Tuttomercatoweb is trying to get even MORE vague.

They've got 3 articles stating that Braida was at the Marassi yesterday to observe Genoa-Cagliari. But the articles don't agree on which player he was there to watch. One article suggests it was Astori, one suggests it was Sokratis (sorry, i still can't spell his surname), one suggests it was Mesto.

Greek? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Yep!

Balotelli, he's obviously having problems at Inter, and I dont think Mourinho likes him. He most definitely has an attitude problem but he also has some skill. We know he's a Milan fan, and I think Leo would have the ability to control and coach him where Mourinho probably doesnt. Do we pick him up?

Inter are not going to sell Balo to us. We all know Pirlo and Seedorf came from them but it's only because Inter thought they were not good enough. This is not the case with Balo.

If I could, I'd take him, he's worth it. If he maintains this attitude we can just sell him to the next club.

So, the rumor mills are kicking into overdrive in Italy. Last week after Balotelli's poor performance in their draw was excused away as 'he has a fever', Mourinho said 'he didn't have a fever, that's a lie'. This after various other snarky comments about Balotelli (many of them well earned) this season.

But this time, Balotelli's family has apparently had enough. His brother issued a statement saying 'it's gone too far' and stating that Balotelli has engaged the services of Mino Raiola as agent.

Mino Raiola is one of the heavy hitters among Italian agents; his most recent big client was Ibrahimovic - whose wages he got increased from 2 million to 12 million and then he helped smoothe out Ibrahimovic's transfer to Barca.

Well, this afternoon Mino Raiola went to Via Turati for a meeting. In response to the journalists who asked him what was up when he left, he denied that he'd discussed Balotelli and stated that he /did/ after all have other clients (which is true). However, the rumor folks are already frothing at this.

(see, variously, eurosport, gazzetta, mediaset, and tuttomercatoweb over the past 10 days or so)

we have approx 20 Million to spend plus sales. Make a list from that.

So out of curiosity...who are the people who Raiola represents? Do you think we might actually buy Zlatan!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) Let's face it, he hasn't set the charts on fire there... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

no i'm guessing were going after youth italian players.


We'll probably bring back astori and sign a few young italian players around the age of 20-24 who are similar to Abate in potential. We'll ofcourse make one big signing like we always do and I hope thats Dzeko.

We'll also probably offload a few players:

Dida
Kaladze
Favalli
Huntelaar
Jankulovski
Oddo (maybe)
Zambrotta (maybe)
Inzaghi (maybe)

And finally we'll bring a few primavera up like Verdi/Zigoni/Albertazzi to sit on the bench and get some minutes.




----

The bottom line is don't be expecting major shifts unless we win the scudetto which will give us 20m Euros and even then don't expect major shifts.

The thought today about Raiola's visit is that it has to do with bringing a Brazilian player over.

really? I wonder if its neymar.... Braida has talked about him for 2 years now, but he'll be really expensive...

I'd take Balotelli over Dzeko any day of the week.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) ?
You would take a bad educated boy before a big rossoneri fan and knowing that Dzeko much better than Balotelli .
Surprised

Balotelli's just as much of a fan as Dzeko. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) And I think he's a better player. He's also even less mature than his coach, which is saying something. That's my big concern with him (aside from the minimal possibility that Moratti would sell him to us).

FYI, there was an article intoday's gazzetta -- apparently one of the things Balotelli's done in the past week or so to really piss off his teammates and management is to come into the dressing room at Appiano Gentile (their training base) humming the Milan hymn (oh, and he was at the San Siro fro the Milan-MU game too).

Not sure how much of it is him geniunely being a fan of the club and how much is deliberately designed to provoke them so they'll sell. I suspect it might be a bit of both.

If Balotelli wants to come, no one can stop him, not even Moratti. I know about him this much! and I'd take him instead of Dzeko. he's a future Italy international and an immense talent - also younger and cheaper than Dzeko (who is definitely overpriced at 40 million). awful attitude, true, but that's about the only fault I see in him.