Milannews again mentioning Douglas Costa. How good can this guy really be?

Armero confirmed officially. Year long loan.

Totally pointless signing given MDS. I'd have been happy with MDS left Abate right.

Well, he's good. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) From what I've seen of him in the few Shakhtar matches I've watched. Seems like a team player. Would not be totally against his signing, though I still hope we can do better. Let's see.

Pointless? What if MDS gets injured (which, given his prior history, is very possible)? We got rid of both Constant and Urby. A LB was necessary, and I'm glad it's Armero. Always liked the guy. Plus it's a loan. If he doesn't perform we can always send him back.

Yeah. Seems like an astute signing. Pastore mentioned contact with Milan, Juve and Lazio, but nothing further from that.

My further concern is Armero left MDS right.

I think we need midfielders more than a left back tbh.

If he performs and Abate doesn't, then why not. But anyway, it's important to have depth. We can't just play Bonera as LB if MDS gets injured!



Well, Armero can play as a mid too.

Why not? Because MDS is terrible at RB.



A CM?

Nah, I don't believe that story anymore. A righty plays terrible on the right than on the left? These kind of players are versatile. Zambrotta didn't have a preferred position, Azpilicueta albeit being a RB was excellent as LB at Chelsea. De Sciglio just had a disappointing season overall last time and we associate it with him being played on the right. I'm sure he wouldn't have been much better had he played on the left either.

The reason why I want him on the left is because I prefer Abate on the right.



As LCM, possibly. Not that I think he should play there, though. From the bunch of mids we have, Honda is the only one I'd pick.

I really do not think that's the case in this particular scenario

DS has played friendlies this summer where he's started out on the right and was pretty mediocre imo and once he shifted to the left you could see a very clear improvement in his performance. For me he looks more comfortable, more at ease, more assured in his abilities and has even that sort of confident swagger about him when playing on the left. Shift him over to the right and he looks more his age. He looks like a kid we plucked out of the primavera for the pre-season tour.

Maybe that versatility will come as he matures, but atm there's a significant drop in how he performs when on the left to how he performs on the right.

@ Danny, I completely agree with you about the DS/Abate situation. But I think the Armero move was a smart one. We technically don't really have cover for Abate on the right, unless you consider Bonera or Zaccardo, So in case either Abate or DS are injured we could shift things around by bringing in Armero on the left. And we all know that Abate and DS are both fairly injury prone.

I think the Armero move was an astute one, as x-off pointed out, he's on loan, so if he disappoints we can just boot him out at the end of the season. But even better, if he does do well, this is his final year under contract at Udine, so if he does well we can keep him for free. So it's a win-win situation in our case imo.

As for the transfer market, we're being linked with so many wingers my head's about to spin. Cerci, Douglas Costa, Maxime Lestienne, Taarabt, Campbell and now Lavezzi who's contract renewal talks with PSG have broken down.

I'd personally just take whichevers the cheapest option from that list and redirect all our attentions and funds on a proper CM, because unless we get one before the start of next season we can buy whoever we want for the attack but it still won't make our team work and function properly without that CM.

Believe it if you want but he has always been f*cking garbage on the right. Not just last season.



No one else would (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Nah, I think we're threadbare at CM and I think you're putting a positive spin on a signing which doesn't help that area.

I'm sure Armero's a good player but he's one IMO we didn't need. That is to say, we needed 'competition' for LB far less importantly than we did a decent CM.

Oh I'm not complaining about squad depth, I would just have made reinforcing the FB's the lowest priority behind getting in a CM/winger/AM or two.

I'm not whining about the signing, just that it seems pointless right now when there are other areas in dire need of fixing. We did good getting in Lopez, I am delighted about him. But LB and the FBs in general wasn't an area top of my list of priorities.

If we can sort out the positions I'm complaining about then yes, I'll be very happy overall with what we've done.

But we got him on loan, so it's not like his signing will have an effect on any possible future midfield signings. Whether we sign somebody in midfield or not is completely irrelevant from Armero's arrival.

@Milanello

GdS claims that Berlusconi has given Galliani permission to sign Douglas Costa. Lavezzi and Cerci are the alternatives.

Tuttosport claims that Galliani and Inzaghi asked for Cerci and Grenier during the meet with Berlusconi earlier this evening.