One of the Italian papers, corriere i think, said a £17m offer for Sheva is in the wings

Too pricey to be honest, but abramovich wants as much of that £30 mil back

Out of curiosity, Fillipo, where did these articles come from?

The first one says that Riquelme has caught the interst of Milan. It also says that he might be tried in a Pirlo-type playmaking role. (?) It also says that Riquelme wants to stay at Boca but that he's due to return to Villareal. The article also says that Milan /does/ have a non-EU spot open that they're 'keeping' for Shevchenko.

The second article says that Milan are talking to Zaragoza about Diego Milito, but that Zaragoza wants a lot more than Milan are willing to pay, though sending Oliveira to Zaragoza may lower the price.

The second article also mentions a possible return of Shevchenko to Milan. Kristen is apparently not happy with her life in London, etc. But there are big financial issues involved as Milan aren't going to want to pay Chelsea what Chelsea paid them. Shevchenko is apparently going to talk to Peter Kenyon about a possible transfer and of course Don Silvio would love to see Sheva back.

Yeah Riquelme is good enough to attract our interest...

I don't think we really need Riquelme... unless we plan on sending Seedorf to the bench! He would be great in a Pirlo-like position... if Andrea was not here!

Here`s the link...Calciomercato

Its probably as reliable as tribalfootball, but,..

Actually, I think it's fairly reliable. Not one of the sources I usually scour, but they're not in tribal's class.

tribal has class

at R7.

And tuttomercatoweb and calciomercato are now running 'Berlusconi likes Riquelme' articles, so it seems there may be something to this rumor.

Question for those who follow La Liga more closely than I do: what happened with Riquelme at Villareal? The team was basically built around him but then...something happened. I remember watching a game last year and he was in the stands and the commentator made a point of saying he wasn't injured - he just hadn't been called up. Are there attitude issues with this guy?

At the beginning of last season (06/07) he decided to retire from the international stage because, as he claimed, grave criticism on him affected his mother's health who was in hospital at the time.

That affected his whole season and at some point he had a heated argument with Manuel Pellegrini (Villareal's coach) and with some of the board members over his form and desire to fight for the team...

Then he was loaned out...

That's what I know of the story. It seems like it was a performance issue rather than a bad attitude one... I've never heard anything that could imply the latter anyway...

Again, sticking this here for lack of a better place to put it, but....

[In anticipation of the signing of Tevez, Man U are putting Giuseppe Rossi on the sale block. Parma's made an offer but haven't heard a response yet.]

Should Milan consider poaching Rossi?


Il Parma torna a sperare per Giuseppe Rossi. Il Manchester United, che nei prossimi giorni completerà l'acquisto di Carlitos Tevez, ha messo in vendita il gioiellino italiano. A confermarlo, il presidente dei ducali, Tommaso Ghirardi: "`oi giocheremo con un modulo con una prima punta e due esterni, l'ingaggio di Rossi sarebbe quindi un'ottima operazione che si inquadrerebbe nella filosofia societaria. Al momento le cose stanno così` - ha spiegato durante la presentazione del brasiliano Reginaldo -. Due giorni fa abbiamo parlato con i dirigenti del Manchester United e loro ci hanno detto che Rossi è in vendita. A quel punto abbiamo fatto un'offerta. Ora aspettiamo una risposta".

link

Rossi? I wouldn't.

For me he's another one of these incredibley over-hyped players. He was starting to be tipped as the next Italian God of football before he'd even made an appearance for United.

He went on loan an Newcastle and did nothing, and United fans still valued him at around £15m.

I'd much prefer many other of the current Italian U21 squad, Pazzini and Rosina quite took my liking.

I also prefer those two over Rossi.

the person i think will be a effective and good player in milan is quaresma his fast and has a good control on the ball and he got good shots on the goal and he play both sides right or left next to kaka

Good thought, but we don't buy wingers

I know he is already quite a big player with Roma but Aquilani was very impressive in the under-21's.

He was very good! I'd love it if we made a move for him!

He is a direct Pirlo replacement, i have liked him for a while but im sure Roma will be reluctant to sell one of their jewels

In my opinion. Totti + De Rossi + Aquilani = Roma for life.

I like Aquilani too. Whether he's Roma for Life is still up for grabs, IMO. He's too young for that sort of determination.

Whether Milan would make a move for him or not, I dunno.

Barzagli is good, obviously a bench player with Paolo and Nesta still around.

But IF he leaves Palermo, I think he'll join the Bianconeri.

maldini is still maldini but come on... he's nothign near what he used to be and he's always injured. barzagli would get lots of play if he came.

Oh, I agree he'd play alot, probably 50% of the games. Milan seem happy with Maldini/Nesta/Bonera/Kaladze to be honest, I'm not sure they would buy a 5th.

ya same i'm more concerned about getting this so called world class player and our attack and midfield desperately need reinforcements cuz we have 0 depth there...

Of course he won't be able to play week in week out cause he wants to be 100% ready and give everything he's got in every game and he knows he won't be able to do that continuously but now that he had a second operation he will play many more games than he did last season.

He's had a surgery in each of his kneed and he still goes on... that's my God!

I'm still confused about this 'World ending player'.

Translation please,..although I get the point pretty well,..

He says Ancelotti called him... but Silvio blocked the transfer cause he wants Milan to sign a forward... a certain one I believe...

Yep I just read this off of some other source too .. I think if Silvio said yes, Ribery would already have the Milan shirt on, Bayern don't stand a chance. Just comes to show u how strong Silvio really is

Well maybe it does, but IMO it is a clear faux pas

i dont get why don't go for chivu, now is the perfect time.we sell kaladze, and chivu can cover sevral positions in def. i would be a great signing

I always thought if Kakha was to leave it would be in a swap deal, either to Chelsea or Barca. In fact I would have placed money on what I just said, but both teams seem to have a good defense at the moment .. So, I am clueless

What where we talking about again

A Kaladze transfer,..would be great but won`t happen,..

Go for Chivu? You know who`s in? Inter, Real, Barca,..all after him. You think we need another snub?

real (pepe+metzelder) and barca(abidal+milito) are surely out. that leaves us with inter, and apparently chivu refused their offer... i mean how many good teams are left? i dont see him going to the prem... we're pretty much the only team besides inter that he could go to.

If you check Porty's latest post in the 'What the papers say' thread, you'll see that it says Chivu will be staying in Roma for another year because everybody's pulled out of the transfer. There would be no better time to make an offer for him.

Then what about Cannavaro!?? (this is when Tennie goes crazy!! )

Fabio will still start, they'll just share time for the other CB spot.

Maybe next year.

Much as I might wish for Cannavaro, I really think he'll play in Madrid and then move to Napoli.

As for Chivu, he'd be a good buy, but given that he refused the move to Real, I suspect he'd also refuse a move to Milan -- remember the stories about his agent having been paid off by Moratti. Still, the Roma management is REALLY unhappy with Chivu because of what happened so they might just try to sell him off....

As you can read on Chivu's ebay auction, he will go to the highest bidder! I don't want Milan to pay him as much as we pay Nesta!!

what i mean is real and barca we're both going for defenders, and both of them signed 2 so i dont see them going after chivu now

These have been our transfers so far:

IN: Abbiati (G, Torino); Donati (M, Atalanta), Sammarco (M, Chievo), Antonini (M, Siena), Novinic (A, Nafta Lendava), Ba (M, Varese)

OUT: Costacurta (D, retired), Abate (M, Empoli), Borriello (A, Genoa), Donati (M, Celtic), Abbiati (G, Atletico Madrid) Sammarco (M, Sampdoria), Di Gennaro (A, Bologna), Coppola (G, Atalanta), Grimi (D, Siena), Oliveira (A, Zaragoza)

(the players in bold are ones that we're notable loses)

so we've lost 4 players that were with us last season. grimi din't play much at all so we don't need to replace, same with billy but an adition in def would be great ( kaladze or simic + cash for chivu or a defender of his class would be great).

Midfield is great but we haev 0 depth from the bench, most of the time you look for a sub in midfield to turn a game around. when i look back to last season not once was a sub in midfield besides maybe ambro came on and made a diff (although ambro is not going to bring creativity because he scored from hears/off his *** ) so a creative midfielder or more specifically a KAKA sub is needed (we havent replaced rui costa since he left) diego would be perfect in my view but iw ould be even more happy if it was aquilani(obviously wont happen tho )

and in attack we desperatly need a world class SS... sylvester promised us a world class player so it would make sense for that player to be a forward... 1 desperatly needed. i would even like to sign a 2nd, sumone who could sit on the bench (cuz inzaghi and ronaldo are so injury prone)

I think it's really hard to get the kind of class u need, and still keep them on as subs. Diego is like the Kaka for Bremen. He wouldn't leave to sit on the bench.

Rui left principally because he had had enough of the bench. He left on very good terms, but I'm sure if he'd been promised first team, he'd have stayed on longer.

In any case as I see it, I think if Kaka does not play, Seedorf moves into the trequartista position(where he is lethal), and Gourcuff moves into the left centre midfield.

Defence again...Chivu on the bench??? Chivu would come only if he could be promised a start alongside Nesta every match. (ex-Roma + ex-Lazio...I'm shivering already). Kaladze is a much much better second foil, and he has no problems being second choice. Bonera also is developing fast. Nope maybe we really should get a 30+ defender who's solid but unremarkable, in case of injuries.

I stick by my previous statement. One big second striker. To take us through to winter. Then we'll see if we need a holding mid or not. And an extra defender if need be.

What I'd like, what I'd really like are the following (from whom I think are available)

R20 (and if nobody else Pato), Nigel de Jong, Zambrotta, or some other fullback who can play on the left. Can we please steal Wayne Bridge??

Why does no team bid for van der Vaart!?? I mean, they pay ridiculous amount of money for Nani and Anderson and Madrid desperately need a '10' but no one thinks of Rafael... I think he's a truly great player!!

I'd snatch him any day... to be Seedorf's replacement... but anyway... we need a star player I guess...

Good joke.

Van Der Vaart is that guy who'll only be playing for Madrid right? Naah...besides he'd definitely relegate Zidaninho to the bench for a long long time.

And I like Wayne Bridge...he crosses really well, and is pretty fast..when he's not injured. I really wanna see Janku play further up. I guess I just lost my opinion a lot after the CL final.

[quote=Rossoneri7,Jul 12 2007, 05:17 AM]
I always thought if Kakha was to leave it would be in a swap deal, either to Chelsea or Barca. In fact I would have placed money on what I just said, but both teams seem to have a good defense at the moment .. So, I am clueless


milan is not fully covered in defence we need at least two signing in defence. oddo is 30 we need young right back for back up plan, only isinho will be suitable for that. maldini is not 100 percent fit for all our games, bonera and simic is not up to the task especially when it come to the big stage (champions league) so we need a younger and xperience centre defender. bazagli is very much available waiting for good offer from big club like milan.

Who is Zidaninho and who is isinho!??

Because he has a buy out clause of 1,5 Million for 2009. Hamburg will most likely sell him in 2008 to cash out on him, but not a day earlier. I really don't think he wants to sit on bench though. Plus, he lways said that it's his dream to play in Spain.

And why don't Real go for him!?? They need a '10' and they go and splash out 30m for Pepe!???

I dunno..because they were dreaming about Ricky? Really...I have no idea...

Oh I think they got the reality of the situation by now, Ricky has just bought a new house in Milano .. I forgot which part though .. It is supposed to be something HUGE .. Just like Sheva's old place