Thoroughly expected and I'm only stunned we kept him this long.

He goes with my best wishes.

He's been our best overall player for two+ years now, and he deserves to be in the UCL. That said, Man Utd are no great shakes either but they're better than us. I wouldn't be shocked though if he goes to a UCL team. By then, that might admittedly be Utd.

We 39 players in total under contract (including loans). According to Tuttosport, the following players will surely not be part of the team next season:

Essien
Van Ginkel
De Jong
Albertazzi
Muntari
Mexes
Zaccardo
Zapata
Pazzini
Robinho
Nocerino
Birsa

Bonera, Rami, Matri, Saponara, El Shaarawy, Niang, Suso, Petagna and Niang are still uncertain.

Only two players of this entire group I'd certainly keep are Zapata and Niang (and Niang 2 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ). Suso is being mistreated as bad as MvG was (still like to see him given a chance himself but he's not a Pippo pal). Signed for us for four years yet being totally ignored. I wasn't hugely in favour of the signing but he's here and he deserves a shot - can't be worse than the shite out there. Unless he's Bocchetti, of course.

But I know Zaps is a 'me' (and perhaps you thing X) thing and truth is Pippo's never going to partner him with Alex so that's a busted flush.

Rest can all go happily. Pity they're not taking Monto & Honda with them.

I'd definitely keep Zapata but not as starter, and I'm not sure if he'll be happy with that. In most interviews he keeps stating that he wants to play, and I just don't think he's good enough to be a starter. We need someone else of quality to partner alongside Alex, preferably left-footed.

Alex is yer alpha defender, the leader, the slower one, strong, positionally excellent, collosal in the air and not scared to put his body where it hurts.

He needs a decent foil to fill the attributes he doesn't have - pace, last-ditch blocking, filling in when he's out of position, height. Zapata is the best one of the lot we have for that task - we both agree the two of them are the best partnership we have. The odd thing, you say he's not good enough to be a starter, yet he clearly was in the CL alongside Mexes two seasons ago. Funny though, I would tentatively agree that he isn't good enough to start overall, but the irony is he's still the best of the options we have to partner Alex.

In terms of what we have, yes, he's the ideal partner to Alex. But I'm speaking about next season, we need a jump in quality in defense and midfield, so a quick, capable CB (better than Zapata) to partner Alex and a playmaker (better than Montolivo) are what we truly, desperately lack.

Unless Silvio sells up, or we get Conte (or any top class manager) you can forget about aspirations for next season.

I'm probably the only one who's not that disappointed with de Jong leaving. Don't get me wrong, and a perfect team he's the perfect DM - that is, when you have various young talents, Sneijders and van der Vaarts doing the creating. But at Milan his limitation came to an evident spot. We don't need players like him in our current situation.

I'm less gutted and more resigned. That would sum me up. I feel like every window we've kept him since summer 2013 has been a bonus.

With De Jong leaving Monto needs to step up and become our main anchor. That's how I feel about it.

Yeah, like that's really gonna happen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Monto can't perform with De Jong (or anyone else), he'll just be even worse on his 'own'.

Horrendous player who's been living off his name for far too long.

What name? It's not like he inherited Maldini or Baresi...


Agreed x-off. I think Monto is better in front of the defence rather than roaming about looking clueless. And agreed with Filippo as well, we need more creativity and dynamism in our midfield.

It can't be like in the past, where one players did the destroying, the others the creating. We need everyone to pitch in on both sides of the ball. Bonaventura is the only player who imo does this consistently but is mostly wasted by being played as an attacking winger/borderline forward by Pippo and never utilised where he'd truly be useful, in midfield. Poli tries, but I feel like there's something missing with him, Van Ginkel could have worked, but was never really given the opportunity and Monto has plummeted since the leg fracture from what was already a disappointing year for him. The Muntaris, Essiens. They're just useless to our cause and make more harm than good when they're playing.

For next season, I really hope we can focus on someone like Witsel or Gundogan, these are the types of players who are dynamic and sort of affordable and we can maybe lure them in. But those are the types of players that ambitious clubs go after, and sadly these days, that's not us.

So expect more random signings and contract extensions to the likes of Muntari and Bonera.

And the only frustration I feel about De Jong at this point is that we could have sold him for some decent money last summer but again, Galliani's impeccable business sense prevails here

When we signed him he was the 'great' (?) Monto, Italian international and Fiorentina captain. He was a big deal when we signed him.

He's now complete shash, but still plays when fit.

Nah, we always knew what he was, he was never "great". He's always been a good player imo. He was good throughout his years at Fiorentina and played his way into the national team while he was playing for us, he wasn't a regular name in the Azzurri squad before that.

It was mostly a big deal because we got him for nothing. And it p!ssed Fiorentina off to no end

Let's not forget that Monto went through a leg fracture this summer. Some players simply never recover fully from those injuries, look at players like Wilshire, who took years, not months to recover from his.

I personally didn't even expect him to be part of the squad this season because it takes so long for players to recover fully from that kind of injury plus having to get a surgery for it.