[Danny]

Never quite sure where to start a thread so 'other' always seems best.

Just wanted to get general opinion from the board as to your feelings on our summer recruits so far - do you guys think we're in the right direction?

Personally I know little of Musacchio, but as Han says, a vital cog in Spain's second best defence last season has to be a decent recruit.

Kessie seems like the powerful box to box dynamic midfielder we've lacked in a long time - while Jack sort of fills that role, he's much more of an attacking midfielder really, so Kessie is a great piece of business.

Rodriguez is a great signing - comes from a great stable, a good age, and a massive upgrade over the garbage of De Sciglio.

Then there's Silva. Meh, I'm not blown away by his record, or his attitude. He's only young, true, but we've spent a lot of money on a player who appears combustible and who doesn't have a good scoring record in a weaker league than Serie A. I defer judgement on this one but it's not a signing I'm enthralled by.

Last but not least Borini. A sh*t signing, plain and simple. Not even good enough to be a squad player, I have no idea what he's doing here.

But I can pick it up with Calhanoglu - we appear close to this one, and from what I know of him, which is not a lot in truth, he's a top class attacking midfielder who would be such an upgrade to what we have.

Overall? I'm cautiously pleased. We've signed a lot of very good players and one or two I'm a little wary of. I wanted this done in 2011, but it's better late than never. Unfortunately rather than, as it would have been in 2011, adding fine players to a world class squad, we're rebuilding really from scratch.

But for me, it appears to be closer to going to Milan as we should be rather than in a poor direction.

7/10.

13/7/17 update:

We've now got Conti, Biglia and Bonucci. A RB, a CM, and a world class CB.

Suddenly we have a top four team. We now have a top four team. Yes. I am not going to declare a Scudetto challenge but we're much closer to one than we were a few days ago. This is now looking like a Milan level team.

This post has been edited by Danny: Jul 13 2017, 10:37 PM

[han2503]

Right now it's not enough for top four, but it's going in that direction.

But you have to consider that we've already made 6(7) signings so far. I don't think we'll make a lot more. We know we're looking at another striker but as far as the regista goes everything is still up in the air. Plus we have to see who they'll sign for squad depth if all the players quoted to be leaving do in fact leave.

I think so far, with all the signings put in, we have a good first 11 which is still not at Napoli/Roma level, even Inter (on paper) can be considered better than us. So that's why I think there's still a few missing puzzle pieces left before I can call this a 9/10 mercato

I think you're right partly. We have to realise that unlike us, the other teams are yet to make moves in the transfer market. We don't yet know what they'll stock up on. We have to take for granted that Inter will build to challenge for CL. They can't afford not to.

So if the teams stay as they are and if the new signings play to potential then I would say we have a serious chance to make it to 4th. Of course injuries etc. are risks. But we do have a relatively young squad so we should hopefully not have injured players lay down for too long.

Well you can't say how things will turn out. Juve's first season under Conte barely had any injuries, and he literally played almost the same starting 11 in each game. Luck has to factor in, add to that we have the EL next season so we need to make sure that Montella can rotate without the quality dropping too much as has been the case for a while

I don't know, I just think we're still missing 1 to 2 key signings. Don't get me wrong, all our actitivy has been good (bar Borini), but it's still a gamble imo and I still don't see us a shoe ins for top 4

I think on paper with our first XI we should be able to secure 4th place. But it's gonna be a long season with more competitive matches in Europe so squad depth will also be key. If we don't make anymore signings I would like Abate, Calabria, Locatelli, Kucka, Paletta, Plizzari and Montolivo to stay. We should sell Vangioni, Sosa, Bacca, Zapata and De Sciglio.

I think you guys are sort of forgetting the fact that it's still very early in the window and other teams still have a lot of time left to improve their squads. I think Roma and Inter will definitely make some signings in the next few weeks. These are the 2 teams we need to watch out for as I think the battle for the final 2 CL spot will be between us and them

Yes I do. If we get another class midfielder like Modric or so, I think we are good to fight for Scudetto.

Nah, don't think we're there yet, Modric and a top striker and I can confidently say we'd be better than Napoli, but I still think we'd be a slight step away from Juve.

Wow, you think signing one player would elevate this Milan to Juve level?!

They are the gold standard atm, so that's what he must be saying, but I don't think even Modric would be enough. Add a top class striker and we'd be close, but I still think Juve would have the edge

What are we qualifying as 'Scudetto' competitive? Like a serious shout at overcoming Juve?

Top CM, top striker and another top CB. I think that's what we'd need. Something I can't see us accomplishing this summer