[Tennie]

Interesting point raised.

I'm not worried by Zambrotta's lack of form at Barca - he's just not suited to Spanish football, and I'm far from convinced he wanted to be there in the first place. That had to make it even harder for him to do especially well.

I think Flamini was probably a very shrewd acquisition.

Shevchenko was a sentimental choice by the owner of the club. If he's half as productive goalwise as he was before he deserted Milan (sorry guys, still don't like the way he left), I'll be happy.

Ronaldinho is a bit of a gamble. Talent? Absolutely. Form the last 2 years? Not so much. I'm also going to agree to disagree with people regarding his performance at the Olympics: I was not encouraged or impressed by what I saw.

Senderos...ergh. Sorry, guys, but I'd rather see the 18 year old Darmian play over him. Darmian has positional sense at least.

[Giancarlo]

This is just depressing. Some will always find something to complain about.

Well I have to go now... I can't stand all this negativity. We have huge amounts of depth now, and every signing we got has a purpose. Ronaldinho was perhaps the signing of the season and did well in the Olympics... he wasn't going to risk injury though and push himself too far.

This post has been edited by Giancarlo: Aug 26 2008, 07:15 PM

[acid911]

I was not encouraged or impressed by what I saw.

I wasn't impressed in any, Ten. Encouraged? Yes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) He's showing signs and willingness to improve, and with the talent reserves he has, I'm sure he can prove to be an asset to our Scudetto mount this season. Personally, I believe every team deserves at least one Ronaldinho, but whatever the case, I'd very much rather have him in our squad than on the opponent's team.

My $0.02. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[misha]

I'm not worried by Zambrotta's lack of form at Barca - he's just not suited to Spanish football, and I'm far from convinced he wanted to be there in the first place. That had to make it even harder for him to do especially well.

Shevchenko was a sentimental choice by the owner of the club. If he's half as productive goalwise as he was before he deserted Milan (sorry guys, still don't like the way he left), I'll be happy.

The same you can say about Sheva that he was not suited to English football and particularly to Chelsea...

[Rossoneri7]

I don't see how that is true at all. I'd much rather have the fantastic transfer season we are having... than the one Juventus has had for example... what a disappointment that was. Even Roma was less than impressive this signing season.

I don't see how we are living off discards at all. It's not like we are getting players from lower ranked teams in Spain and England. The players we got for the most part are world class (Ronaldinho, Zambrotta, etc)... or future starlets (Viudez+Cardacio)... and some good squad players (Senderos and Antonini)...

Exactly ... It's like nothing pleases them. The club made 3 kinds of transfers: Milan brought in a Super Star in Ronaldinho, brought in depth with Flamini, Senderos, Zambrotta and Borriello, and Milan brought back Shevchenko just to make sure all will go well upfront!

I don't know what more could be added ? I would have liked a more solid CB like Mexes, but I am content with Nesta & Maldini.

[Tennie]

(How many games will Nesta and Maldini play, R7?)

[han2503]

Just a question: How many of the players that were bought in, did the team we took them off even put up a fight to keep them? -- Something kdman bought to my attention..

Ronaldinho and Zambrotta were basically kicked out of Barca. Boriello and Abbiati were part ours anyway. The two Uruguayans are an unknown thus far, not much to say as we don't know much about them. Arsenal wanted to get rid of Senderos, but they did want to keep Flamini. Chelsea no longer wanted Sheva. (Who else have I missed?)

The only guy we've bought in that was even wanted by their previous teams is Flamini, which is a little worrying actually!

Very true kurt but I think some of the player's situations need to also be taken into account

Ronaldinho had been having problems for 2 years at Barca, even in 06/07 which I think was a good season for him (scored more goals in a season then he had ever previously scored) but the problems were already starting to form both with the management and his team mates. 07/08 ii think things escalated to a newer level and personally I don't believe for a second that half those injuries that he reportedly suffered were real. He wasn't happy there, he started slacking, he gained weight. Undoubtedly his performances were nowhere to be found and coupled with the troubles with management and him not attending training he was dropped completely from the Barca team. So it's really a no brainer that Barca would have wanted all of their problems gone this summer, Deco and Eto'o included, and if someone was willing to pay the transfer fee and the wages for Eto'o Barca would have been more then willing to sell. Deco has been really good for Chelsea so far and at Barca not only was he deemed surplus to requirments bu he was accused of being at fault for Barca's short comings.

Zambrotta was never really suited for the Spanish game, how does a player that was one of the players of the tournament for Italy's World Cup winning team become terrible overnight? I just don't buy it. Even though I do believe that we overpaid a bit for him, I think he's a really good signing. He's still top class at Barca he was never really happy, didn't even want to go to Spain to begin with, and Serie A fits better to his style of play.

Boriello and Abbiati I personally didn't want back but after seeing Kalac and Dida in pre-season I can't help but be greatful that at least there is an alternative. Of course I would have wanted Boruc or Akinfeev, but Milan has never really spent big on a keeper so I didn't really think they would do it now. Hopefully next summer a top class defender and keeper come in. As for Boriello I didn't want this one coming back either, based on the simple fact that he has been given his chances in the past and failed. But I'm hoping that his goals at Genoa will give him the confidence booster he needed. Still would have preferred someone else instead of seeing us pay Genoa 10m for a player we wanted to off load really badly just a year ago.

As for Sheva, well first of all we all know he's Silvio's personal signing, secondly I think he won't have any trouble getting back into the swing of things. He was never going to make it in the premier league, he was never happy there and the football Chelsea play was never going to suite his style. Under Mourinho he was played either as a winger or as a replacement for Drogba, Sheva is neither a winger nor a big strong target man that you can punt the ball upto from your own half of the pitch, Chelsea never played to Sheva's strengths, not to mention, he seemed like an outsider on that team, both on and off the pitch.

[kurtsimonw]

Weren't you the one who was arguing for Shevchenko and now suddenly you're calling him a reject?

Me? I love him and am delighted he's returned. But is he a reject? Of course.

Reject: (According to the dictionary)
1: to discard as useless or unsatisfactory.
2: to cast out or off.

Shevchenko IS a Chelsea reject, and we signed him.

This post has been edited by kurtsimonw: Aug 26 2008, 07:26 PM

[Giancarlo]

Me? I love him and am delighted he's returned. But is he a reject? Of course.

Reject: (According to the dictionary)
1: to discard as useless or unsatisfactory.
2: to cast out or off.

Shevchenko IS a Chelsea reject, and we signed him.

Reject has negative connotation. I will not ever use that term to define ANY of our players.

[kurtsimonw]

Very true kurt but I think some of the player's situations need to also be taken into account

Ronaldinho had been having problems for 2 years at Barca, even in 06/07 which I think was a good season for him (scored more goals in a season then he had ever previously scored) but the problems were already starting to form both with the management and his team mates. 07/08 ii think things escalated to a newer level and personally I don't believe for a second that half those injuries that he reportedly suffered were real. He wasn't happy there, he started slacking, he gained weight. Undoubtedly his performances were nowhere to be found and coupled with the troubles with management and him not attending training he was dropped completely from the Barca team. So it's really a no brainer that Barca would have wanted all of their problems gone this summer, Deco and Eto'o included, and if someone was willing to pay the transfer fee and the wages for Eto'o Barca would have been more then willing to sell. Deco has been really good for Chelsea so far and at Barca not only was he deemed surplus to requirments bu he was accused of being at fault for Barca's short comings.

Zambrotta was never really suited for the Spanish game, how does a player that was one of the players of the tournament for Italy's World Cup winning team become terrible overnight? I just don't buy it. Even though I do believe that we overpaid a bit for him, I think he's a really good signing. He's still top class at Barca he was never really happy, didn't even want to go to Spain to begin with, and Serie A fits better to his style of play.

Boriello and Abbiati I personally didn't want back but after seeing Kalac and Dida in pre-season I can't help but be greatful that at least there is an alternative. Of course I would have wanted Boruc or Akinfeev, but Milan has never really spent big on a keeper so I didn't really think they would do it now. Hopefully next summer a top class defender and keeper come in. As for Boriello I didn't want this one coming back either, based on the simple fact that he has been given his chances in the past and failed. But I'm hoping that his goals at Genoa will give him the confidence booster he needed. Still would have preferred someone else instead of seeing us pay Genoa 10m for a player we wanted to off load really badly just a year ago.

As for Sheva, well first of all we all know he's Silvio's personal signing, secondly I think he won't have any trouble getting back into the swing of things. He was never going to make it in the premier league, he was never happy there and the football Chelsea play was never going to suite his style. Under Mourinho he was played either as a winger or as a replacement for Drogba, Sheva is neither a winger nor a big strong target man that you can punt the ball upto from your own half of the pitch, Chelsea never played to Sheva's strengths, not to mention, he seemed like an outsider on that team, both on and off the pitch.

Good post, han. But I'm still skeptical.

You have to ask the question why Ronaldinho wasn't having a good time of it at Barca? I think he has a bit of an ego problem, amongst other problems, and once he realise he wasn't the one that was carrying the club, he lost interest, as well as his reputation. He is a big, if not the biggest, reason why his time at Barca went bad.

Borriello and Abbiati. These guys weren't good enough for Milan the first time around, so one good season will change that? Just like Zambrotta doesn't become a bad player overnight, these guys don't become top players overnight. We'll see.

Sheva, I agree with what you've said about him. I think alot of the other players resenting how he was bought to the team, which didn't help.

[Giancarlo]

You have to ask the question why Ronaldinho wasn't having a good time of it at Barca? I think he has a bit of an ego problem, amongst other problems, and once he realise he wasn't the one that was carrying the club, he lost interest, as well as his reputation. He is a big, if not the biggest, reason why his time at Barca went bad.

If he has an ego, he wouldn't have given up the 15% of the transfer fee he was entitled too and take a pay cut with it. He fell out with the coach and Barcelona did suffer as a whole because of it. I think the reason why his time with Barcelona went south was because of Barcelona's management, other players and staff... there were more than one feud in that team... and often they involved Samuel Eto'o and other players too...

This post has been edited by Giancarlo: Aug 26 2008, 07:39 PM

[kurtsimonw]

This is just depressing. Some will always find something to complain about.

Well I have to go now... I can't stand all this negativity. We have huge amounts of depth now, and every signing we got has a purpose.

I'm not denying that the signings have purpose.. but I disagree with the depth thing. We have alot of injury prone players so will need to call on our depth alot. Let's say Nesta-Maldini are our best CBs, I'm not sure many would argue with that, a few maybe, but I don't think it's an outrageous thing for me to say. But who do we have after that.. Kaladze and Senderos, which isn't good enough. Reputations are gained when you do the same thing often enough, and these have reputations of being error prone.

It's not complaining, it's just an opinion. Believe it or not, after seeing alot of our new signings do nothing/very little/play terrible over the last few seasons it's hard to get excited sometimes. It's not all negativity as I've said countless times that I think Flamini will be a superb signing for us, as I have a basis to believe he'll do well, unlike some of our other transfers.

[Giancarlo]

I'm not denying that the signings have purpose.. but I disagree with the depth thing. We have alot of injury prone players so will need to call on our depth alot. Let's say Nesta-Maldini are our best CBs, I'm not sure many would argue with that, a few maybe, but I don't think it's an outrageous thing for me to say. But who do we have after that.. Kaladze and Senderos, which isn't good enough. Reputations are gained when you do the same thing often enough, and these have reputations of being error prone.

I don't agree with this at all, and Senderos could be better suited for the Serie A because of its slower pace. That's simply all I'm saying.

It's not complaining, it's just an opinion. Believe it or not, after seeing alot of our new signings do nothing/very little/play terrible over the last few seasons it's hard to get excited sometimes. It's not all negativity as I've said countless times that I think Flamini will be a superb signing for us, as I have a basis to believe he'll do well, unlike some of our other transfers.

I think this transfer season is far different. We didn't sign an Oliveira or Emerson this transfer season. We signed many players that are established. I think most, if not all, these transfers will do well for us.

[han2503]

Good post, han. But I'm still skeptical.

You have to ask the question why Ronaldinho wasn't having a good time of it at Barca? I think he has a bit of an ego problem, amongst other problems, and once he realise he wasn't the one that was carrying the club, he lost interest, as well as his reputation. He is a big, if not the biggest, reason why his time at Barca went bad.

Borriello and Abbiati. These guys weren't good enough for Milan the first time around, so one good season will change that? Just like Zambrotta doesn't become a bad player overnight, these guys don't become top players overnight. We'll see.

Sheva, I agree with what you've said about him. I think alot of the other players resenting how he was bought to the team, which didn't help.

Agreed on that, R10 does seem to have ego problems, which reportedly olso came into play at PSG before moving to Barca. I'm hoping that his experiance and his age will teach him some values and personally I think he's shown some signs of maturity over these past few months. As Giancarlo said, Barca's problems was too many egos, with the team seemingly split into groups and fueds. But as you said Ronaldinho is ultimately also to blame for how things went wrong. But I think a new start and a new challenge will be good for him. Not choosing Man City and their much bigger contract to me was a good signal of intent from him

Agree with you on Borriello and Abbiati. Like I said, I personally never wanted either of them back. But looking at the other keeper options I can't help but feel greatful for another option. As for Boriello, this one I especially did not want back, he's been given his chances in the past and never taken them so I don't expect him to come good now. What I'm hoping is that his goals for Genoa could be a good platform for him to atleast be good sub material for Milan

Agreed on the Sheva bit

[CrazyMilanFan]

well many people say that r80 is a gamble he was very gud 2 years ago now it is a very big gamble as for lost 2 years he have not done much but the thing is that now every trasfer is a gamble wheater CR7 moves to madrid or messi moves to inter or whatever sheva to chelsea or tiago to juve it is now more of luck that whihc player will be a success or which will be a flop all transfer are gambles whether it is 1 million or a 100 million transfer