[Fillipo Simone]

I think moves like Kalinić and Rodriguez are pointless. What's the point in changing one player for the exact duplicate? Why bother getting rid of Zapata or Paletta if you're gonna sign a 33-year old Rodriguez? Same goes for Kalinić. We have Bacca already. If we're changing system, let's keep Carlos.

All this unnecessary talk about keepers, strikers and vice-defenders makes us lose time for the real targets: wingers and midfielders.

[d'Arc.LP]

André Silva's goal vs New Zealand

https://twitter.com/ThatBoyAmro/status/878653875762458624

[X-Offender]

I think moves like Kalinić and Rodriguez are pointless. What's the point in changing one player for the exact duplicate? Why bother getting rid of Zapata or Paletta if you're gonna sign a 33-year old Rodriguez? Same goes for Kalinić. We have Bacca already. If we're changing system, let's keep Carlos.

All this unnecessary talk about keepers, strikers and vice-defenders makes us lose time for the real targets: wingers and midfielders.

+1

[Forza Milan!]

I think moves like Kalinić and Rodriguez are pointless. What's the point in changing one player for the exact duplicate? Why bother getting rid of Zapata or Paletta if you're gonna sign a 33-year old Rodriguez? Same goes for Kalinić. We have Bacca already. If we're changing system, let's keep Carlos.

All this unnecessary talk about keepers, strikers and vice-defenders makes us lose time for the real targets: wingers and midfielders.

You are right. However, the GK issue needs to be resolved, one way or another, and I believe Fasso and Mira are working on the other missing pieces. Also, IMHO it's good to see them going after the players requested by Montella, even if we have our reservations. That's not how the old regime operated (for example, I remember Leo asking for wingers to play his 4-3-3 and getting a poacher instead).

[d'Arc.LP]

I am almost 100% sure thag we are going to play with 3-5-2 this season, hence why we are no longer pushing for a winger but for another CF.

If this is true, I wouldn't mind getting Kalinic too, since we would need at least 4 strikers to make it happen. Silva is not a typical striker, he is more like a shadow striker, and I think that pairing with Bacca and when needed Kalinic (instead of Bacca) would be more than decent.

As for other transfers, we arw getting Conti and a registra for sure. If we get Biglia then we will get anothet midfielder, but the great signing will be the registra. If we sell Bacca, I can see us pushing for Belotti again.

So, in my mind this is how we are going to play:

First XI:

Silva - Bacca/Belotti
James
Bonaventura - Biglia - Kessie - Suso
Rodriguez - Romagnoli- Musachio
Dollarumma

Back up:

Lapadula - Kalinic
Mati/Sosa
Bertolacci - Montolivo/Kucka - Locatelli - Conti
Zapata - G. Rodriguez/Pepe - Gomez
Plizzari

We might also sell Bertolacci and/or Sosa in order for us to sign a back up left winger.

This post has been edited by d'Arc.LP: Jun 25 2017, 10:31 AM

[han2503]

Me neither. And yes, this would be a classic Galliani signing, unveiled in golden letters and rejected after a few goalless appearances. Kalinić is very one-dimensional, compared to Bacca it would be a big downgrade.

I'm also worried how things started to develop now. We've slowed down our search and negotiations, no new targets seems to emerge and there's also the Donnarumma saga back to square one plus now reports coming that Suso might not stay as well.

For me Kalinic is simply a strange move, especially considering the good deals we've made so far. However, he could actually be Montella's request (which is what the press is saying, or Mirabelli actually likes him and wants to bring him in, who knows)

I'm honestly not completely opposed to him, what I don't agree with is his reported price tag, no way should we spend 25 to 30m on him, if it was 15 to 20m I would be more on board with it.

I do not agree that he'd be a downgrade to Bacca. I don't know what you see is Bacca tbh, especially after this season, where he was lazy, wasteful, lost his pace, continually whining when taken off after making us play with basically 10 men on the pitch and just a general nuisance who wasn't even good at the one thing he's usually reliable with, his finishing. Bacca simply has to go this summer, and his agent made that perfectly clear, he won't want to sit on the bench because of the WC and frankly his wages are too high to keep him as a back up.

As for our market strategies, Mirabelli himself said after signing Silva that they would be slowing down a bit. I think the Donna situation has also put a bit of a wrench in things as they didn't expect this fiasco. I'm thinking we're going to have to wait until the U-21 tournament is over before we can see any sort of conclusion to this, and to close out Conti as well.

I personally think that we'll make at least 4 to 5 more signings this summer; a RB (Conti), a CM (Biglia*), a RW (Keita*), another striker (Kalinic) and the 5th player in could be a marquee type signing, I'm not sure if that could be James or maybe someone else, but I think they'll try to sign a big name a bit later on in the summer

* regarding Biglia and Keita, today Keita's agent came out and actually said that they haven't rejected Milan, unlike what the media has said, but they wish to understand Milan's project, so I'm assuming this means that things are definitely still it play, and if so we could still get both of them under the initial agreement we had with Lazio (which was confirmed by Lazio themselves). The media could be stirring up different story plots about this simply because they thought that Keita had flat out rejected a move

Is it possible Montella is changing his system? Last season he went with 4-3-3 only because he didn't have the players for anything else.

He was praised for being able to adapt from the 3-5-2 system he'd used at Fio, for example, and being able to find a formation which suited the players he had. To an extent anyway - Bacca excepted.

But we KNOW Bacca is a top class striker, a clinical finisher who is as efficient as they come. If we build a system he can be used in, he will be like a new signing.

Agreed with everyone else, don't want Kalinic.

Bacca was never top class imo, he WAS a great striker, very clinical and rather quick but at the end of the day he's always been a poacher. He was never worth the money Galliani paid for him, and we'll be lucky if we can get 20m for him this summer. Last season he was just lethargic, and only so much can be blamed on Montella's system in this case, he was missing clear cut chances as well, that cannot be blamed on tactics. His general invisibility when he's not scoring tends to hinder his team as he's a ghost who does nothing aside from getting caught offside.

Kalinic imo is definitely more versatile than him. But definitely not worth what Fiorentina want.

I think moves like Kalinić and Rodriguez are pointless. What's the point in changing one player for the exact duplicate? Why bother getting rid of Zapata or Paletta if you're gonna sign a 33-year old Rodriguez? Same goes for Kalinić. We have Bacca already. If we're changing system, let's keep Carlos.

All this unnecessary talk about keepers, strikers and vice-defenders makes us lose time for the real targets: wingers and midfielders.

Well Rodriguez is definitely better than Zapata and more reliable than the red card magnet. Same goes for Kalinic, I think he's an overall better player than Bacca (currently). But I agree that these moves are a bit pointless as you're only making very slight improvements when atm we need to make leaps and jumps to get the squad where is needs to be

Regarding the striker situation, I think Bacca is as good as gone, but if we cannot get a marquee striker like Belotti or Auba, I'd rather we just keep Lapa for next season and give a couple of chances to Cutrone who's outgrown the Primavera and is ready to take the next step imo

As for the defence, I think both Zapata and Paletta need to go as both are unreliable in their own ways. We need to bring in one more CB though, I'd personally like to see us try to push for De Vrij or Manolas as both are seemingly available for around 30m and I'd rather spend that on a really good CB than Kalinic.

I am almost 100% sure thag we are going to play with 3-5-2 this season, hence why we are no longer pushing for a winger but for another CF.

If this is true, I wouldn't mind getting Kalinic too, since we would need at least 4 strikers to make it happen. Silva is not a typical striker, he is more like a shadow striker, and I think that pairing with Bacca and when needed Kalinic (instead of Bacca) would be more than decent.

As for other transfers, we arw getting Conti and a registra for sure. If we get Biglia then we will get anothet midfielder, but the great signing will be the registra. If we sell Bacca, I can see us pushing for Belotti again.

So, in my mind this is how we are going to play:

First XI:

Silva - Bacca/Belotti
James
Bonaventura - Biglia - Kessie - Suso
Rodriguez - Romagnoli- Musachio
Dollarumma

Back up:

Lapadula - Kalinic
Mati/Sosa
Bertolacci - Montolivo - Locatelli - Conti
Zapata - G. Rodriguez/Pepe - Gomez
Plizzari

We might also sell Bertolacci and/or Sosa in order for us to sign a back up left winger.

I personally don't think we'll go for a 3-man backline, and I'm pretty sure of this. That kind of formation is very resource heavy when it comes to defenders. We don't have enough CBs to play it and it does not look like we're going after more than one other CB after Zapata and Paletta leave, so the intentions point out to 4 at the back.

[Danny]

Bacca was never top class imo, he WAS a great striker, very clinical and rather quick but at the end of the day he's always been a poacher. He was never worth the money Galliani paid for him, and we'll be lucky if we can get 20m for him this summer. Last season he was just lethargic, and only so much can be blamed on Montella's system in this case, he was missing clear cut chances as well, that cannot be blamed on tactics. His general invisibility when he's not scoring tends to hinder his team as he's a ghost who does nothing aside from getting caught offside.

Simply false:

Bacca's shot accuracy was 64% this season.

His conversion rate last season was 20 goals from 59 shots.

Anyone who thinks he isn't top class doesn't know football, sorry. And I know you know football, so I can only assume a brain burp on your part here.

[han2503]

Simply false:

Bacca's shot accuracy was 64% this season.

His conversion rate last season was 20 goals from 59 shots.

Anyone who thinks he isn't top class doesn't know football, sorry. And I know you know football, so I can only assume a brain burp on your part here.

Simply twisting facts to suite your narrative:

Bacca's shot accuracy was 62% this season sure, and then you mention his goals for last season. This season he scored 13, 3 of which in a hattrick against Toro and 4 of which came from penalties. Last season he was actually very good, this one he was simply bad and shouldn't have even been on the pitch as much as he was. Give me a single person who isn't a biased Milan fan who thinks Bacca is world class! There's a reason why we'll be lucky to get 20m for him this summer when last summer we could have sold him for 30m and not lost any money on him. This season he's missed sitters, especially in the last 2 months or so, 64% accuracy for a striker who's sole purpose for being on the pitch is to bury the chances he's afforded is not that great either, especially for someone who's supposedly world class. Furthermore, a poacher like Bacca would never be considered world class in today's game as having him on the pitch, even when in top scoring form is still a handicap for his team as he contributes absolutely zero in buildup

Also, let's take into consideration that neither you or Filippo rate Lapadula, yet let's look at his stats compared to Bacca's

Bacca:

Games Played: 32
Games Started: 26
Goals: 13
Penalties: 4
YC: 3
RC: 0
MP: 2127
Goals/Minute: 1 per 164 minutes
Shot Accuracy: 62% (according to Sqwuaka it's 62 not 64)
Total Chances Created: 19
Pass Accuracy: 76%

Lapadula:

Games Played: 27
Games Started: 12
Goals: 8
Penalties: 2
YC: 3
RC: 0
MP: 1255
Goals/Minute: 1 per 157 minutes
Shot Accuracy: 72%
Total Chances Created: 18
Pass Accuracy: 81%

By this account, Bacca was worse than Lapa, the Serie B player you guys don't think should be at Milan, yet Bacca is WC.

Just because I don't agree with your assessment of a player who in general has just come off of a bad season for Milan, it does not mean I had any sort of brain burp (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I saw all of Milan's games this season, minus a half against Napoli at the San Paolo and a half against Cagliari. I know when a player is simply playing badly, and add to that the terrible attitude Bacca showed throughout the season, plus what we pay him when compared to Lapa who gave us better numbers this season, and it is simply a no-brainer for me

[Danny]

Well done. Well done on actually proving how much better Bacca is. A guy who can't play in a 4-3-3 you've just said is actually better in it than a guy who's supposed to excel in it.

Enjoy yer burp buddy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

PS: not twisting anything, not any more than you are. You spin it your way, I'll spin it mine. I'd sooner have a Bacca with 3 broken legs and a hernia than a fully fit Lapadula who's a Crotone player at best.

This post has been edited by Danny: Jun 25 2017, 11:47 PM

[milanbuf88]

Well done. Well done on actually proving how much better Bacca is. A guy who can't play in a 4-3-3 you've just said is actually better in it than a guy who's supposed to excel in it.

Enjoy yer burp buddy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

PS: not twisting anything, not any more than you are. You spin it your way, I'll spin it mine. I'd sooner have a Bacca with 3 broken legs and a hernia than a fully fit Lapadula who's a Crotone player at best.

How did anything that han said prove that Bacca was actually better than Lapadula?

[han2503]

Well done. Well done on actually proving how much better Bacca is. A guy who can't play in a 4-3-3 you've just said is actually better in it than a guy who's supposed to excel in it.

Enjoy yer burp buddy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

PS: not twisting anything, not any more than you are. You spin it your way, I'll spin it mine. I'd sooner have a Bacca with 3 broken legs and a hernia than a fully fit Lapadula who's a Crotone player at best.

Huh?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

How did anything of what I posted prove that Bacca is better than Lapa on any sort of level? What does the formation have to do with it? I thought Bacca was "World Class" thus the formation shouldn't hinder his godliness from achieving greatness no matter the system or tactics...

Fact is both Lapadula and Bacca are box strikers, you can't twist this into Lapa being some sort of all-rounder that thrives in a 4-3-3. Both would be better with a strike partner in fact and a 4-3-3 doesn't play into either one's strengths.

Yet Lapa achieved much better numbers than Bacca and those are the facts, no matter which way you spin and sway it.

Bacca was simply poor this past season. He simply doesn't cut it anymore, he's lost his pace and killer instinct and without those he's basically useless as a player. And if someone offers us the 20m we reportedly want, you can bet your @ss that F & M will take that and run

[han2503]

Anyway, back to the transfer market, this is what Fassone had to say after the U16s won the youth championship:

Fassone: "It is still early in the transfer market and we are waiting on a few things, that won't take long to complete. There is more work to do on the transfer market. We are working to arrive on July 3 with some more certainty. "

My interpretation of this is that they are waiting to close out Conti and Biglia (maybe Keita) before the pre-season starts. Conti is a matter of him coming back from the Euro's imo while Biglia still depends on Keita going by what his agent said, I think they're waiting on their signal to move both deals forward.

I still think we're going to try for one big name after we close all these pending deals out. Let's all hope


As for this Donnarumma fiasco, yesterday was a very eventful day on Social media apparently. This is the timeline (hope I'm not missing anything)

#1 Gigio tweeted: #Donnarumma #Raiola Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
#2 People on twitter literally pounced in him
#3 Gigio liked a tweet by an Italian Eurosport reporter telling people that Gigio's post was an answer to the rumours that were going around that he was going to sack Raiola (who ever believed this would happen?)
#4 Gigio posted on instagram saying he was sorry for the chaos he caused with his tweet, that he was addressing rumour, that he loved Milan and that him, his agent and family would sit down with Milan for the renewal when the Euros ended
#5 Raiola tweeted: #Donnaraiola : #Haters 1 : 0
#6 Gigio said that his social media account was hacked and that he was closing it.
#7 Closes his Instagram
#8 Raiola tweets that he and Donna will meet with Milan when Euros are over


So basically it's just a circus right now, most sources are saying that the Instagram post by Donna was genuinely written by him, and then Raiola confirming a meeting with Milan. But honestly, all this just leaves such a bitter taste. All of this fiasco should have been avoided and Raiola imo takes 95% of the blame.

[d'Arc.LP]

Gianluca Di Marzio has now confirmed Milan's intention to sign Calhanoglu and adds that contacts between the club are ongoing.

RevierSport: Bayer Leverkusen playmaker Hakan Calhanoglu is a step away from Milan. There is an agreement between Milan and the player and the clubs are negotiating. Price to be between €20-30m.
The same source also cited the player's agent saying: "There is contact. Milan is one of the top clubs in Europe".
UPDATE: BILD Sport are also now running the story.

Donnarumma's family are pushing for a renewal. There is optimism that with the family's support, it will come to a happy ending. [Milannews]

Sky Sport: Montella will be at Casa Milan today to meet Management. The topic of discussion will be the mercato.

Milannews.it: Turkish side Trabzonspor are ready to offer €4m for the services of Juraj Kucka.


Calhanoglu would be a very good signing.

[Rossoneri7]

Not interested into Donna anymore tbh. He can go to juve or inter for all i care.

Milan are in the middle of a revamp for the WHOLE team and its good that donna is making his intentions clear so the Milan fans dont have false hope.

Plus, there are tons of GKeepers out there.

[X-Offender]

With him we could play 4-2-3-1. I like that.