Milan push for Zambrotta

Reports in Italy are gathering pace that Barcelona full-back Gianluca Zambrotta is a summer target for Milan.

The Italian international was close to joining the Rossoneri after the World Cup Finals, but instead opted for a foreign adventure once Juventus were demoted to Serie B.

The versatile defender – who can play on both flanks – did have his difficulties in adapting to his new surroundings and La Liga, but denied he was set for another move.

However, the Spanish giants don’t consider him untransferable and Milan are looking to boost their full-back options for 2007-08.

The Italian giants could potentially have a shortage at the back given that Marcos Cafu and Serginho are rumoured to be on their way out, while Giuseppe Favalli turned 35 in January.

Now whispers in the peninsula claim that Zambrotta’s agent, Beppe Bonetto, is expected to hold talks with Barca directors in Spain over the weekend to assess his options.

The Camp Nou outfit invested £7m in him last summer and Milan hope that a similar amount of money will be sufficient to bring him back to Italy, seeing that he is already 30.

The former Como and Bari player had recently stated that he wanted to honour his Barcelona contract until it expires in 2010.

If R20 comes, noone else will.

A Catalonia pack. 105M/euros.

Maybe we won't spent much after he comes but we will buy some more players for sure

we need him desperately.
we need him more than R10.

if it was any other position except defense i would agree

It depends on what Berlusconi means by "I've put 100m aside...". If a big percentage of that money is personal (=is not a part of Milan's revenues) then Milan might be able to spend on other departments too. Otherwise I don't see Milan spending more than 10m and it won't be just for one player. Now if Silvio wishes to put his hand in his pocket for that too we could see a new dawn for Milan...

I agree with you dst, who we get in the summer depends on whether Berlusconi plans to dip into his own deep pockets. If he does, I'd say that Ronaldinho + Zambrotta is not impossible. If they both come we'd probably offer them a package of something like $70-$80m and some fringe players like Kaladze and Oliveira (I don't think Ronaldinho is worth $100m). Not sure if Barca would agree to that though. Dida could even get thrown in there as well, although that would leave us in the market for a new keeper too. But if Berlusconi's saying he's prepared to spend $100m then it's not totally impossible.

The article talks about offering Barca in the vicinity of $7m for Zambrotta, which would be a great deal if we could get him for that price. How much did we pay for Oddo? I think it was about $8m and they're about the same age, so Zambro for $7m represents good business in my opinion.

As has been said, it depends if Berlusconi is prepared to put up his own money for our summer transfers.

With E100m + Kaladze + Oliveira + Dida we can get R20 + Zambrotta + Buffon for sure!!

(But I don't wanna be a dreamer, I'm not so sure R20 alone will come...)

And then we will also get the Scudetto and Champions League of course. The Coppa is just too hard too get cause of the Merda!

Great calculation...

The only thing is I`m not that sure we will get rid of Kaladze that soon. He is a lucky b@stard and I fear he`ll end up his career with us...

As for Oli. The only question how much vanity our board posseses. Cause they brought him as "our t-market suprise". The question is, can they really admit their suprise is a flop? And can they do it after just one season?

i would love such a deal, if we added another 5m and got Alex

i'm sure everyone can see that oli has been a complete failure and this is only my opinion but he at times doesn't look like he wants to be here, i believe he will be happier back in spain and if he isn't included in any deal with barca i'm pretty sure he'll go anyway

I don't think Kakha will go actually... I would love to see that happen but he's one of Silvio's favorites.

Surprise?? Well I don't know what Oli is but I can tell you this, Milan HAVE found "Sheva's equal". And no it's not Ronaldo... meet the man with the golden feet...


FA VA LLI!!


...

thats what i'm scared of, and thats why i have my doubts... theres no club in the world that wont make at least 2-3 changes on the off season and we clearly need new players in def,mid,att... so even if e comes we need to sign a couple of other players if not forget him. milan 2 years ago could have signed one big player and been complete but the milan of this season has holes in many diff position and i dont think 1 player can win games by himself.

I rather that milan bring alex instead of zambrotta

Alex is a CB, Zambrotta is a fullback. I think we could need both for next season

I think we will definitely need another central defender for next season.

If Ronaldinho does come to Milan, our strike force will be Ronaldo, Ronalindho, Gilardino and Inzaghi. Oliveira and Borriello may be used as trade bait for our summer purchases. If Ronaldinho stays at Barca, we definitely need at least 1 good striker to support Ronaldo and Gila, who together will probably be first choice. Inzaghi will still be very handy to have in the squad.

Thankfully we've got a pretty strong midfield wih Kaka, Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf, Gourcuff, Ambrosini and Brocchi. I think Gourcuff will continue to improve and will be an important player for us over the next two seasons. We don't really need to spend alot of money on new midfield players because we already have a pretty good group.

If Zambrotta comes, the fullbacks will be Oddo, Jankulovski, Zambrotta, Favalli and Grimi. Favalli has been a good squad player for us this season but I would like to see Grimi gradually get a bit more first team football. I think it's worth splashing out on Zambrotta because fullback is an important position for Milan, as they are our main source of width in attack.

Central defence will be the main problem. Nesta is brilliant but injury prone and Bonera has shown good signs this season....they have the ability to form a good partnership over the next few years. After them there's not much else. Costacurta is retiring, I think Kaladze may leave (or be used as trade bait) this summer and unfortunately the time may finally have come where Maldini is no longer playing for Milan. Simic is really just a squad player. I would definitely like to see Alex at Milan next season, possibly along with a Favalli-style central defender that won't cost too much but will give the squad a bit more depth.

If Ronaldinho doesn't come, some of the money Berlusconi would have spent on him should go on a top quality new striker, Zambrotta, a quality central defender (Alex would be ideal) and possibly Buffon if he is prepared to spend up. That's asking a lot though and I doubt we'd get all of the above!

I'm dreaming but this would be such a great lineup:

Buffon

Oddo-Nesta-Alex-Zambrotta

Gattuso-Pirlo-Seedorf

Kaka

Gilardino-Ronaldo

Dreaming?? There's Seedorf in your line-up! I'd call that a nightmare... I really don't want him to be a starter next season no matter if he alone wins us the CL this season!

What is it with you and Seedorf lately??

I know he's been very poor at times this season, but lets face it, who in our team was playing great in the first half of the season (apart from Kaka in CL)?

He's getting back into form and is playing great with good consistancy at the moment.

I think we should cut him some slack, because all of the players deserve criticism for the way they played in the forst part of the season, particularly him, Pirlo, Gila, Oli, Pippo, Cafu (who right now looks in amazing shape)

Pippo is 34 and Cafu 35. Gila and Pirlo worked their @sses off in the World Cup... Oli is just crap! However all of the above were at least trying, Seedorf was NOT! And he won't make good just because he woke up in the end of the season... I like Seedorf but the past couple of seasons he's been incurably pesky with his match-picking!

This is what we need for next season:

2 brand new center backs:

One versatile and experienced who can play on the left also & another one to replace Costacurta.


1 full back:
A back up for Oddo.

1 defensive midfielder:(optional)

Such as Ze Roberto


1 attacker:
An attacker on the rise who can become the next big thing for us or just Ronaldinho.

I have to agree 100% with Max.

That is EXACTLY what we need.

Alex (I can't see us getting him)
Dani Alvez (Everybody knows he only play RB so he can take even more people on)
Ze Roberto (I would LOVE this move)
Ronaldinho (It looks like it will happen)

That'd be nice, but it'd cost us.

What does anyone think of Ivan Helguera as a backup CB, there's no way he'll be in Madrid next year.

Dani Alves would be a great signing (for any team)! He can play at RB (...) but he's also a great DMF, RMF and can do a lot better than most CBs out there!

I think Alves is out of the question, I think it will either be Barca or Real for him next season.