[han2503]

Don't even want to think about those Bernardo rumours...


It feels like we're just beating around the bush with the signings we're making. Yes they're all good depth signings in areas where we were lacking last season but we have not improved our starting 11 at all so far. Just weakened it actually.

And with each day that passes I get even more pessimistic. We wasted over 3 weeks f@cking around with the Tonali deal. How are we going to conclude a transfer for a quality AM in just a handful of days?

Going into the season with the attack as it is would be a grave error. And as Fillipo mentioned above, I am also deeply worried about the potential of playing a 4-4-2.

[han2503]

And also, I would like to point out that we are walking into another season with Romagnoli and Kessie both on expiring contracts!!! It's unbelievable that we are risking the same scenario happening again with these 2 as it did with Donna and Hakan...

[Fillipo Simone]

Is bringing in Bakayoko a tactic to pressure the Kessie renewal? Because man are we gonna be covered with Baka, Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer all fighting to start.

[X-Offender]

Don't even want to think about those Bernardo rumours...


It feels like we're just beating around the bush with the signings we're making. Yes they're all good depth signings in areas where we were lacking last season but we have not improved our starting 11 at all so far. Just weakened it actually.

And with each day that passes I get even more pessimistic. We wasted over 3 weeks f@cking around with the Tonali deal. How are we going to conclude a transfer for a quality AM in just a handful of days?

Going into the season with the attack as it is would be a grave error. And as Fillipo mentioned above, I am also deeply worried about the potential of playing a 4-4-2.

Either Maldini has an ace up his sleeve and he's going to surprise us all, or he has no f*cking clue what he's doing. I'm leaning towards the latter.

And also, I would like to point out that we are walking into another season with Romagnoli and Kessie both on expiring contracts!!! It's unbelievable that we are risking the same scenario happening again with these 2 as it did with Donna and Hakan...

It almost feels like we're not renewing these contracts because management wants to keep salaries at 2-3M. Like we're some kind of Udinese...

Is bringing in Bakayoko a tactic to pressure the Kessie renewal? Because man are we gonna be covered with Baka, Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer all fighting to start.

Don't forget that Bennacer and Kessie will be gone in January.

[han2503]

Is bringing in Bakayoko a tactic to pressure the Kessie renewal? Because man are we gonna be covered with Baka, Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer all fighting to start.

I really hope that it has nothing to do with Kessie.

But as X-off mentioned, him and Benna will be gone for the AFCON. So we need proper cover in those 2 positions

[han2503]

Being linked to this Messias guy now who plays for Crotone. If we waste money on this guy while we're cheaping out on brining in a quality AM, I'm going to tear my hair out I swear. FFS, Maldini is going to start making me question him now if we go into this new season without a proper AM and Kessie and Romagnoli not renewed

[X-Offender]

Being linked to this Messias guy now who plays for Crotone. If we waste money on this guy while we're cheaping out on brining in a quality AM, I'm going to tear my hair out I swear. FFS, Maldini is going to start making me question him now if we go into this new season without a proper AM and Kessie and Romagnoli not renewed

I know we keep blaming Paolo, myself included, but I'm pretty sure he has his hands tied by Gazidis and the ownership. You honestly think he wouldn't renew Kessie's contract and sign a quality AM if it was up to him?

Personally speaking, I've come to terms with the fact that we're not going to make CL next season, and this season is going to be a humiliating one where we'll finish 6th or 7th. Expect Pioli's firing by early December.

Until management is worried more about finances than being competitive, this will remain the status quo.

[han2503]

I know we keep blaming Paolo, myself included, but I'm pretty sure he has his hands tied by Gazidis and the ownership. You honestly think he wouldn't renew Kessie's contract and sign a quality AM if it was up to him?

Personally speaking, I've come to terms with the fact that we're not going to make CL next season, and this season is going to be a humiliating one where we'll finish 6th or 7th. Expect Pioli's firing by early December.

Until management is worried more about finances than being competitive, this will remain the status quo.

Yes Paolo is probably hampered by a restricted budget, but this situation with the contracts is self inflicted. Why Oh why do we keep letting these contracts run down? We should never let contracts for the important players go anywhere near the final year. It's just careless and moronic. Let's see if we do the same With Benna and Theo. Icing on the idiotic cake

And imo the wage budget should be there. The management had to have budgeted for Donna and Hakan, not to mention the knew they would have to negotiate with Kessie and Romagnoli as well. We were offering Donna and Hakan 8m and 4m net respectively. It makes no sense as to why we're haggling with Kessie.

Zlatan is the only player on the roster that earns a big wage now. There should be no excuses when you're renewing your most important player.

Why are we haggling with him of all people? Just give him and his agent what he wants and be done with it

[X-Offender]

Kessie earns 2.2M net, he's demanding 7M net. That's quite the leap, and not an easy amount to negotiate.

Think about it. Our biggest earner is Zlatan, who clearly is an isolated case. Then our second biggest salary is 3.5M (Romagnoli, Rebic, Giroud). No one is earning more than that. Kessie is demanding double that amount. It's way over our budget, and by budget I mean what we want to pay our players, not what we can afford.

Now y'all be saying but X-Off, Kessie is arguably our best player, he deserves a big raise etc. And I agree completely. But not the ownership. They have set clear guidelines that have to be followed by everyone. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had any problems offering 10M to Dollarumma and 5M to Capanoglu.

This club operates under a very rigid framework. Expenses have to be contained at all costs, even if it means losing players for free. I know it makes no sense for a logical perspective, but it's what company policies are.

Bottom line is: make the club appealing to investors and sell it for a profit. No one from Elliott gives two sh*ts about how competitive we've become in the next 3-4 years. Trust me. It's the downside of being owned by a management fund.

[han2503]

These figures imo are mostly media guesses though

First it was 5m, then it was 6m now it's become 7m.

Every time they say it's close and then nothing happens they up it by a million...

[X-Offender]

If it was 5M there wouldn't have been any problems, I assume.

IMO it's between 6 and 7, definitely.

[Rossoneri7]

The way I see it, Elliott want a healthy book to sell the club.

Salaries are the biggest expense on a club and as such, to bring that to a respectable amount viz Revenue, then a potential buyer will come in to take over the club.

Our worry is why not lock in Donna, Hakan, Kessie, Romagnioli, Theo, etc at higher value contracts viz their peers at Juve or Madrid or Tottenham, but reality dictates what we want is not in line with the club. i.e. The management want Milan in the CL and wants to lower the salary at the same time. What we want is Milan to be a protoganist in CL and have quality in depth.

In closing, once we, as fans, understand the motivation of Elliott, we will come to terms that Kessie will not renew at 7M, and even if he does it will be a one-off when looking at the trend of the management's renewals/signings.

That said, I still believe a quality player shall arrive for the AM/RW position before the window closes.

[han2503]

But in essence that is just a vicious circle. Because you cannot have healthy books without consistent CL football (as aside from UEFA money, this also brings in sponsorship deals and other more lucrative commercial revenue). And you cannot have consistent CL football with a squad of players that don't get payed above the 4m mark.

It just isn't feasible in today's climate when a mid-table EPL team can easily offer a player like Kessie twice as much as we deem "appropriate"

So in closing, Elliot will never be able to make he club as attractive and lucrative as they want without sinking some money into it. Which they have. Last report I read is that they're spent over 700m on the club (that's including the 300m loan to Li)

Bottom line is, today it's simply impossible to be a Serie A club and survive without proper funding. Atalanta is the only club that have managed to do this consistently but they are the exception and not the rule. The incompetency at the top of the league will drag everybody down with it.

I think SL will happen within the next 2 years. At this point it is inevitable

[Rossoneri7]

Hence what I said what we want is not what the club wants.

We fans look at it this way, the Elliott the hedge fund looks at it another. We have to come to terms with what Elliott is trying to achieve here. And that definitely has nothing to do with making the fans happy or proud. Rather making the bottom line positive, and at the same time achieving CL football.

Their ambition is to sell the club. Our ambition is not the same.

[X-Offender]

Maldini before the game:

"We have a common line, whether they are renewals or new purchases. I am open to many solutions, but we must do what is sustainable because in the past we have paid for another way of working".

Exactly what I've been saying. We gotta accept that big spending and wages are never going to be part of this club anymore.