I don't pretend that Kalinic is a savior for this team, and I surely don't put him in the class of the top strikers. However, calling him mediocre while you label Bacca as brilliant is ridiculous considering the records of the two over the past two years. To me, they are the same level. Mid-level strikers who can grab 15+ goals. That being said, Kalinic goes about his work quietly and he brings more tricks and styles of play to the table. Bacca is good at what he does, but if I have to see him sitting 5 yards offside then turn to the AR like the flag being up is the most preposterous things he's ever seen I will lose it. Throw in his bad moods and you have a player who I am ready to see the back of. With the new project, we need guys who are going to fill a role or two until we can start to get some consistency. Bacca complains when he gets subbed after putting in no effort.

Kalinic is the type of player that if he isn't getting the ball he will drop deeper until he can get it to make something happen. Bacca sits up the field and when he gets the ball his poor passing and inability to get involved in the build-up tend to hinder the team more than help it.

All that said, if we adopt a different formation where the team is built around giving him the ball inside of 18 yards, he is a good solution. For that, we would need a lot more overhaul though (Great wingers, creative minds). Building that team from what we have takes more than 1 transfer window.

Edit: the problem with keeping both Jack is that Bacca wants to play. He doesn't do well sitting on a bench, and his value is dropping like a stone as he gets older, so we need to either hang on to him or capitalize on the money he would bring.

This post has been edited by maldini03: Jun 30 2017, 06:17 PM

Borini is officially a Milan player. Apparently the management signed him for his high work ethic. Reports are saying that Calhanoglu will be signed on Monday. I guess he will be our 'star' midfielder. I hope someone who watches Bundesliga can convince me this will be a good signing.

Agreed that he's better than Bacca but the max amount I'd pay for him is 18m or so. Not more. If Fiorentina don't take that than we move on to someone else, or pick the simple solution and just keep Lapadula and spend that money in midfield


Ronaldo and Messi have both played in multiple formations and roles and excelled in all of them. I remember you actually disagreeing with a couple of us when we lamented Allegri's general penchant for trying to hamme square pegs into round holes, saying that a player should be adaptable. And this wasn't an issue of playing a striker in a 4-3-3 when he's better in a 4-4-2 which is a small shift, but playing a LWB as an AM!

Bacca is simply a 1 dimensional striker, he can never be class because of this fact. He's just a poacher and honestly, why we should change our entire game plan and system to suit him is beyond me. He still won't get you anywhere close to Higuain numbers even if we play in a more suitable system.

Also, you're discounting Kalinic's stats because he played for Dnipro but you're going back to when Bacca played for teams most of us haven't ever heard of.

Also, you keep mentioning how bad we were last season, but in actual fact we were better than under Miha, especially in the first half of the season when Bacca was still not producing, we were keeping pace in term of points collected with the 2011/2012 season, it 's only once the injuries hit that we started sliding. So you want Montella to change a system that was working very well because it does not suit a 1 dimensional player like Bacca? Not a chance.


His first season he was very quick, I remember watching some of his earlier goals and was really impressed with his movement, last season he had obviously lost that slight edge he had as he did actually look like he had rocks in his socks when he tried to accelerate, add to that his bad dribbling and it was painful to watch.

Disagree about why the general consensus about him has shifted. I don't think people cared all that much had he gone to Chine, most Milan fans just wanted good money for him if he were to leave, no one was going to shed any tears over him, as even though his goals were appreciated in his first season, it was still obvious to the majority that he just didn't bring much else to the table for us. People just realized how average he really was once the goals dried up. Add to that the bad attitude and you've got a recipe for a scapegoat.

You think all those names you mentioned were not at fault how the majority of people felt towards them?


Didn't say that, but they do shift how I view certain stats.


Bacca is our best paid player at 7m gross (3.5m net), how is it a good idea to keep someone like him on the roster, he's not really a luxury player you'd want, he's not going to come in and influence a game by sitting offside for 15m

No, we just need to cut our losses with this one, he was a bad move for us simple as that. We need to try and get whatever we can for him and move him on. Add to that, there is no way he's going to accept a bench role. He acted like a little b!tch last season whenever Montella took him off because he was stinking up the place, imagine him being a backup for an entire season


Regarding the bolded part, this is simply not a player who's good enough to revolve a system around. And it would be a major mistake to even attempt to try as it would fail. Did Pippo Inzaghi ever have a team built around him? No, but he always came up with the goods, no matter where you put him or how little time he has to settle into a game

Some updates:

Milan have Çalhanoglu in hand. Milan's offer is €21m+bonuses that could reach €25m in total, they count on closing the deal tomorrow [Sky].

.@bayer04fussball want €25m (including bonueses). Milan want to close a deal tomorrow, and formalize the move by Monday.

BREAKING: Milan are very close to signing Hakan Calhanoglu. Milan offer €21M, Bayer want €25M. Deal could be done by Monday. [@DiMarzio]

Milan and Bayer Leverkusen are on the verge of agreeing a €25m (including bonuses) deal for Hakan Çalhanoglu [BILD]

If Di Marzio is saying this than I consider this practically official, the man has been on fire all summer with regards to Milan

Official: Milan announce the signing of Fabio Borini from Sunderland on a season long loan + obligation to buy

There is meeting between Milan and Branchini taking place at Casa Milan for De Sciglio. They're working on his exit. [Milannews]

The meeting for De Sciglio is over. More talks must be held to define the players future, which is away from Milan. De Sciglio has no intentions of renewing with Milan and has asked to leave.[Milannews] (What a little f@cker, hope he enjoys the bench at Juve)

De Sciglio's agent is pushing for a move to Juventus, as his client has only that destination in his head. [@AlfredoPedulla]

According to @TuttoMercatoWeb, De Sciglio is a step away from Juve where Allegri wishes to revive the career of the full back he launched.

The deal for Kalinic is currently blocked because of Fiorentina's request (€30m). Milan are willing to offer €20m + a player. [Sky]

Milan want at least €20m from the sale of Carlos Bacca. [@corsport] (IMG:http://www.nsaneforums.com/uploads/emoticons/default/beg.gif)

Official: Gerard Deulofeu signed for Barcelona until 2019.

River Plate are working on bringing Vangioni back to the club. Contacts are already underway [SportItalia]. (IMG:http://www.nsaneforums.com/uploads/emoticons/default/beg.gif)

There is an agreement in principal between Milan and Atalanta for Conti for €23-24m. [@AlfredoPedulla]

By Saturday the parties will meet again to finalize the deal and receive the green light for the medical checkups. [@AlfredoPedulla]

Conti is closer to Milan after today's meeting, but deal has not been finalized yet [@DiMarzio]

Milan and Atalanta should close a deal for Conti for around €23-24m plus add-ons, per @DiMarzio

On the contrary, SportItalia's @Luca_Cilli says Conti has signed a five-year contract with Milan, who have found an agreement with Atalanta.

.@AntoVitiello confirms Conti to Milan is not done as there are small details still need be sorted.

There seem to be some conflicting reports about Conti, but mostly it's about when it will be announced, looks like all is pretty much done

Personally I'm expecting 4 things to happen next week:

Conti signing
Calhanoglu signing
Donnarumma signing extension
Progress on Biglia (agent will be arriving in Milan next week)

Regarding that recent news, I would say those are all good moves. Conti will be a boon offensively and he is a capable defender as well. Probably best rb in the league a very good move IMO. Calhanoglu may turn out to be a steal. I have only watched videos but it appears he is a capable creative CM/AM hybrid in the form of Seedorf someone who can do everything well from a creative player standpoint.

As for Donna I think a renewal is best for all parties. For me, he used to be an untouchable player, one that would lead us to glory. Now, if he plays well and his price starts to get inflated, sell him. F &M can be trusted to repurpose the funds.

I'm not crazy about Biglia, especially for the 25M Lazio is talking about, but for ~15 I think it is a good bit of business.

Sevilla and Bruges are unknowns Han?! Ok, we've had our fun, time to move on.

Depressing signing quite honestly. We already had him in Lapadula.

We'll see on Biglia, I think the only reason they haven't closed the deal is because they know Lazio will get more desperate the longer it takes to move him on. They won't let him leave for free next summer, and the player has made it clear he's not going to renew, so they'll sell him this summer. In the end they'll have to accept our lower offer, which is still a good one imo for a 31 year old on his last year of contract


You know I wasn't talking about his time at Sevilla (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) You were simply disregarding Kalinic's past while quoting numbers from when Bacca played in obscure teams in S. America.

Anyway, this is all moot. Bacca will be moved on this summer and that's quite clear. If he ends up staying for some reason (no one willing to pay his fee most likely), he won't be a starter either and there's no way Montella will shift around his entire system to cater to his very specific one dimensional style


Lapadula is Shevchenko compared to Borini FFS! I still can't figure out why we signed him. Sure you can say depth since he can cover multiple roles, but it's just generally a very strange move. I still think we have ulterior motives for this

Was just watching this Suso skill comp, while watching I also realised that this could easily also be named the Bacca failure comp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QxcG4cNnBQ

Now please tell me again how he wasn't given the support he needs to be productive. Look at all the chances he missed by just watching that Suso vid

Football Italia are running a story claiming Suso is up for sale for a figure of around 30MM euros. Apparently Montella wants to set up a new system involving Calhanoglu and Andre Silva so Suso is expendable. They're pointing this out as the reason for the delayed renewal. Sounds like horseshit to me.

I'd be delighted if it's true. Well, the selling Suso part. And looking at Cal's resume, he looks not 'alf bad to me.

Delighted that we're selling one of our best players? Oh wait, we signed Borini, so yeah, Suso can leave.

Suso is worth more than that, if Bernardo Silva is 40m than so is Suso, they have very similar stats with Suso playing in a much more difficult league

Also, I think we're going 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 next season, I don't see u selling a sure thing like Suso for an unkown like Hakan. I mean had we gotten James or someone of that calibre and we wanted to build a team around him, it would be understandable. But Hakan? No way


Seriously, absolutely do not understand you at all Danny. So you want to get rid of one of our best players from last season along with Bonaventura, but you want to build an entire system around one of our worst performers.


Yep