But I'm done with making plans in my head. Look at the past: so many "done-deals", who knows what the outcome and endgame will be.

Good thing we did not end up with Kondogbia.

Actually, you guys spoke of a mercato failure and whined about not signing Jackson Martinez and Kondogbia. Now look how things turned for the better.

Well I actually said that losing out on them could have been a blessing in disguise for us, but it was still a monumentally embarrassing saga in the transfer window for us none-the-less. Which has become something of an expectation each summer for us now

Chelsea signed Sheva, he failed. Madrid signed Kaká, he failed. You cannot predict how a signing may turn out, but on paper both Kondogbia and Martinez were better than Bertolacci and Bacca. And it's not like the former has actually justified the money spent on him.

Oh come on, now you've completely missed!

Have I?

Oh wow, I just realized Martinez has signed for Guangzhou. WTF (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Yes, I think you have.

Firstly, Kaka and Shevchenko are completely different types of failures. Both past their primes, they failed to adapt to a completely new league. But Sheva and Ricky were great players.

Jackson and Kondogbia were overpriced gambles. If you ask me personally, every player (striker) who's past 26 or 27 and who's only achievement is a few good seasons with Porto is suspicious at best. If you take a look at his career it certainly doesn't validate the price tag. Kondogbia is still a question mark, but I think he's a failed acquisition as well. Anyway, my point is, had we signed him and Martinez the forum here (bar han and a few others) would be jubilant, no doubt. We'd mark the summer market as a success.

Who would have thought that our second choices would turn out much much better?

In fairness to X, I think the jury is still out on Bertolacci. He has played much better recently than the beginning of the season but, in my opinion, he needs to see more improvement before we can deem that transfer a success.

This post has been edited by milanbuf88: Feb 13 2016, 08:36 PM

A least Berto cost us much less than Kondogbia cost Inter in transfer fees not to mention all the add-ons they put into his deal to convince him Inter were the best choice.

I think at this point it's safe to say we got off the best we could in all the 4 deals concerned

Berto might not have added much to our midfield, but at least we're not letting a player who will cost us well upward of a 100m over the course of his contract rot on the bench because he's useless

Exactly (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yep, not saying that Galliani pulled out a masterstroke here, it was more a plain dumb luck kind of situation for us.

And not that Berto turned into the next Sneijder for us either but at least he's decent and useful. Same could be said of Kucka tbh, he's useful for us, which is more than can be said for Kondogbia

We obviously need much more to be truly competitive than players who are mid-range like Berto and Kucka are but they can still put in a shift for us on a regular basis

Now this is not to say that we didn't overpay for Berto because we obviously did, but not by the margin that Inter did with Kondogbia.

Yes, OK, but my point was that any signing can turn into a failure or otherwise. Just like Martinez' only achievements were with Porto, Bacca's only achievements were with Sevilla. That's hardly an improvement, yet he turned into the better signing in the end. As Han said, we just got lucky, but our initial complaints were legitimate.

?

A good signing is a good one, a bad is a bad one. What are you talking about? I mean if you sign someone for 40M and he turns out useless and in adaptable, it's a pretty bad one. If you say, sign a free player or a Sheva who fails to link up with you team, it's not that bad.

Sure, but the thing with Bacca is, he performed with Sevilla for 2 years constantly, whereas Martinez always had ups and downs.

What remains to be said is, people jump the gun here. I remember this forum went crazy for not seeing and signing the next Vieira in Kondogbia. Half of you here were ready to give what Inter decided to give. Yet now you come up with excuses like "any signing can turn into a failure" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)