According to this video on Mediaset:

- Menez met with Galliani and Inzaghi today (pictures taken), has agreed to sign for us (free transfer);
- Balotelli could be sold in England, we might replace him with Negredo (transfer fee around €20 million excluding wages);
- Mexes and Bonera should stay;
- We might reach an agreement with Valencia shortly for Rami, perhaps including Zapata in the deal;
- Alex is very close to joining as well.

A lot of perhaps' and maybe's, but I wouldn't mind a SES-Negredo-Menez trident for next season. And then Honda, Poli and De Hong in midfield, and Abate, Rami, Mexes and De Sciglio in defense. Third spot would be totally within our reach.

Hehe, true. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Going by that logic is there any point in signing anyone at all? I know you're a fan of Mexes but he was poor last season and this side needs freshened up with new blood.

I'm not saying Alex is Thiago Silva but perhaps a new face or two in central defence would help. He's certainly not a poor defender - would you reject the return of Silva based on him also having coasted in Ligue 1?

But then you say 'he's done it in Serie A too'. True. He has. But Alex was decent in the EPL for Chelsea too.

We know he isn't Silva, but the 'adapting' argument for me is a poor excuse not to bring in a new player. Sure, sometimes it doesn't work; look at Honda. But plenty of times it does.

My point wasn't really that though. It's basically a move that leaves us in the same water, with a player sort of on a par with Mexes, only he'd have to wade through the waters that every new player has to when joining a new team

That was my point, not that I don't want Alex, because as I said in the later post, I think he'd make a great addition if we were to sell/release the other defenders we have bogging down our roster which aren't going to add much, but we'd also keep Mexes on a reduced wage

Fair dues, personally I'd choose Alex over Mexes. I find Mexes too much of a liability which undoes the good work he is undeniably capable of.

Same as Negredo over Balo. Sure, maybe the peaks of Mexes and Balo are higher than Alex and Negredo, but the latter arguably give you more on a more consistent basis and their troughs are higher too.

Don't know about Balo, I'm personally on the fence about that one, depends on what we can potentially make from his sale and if we're prepared to re-invest it

As for Mexes. I don't think he's the liability you're making him out to be. He doesn't have nightmare games like Bonera where he'll cost you 4 goals in a single game. He doesn't have the consistent run of mistakes which are made by someone like Zapata for example, who played a serious couple of stinkers under Allegri this season and Mexes was working triple time trying to cover his and Constant's @sses.

Mexes's biggest flaw is his concentration levels at times. He doesn't do it often but once in a while he has a moment where he's obviously spaced out for a moment and gets caught out.

Still I think him and Alex are both pretty good defenders, they obviously offer different capabilities to the team. But I'd personally never want to directly switch Mexes around with Alex. I just think that Mexes is an overall better defender in terms of tactical awareness, positioning, etc.

According to Sportitalia we're giving €3.8 million to Menez. WTF?! I sincerely hope they're just bullshiting us.

I trust news sources about as much as I trust B&G (especially off-season, as they have no real news to report). However, I would not be surprised. We are obsessed with getting players "zero cost", but in order to attract them we need to pay high salaries. (False savings, IMHO.)

Apparently Menez and Alex are done deals. Just needs a signature and they're ours. I'm personally happy with both.

Not really sure why you're bringing Bonera into it?



Or Constant, or Zapata tbh.

I'm not comparing Mexes with other defenders we have, I'm comparing him with Alex.



Your arduant defence (pun not intended) of both he and Montolivo where you gloss over how cr*p they've actually been by lightly touching on a 'mild flaw' is impressive. Mexes is hot-headed and loses more than just his concentration. He's good in the air (like Bonera - meh, I may as well bring him in too haha) but his discipline is staggeringly poor.



Fair enough, I think he WAS the above but now is a vastly inferior player to the one he was a couple of seasons ago. I used to highly rate him as you seem to still do but he's really gone downhill and both Allegri and Seedorf barely used him last season.

Ach, we're giving 10M Euros to Seedorf...

But I'd argue the 3.8M is actually yearly wages which works out at around 70,000 a week.

well that is right.. we have a supposedly cap of 2.5 million annual wage. that is around 40k per week. Secondly that is what we need to pay the player. The taxes law actually makes the wage almost double as usually the club pays of the taxes.

Actually, Bonera is pretty crap in the air...



Barely used by Seedorf? Mexes was an absolute starter in the last two months. As soon as Seedorf realized that he and Rami formed the strongest pairing we have he never touched them ever since.



Exactly. Besides, I don't think Menez is worth that much money. I'd give him €2.5 million max.

I'm mostly comparing him to other defenders besides Alex because I'm mentioning some of the flaws some defenders have, which Mexes doesn't.


But see this is where you confuse me a bit, what does his discipline (or lack-there-of, I'll give you that) have to do with his abilities as a defender?

Yes, he's a total hot head, but as a defender he's imo the best we have and in certain aspects that I personally view as the most important that a defender should have, I think Mexes is better than Alex. Alex of course has certain areas where he's better than Mexes. But the fact that Mexes is a hot head for me shouldn't factor into a discussion about how good he is as a defender.


Now this bit I totally can't agree with

Mexes is our most played CB this season with 22 appearances in Serie A and 5 in the CL all of which were starts bar 1 game in the CL

I don't see this regression you speak of, he's always been a total hot head, even at Roma, and he's always had the occasional moments where he's made mistakes due to lack of concentration, which is a crucial reason as to why he was never considered as a top tier CB

Don't agree but then, I refuse to get into a Bonera battle with you and Han (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)