest playing Football Manager or something.

I truly hope that Milan now will focus on youth these coming years, and hopefully build a great team that can in a couple of years fight for the CL trophy. What would be even better was if we could get some new young players from Italy, or better yet, local Milan players that can compete with the Brazilians etc. Milan started out to be a team for an international oriented players, but there really isn't anything better than having young players grown up in Milano become big stars in the club, and having success.

And for those of you who want Berlusconi to sell the club to the Arabs, so we can do like Chelsea and Man City and buy top stars every summer: don't ask the team to sell their soul like the English clubs did! Milan is an Italian team and it should continue to think, act and be owned by Italians. It may not be the perfect way to run a club, but there should still be national pride in every team, and the belief that the Italian way is the best way (just like the dutch teams should think their way is the best etc). I'd rather see Milan struggle in Serie B than sell their soul to be successful.

What a completely clueless and self contradictory post In one breath you congratulate milan for our alleged focus on youth...Fine so wtf did we renew favagol's contract for? Who is older: kaka or ron? Seedorf or Pirlo? Gourcuff or Clarence? Pato or Pippo? Now ask yourself who has been sold or going to be sold. As for our kids the vast majority aren't anything special but that's ok because neither are we. The whole increasing the no. Italians thing i'm neither here nor there about. If a player is good enough he should play. We already have a strong italian core and this generation of italians isn't particularly special anyway. The brightest stars that have played for us are not italian. No need to get all xenophobic now. Finally if we can't buy superstars or challenge for trophies-not necessarily win them- we are not a big club it's that simple really.

We wont sign Hernanes Mrki,you yourself know it.Sau Paulo's behaviour towards any interested team is very unrespectable AND a bit agressive.They dont want to sell him and if they are going to sell him they are going to want us to overpay,i dont think any team will get him this summer,be it Milan of United.It is more difficult to negotiate with S.Paulo then Wolfsburg,they are to hard.

As for the Pirlo saga,the guy is still one of the best midfielder of the world and everybody,including us,knows that.But if we can get 25 million for him than it will be great if you look at his age,he isnt getting any better.

Diaby of Arsenal is the ideal replacement in my opinion,the guy is really great to watch,he really is the new Vieira,i want him to play at Milan in the middle of the park,nobody can get past him.He only cost 8-10 million so we would do a great deal here.Really want him bad at Milan IMO,more then Hernanes.He is what we need,strong fast just like Sissokho of Juve.

I dont like the behaviour of the management,i am getting more and more pessimistic,i really went aggressive when Kaka left,but i saw light at the end of the tunnel,but i counted on additions like Dzeko and Aly,but no they are not coming and i really am getting pissed.......WTF **** ARE THEY DOING!!!!!!They sell our best players(ok fine with that)and dont get anyone in return.

You all can say that we should wait until the end of the mercato,but we are the only team who didnt add a new player to our team(while we are the ones who need them),Juve already made a big signing in Diego and Inter are keeping their stars and getting Milito(good player)and Motta(crap but did good last season).I find it disrespectful when Milan had two bad seasons,sold their best player that the MGT keep the fans waiting so long for a new player(and its not like were after Benzema and the players Mrki mentioned)..

Oh and Mrki is right,now i think really good i am realising Milan need to spend 150 million or so into the team but they will only spend 50 million....so what happened with the 100 million...dont tell me they will going to use it to balance the books,Galliani already confessed that Milan still earned allot of money even without the C.League.

Berlu is stealing the money the selfish scum!

First, why does everyone keep talking about the transfer season hasnt even started yet? If that's true, then how did Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus and Bayern Munich sign all those players? Plenty of major transfers have happened and people still think the window is closed. A soccer team is supposed to start its summer as soon as the season is over, which was a while ago. And yes, that means, Galliani actually should be getting off of his butt and working on the transfers instead of BSing about the taxes again and again.

Second thing, everyone who talk about how the summer is long and that B&G will do the right things have learned absolutely nothing from the previous years. From Cissokho to Dzeko, Gallaini is using the exact same stalling tactics he used the last few years. And what were the results of these tactics? We came to September with a half assed squad again and Galliani talking about how this team is "full of champions" and "absolutely perfect". This has been the trend for years now and nothing, and i mean absolutely nothing has changed this summer, which will lead to the exact same results. If the snake bit you the first thousand times you put your hand in its cage, why would things change the next time you do it?

A lot of people like to bash mrki for his comments, and that's fine. Afterall, it can get a little annoying reading posts about the same topic, especially when it is negative. The one thing, however, you cannot argue is his assessment on the team. The team, as it stands, is in the toilet. There is no need for anyone to go out and argue any differently because it is simply the reality. This current squad is not capable of getting into the top 5 in serie A next season. As fans, we have to look at the club with a view for the future. All the crap that has been done to the team today will take its effect in the future. GM didn't just become a bad company a couple of months ago when it filed for bankrupcy. That is why there is no reason for people to let Galliani off the hook just because there is still two months before the summer is over. He is not doing his job right and the fans have to do whatever they can to make him realize that before it is too late.