I read he'll become entirely Genoa's when we'll acquire all the rights to El Shaarawy this summer.

Interesting. What are are the thoughts on this?

Frankly speaking? I'd have kept him. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) Him and El Shaarawy both, of course. Decent and cheap backup.

Well, I would prefer this as well, but it's not to say I will at all be one bit surprised if this were to be true.

After all, we do tend to have a poor record when it comes to handling our youth players and their contracts.

+1

What's sad is that we'll probably go looking for an expensive (and older) replacement once the senior retire. And fail most probably too. When we could have nurtured this guy and gave him development time. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Shaarawy and Merkel aren't the same kind of players, occupy different positions, and play a different game.

To have them both would have meant giving the necessary rest to our first XI at regular intervals. Oh well!

I dunno. I look and Kroos and I look at Merkel...and I think we're diluting quality if we keep him on.

Merkel is a very promising prospect. Giving him away to Genoa would be idiotic, to say the least. I'd keep him, Strasser and El Shaarawy without thinking twice.

Kevin-Prince Boateng underwent a magnetic resonance imaging yesterday which revealed an inflammation in the superior part of the pubis. There is no information about when he might recover, but with all probability his season is already over.

Link

There goes Boateng as well. His injuries are really starting to worry me, especially when I consider that his substitute in Allegri's mind is Emanuelson. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Wrong comparison to make, for starters. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) And besides, the amount of injuries we get it is vitally important, and importantly vital that we secure our positions with not one but two players for each key position. In fact, all positions. And keeping people like Merkel at 1m or less per season, with a few scattered minutes is a must.

If nothing more, youngsters like him can come in at the 60-70-80 minute marks, to give our starters a rest.


Exactly. All three must be kept without thinking once, not twice in my opinion. Once the senior leave, what are you going to have as cover?! Bring in more Flaminis?! Nah, I'd rather keep all three. And besides, at least Merkel displays a bit of a natural talent, that minimal hint of swagger, and more importantly a wee drop of flair.

Which is much more than that can be said of someone like Emanusleon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) There I said it.

Well Boateng isn't much of an AM in the truest sense of the word, but when you bring up Emanuelson, that doesn't leave much of a room for debate either. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Pretty big loss anyway you look at it. I just hope he has a beast of a season next year. This one has been in absolute tatters!

I don't think we can count on that. It's too risky to rely on such a player, only to end up having to play someone like Emanuelson for the majority of the season. We need to sign a new AM, possibly Eriksen.

Agreed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mellow.gif) But miracles do happen, every once in a while. Ditto on a new AM, Eriksen or better.

Any word on Thiago's recovery thus far? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

+1. I thought he was gonna be out for 3-4 weeks. feels much more than that already.