Calciomercato.com says Galliani won't be attending Abate's marriage tomorrow because he's flying to Montecarlo to close the Kondogbia deal. There's already an agreement with Monaco for €30 million, and the player has been offered a 5-year contract of €4 million per season.

General question.

What do you think about the Kondogbia deal? Is it too much for a player who's relatively unknown? Chelsea reportedly want 25m for Oscar and Juve are in for him. Just to put it into perspective.

If we're keeping De Jong, I would have thought that bringing in a proper creative mid would have been more of a priority now. Hopefully there is another big signing in midfield as in the general scheme of things, Kondogbia won't add much in terms of diversity to our midfield.

I say he's worth this price to keep Juventus away from singing him. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) I'd also like Oscar for 25m if we can, but Kondogbia is a beast of a player and can potentially lift our midfield to the next level. Allowing Juventus to sign him will simply make our task of winning Serie A all the more difficult.

So in that case he's worth the price. Sign him, and we can be set for the next four or five seasons.


Hopefully there is, hopefully there are two. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Our midfield needs some serious work if we want to unlock the smaller teams that play a defensive game, and the bigger ones that pressure with quality. Against medium teams we'll be fine, as we have been, on and off through the past two years.

But look what happened to Juventus in the CL final when they lost the midfield battle.

Well Milan channel are saying that there will only be one important midfield signing. Which is worrying. I'm not saying there won't be other signings, but I'm expecting Baselli/Soriano signings next to Kondogbia

Midfield imo is the most important area of the pitch, if your defence is so so but your midfield is top notch, it will still protect that defence very well, if your attack is subpar but you have a stellar midfield, you're still very likely to score a lot of goals as that midfield is going to create a lot.

I don't want to see it once again get neglected just for us to sign 3 strikers and maybe one defender. It's simply sh!tty planning.

If midfield is going to be ignored, then Ibra is a must, he's the only player that I can think of who will make the fact that we don't have a particularly good midfield redundant.

What's the use of spending so much money on a player like Martinez if you're not going to give him the supply he needs to be prolific?

Totally agreed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif)

I think Kondogbia is a great talent that can become huge for us. Seen him a couple of times with Monaco, saw him against Albania, and I really want us to sign him. Even for €30 million. He's probably going to be used as a box-to-box mid like Pogba at Juve, so De Jong's permanence won't affect his signing.

But I do agree that we also need a top creative mid in there, and that can't be Craptolivo. Someone like Gündogan or Witsel or Isco is a must, otherwise we're fucked.

Oh, and if Ibra isn't coming, then playing 4-3-1-2 with the current trequartistas we have ain't gonna work. Either 1) we sign Ibra, 2) we sign a top trequartista, or 3) we keep playing 4-3-3.

Han, I really think you are jumping the gun with your pessimism. Honestly X probably is too with his optimism haha. If we start next season with roughly the same squad we have now I'll be first in line behind you too say that we are headed for a **** midtable finish. It's simply too early to tell though. If we sign Martinez and Kondogbia before the end of the month it will be a very solid statement of intent from the management. Ideally we need a second, more creative, mid and a great CB but I also don't expect all of our problems to be solved in one window.

I honestly think a top CB, Kondogbia, a top creative mid and Jackson would be enough to strengthen the squad for this signing campaign. If Ibra is coming for free as well, even better, but with those four signings we could make a serious challenge for the second spot. Then we can strengthen even more next summer and then challenge for the Scudetto and possibly the CL. Like I said, this re-foundation process should be gradual and we must be patient. Can't expect to win everything immediately.

Hopefully he turns out as good as we're all expecting. and personally I don't think that he and De Jong should be played together. From what I've seen of Kondogbia, he doesn't have the type of attacking know how as Pogba does, he's more prone to recover the ball and make a simple to mid-difficulty level pass. Pogba is a true all-rounder, not to mention he doesn't have any defensive mids next to him but 2 CMs and a box-to-box guy in Vidal. I think this 2 DM system is outdated and doesn't work in today's football.

Agreed about the midfield


Agreed here as well.

Imo a creative CM is an absolute MUST for next season. But a proper trequartista is dependant on whether Ibra comes or not

However, I don't really agree about the 4-3-3 either. That formation needs a top-notch trio in midfield and at least decent - to - good wingers. We have neither a great midfield or decent wingers.

Menez has proved that he's too selfish and tactically undisciplined to play in that position, Cerci is a total dud, SES I think needs time and he's not going to get that with us, at this point I think it's best if we send him on loan where he can get back in form without too much pressure and expectations on him, plus I don't really see him as a winger anyway. Niang imo is simply far from good enough. Suso hasn't really shown us what he can do, but okay, we can include him as a possibility.

So even if we're technically loaded to the brim with wingers, none of them are good enough to be starters imo, especially for a system that is reliant on wingers.

I think 4-3-1-2 or 4-3-2-1 are best for us. Wingers in Serie A rarely work unless you're a counter attacking team.


Agreed, on all counts even the jumping the gun bit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

And I don't expect all the problems we have to be solved in one window either. However, I expect Galliani to have a clear plan and targets this time around. Not just jump at whoever becomes available and bog down the team with useless signings simply because they were conveniently available.

I personally don't care about strikers, yet we're apparently going after 3(!!!), we have a terrible midfield, truly mid to bottom of the table quality, yet we're only going after 1 really good midfielder and he's not a creative one either. Defence is also an issue, we need at least 1 great CB, but still, for me, the midfield should be top priority and once again, it's very obviously not. Galliani and Silvio have an obsession with strikers and attackers in general. And that worries me


I still think we need 2 great creative mids, not just one

Ideally the midfield would be

CM-Kondogbia-CM

With both CMs being creative/attacking outlets, maybe not CMs in the same type of mold, but one purely creative and a box-to-box guy who provides both creativity, runs and a general all action style to complement the other 2.

I think this is what makes the Juve midfield so great for example, they have a great mix of all these elements in their midfiels which is what makes it so great

Err, Han, I don't think you've got Kondogbia right. He's not a pure defensive mid in the traditional sense. He's got great passing skills, he's very good at making runs and he's got a very decent technique as well. Resembles Pogba a lot in his playing style. He's the best example of the modern box-to-box mid. Sure, he can play the holding mid position no problem, but I don't think that's what we're signing him for. I think a midfield of him, De Jong and a top creative mid would be kick-@ss.

Well said. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) His goal against Arsenal this season showed his talents and attacking sense. If he comes, he will certainly not be playing as a pure defensive midfielder, not when De Jone is expected to stay and start.

I don't agree that he's that inclined in the attacking department.

I'm no expert on him and the only full matches I've watched him play are the CL ones. But he didn't say box-to-box for me, yes he has a very good passing range, but that in my eyes only makes him a much better DM than De Jong in terms of not only winning the ball back but sparking the attack.

More so, I'm personally just over this pure DM thing as it limits the midfield, I was worried about losing De Jong when he was our only real great player in the squad, but now that we seem like we're actually going to be bringing in quality players, I don't see much space for his limited style tbh

Go watch some videos on YouTube, you'll realize he's very much attacking-minded. Playing as DM in the double pivot of a 4-2-3-1, sure, I can see that. But playing as the only DM in a 3-man midfield, I think that's too restrictive for him. Regardless, if we do sign, he'll most probably occupy the left side of central midfield. And I'm super fine with that, as long as we sign a top creative mid as well.

This post has been edited by X-Offender: Jun 19 2015, 10:35 AM

Apparently we're only waiting for the player's response now as we've already reached an agreement with Monaco. Also, we seem very interested in young Croatian striker Pjaca, and we could offer €10 million to Dinamo Zagreb for him. /Mediaset