Winter Mercato 2011

I really dont understand the sign of van bommel? 33 F*****g years? We need Criscito, i dont care the price, he could be the best left defens i the world, and he is an itallian?

There we go, zakakhan! If I were Galliani or Allegri I'd at least paid 100k to him for a half day gossip about their locker room.

Van Bommel is sign to add depth to the team, u can sit here and kept saying why why why, and why not Lazzarri or Criscito. Simply bc Galli does not think those two are worth the price. As he would rather spend 25mil on one true WC superstar instead of two average to good players.

Nagatomo is a much better LB than Criscito at the moment. Pls none of these his size ain't that big or he is not Italian crap, as just bc a defender is Italian, it does not make him the next Nesta, Maldini or Cannavaro. Just look at the diff between Santa Bonera and Yeah Yeah Yepese, as I know any team would choose Yepes over Santa Bonera.

i agree, 10 m euros for Lazzari is too much. same goes for Criscito. 18 m euros too much for a player like him. i think we need offensively better FB than Criscito.

-----------------------Abbiati--------------------
Abate-------------Nesta-----Tiago-----Antonini

-------Boateng---------Pirlo-------Flamini--------

----------------------Cassano--------------------
-----------Robinho/Pato-----Ibrahimovic----------

Are we starting to loose our italian identity??????
Not now, but in near future with Ambro,Pippo,gattuso,Nesta,Abbiati,Pirlo,Oddo gone, we are in serious danger of loosing it. Especially since our next generations backbone will consist of Tiago,Merkel,Boateng,Pato,Robinho,Flamini

Against Sampdoria last night we had only three Italians in the team (Roma,Antonini and Oddo)

What do you think??

Well, do u want Milan to win and challenge for titles every year or just fighting to stay alive? Point is that if there are talented Italian players out there, Milan should try ti sign them, but I really don't see any IT players between the age of 21-25 who can be great players, beside Mario, Santacroce, Bonnucci and Racchonia. Having said that, I still think T. Silva and D. Luiz are much better defenders than those three I mentioned. Also Pato is a much better player than Mario.

@kastriot

Well, the problem is also that there is an alarming lack of quality Italian players out there right now. Prandelli just lamented this yesterday.

I personally would love to have at least 5 Italians in the starting line-up, but only if they're quality. No amount of sentimental attachment to Italy could of course make me want to have Bonera and Antonini in the team.

Criscito is good, but not world class. He at least would be a step in the right direction. But if there were a better option available, I would go for that regardless of nationality.

I sometimes think these "6+5" type debates (you're not making them I know) that normally come up after an Azzurri debacle (see World Cup) are misguided and only slightly touch on the real issues of poor youth set-up. Albertini, Prandelli, and Cannavaro have all pointed this out. There are cases, of course, where players like Giovinco has to go to Parma despite his quality. These are certainly issues. However, if Bonera suddenly started playing like Thiago Silva then I doubt we would exclude him from the line-up.

Originally Posted by kastriot

Are we starting to loose our italian identity??????

Not now, but in near future with Ambro,Pippo,gattuso,Nesta,Abbiati,Pirlo,Oddo gone, we are in serious danger of loosing it. Especially since our next generations backbone will consist of Tiago,Merkel,Boateng,Pato,Robinho,Flamini

Against Sampdoria last night we had only three Italians in the team (Roma,Antonini and Oddo)

What do you think??

It's a problem of the Italian football as whole, including our club, that there are fewer and fewer Italian players on the starting line-ups of their respective clubs. Even yesterday Prandelli rued the fact that only 8% of the starters came from the youth ranks whereas the number was about 25% in the past, and that the clubs prefer players from abroad.

Having said that, football is more and more becoming global sport and business now, and there are other countries that share same problem, for example England.

Of course we can't turn back to the time when at most only 3 stranieri are allowed to play. Things have changed. I myself think a player's quality comes first and not his passport although like you, I too want the club to retain its Italian root and not to take the opposite stance of our cousin, Internazionale.

And that's exactly what we've been doing to address this problem for the past two or three years: by taking our youth team seriously, and gradually promoting the best of the lot to our first team, like what had happened to Merkel and Strasser. Sure they're not Italian, but at least they grew up in our club, nurtured in our club's philosophy.

We, just like other big clubs, have been neglecting the youth for quite some time so it's logical that we can't expect the return in the near future. But the first major correcting step has been taken, and that's all we can do for the timebeing when, let's face it, there aren't that many quality Italian players regardless their age. Sooner or later, I believe we too will have Italian young players good enough to break into the senior team.

Both of you have come up with great points. I`d love to win titles,but I would not want to become Inter(nazionale) either. We have always kept our identity,and it has been the reason why I have loved Milan from the beginning and I` m sure most of you also. The reason why were are in danger of loosing it is only and only because of the lack of quality that Italian based player have atm,as both of you pointed out.

I really think that Galliani is pushing for Criscito only because he is Italian, because he would have found a better player in Brazil or Argentina and even Japan months ago.

What is even more worrying is that out of all our primavera two players to have really made to the first team are Straser and Merker, non of them Italian,and guys hyped like Verdi,De Vito,Albetrazi are nowhere to be seen.

We've been linked to Poli again according to milannews. It could happen as a summer move if we get him.

About this Italian identity debate. I've never had an issue with how many foreign players we have, though I understand why people want us to use Italians. However, the more I think about it the less I give acknowledgement about the use of Italians. I say this because the modern game and world is no longer about national distinctions and the pride teams had in the past are no longer around. Barca for example, aren't as vocal about their Catalan roots and have many players working together with Real in the Spanish teams.

If Italy want to have a strong national team, then they must be prepared to invest a lot on the sport at grass root level. In Spain they did this and the results are clear. Brazil has done this for years and the results speak for themselves. If Italy does this, Italian clubs will naturally use these players more as they see them early on. At the same time though, many of these players will move abroad, as the world seems smaller than before.

i just read pdf format of World Soccer February, they have a very interesting article about how to beat Milan by Jonathon Wilson. Why teams play wide men beats troubled us. its quite interesting.

http://hotfile.com/dl/99890414/39f90..._2011.pdf.html

Page 50-51

The thing is, unlike IT can produce players like Brazil, it will be very hard for any IT teams to have around 7-9 IT players in their starting 11 and competing at the highest level.

Just something I thought about yesterday ...

Emmanuelson and Van Bommel are players followed by Raiola. He helped us to get Robinho whereas he isn't his player. I don't think Milan paid him for this help as he isn't an employee of our club. So I'm starting to think that taking two players of Raiola was a way to thank/pay him actually (mixing our needs and the needs of Raiola).

I expect other guys followed by this agent to join us in a near future ... It would be interesting to find a list of his players !!

Cant see it mentioned but Galliani has said the player milan are after is not in Italy and not cup-tied so that rules out Criscito, front runner is Espanyol LB Didac Vila. who is a client of Mino Raiola btw.

Originally Posted by abbeyleemaniac

i just read pdf format of World Soccer February, they have a very interesting article about how to beat Milan by Jonathon Wilson. Why teams play wide men beats troubled us. its quite interesting.

http://hotfile.com/dl/99890414/39f90..._2011.pdf.html

Page 50-51

Thanks, will read this later. Jonathan Wilson is a great writer and VERY knowledgeable about tactics.