Season 2004/2005 (transfers/rumours/news)

From Argentina, I like Pablo Zabaleta as a right-back. He is young, charismatic, powerful, he plays in both areas....a very complete player.

He would be a good alternative, Im sure he will end up playing in one of the best teams in Europe.

Edit: Diogo, who joined River Plate this season, has surprised everyone with his play. He is agile, fast, nice dribbling and likes to play north-south. He isnt the best "defender", but he is a nice talent as well. He is joining Palermo, first, and then Juventus....or that is what they are saying here.

From the description you gave of Diogo, I can believe he is going to Juve, because Capello loves players like this

mancini should be good, gattuso should help him out defencivly, it could work.........
bonera, idk......... he sounds good.... but you guys are saying non-positive facts about him so...... somethings wrong with him.....

Aren't Oddo, Cassetti and Mesto all as attacking minded as mancini ? I think Mancini is good, don't get me wrong and he's probably better technically than the 3 i mentioned, however a right-back's first job is to defend and then to attack, not the other way round. I think Bonera is improving, but he doesn't strike me as a guy to go galloping up the wing beating players. When i read the match reports, Cassetti usually has a hand in alot of crosses and shots going in ... plus he would surely be cheaper ? I don't think our relationship with Roma is that great, so they'd want alot of money for him.

A right backs job is to defend when he has Christiano Ronaldo playing as a right winger infront of him, but in the Milan system our right back plays behind Gatusso, so he is needed to provide an attacking option while Gatusso compensates for the fact that Pirlo, Seedrof, Kaka and Rui Costa (all playmakers)who are in the same team at once

The way I see it, if we want to replace a Cafu who is succesful in our system, and we want to keep the same system then we should replace Cafu with as similar a player as possible. Otherwise Stam is 10 times the player any of those mentioned will ever be and no one is saying Stam should take over from Cafu. But I cant remember us ever being even linked to mancini which is hard to understand.

Originally Posted by K77SH C

I think when Cafu leaves we should get Mancini from Roma, he has already replaced him in the Roma team and will do so in the Brazil side. Lets face it neither are known for their defencive qualities. Cafu is better in this respect, but Mancini is young and has plenty of time to improve.

A major contribution from Cafu is is his running and the options he provides on the right. Pirlo can always rely on him to be on the right wing in counter attacks. The likes of Bonera would be a disaster. With Mancini his crossing and shooting are better than Cafu, while Cafu is better at defending.

Agree with you my freind! We can buy or Mancini or Belleti! Now I want Belleti a litle bit more than Mancini!

But Belleti can't defend at all !

I've always said that our full-backs are the most important positions in the side, but they still have to be able to defend .... that is after all their priority no matter who they play in front of.

You'll hear no argument from me that we need to place like for like, Jankulovski (if/when we get him) will be the ideal left-back and someone of Cafu's ilk will also be needed. I still think Cassetti or Oddo would be the better choices in terms of price and overall defensive/attacking ability

i would go for daniel alves maybe... or oddo

Is Jose Mari still ours ? Or did we actually sell him to Atletico Madrid ?

Anyway, he has scored twice so far for Villareal

Alves is a player and a half, ask R.Carlos. He dominated him in a couple of games that I saw. I agree with jim UK on Belletti thoguh

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

Is Jose Mari still ours ? Or did we actually sell him to Atletico Madrid ?

Anyway, he has scored twice so far for Villareal

And again yesterday. I am happy for Jose Mari, I allways liked him. He allways tried his best, even if he didn't succed at Milan.

haha, that's what i meant Henrik ... that he scored twice yesterday in his game for Villareal

Anyway, about Belletti ... Barca drew 3 - 3 with Betis, so maybe his defensive skills aren't that great after all ... kidding

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

haha, that's what i meant Henrik ... that he scored twice yesterday in his game for Villareal

I beleive he had only scored twice in La Liga before the 2 goals yesterday. Anyway, Villareal is a fun team with the likes of Jose Mari, Forlan, Sorin and Riquelme spicing things up

Gio scored against Betis yesterday! I like Gio 2! what you will say abt him???

Gio is good, can defend ok and attack well ... but hopefully we'll have Jankulovski ... which will be fantastic