What kind of player is Benassi actually?

Box to box, with emphasis more on the offensive than defensive. Mezzala in Italian.

Would love Benassi, he's ex-Interista.

It doesn't matter what you think. We've already appointed Biglia as Montolivo's replacement. Whether he will deliver or not will be assessed at the end of the season.

He's definitely the Radja type imo. I agree about his shooting prowess. But he's 19 for crying out loud. I'm sure Radja wasn't the finished product we see today when he was 19. No one even knew he existed back then.

None of them were what you'd call young potentials, certainly not the extent of Sanches who's still a teenager. Pirlo had failed at Inter playing the trequartista role but always played well when he returned to Brescia on loan. Carlo no doubt was genius to shift him into the regista position, Carlo definitely knows how to build a team to get the best out of his players, those were the players he had at Milan during that time. He made use of them to the best of his abilities. And it was simply brilliant.

But none of them were teenage potentials which he hand picked and nurtured from teenagers to final products. The only one who he did that with was Kaka. That's the only player who he gave consistent backing to while he was developing.

Gourcuff was definitely a case where he could have given him more time. His season while on loan at Boudreaux from us was top notch. Who knows what could have happened if he's been given time at Milan. Flamini/Oliveira/Boriello, none were "potentials" either. Grimi, come on he was bad.

What you have to look at is his record with the younger players during his recent spells. He generally always prefers the old guard, even now, he prefers to pick Ribery over Costa (who is now at Juve) and I'm not saying he's totally wrong in that, but Ribery doesn't have the legs anymore and he struggles a lot with fitness, yet Carlo still prefers him.

Ultimately this has nothing to do with whether Calo recognises talent or not, Bayern are absolutely stacked in midfield, and this isn't a case like with Locatelli where his only competition is the ghost of Montolivo, he's competing with top class players for a spot on the first team and the backups around him are also all very good players.

Don't know if any of you heard it, but our transfer dealings are weird. It seems we haven't actually paid for any of our transfers and they're hinging on our money arriving in bonds by Aug 11. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

And our new owners do take a LONG LONG time to get money in, though they eventually do.

Secondly, anyone read the Palotta interview. He's basically saying we're running very irresponsibly from a financial perspective.

Just a couple of things that have been bad this week.

On the plus side, we seem to have sold 47,000 tickets for the home leg against Craiova. Just whoa!

Apparently, Jack, all inter-serie a transfers require the bond thing that's holding up Biglia and Bonucci. I cannot remember where I read it but apparently so far for the entire league only two bonds have been posted - for Kessie and Conti. Nobody else has ponied up yet, including (for example) the Gobbi with Bernardeschi or Inert with Borja Valero. That part is being left out of most of the debate.

As for Palotta and his comments, he made a point worth keeping an eye on (eg Elliott is a vulture fund and the owners are paying crazy interest rates) but I'm not quite willing to condemn just yet. I also get the sense that there's more than a little jealousy in his remarks as Roma has issues making FFP targets. New owners get a little more time to organize things and, quite frankly, Milan's earning potential is far greater than Roma's. For me, it's wait and see.

I see so many negative articles about us nowadays it's ridiculous. People being jealous is all. Don't believe everything.

And Palotta can eat a ****. It's as Fishdoll said. Our potential earnings and Roma's earnings are incomparable.

Oh you beautiful beautiful fish. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

Thanks for letting me know about that. I was worried.

Yes, we know Elliott is a vulture fund. But surely the worst they'll do is put the stock they own and place it into the market. Unlike a factory, they can't split us out for assets other than players. Well...maybe sell Donnarumma. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Yes, Roma are a club I've secretly hated for a long time. They have such a massive inferiority complex and are such whiners, it's infuriating. Shame, because some of their players are immense.

Well, Fassone just responded. It's a short interview on the club's Facebook page.

video

Don't have time to translate it now, but in short, Fassone made a good impression in responding to the things that had been said.

I read it on twitter. Holy shite, he gave it right back.

Basically two statements I could gather-

"It is very unusual and not the style in Italy to attack other clubs like this"
"If we wants, I'm happy to compare the balance sheets of Roma and Milan"

Lol. This is amazing.

Pallotta apologized.

From the Roma website:

Fassone: "Dear Pallotta, we are ready for a confrontation on the balance sheets of Milan and Roma. We are stunned by the style and the unusual fact that a club attacks another one in such a direct method. Morever, how many inaccuracies have you mentioned?"
"He said that Milan's ownership does not have the money to buy the club when everybody knows that any operation of this entity is usually done with a financial leverage. Secondly, he spoke of completely wrong figures. Everyone knows that the fund money which Pallotta refers to, which is from the Elliott fund to finance the acquisition of Milan, is €180m out of a total value of €740m."
"I don't know what does he refer to when he said 'they will pay for the consequences', not sure if this is a threat. We are currently well below the consumption of this bond. There are multi-year plans that, in addition to having submitted to Milan's board of directors which consists of quality directors such as Paolo Scaroni, Marco Patuano and Roberto Cappelli, should be for any fan and any Italian the most complete guarantee."
"[The plan] was presented to UEFA under a voluntary agreement. Everyone knows it, it is public and can be seen by Pallotta. Then the threats, if they were really threats, have been sent back to their sender. I don't know how he would have this idea that Milan's salaries can tomorrow be equal to the revenues. Our plan foresees that all the salaries remain on the threshold, that is 50%-60% of the club's revenues. We started off from a very low threshold, because in the previous management the salaries were below a fairly competitive one"
"The level of debt of the club is €120m. Compared to club revenues it is extraordinary and is better than that of Roma. Roma have the misfortune of being listed in the stock market and therefore their balance sheet is publicized. I do not allow myself to comment on it, but anyone can go and see their level of debt. I do not care if Pallotta does not understand how Milan spends, what worries me more is the accusation of 'losing their mind'"
"We the managers try to be rational and cool. We are not fans, every investment is calculated and based on the fact that we plan to repay with the revenues this investment will bring. I urge you to take into account the fact that the players we signed so far fall under the club's assets. The players we signed are young and of a great prospect and we think that they can give us short-term results and medium-term economic results."
"I truly renew my invitation [to confront Milan & Roma's balance sheet] when he [Pallotta] wants to. I am here in Italy and I work 20 hours a day for Milan. I am at his disposal to confront my balance sheet with his. If I have to learn something I am available to learn it, but accusations being made in that way are a bit of an annoyance."

Shortly after Fassone's response, Roma President Pallotta released an Official Apology to Milan.

https://scontent.fprx2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1...amp;oe=5A32CA14

I think this bonds thing is BS. If it is as the fish said and a regular method of doing business in Italy, I do not know, but the reason Bonucci and Biglia were left out is because UEFA give you a deadline to register players for each round and we signed both after the deadline was up.

Now I've been seeing a lot of negative stuff about us, seems like Inter/Juve leaning journos can't take it that Milan has hit the ground running and are the talk of the footballing world atm. If bonds is how things are done, they probably know this but to create drama used the UEFA deadline to create an issue out of nothing.

Do you really think Juve and Lazio would give us their best players if we don't have the cash to pay them??

Btw, both their contracts have been submitted to the Lega Pro, so it's done. If Serie A were to start tomorrow, both would be eligible for that

http://www.legaseriea.it/en/serie-a-tim/tr...t?squadra=milan


Didn't know about the bonds, but tem not being part of the EL 3rd qualifying round has to do with UEFA deadlines

What a jealous tool.


Agreed


I think there are still a lot of question marks about where Li is getting the money from, but he obviously has the backing. Sure the Eric Thohir scenario is always a worry but the Inter operation wasn't half as big as this one was and they never involved hedge funs either


Fassone is a boss. Plain and simply. The way he has handled all the curveballs that have been thrown at him this summer has been remarkable. I really cannot imagine Galliani trying to wade through what Fassone has.

Some updates

Paletta is close to Fiorentina

Vangioni's move to Monterry earned us 1.5m

Ely close to Alaves on a permanent move worth 3m

So that's 13m for Lapadula, 12m for DS, 6m for Kucka, 1.5m for Vido, 1.5m for Vangioni, 3m for Ely. Am I missing someone?

Hopefully someone comes in with good offers for Bacca, Niang and Paletta