It's not that I don't think we can do better than Suso. It's that I don't see how we could possibly find an adequate replacement without spending a ton of cash. If you consider that Suso cost us 1.3 MM euros, he's been an absolute bargain.

I'd wager with a more careful workload(we basically overplayed him,Rom and Jack till they collapsed) and some shrewd depth Suso will be great for us as part of a XI that breaks into CL spots.

That midfield still confuses me. I don't see the strategy there. What's Montella building towards. Kessie is just another Kucka type isn't it? Younger and possibly a higher ceiling.

I don't want Suso replaced. I want the reliance on an ineffective winger on the right and a useless locomotive on the left gone.

He and Deulofeu have outlived their usefulness and if we get say 20M for Suso let's spend it on someone who will fit in better.

Have you ever seen Suso take a decent set piece (other than one or two admittedly good direct free kick goals).

I disagree because I've spent too long with this club, where we've dreamt we'd get rid of average in order to get better and it never happens. It hasn't happened since Sheva was replaced with Oliveira so forget it.

Suso will never draw 20 MM. He's going to get us 15 tops, esp since he's not on a long contract. He's not got the goals or the assists for that.

I don't think he's ineffective. I generally think tactically wingers do not run games by themselves. His drop in performances have coincided with a general ineffectiveness of Milan everywhere else. Basically we've gone downhill since Jack left.

Deu was an upgrade to Niang. But while Locatelli and Sosa made sure we never really missed Montolivo, Jack has been irreplaceable. Without him, teams could comfortably double/triple Suso right from midfield and unless we miraculously got to push Deu into space, there was no threat.

Say what? Suso's got over two years to go.

One between Suso and Deulofeu has to stay, because we simply cannot replace them both with equally good or better players in one go. Personally, I'd keep them both and invest in a top midfield and a top striker. You'll see that Suso will thrive then.

@Jack: Kessie is a box-to-box who can also play in front of the defense. He'll be the muscle of the midfield. Jack being the second piece and hopefully Fabregas (or someone similar) the final piece.

How dare you sir! How about our Captain Montolivo? I suppose a 3-man backline is the rage, so something might happen there and we could accommodate more people in the centre and play some sort of 3-5-2 or a Spalleti like 3-6-1

But your point on Kessie - So he's just another Kucka right? A shuttler who has high energy. Of course a very simplistic approach would be a midfield like this :

--Kessie--Montolivo/Badelj--Cesc/Jack---

But this only works if the wingers are someone in the Mandzukic/Di Maria mould - tireless workers with creative talent. We don't have that with either Suso or Deu.

Franck Kessie

Younger and technically sounder Kucka. I think he will be our next De Jong or Van Bommel.

Corriere della Sera and a couple of other outlets are saying that the Kessie deal will be done through a 2 year loan for 5m and an obligation to buy for around 23m. And I also read that this was basically Atalanta's request because they'll be selling a lot of players this summer so they'll try to spread the profits over more time. While if it was our request it's still great for us as 5m barely dents our warchest while we get a potential star for our midfield. Great deal, same goes with Ricardo Rodriguez with most outlets agreeing that it's basically done at 15m + 3m bonuses which is a steal for a player of that quality

Honestly, I'm very impressed with how Fassone and Mirabelli have conducted business so far. I don't think we've ever seen this type of efficiency and planning go into the transfer market even during Galliani's best years


Disagree about Suso. We've seen how productive he can be when the rest of the team is functioning. Why would you want to sell him for something minimal like 20m and then create another problem to worry about

I personally don't agree with the notion that we should sell a lot of players in one summer. Sure there are the obvious cases, but players who have performed well this season shouldn't be on the go-list imo

We simply can't build a completely new squad in just one summer, it's also why I argued for keeping Lapa as the backup for next season

What we should do is make the core changes that this team is desperate for; namely 1 LB, 1 CB, 3 - 4 mids, 1 LW and a striker to replace Bacca. We also need to look into improving the bench which is dire today. Creating added problems by selling players who are good and usefull is unnecassary. Once we get into the CL next season, then we can look into replacing someoene like Suso with a flashier name.


Agreed about Suso, especially the overworking of certain players part. We've been too reliant on some players and at some point it was obvious they were going to buckle

As for the strategy regarding the midfield, I think Kessie was a smart move, he's a beast physically, he's a good passer and can also chip in with goals. He's perfect to replace the hair brained Kucka who has been a total liability for us this season

It all depends on what formation Montella is planning to use. Imo we need a proper creator in that midfield. I think the Cesc dream could be too much of a longshot at this point, Badelj keeps getting mentioned but he's not someone I'm excited about, he's basically a much better version of Monto, still not a true game changer like Cesc. Still a Bona, Badelj, Kessie/Gustavo midfield is already a major improvement on what we have now



I disagree about Suso being ineffective. He needs proper players around him who will benefit from his passes/crosses to be more effective, and this is what he'll get next season

I agree about Deulo though, he was great in his first few matches, but now he's turning out to be a one-trick pony who's got that Barca whingey attitude down pat. The constant looking for fouls instead of looking to actually play is annoying as f@ck, he's not a good dribbler in tight spaces and he's always hestitant when it's time to finish. I think we can do much better than him especially considering what Barca would want for him

There are persistent Keita rumours going around, I'd take him over Deulo any day of the week. Strong, fast, good dribbler, great shot, decent finisher (can improve in this area even if he's on fire atm) and I think he'd fit in well into Montella's system


Suso definately, he's our player and we've invested time in him that we're finally starting to see the fruits of. Deulo isn't our player and we can easily wash our hands of him. He impressed me at first but now I think that he's too limited to be someone we can rely on to produce

The following is an interview from La Scala, who was/is one of the minor shareholders in the club. He was basically the one blasting Silvio and Galliani last year. it's translated off of milannews so it's a bit dicey to read, but you can easily understand what the gist of it is.

After reading this, I'm personally more convinced about Fassone. Sounds like he's the best man for the job.



Some quotes from Fassone given to MilanTV

Fassone: "The investments that we will make in the football sector will be important because this team needs to be strengthened...

Fassone: Milan will spend BIG figures in the market, so in the first years, our balance sheet will be affected

Some stories going around twitter:

BREAKING: Ricardo Rodriguez to Milan is a done deal. Milan will pay Wolfsburg €15m+€3m bonuses, player will sign a four-year deal.

After Milan reached an agreement with his entourage, Ricardo Rodriguez had many teams after him, but he kept his word to Milan. [Sky]

Musacchio is official. Did his medical this morning, announcement should come soon.

Good news. Now let's get to the midfield and attack.

Agreed. Apparently we'll sign another two key players before July and the rest in August. So I think it's Kessie and Rodriguez.

Yep, great news

Also saw these 2 snippets on twitter over the weekend. Looks like Mirabelli and Fassone are working double time to make sure Montella has the team nearly complete for July

Milan could also use their trip to Germany to negotiate personal terms with Aubameyang, who is asking for double digits [@AlfredoPedulla]

Sky: Musacchio, Kessie and Ricardo Rodriguez completed his transfer to AC Milan and now he's trying to finish the transfer of Keita and Conti.

Conti and Keita are both names I'm also very excited about.

Auba is a worry for me, Dortmund want a lot for him, not to mention his father is apparently demanding high wages (12m / year is being mentioned atm)

Also Atalanta want around 20m for Conti which is a bit too much imo, plus he's a wing back and not a natural RB. That being said, the reason for wanting him could be that Montella is planning to use the 3-man back line system more next season

Keita is a must though, great player who would really improve our general attacking play

I think the FB situation also needs to be addressed. Rodriduez is practically a done deal, we're also apparently in talks with Atalanta for Conti and we're also talking to vrsaljko, so the intentions to strangthen the FB areas are definately there

With the midfield we have Kessie in the bag, but we need a lot more than that imo. We'll see who we'll try to go for, the most persistent stories so far are Gustavo and Badelj, neither are names which excite me, and although they are definate upgrades over the guys we currently have, I still think that this is the are where we need to make THE star signing of the summer and not in attack.



I think we'll sign more players before the end of July than just these 3, we'll obviously first have to see who'll be leaving, but I think we're going to close out a lot of deals before the team goes back to training. Maybe 1 or 2 big signings will be made a bit late in the summer, but Fassono has also confirmed that they'll make sure Montella has 75% of the team ready for when training starts back up, and personally I think we'll sign more than just 5 players (my thinking atm is 9 or 10)

What do you guys think about Florian Thauvin? He scored 15 goals for Marseille in Ligue 1.