Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi have stated they are looking to make multiple signings. Here's a little help from a fan.

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus. Unlikely to come in January but could be a summer target if Juve fail to make Serie A or don’t make strong signings in the summer. Possibility of arriving in January - 5%. Marco Amelia, Livorno; probably won't make a move until the end of season but is willing to move. If Milan are willing to put up the money, he might be the custodian before too long. Possibility of arriving in January - 20%.

Defenders: Rafael Marquez, Barcelona. I couldn't see him moving until end of the year if he does move at all. Barca are 95 per cent to win another trophy this year and he'll probably want to stick around. He is also Cup-tied. Probability of arriving in January - 1%. Phillipe Mexes and/or Cristian Chivu: I've always liked these two and they both have a lot of seasons left in them. I don't know why Mexes wasn't picked for France in the World Cup (not that it would have made a difference). Probably wouldn't give up the chance for trophies and both are Cup-tied. Probability of one arriving - 2%, probability of both arriving - 0%. Daniel Alves, Sevilla: A right back with a lot of talent, he would instantly challenge Cafu for a starting spot and would more than likely win. Again, with Sevilla leading La Liga, a move is very improbable, especially since Sevilla want to keep all their young stars for a long time. Probability of arriving in January - 1%.

Midfielders: Ronaldinho, Barcelona. He's on everyone's wish list. There are questions over his poor workrate but class of that level can adjust to anything. I think Silvio Berlusconi has a picture of Ronaldinho in his wallet in place of his family. Barca don't want to sell and their sponsor, Nike, don't want him to move to an Adidas team. Berlusconi and Galliani bungled their transfer strategy in the summer and might put up the cash to try and make up for it. Probability of arriving in January - 3%. Alexandre Pato, Internacional. I've never seen him play but Milan have said they are interested, so have Chelsea - and don't be suprised if ten other clubs have an eye on him. He helped his current club defeat Barca in the Club World Championship recently. He doesn't have a European passport so probability of arriving in January - 0%. Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United. This would be impossible since he has almost surpassed Wayne Rooney as the key player at Old Trafford and they're top of table. He would add much-needed width. Probability of arriving in January - 0%. Wesley Sneijder, Ajax. I think he is similar to Clarence Seedorf, but he is at the start of his career and Seedorf is at the end of it. Can play wide and him operating on the left and Yoann Gourcuff on the right would create a great wing partnership. Probability of arriving - 10%.

Strikers: Vincenzo Iaquinta, Udinese, who don't want to sell him but everyone has a price and this is a wish list so we’re paying it. Not Cup-tied so he could play Champions League and could be Italy's strike force with Alberto Gilardino in the next World Cup. Probability of arriving in January - 20%.

That’s the wish list, so adding a few of them into the current side, here's my Dream Team for the second half of the season: M. Amelia; D.Alves, A.Nesta, C.Chivu, M.Jankulovski; G.Gattuso, A.Pirl, Y.Gourcuff, W.Sneijder, Kaka, Gilardino.

link

He has a very big imagination

And I also don't agree with some of his choices. The Iaquinta things had already thrown me off when I saw it before I started reading the whole thing

The chances of Iquinta being the future part of a strike partnership of ANY team, especially of the Azzurri or a club like Milan is already a laughable thing.

Buffon I think is someone we should forget about, Juve will be in Serie A next season and since he didn't leave when they went to Serie B I'm finding it hard to believe that he would leave when they go back up.

Same goes for Dani Alves and Marquez, no chance either of them will leave their current clubs, especially Marquez.

Ronaldinho? Will this ever stop? Sneijder is the most realistic target, although not for January, he is like Seedorf but since we have found his replacement in Gourcuff I don't see why we should go for Sneijder also.

And I think I already voiced my feeling at the decision of getting that incompetant idiot as our striker

MY dream team :
goalkeepers : Gianluca Curci , Davide Facchin , Valerio Fiore
defenders : Daniel Alves , Lino Marzoratti , Alessandro Nesta , Andrea Barzagli , Leandro Renaudo , Luca Antonelle , Kakha Kaladze
Midfielders : Andrea Pirlo , Kaka, Genaro Gattuso , Yoann Gourcuff , Pasquale Foggia , Wesly Sneijder
Strikers : Arturo Lopli , Alberto Gilardino , Kader Kieta , Klaas Jan Huntelaar

MY dream team :

GK : Buffon, Amelia

DEF : Lahm, Nesta, Gallas, Alves, Jankulovski,

MIF : Kaka, Pirlo, Gattuso, Schweinstiger, Vieira, Gourcuff

STR : Torres, Gilardino, Tevez



..... i know..... just a "DREAM".....

Very BIG imagination, indeed.

Out off everyone he selected, I think ONLY Pato and Iaquinta r not cup tied .. Iaquinta ? No thank u ... Pato, not yet .. He needs time, for goddness sakes, he's a kid ! What we're gonna keep him in the reserve team ? What's the point ?

I just wish Serie A could commence again, I'm tiered of waiting ! Just get the players u need Milan and get it over with already

Buffon, Gallas, Diarra and Alves/Nelson!

Goalkeeper - Juve 100% will be in Serie A next season, but I dont believe it has do to anything with Amelia coz Buffon will not be leaving Juve.

Defender - first forget about Marquez coz Barca wont let him go. Chivu is good with a bright future, but I wouldn't like to sign both him and Mexes. Alves is great and I hope he comes in summer but I dont believe it will happen coz you need a lot of money to buy him and Milan doesn't pay too much. As far as Oddo is concerned I think he will come.

Midfielders - i dont wanna even talk about Ronaldinho and C.Ronaldo thats just waste of time (they will not come). Sneider is possible to arrive in summer.

Strikers - Iaquinta maybe will come in some days

As far as a wish list for the january transfer window, I just hope we don't sign oddo or belletti. I really think we need to do more than just quick fixes and both are bloody 31 :S.

Going into 2007, we have like 5 core players who are the age of 28 or under.

Kaka' (25)
Gila (25)
Gourcuff (21)
Pirlo (28)
Oli (27)

Then we've got like nesta, gattuso, janku, bonera, kaladze, ambrosini and seedorf.
With nesta's long term injury problems, it means we have a real problem in the centre of defence. Average age of around 30 there, so its anything but youthful.

This is why I wouldn't mind rolling the dice on cassano, at least he's 25, talented and has experience in serie a. The trifecta of him with kaka' and gila could be devastating.

Besides that I'm not sure who we should try signing, just hoping there young so we can start rebuilding. Just look what juve are doing and who there targeting for the promotion to serie a next year.

Timo Hildebrand, Daniel Alves, Wesley Sneijder, Suazo/Torres...

Amelia, Vanden Borre, Sneijder, Torres.
That would be great, plus we can afford it

That would be mine as well.

if it is a dream, then give me Gerrerd, Buffon and Etoo

Torres yeah, Tevez well put it this way I'm glad he went to West Ham so I could see another overrated Southern American player flop.

David Villa would be good I reckon but I think he's on his way to Anfield now.

Villa to Liverpool? Now that would be a big waste. He deserves much better IMO.

Well if Liverpool get that new sugar daddy like it has been reported, then I would expect them to even over shadow Chelsea with the spending

Much better than the best club in England (titles, history, fans, etc)? And now with the 5th richest man under control of the club?

OK... so we've a lot of choices... hum... let's see OH! I know! 2 clubs: us and Real Madrid.

Liverpool have been sh!t in the last 10 years. The only trophy he might be able to win there will be the English Supercup. I'm talking about clubs like Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, Real, Manchester or even Chelsea.

You can't deny their history. Liverpool is a huge club. Only ManUtd can be compared to them in England, even though the "Red Devils" are not as big as the Merseyside "Reds".

Barcelona is not a big club. They've a big/good team at the moment. Nothing more. Same for Chelsea.

Yes I agree ..

Liverpool is a BIG club .. Domestically ONLY Man U can compete w/ the # of titles Liverpool have. In Europe they are third, but only to Real Madrid and Milan. Liverpool are a VERY big club .. W/ the financial backing of Dubai holdings (DIC), Liverpool can be great again. So realistically speaking, they will be undoubtbly be the #1 team in England and will be the team to fear in Europe too.

They are the most successful club in the history of English football. Liverpool have won eighteen First Division titles, seven FA Cups, seven League Cups. In Europe they have also kept a VERY challenging record of trophies five European Cups and three UEFA Cups.

... But even w/ all of this, still, Istanbul was ours !!

As you're from Kuwait, what can you tell me/us about Dubai (as city) and that famous Sheik Al Maktoum.

You probably know them better than us. Tell us something.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Liverpool are a big club, they have a very rich history. But like Ajax they're not big at the moment. Whoever chooses to go there won't have assured important trophies every 2-3 years like you have at Milan or Barcelona. I would compare them to teams like Roma, Valencia or Arsenal, who at the momet aren't capable of winning anything. But let's wait and see what this Al Maktoum guy is gonna do with them.

Totally right. I choose to seperate the two things by saying One is a big TEAM the other is a big CLUB.

Chelsea for example are a big team not a big club, Milan and Real are big teams but are big clubs with a history to back that team up.

About Istanbul, I watched the game today again on Eurosport (like I mentioned in another thread) and I was watching it to find "closure" but it just made me mad instead, first Sheva's goal was disallowed when it was not offside, the run was perfectly timed by Sheva.

Then Smicer scored a goal when a second before the lines man was waving his flag like a crazy man on the touch-line but no one took any notice of it, so instead play continued and allowed the goal to be scored instead of play being stopped. THEN Gerrard made one pf the most ridiculous dives I have ever seen, (Rino NEVER touched him) and they get a penalty, now this dive I'm talking about would make C.Ronaldo shake his head in shame for the pure amteurness in the way it was acted out, but the point is they still got the penalty.

And THEN to top it all off, sheva made that double miss when the ball was on the line.

When people talk about that nigh they call it the greatest game of football they have ever seen but instead it was just a sham of a game that should have never even gone into injury time and the score should have been 4-1

It just makes you think, who does UEFA want to win the competition this season?

FC Hype I guess, again. You know, Madrid have 9. They have just 2. UEFA think it's time to balance the things up on the most competitive league in Europe - La Liga.

I think it's between them and Chelsea.

They have already been hyping both teams up on their website, like they did last season with 'Hypelona FC' and you can just smell it coming from a mile away.

You know the "Man U disease"!!? People forget anything that happened in football before the 90's...


I definitely don't agree... IMO it's not just trophies... just look at the players they've had!!


You can't compare them with Ajax in any case. No matter who buys Ajax (even if that is Abramovic+DIC combo!!) right now they can't build a great team cause simply Eridivisie is no EPL...

Liverpool play in the Premiership... remember!!?

If Chelsea was made into a big team I can't see why Liverpool won't be...

Dubai is an emirate/state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi (which is another emirate of the UAE) supply's the whole of the UAE's emirates with funding (oil $$), except for Dubai which depends on entrapreneurship and a chance for everyone willing to invest in it.

Dubai is basically run by one man, Shiekh Moh'd Al-Maktom. He has turned Dubai into a mecca for investments, through realestate, finances, and above all entropreneurship. He is a very intelligent man who has the ability to literally turn everything he touches into gold, (ofcourse not literally ).

He has made Dubai the capital of the middleeast in term's of the most attractive city in the region; their airlines Emirates, their Shopping Festivals (EVERYthing is dutyfree ), etc .. Basically Dubai promoted its self from nothing into the hot spot in the middleeast. It has a 7-star hotel, so I guess that is enough of a promotion for Dubai to tell you how BIG he turned Dubai.

The Emirates stadium anyone??

Emirates airlines had accumilated so much taxes in Britain that they decided to reinvest 40% approx. of the taxes into London .. Tax commision said that he could invest it in London; thus promoting their airlines and an audiance of the whole football world to Dubai.

In 2005, Dubai Ports had given a proposal to the US government to take care of several of the USA's busiest ports. Which congress later rejected.

I can say one thing; if not for Moh'd Al-Maktom, I'll bet u, you would have even noticed Dubai, on a map even ... I think he has done a splendid job, he has no dependency on oil what-so ever

DIC .. The company that is interested in aquiring Liverpool, owns a stake in some of the biggest corporations in modern America and the Far East. Which means it has assets to cover for anything a club like Liverpool could demand .. A new stadium ? A new team ? R10 in Liverpool ? Buffon .. Signing Buffon would be like a piece of cake They are VERY big.

But all this, it is all under one man .. Sheikh Moh'd Al-Maktom.

Wow. Thanks for the excelent info R7.
I guess every Liverpool fan will be praying for the deal LFC-DIC go trough which I read it's going to be annouced (officially) probably in the beginning of 2007.

Thats unfair



Actually, I think it was a double incredible save

thanks for the info R7!!

TIMO HILDEBRAND IS CRAP!!!
please... if we go for a German Goalkeeper, it MUST be Michael Rensing!
Talented boy!

(Barca is a big club)

How so? In Spain they're MILES away from Real Madrid in everything. Titles, history, fans...

In Europe they won some UEFA Cups and 2 CL. BIG DEAL! So did FCPorto, so what? Are they big? Please.

They're in a good moment now. Maybe because Madrid had the crazy-Perez... and Valencia was not the Benitez one anymore. In Europe they're always helped by refs - and that's a FACT.

They've good players in their history? Yes. Of course: Stoitchkov, Cruifj, Koeman... now Ronaldinho. For me that doesn't mean anything. The club is what matters.

A big club for me is simple: big fanbase, titles, reputation, fame and history.

And Barcelona is not on my top-list: Milan, R.Madrid, Juventus, Liverpool, Bayern, Ajax, ManUtd, Flamengo, River Plate, Boca Juniors and probably we can add Marseille, Santos and Benfica to this list. But hey, this is just my list to what I consider a great/big club.

Big teams you have: Chelsea, Valencia, FCPorto, PSV, Lyon, Sevilla, Roma, etc... that have some good moments time to time but will never be as historical, powerful and famous as the ones on the list above.

for the keeper it's either Buffon ( ) or Akinfeev for me!!

@Portugal: you know you're biased... and you like it!!

they don't have a big fanbase!!? Oh come on now...
Man U is in your list and Barcelona isn't!?

this is what you said:


and this is just some numbers...
Barcelona: 18 La Liga titles, 2CL / Camp Nou 98,000 capacity, almost sold out every season!! >> ManU: 15 EPL/1st Div titles, 2 CL / Old Trafford 76,000 almost sold out every season

And what's so great about ManU's histiry before the 90's apart from the EC title?? I suppose you agree on me that at least Barca got fame and reputation...

Bayern!!!!!!???
Yeah I'm sure that every footballer that had to choose between Bayern and Barcelona would go for the Bavarians...

anyway... there are some things I'm biased on too and I know this is not going to change your mind so...

Com'on, they were always competitive and they still are!
They play a good and attractive football, they always had some of the greatest football players, they have 18 Liga titles, 25 Spain cups, 11 europeen titles, they are the only club who never missed a europeen cup, and so ...
And speaking of real madrid, they won only 3 new era CL (Barça 2) and 10 Liga since the 80's (Barça 9) what a difference

I just prefer red to purple/gay-blue.

No. Barcelona as fanbase is nothing. In Spain, almost only in Catalonia... R.Madrid have 8/9 times more fans in Iberia than them.

ManUtd have a good fanbase in UK (only Liverpool beat them if I'm not mistaken) and even worldwide. A lot more than Barcelona (just some chinese from their Asian tours and glory-hunters).

thats it. barca is so overrated. Porto and Benfica have had just as much success in Europe as them.

me too!! but... how about white to red!?

i'm so lost.....

@bluesummers:

dst and Portugal like to think they are Pitt and Clooney from Ocean's 11...talking in riddles and all the 'lost in translation' bit. What do you expect one guy is openly giuve(does that rhyme with something else ) and the other guy is well...'a pathological liar'

But they are still cool


Anyway as I understand it

Porto's Quote


Is his explanation for liking Man U (red) to Barca (purple).

dst's Quote



is his demand that Porto accept Real Madrid(white) are faaaaaaaar superior to Man U..I think.

Wow...I just tried to make sense of dst and Porto. This is bigger than the Unified Theory of quantum mechanics. Eat your heart out Einstein.

LOL!!!



which character are you playing Jack?? Hmm... I just realised, while typing, that you are truly Jack...

and what does Giuve rhyme with!?

Well keep saying giuve fast enough and it'll sound homosexual. Of course not that u mind, you were gonna get married and all that.

How come?? Vodka addicts...

*hic* whassat??!!

Yo ho yo ho...a pirate's life for me!

Gosh.

Word!