Yeah, that's what it says. It also says that with Balo and Robinho leaving, and by sacrificing Abate we will have €40 million to spend on Cerci and Jackson Martinez.

At the very least these rumors are born out of a nihilistic mind's idea of punishment towards a now-soured fan base.

This post has been edited by il_diavolo_mtl: Jul 22 2014, 03:51 AM

That's pretty decent actually. I don't think we should go anything above that. Maybe throw in a youth player on loan at max.

So, losing a "star/marquee" player, a completely useless attacker and a first team player for a 26 year-old winger with no big club experience and one-and-a-half good season and a young striker who recently had a dispute with his NT coach and was mostly a sub for Colombia? I'd say no, because this won't make us any better or more dangerous.

Decent? I think it's better we spend 40 million on one great player then 40 on Cerci and Jackson. I simply don't see any of them making the big step forward with Milan, while their style won't impact our gameplan.

And why both of them? We sure would need a new fullback and a midfielder as well.

That's very weird. I only saw the Cerci offer post, so was replying to that.

As to your questions, that's a valid point. My two cents.

1. 40 million we have is most probably the total cost of player. Inclusive of transfer cost, agent fees and wages. Which when you think about it is not much. Probably means we have realistically about 15-20 million to spend on transfer fees.

2. When you consider the inflated prices for players who are considered anything close to above average, 40 million will get us quite little I fear. James Rodriguez for example is ~80 million?!! The ones at the end of the contract, the Krooses and the Fabregases are moving solely for the sake of higher glory. Trust me, Milan and Serie A won't even be a blip on their radar. We can hope for the Evras and the Coles at best.

Agreed Fillipo.

This management is once again throwing money away for areas that are already well equipped. This while having a thread bare midfield. Not to mention selling Abate and creating an entirely new problem at FB.

As for Balo, there are no actual buyers out there ready to meet our demands. So unless Monaco suddenly come in for him, we're not going to be selling him.

12m for Cerci is more fair than the 20m+ that was quoted before, but once again, why? Why spend money on a winger who's only ever played well for mid-table sides? Especially when that money could go into buying a good CM.

Yes, so we agree.

But you know, we need to have a strategy. I'd be fine if we signed the Coles and the Evras (of course with a rational wage distribution), but we gotta think man. If for example we set two or three transfer targets for the next year and a half, everything is doable. Maybe Kroos and Fabregas won't come to Milan, but there are sure players who wanna play for us. I don't buy that BS about us being totally unattractive.

My point is - I'd rather we buy no one now and plan on investing into someone really good or with high potential, then to splash money season after season for available second hand players like Matri, Cerci and Jackson. In the end, we only lose: we probably get less money for them then we payed (examples: Matri, Balo maybe, Robinho, etc), they don't link well with the team. So they end up useless while we loose money.


Well, I wouldn't blame the management for selling Abate. Because, if they do so, it will be obviously connected to his contract extension. These rumors regarding negotiation problems keep appearing for some time now, so I understand this part.

I'm sure they could easily come to an agreement if they wanted to.

This is what seriously p!sses me off! So they have no issue giving Essien 3m, Robinho 3.5m, Muntari 2.5m, etc, but to the players that are actually useful and important to the side they drag their feet and don't budge. Just absolutely ridiculous

How sure can you be? Raiola is his agent, and this might be an additional problem.

But yes, the three mentioned players are really making our salary policy look ridiculous.

Abate, excluding guys like Zaccardo etc, is considered one of our lower earners, earning something along the lines of 1.5m (somewhere in the region).

No one's mentioned that he wants something ridiculous like 4m per year. I'm sure he wants what he considers fair in terms of his importance within the side and in comparison to what other leeches on this team are earning.

And yeah, Raiola is an issue, but Abate is a product of our youth system, I'm sure that if the management talked with him, they'd reach an agreement that all parties would be happy with. Abate never said that he wished to leave.

And let's look at it this way, selling him will create big headaches for us as seemingly the only option available to us out there is Criscito, which would mean moving DS permanently to the right, and Zenit want good cash for him, which would mean spending any money we get from selling Abate on Criscito (if not more than that as Zenit don't seem eager to sell and they don't really need to money either)

Well, you do bring up valid points. But I cannot blame the management for something I don't know and/or understand. I see only frictions but 1) Abate's sale being a issue for almost 2 seasons now, 2) Seedorf not playing him and 3) the contract negotiation rumors - made me think something complicated our relationship with him. It sure sounds easy when you say he's our youth product and the management can surely settle with him on the salary issue, but that's just an educated guess.

The Seedorf issue is a moot one as he's no longer our coach and every news source has agreed that Pippo plans to have both him and DS as his starting FBs next season.

As for the on-going issue of his contract, I can only imagine that it's been the same one for all 3 years now. Which again brings us back to the ridiculous as during that time they've had no issue giving ridiculous contracts to countless players who ended up being complete leeches.

Let's not forget that Traore (!!!!!!) was earning a sum that is very close to what Abate is earning!


Just to add a bit more to this, Criscito's agent confirmed that he will be staying at Zenit as they don't want to sell him. So if we do sell Abate expect another season of Constant on the left and DS on the right

A little bit of good news, Robinho was not included on the US tour so this could only mean that a deal to sell him to Orlando could be reached very soon.

Milan US tour squad

Goalkeepers: Abbiati, Agazzi, Gabriel

Defenders: Abate, Albertazzi, Alex, Bonera, Constant, De Sciglio, Mexes, Rami, Simic, Zaccardo, Zapata

Midfielders: Benedicic, Cristante, Essien, Mastalli, Modic, Muntari, Pinato, Poli, Saponara

Attackers: Balotelli, Di Molfetta, El Shaarawy, Honda, Mastour, Menez, Niang, Pazzini

Some interesting names from the Primavera in there, hopefully Pippo will continue to give them chances


And looking at that squad, we have too many CBs, not enough FBs

Zaccardo needs to be asked to GTFO, and one of Mexes or Zapata will probably have to be sold, don't know if we're planning on keeping Albertazzi

Indeed. Good news.