But one thing I do want to mention in addition of what I've already said.

I think this is the time where football slips in a bit of a crisis. Take the last WC where pretty much no young player other then James made real impact. I'm watching the Copa America now, and I have to say, this is the worst Copa I've ever seen. So many average players, the European players back at their worst, no actual talents or prospects that impressed me. Only and handful of real quality and entertaining matches. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay all very uninspired, Chile just relying on brute force.

All in all, I dare to say that nowadays it's hard to find real talented players who are willing to do the old fashioned way of shaping a career. They either decided to immediately sign for a big club like Chelsea or Barcelona or go for the pro-youngster teams like Porto, Arsenal, etc. who have a elaborated machinery of developing, tenuring, pumping up and selling prospects.

Milan has found himself, very like some other teams, in the middle of everything. With no so good scouting teams, a average rate of developing own players, limited resources, no CL, Milan is also questionably attractive for talented players. This is probably why we struggle to sing such potentials.

I agree, realistically we should have been in the EL places last season, optimistically we could have faught for 3rd and got it considering how inconsistent the other teams were.

However, things are changing this season, clubs are making improvements to their squad, Juve are continuing to pull even further away, and we're still stuck where we were. Nothing has changed for us. All the big hype about big money to spend is just that, hype. We might have a bit more money but that money is going to be wasted on the likes of Bertolacci because Galliani is simply not good enough anymore to handle the transfer market by himself.


Well at least now you get where I'm coming from with my negativity. At least last season we were getting the average players for minimal fees or nothing at all. Now we're spending 20m to get a Roma bench warmer to make it seem like we made a big signing. Because that's what I feel Galliani is up to with this one. He wants to come out and declare that Bertolacci is our big signing in midfield.

I'm not so sure Juve is pulling farther away. They lost Pirlo and more importantly Tevez. Yes they have brought in some good players to replace them but it remains to be seen how they will all integrate with the core players there. They are going to have to change the way they play without those two. They could have a slow start this year.

We lost Jackson who scored around 1 in 4 for Colombia. We got Bacca who scored around 1 in 2 for Colombia.

We lost Jackson who score 67 in 90 for Porto in a moderate league. We got Bacca who's scored 1 in 2 for Sevilla in a far harder league.

This is a cloud with a silver lining.

Jackson is a more all-round striker that can make things happen by himself. Bacca is a poacher. That's the difference.

Going by the videos, I won't lie, I'm not seeing Bacca look like a pure poacher. He has that to his game, but looking at the stats, 7 assists (as well as his 20 goals) last season. That to me is every inch the provider as he is a finisher.

The videos make him look far more rounded than a pure poacher. The stats back that up.

Funnily enough the videos I've seen of Jackson make HIM look more like a poacher! Which explains why he scored so many for Porto in a team making loads of chances in a moderate league, but few for his country who make fewer chances.

Either player would have been a good signing. I'd just say let's be glad we got one of them. Well, assuming we do.

(IMG:http://media3.acmilan.com/uploads/photogallery/images/1654/firmacont1_big.jpg)

Bertolacci deal is official. First real signing of the summer... Don't want to be too down about this and I want to give him a shot, but this is the type of signing we'll be making for the rest of the summer imo.

If we get Bacca and Witsel along with Berto, I'd say it's a pretty good start.

But these are ifs. It's not a signing to set the heather alight, but then, as I keep saying, we won't make any of them this summer. It's about the first rung on the ladder back to where we were, and as long as he's better than Monto (can't be worse, right?) then it's progress.

Witsel atm is a pipe dream

If we were serious about him we'd have already signed him, or at least agreed a fee with Zenit. They want 40m for him, which imo is fair in today's market, and considering we had no qualms or reservations about throwing 20m at Roma (a direct competitor) for Bertolacci, then the Witsel deal should be easy to close.

However, we've heard nothing concrete about it aside from media speculation. Zenit have said twice now that there has been no official offer for him.

We're hopeful that we'll sign him but I think our midfield targets are Mauri (who we'll sign in July) and maybe Baselli.

Midfield is simply not considered as important as the striking department, which we're of course going to be burning cash on any random striker we can get our hands on.

As for Bertolacci, he's a decent player, nothing really special. He's not the answer to replacing Monto though, he's at best a direct type of AM like Prince or Bona, at worst a box-to-box option. We need creativity in our midfield, especially if we plan on signing strikers who require service like Bacca, or this will be another huge failure on the same proportions as Matri and Torres were. However our management can't seem to grasp the simple concept that a penalty area striker/poacher/target man/prima punta/whatever you want to call the type of strikers we've been linked with like Jackson/Bacca/Adriano, require service. Service that will only come from a competent midfield, which we simply do not have. We have a mish mash of random average players who do not work well together as a functioning core of the team's engine.

Like it or not, Monto is the only creator we have. Witsel is at least a competent and smart footballer, capable of some form of creativity, but not enough to handle that load entirely on his own. That being said, we don't seem all that inclined to seriously go after Witsel or a proper creator, which will spell trouble for us, just like it did last season

Juve set to hijack Witsel anyway. Mainly because they'll probably be willing to actually spend the money.

They are imo, Pirlo was out injured a lot last season and Marchisio stepped into his position and role without any trouble and performed well there. That's what's so great about having so many dynamic mids, they can all step in and interchange roles as needed without suffering a drop in the quality of the team

Plus Pirlo was never really one of Allegri's favourite players, he's just not the type of player that Allegri likes, he had his hands bound at Juve to use him because Pirlo at Juve was different to what Pirlo was at Milan. With us he could leave him on the bench without anyone saying much, at Juve he was the star imo, bigger than Pogba, Vidal or Tevez. He re-emerged at Juve bigger than he'd ever been even in his prime years with us.

Now that he's gone Allegri will be free of him and of the insistence that Pirlo must play. I don't think he'll be a big loss.

They brought in Dybala instead of Tevez, that kid is special imo and he will do very well for them.

Plus they've strengthened with Khedira who's another great mid. I'm thinking they'll sign another mid (lots of talk about Oscar)

I don't think it will be much trouble for the new players to integrate tbh. The core is still there aside from those 2 players, who will be replaced with quality new ones. I can't see them doing anything other then running away with the league and wrapping it up by late March

They'll only go in for him if they sell one of their big names in midfield (Pogba or Vidal)

That's why it's hugely important that if we are interested in him we should go in and close the deal for him ASAP, before new developments bring in other clubs into the fold, because that is when we'll have no shot at closing the deal. We simply have nothing better to offer these players.

Btw. where is Pirlo going to?

The US.

New York, I think