Winter Mercato

Originally Posted by Rico

Look at Buffon, he was as good as he is now 10 years ago! Look at Kasper Schmeichel who kept a clean sheet 3-4 matches in a row in his debut in the Premiership even against Man U. He is 20 now.

That keepers peak at an elevated age is simply incorrect.

Italian keepers are good and they always were. But that doesn't mean we cannot sign a foreign keeper if he is good enough and fits Milan.

i duno, im a bit funny when it comes down to this. Ive always thought if Milan want a goalee and a defender they should always try and buy italian first.

Same if i were to buy a supercar, would go to lamborghini (although owned by audi) and Ferrari first.

latest dida rumour from football italia:Nelson Dida appears to have lost Milan’s confidence and after Sebastien Frey the latest target to take over is PSV Eindhoven’s Heurelho da Silva Gomes.


Dida’s position at San Siro has become untenable after a series of catastrophic errors, culminating in the woeful howler that allowed Inter to win the derby 2-1.


A new shot-stopper is among the first priorities for the January transfer market and Fiorentina’s Frey had been suggested as a front runner.


Today the ‘Corriere dello Sport’ suggests that there is another candidate making waves – fellow Brazilian Gomes.


The goalkeeper will turn 27 in February and has been consistently impressive for PSV Eindhoven in both domestic competition and the Champions League.


He has been in Europe since the summer of 2004, switching from Brazilian club Cruzeiro to Dutch outfit PSV.


Gomes helped Eindhoven to the last three Eredivisie titles on the trot and this month extended his contract until 2013.


However, he would be more than happy to accept a step up to the European and World champions with a price-tag hovering around £5m.


Meanwhile, former Milan star Manuel Rui Costa has announced his retirement at the end of this season.


The 35-year-old spent seven terms at Fiorentina and five with the Rossoneri before returning to his hometown club.


“I had always desired to end my career at Benfica and I am proud to have achieved that,” he told local newspaper ‘Record.’


“I am happy with what I have done in my career and proved I am a real professional.”

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

I wouldnt bet on that and you dont need to have a genius' brain to remember when that last happened. None of the players you wish for will join mrki, it is highly unlikely and very unrealistic at the moment.

PSV's Gomes has been linked today with us but it will not happen because he is cup-tied. We should have gotten De Sanctis when we had the chance. I think we should go for Curci, not the best but he definitely is better the rest of the Italian goalkeepers (bar Gigi ofcourse). Cant we get Canizares? Oh but he's cup-tied also so nevermind.

If you look at my post veeeery closely, eventually you'll notice the smile alongside the players I mentioned. And than means it was a joke.

Originally Posted by Graeme C

i duno, im a bit funny when it comes down to this. Ive always thought if Milan want a goalee and a defender they should always try and buy italian first.

Same if i were to buy a supercar, would go to lamborghini (although owned by audi) and Ferrari first.

Probably because you love your Italia.

Originally Posted by inter-1908

Hes played out the 3 of the 5 years on his contract already, and in The soccer magazine entitled Soccer Italia, or football Italia, he says that he may use fifa code 17 to be released from Barca. Basically what Fifa act 17 is, is once you have played the 3 years of your contract (which he has done) he canpay out the rest of his Contract and leave the club.

I posted something similar to this in the Zambrotta, Ronaldinho thread. That's why there is a small chance of Ronaldinho coming in January. Because if he decides to use that FIFA out clause, Barca would lose him for pennies compared to what Milan would offer to buy him for now.
Many want him sold NOW!! It would be a lot of money lost & fans would be livid at management if they screwed this Ronnie thing in any way.

Here are some of my thoughts on recent rumours.

I think i would prefer Gomes to Frey, the guy has a much greater physical presence. But as Hitman said, he is CL tied and it's unlikely we'd get him and just play Dida or Kalac in the CL games. But i think he is the keeper we should go for as our new number 1 for next season. If we get him for around the £5 million mark, that would be a huge plus.

In terms of younger keepers, if they aren't too expensive and depending on how we've allocated other funds, we should think about getting 1 of Carrizo, Akinfeev, Curci or Ochoa, etc and then loan them out immediately.

Zambrotta for a similar amount seems a good possibility, but we've been down this road before and no deal materialised. Lets hope for a better outcome this time round.

For the summer, if i were in charge my top CB target would be Kolo Toure, though Lucio would be a more realstic option. I'd give Bayern Kaladze + money for the Brazilian. I'd also get Zapata too, to leave us with Bonera, Nesta, Lucio & Zapata for CBs. A good mixture of youth and experience.

To further revolutionise the defence i'd go for Alves aswell. Yes he'd cost money but we have further negotiating chips in our hands aside from Kaladze, mainly Simic, Oliveira, Ronaldo & Gilardino. Don't forget that now Ramos has gone, Sevilla's stars are more likely to leave and should Kanoute go, they would need a new striker.

So with wheeling & dealing, we could end up with a back 5 of Gomes, Zambrotta, Lucio, Nesta, Alves. With Jankulovski, Zapata, Bonera, Oddo & Favalli in reserve. Not to mention our kids such as, Antonelli, Digao, Marzoratti, etc, etc. The only question is Non-EU spots. Lucio has been in Germany for many years, so i'm sure he must be able to qualify for a German passport if he hasn't already. Alves' position i am unsure of. But i think all of these targets are realistic and could be quite affordable assuming they want what we have to offer.

My thoughts on midfield are that we need a new central midfielder, someone like Banega or Diarra. Both are alledgedly available for around £12 million even if it does appear the former has agreed to join Valencia.

As for the front men. Well all transfers depend on if we get Ronaldinho & how much he'll cost us. I think i'd much rather see us go for Benzema & Drogba/Amauri (though Zamparini would make his transfer difficult), with Aguero a dream target. Like i said before, we have enough players in the likes of Kaladze, Dida, Simic, Gilardino, Ronaldo & Oliveira that can save us £20 - £25 million in funds if we're smart.

Naturally i don't expect all this to happen, these are just my thoughts on where we should go.

yeah there's always viviano who plays for Brescia aswell as Curci.

de silvestri is a player i think milan should definately get this summer, he come in the top 10 of young players in the poll recently. Even if we get Zambrotta, silvestri is one for future

do you guys really think we will be able to replace cafu, favalli, simic, maldini,serghino in the summer?

oh yeah theres always Maresca again in January..

Well i don't know what to choose between Ronaldinho and a great attacking duo of Drogba-Benzema.
I really don't know what to choose.
As for the place of RB the best solution by far is Alves.But we had never seen available to splash the money on that player instead of Chelsea who splashed a big offer for him in summer but they finaly didn't get him(i'm sure they will try again).
As for zambrotta yes he would be great for us, but for how many years????It reminds me Oddo.We bought him last year and know we are talking that we need a new RB.
As for a midfielder, i can say that Milan that summer maked a BIG mistake that didn't sign Ribery.Ancelotti had said this summer that he likes him very much and he would love to sign him!Why really they didn't make something to sign him?????That was a big mistake, the player is unstopable and he is the best player of FC Bayern.Milan really needs a player like him with his runs,speed,naturall fitness,passion,stamina,creativity,technique and work rate!
As for a GK i would love us to sign one of Akinfeev or Frey, i like them to much.
As for a Central Defender i would like one of Barzagli or Albiol(Valencia).
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For last.......as i can see my watch in 1.50 hour here at Greece we gonna get in 2008 and i should go to celebrate with my family and friends.
I wish everyone to have a happy new year!I wish all your dreams to come true about you and your loved persons with hapiness and all the best!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! God be with us!!! 2008=another AC MILAN CL WIN!!!

i think we must get mamadou diarra in jan. he is like gattusso + ambrosini and he is 27 so very good and costs around 15 mil. ( or steven appiah) as for the attack and since we are strongly linked with drogba i think it woud be a great solution but we need a winger to open up the opponents' defences like m.rodrigues or quaresma .. we could benefit a lot from de selvestri .. and why didn't anybody mention pele or boruc or steklenberg ? they are much better than gomes and frey

I think Ochoa is the best buy for a GK?
Zambrotta,Ronaldinho and Pazzini are MUSTS.
I welcome Shevchenko back depending on his price tag. No more then 10M would be good for a 30 year old striker who hasn't been scoring many goals and dropped in form big time. I can live with Dida until the end of the season. We need a lot faster players on our team, I notice one thing about Milan -- When it was Shevchenko Kaka Seedorf running on the counter attacks Kaka and Sheva would be doing the most running and Seedorf would always be back incase of a return pass. Now, without sheva, we have nobody running on the counter attacks with kaka, everytime the balls put up their he has to wait for seedorf or pirlo to run up or pass to Gilardino/Inzaghi which always ends up back into the other teams feet.

I think Ochoa is the best buy for a GK?
Zambrotta,Ronaldinho and Pazzini are MUSTS.
I welcome Shevchenko back depending on his price tag. No more then 10M would be good for a 30 year old striker who hasn't been scoring many goals and dropped in form big time. I can live with Dida until the end of the season. We need a lot faster players on our team, I notice one thing about Milan -- When it was Shevchenko Kaka Seedorf running on the counter attacks Kaka and Sheva would be doing the most running and Seedorf would always be back incase of a return pass. Now, without sheva, we have nobody running on the counter attacks with kaka, everytime the balls put up their he has to wait for seedorf or pirlo to run up or pass to Gilardino/Inzaghi which always ends up back into the other teams feet.

Happy New Year To Every One , Best Wishes For 2008 And For Our Team : Keep Those Trophyees Comin'

Originally Posted by Graeme C

do you guys really think we will be able to replace cafu, favalli, simic, maldini,serghino in the summer?

I don't really see why not. Maldini is by far the toughest to replace there, it really depends whether Kaladze can step up and command the CB role regularly. I personally think he can as long as he's fit and able to play consistently (his form of late is impressive). If he can't we need to buy a world class CB otherwise another backup is all that's needed.

We need a new starting fullback, which will result in Cafu or Favalli's replacement coming naturally in either Oddo or Janku and then it's a case of possibly buying another fullback replacement if necessary. But bear in mind Favalli and Simic don't really play any role in this squad these days.

Realistically, with 2 or 3 buys we'll be ok.

Originally Posted by Rico

Look at Buffon, he was as good as he is now 10 years ago! Look at Kasper Schmeichel who kept a clean sheet 3-4 matches in a row in his debut in the Premiership even against Man U. He is 20 now.

That keepers peak at an elevated age is simply incorrect.

Italian keepers are good and they always were. But that doesn't mean we cannot sign a foreign keeper if he is good enough and fits Milan.

I honestly think Buffon's improved, as I feel he's more comanding (as a leader) and technically more polished now, but we must remember he's a special case. Kasper is good but at this point he needs a lot of work to really elevate himself to a top level keeper.

Personally I have no doubt a goalkeeper generally peaks in his later years.