[X-Offender]

Niang has confirmed that he has signed a contract extension to June 30, 2019.

Aymen Abdennour’s agent insists there was a “misunderstanding,” as playing in Italy “would be a dream,” but there are no offers.

[William405]

Muntari has officially been released.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/yahoo.gif)

YESSSS!! At least we know, we don't have to stand up with his **** during games.

[Forza Milan!]

Real happy to see us starting to get rid of "dead wood" (was starting to get concerned). As for next year, it all depends on how good Miha really is. We are far from great, but other Serie A teams have been very inconsistent in recent years, so we have a chance.

We are now being linked with Georginio Wijnaldum (source: De Telegraaf). Anyone has any insight?

[William405]

Niang has confirmed that he has signed a contract extension to June 30, 2019.

Aymen Abdennour’s agent insists there was a “misunderstanding,” as playing in Italy “would be a dream,” but there are no offers.

Hahaha, seems like no one wants him in the premier league. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[han2503]

Jose Mauri deal to be completed tomorrow according to basically all of the Italian outlets

[William405]

Real happy to see us starting to get rid of "dead wood" (was starting to get concerned). As for next year, it all depends on how good Miha really is. We are far from great, but other Serie A teams have been very inconsistent in recent years, so we have a chance.

We are now being linked with Georginio Wijnaldum (source: De Telegraaf). Anyone has any insight?

Apart from being dutch, and buying him a lot on FM, nothing much really. ^^

He plays mainly as a CM/AM as far as I recall. Wouldn't mind him that type of player honestly.

[William405]

Jose Mauri deal to be completed tomorrow according to basically all of the Italian outlets

Well, hopefully he will be loaned out. We have enough quantity in the midfield, just need one high profile signing which I expect will come eventually.

[han2503]

Well, hopefully he will be loaned out. We have enough quantity in the midfield, just need one high profile signing which I expect will come eventually.

I think we'll keep him, in all honesty he's better than Poli and definitely better than the Monto we saw last season (in the games he did play - which were awful)

If I watch this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgOvL-Mzrk

And one of Bertolacci, I'm personally more impressed by Mauri

[William405]

I think we'll keep him, in all honesty he's better than Poli and definitely better than the Monto we saw last season (in the games he did play - which were awful)

If I watch this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgOvL-Mzrk

And one of Bertolacci, I'm personally more impressed by Mauri

Yep, I watched it, good talent.

I guess we can keep him, but I emphasize..we have to get one high profile midfielder to run the show. Then, I can say we're good to go, with respect to the midfield department.

This post has been edited by William405: Jun 30 2015, 09:56 PM

[han2503]

Yep, I watched it, good talent.

I guess we can keep him, but I emphasize..we have to get one high profile midfielder to run the show. Then, I can say we're good to go, with respect to the midfield department.

Yeah, totally agree with that. I think I've stressed enough how crucial it is for us to get a top mid or we'll have the same struggles we did last season and the one before that, no creativity, no idea as to how to break the opposition down, no cohesion and no link between the defence and attack

I think one of our current mids will leave. Probably Poli (if we sign Baeslli)

But we do need that top midfielder desperately, I don't know if it will be Witsel or someone else, but going into the new season with the midfield as it is now, even with the 3 potential new signings would be a mistake

A midfield of De Jong, Bertolacci, Monto, Bonaventura, Mauri, Baselli and a new top CM would be enough for next season, not ideal but still a big improvement over what we had last season

If we somehow manage to get Ibra in this summer, most of those players, especially Bonaventura, Bertolacci and Mauri will thrive.

[X-Offender]

Looks like Jovetic's agent is in Milan to discuss with Inter and Milan.

Link

Personally, I don't want him. Overhyped and overrated player, also injury-prone.

On another note, his agent is also the agent of Nastasic. That, I would like better.

[Danny]

There are two months left before the signing window closes. Let's not jump to conclusions yet. What if we end up signing Hummels, Witsel and Ibra? Then your argument becomes invalid.

No one would be more pleased than I. And actually it would mean my argument was plain wrong, not invalid (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

And besides, you're saying we're not able to attract big names anymore, and used Jackson and Kondogbia as examples, but are those two big names to begin with? Is Jackson so much bigger than Bacca? What has Kondogbia achieved in his career to be considered a big? Plus he ended up signing for Inter, who are in the exact same waters as we are, i.e. failed season and no European cups. Alves is not a case because Barça ended up agreeing to his terms.

Oh they're not marquee but they used us. Portugal's top scorer used Milan and Arsenal to get his move to Atletico. Kondogbia used us to get to Inter. And if moderate to good players like these use us then it only undermines how attractive we are to better players.

Alves is a case - he said he wanted to play for us, then one day later gets the deal he wanted. He used us.

It's true that we're not in the same position we used to be a few years ago in terms of attracting important players, but what has transpired thus far doesn't constitute the basis for saying that we can't sign such players anymore. If we make the right offer, those players will eventually come, because money talks nowadays more than history, appeal and everything else football used to stand for.

A month into this Mercatto we haven't signed anyone we'd have been excited by before June. We get linked to the great players but they never actually come. And we offered more to Kondogbia than Inter did and he STILL didn't want us. And money does talk, but not enough - case in point is Jackson and Kondogbia. If it did, they'd have signed, simple as that.

Where did you read that? I'm pretty sure we're keeping Abbiati for another season, or so I read.

I might have been wrong on Abbiati.

[Danny]

Danny, I'll get back to you on that one as it's long and I'm in a rush (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

No need - you'll run out of quote marks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) let's just move on from that one haha.

[Danny]

Looks like Jovetic's agent is in Milan to discuss with Inter and Milan.

Link

Personally, I don't want him. Overhyped and overrated player, also injury-prone.

On another note, his agent is also the agent of Nastasic. That, I would like better.

I heard it was only Inter. And I've been whoring Nastasic to this board for years.

[X-Offender]

No one would be more pleased than I. And actually it would mean my argument was plain wrong, not invalid (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Same difference. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Oh they're not marquee but they used us. Portugal's top scorer used Milan and Arsenal to get his move to Atletico. Kondogbia used us to get to Inter. And if moderate to good players like these use us then it only undermines how attractive we are to better players.

Alves is a case - he said he wanted to play for us, then one day later gets the deal he wanted. He used us.

Honestly, I don't think any of them used us. We made the €35 million offer to Porto for Jackson before anyone else, Porto accepted and then we agreed terms with Jackson. But we couldn't get him to sign the contract without undergoing a medical first, so we opted to wait for the Copa America to be over good on the deal we had with the player. Then, a few days later, Juve sign Mandzukic for €20 million. Now Atletico need a substitute, and they have about 2/3 of the money they'd need for Jackson from the Mandzukic sale. They contact the player, who prefers the Atletico project to ours, so he changes his mind. Porto don't give a damn where he goes as long as they pay the release clause. Bam, gone!

Same with Kondogbia. Everything agreed upon with both player and club, then Inter make their move at the last minute. Kondogbia gets a call from Mancini who wins him over. Apparently he's also an Inter supporter, so that could have played a role as well. Between similar offers, he accepts Inter. Bam, gone!

And Alves said he was gonna leave Barça way before he was linked with us. In fact, he was linked with many clubs, not just us, which is normal for a player who's about to become a free agent. If Barça agreed to his term afterwards doesn't mean he used us or any of the other clubs for that matter.

We're all just butthurt about how things went with Jackson and Kondogbia that we're making these things up about being used yada yada, but like I said, I really don't think we were used. There was genuine interest, only that later better options made themselves apparent and prevailed over our offers.

A month into this Mercatto we haven't signed anyone we'd have been excited by before June. We get linked to the great players but they never actually come. And we offered more to Kondogbia than Inter did and he STILL didn't want us. And money does talk, but not enough - case in point is Jackson and Kondogbia. If it did, they'd have signed, simple as that.

Jackson and Kondogbia are getting at Atletico and Inter similar money to what we would have offered them. They simply preferred them over us for various reasons. If Atletico had offered Jackson, say, €1.5 million, he would have chosen us without thinking twice. It goes: money > competitiveness > appeal/history. If you can match the first variable, then the second comes into play. And Atletico are much more competitive than us at the moment, so it's a no brainer Jackson would prefer them over us.

In Kondogbia's case, between us and Inter the two variables are the same (we both offered him similar wages, and we both come from failed seasons), so the third variable becomes relevant. And like I said, he just preferred Inter at the end of the day, because he finds them more appealing or something. Simple as.