No coverage of Pato's agent declarations from Mediaset or Gazzetta. Don't know how much reliable they are.

That wouldn't surprise me. We have fields of better quality than the San Siro pitch.

Are you being serious?



My language may have been sarcastic but I actually like her. I think she has the club's best interests at heart and I think she's good for its future. I also think she's bloody hot.

However, her and arguably the club's top star together whether it's over or not is a lot of baggage the club really doesn't need.

Daddy Berlusconi is more powerful than 20 Allegris. Hell so is Daughter Berlusconi.

You don't see the potential complications from the club's top star dating the president's daughter and club director?

Who is? Berlu or Pato?

True. The injury is also mentioned here: http://www.milannews.it/?action=read&idnotizia=98609

BTW, if he's really fit, which I don't think he is, the whole thing might be connected to the contract renewal.

Yep. I understand that some people don't rate Allegri, but some of the criticism is ridiculous. Now he wants average players so he feels in control? But I thought he wasn't able to control the team, so which is it? Or what about people complaining his team relied on Ibra - a star. Which is it, Ibra is average and easy to control, or Allegri in fact isn't a control freak, God forbid?

People gotta be right when there right right !

So, Galliani wants to renew his contract and refused Corinthians' loan offer. If that is true, then I don't see how Allegri won't play him if he's fit.

Because he is Allegri? No point in asking how or why.

Yeah, maybe Allegri is making a statement with his selection?

Allegri can go f@ck himself for all I care.

He's out at the end of the season anyway so Galliani won't base any decisions on what he thinks

And yet people claim Allegri's basically decides the transfers?

The contradiction on here is both hilarious and pathetic.

No.

It's simple: Allegri had credit which he managed to burn with this seasons disastrous start. Now that Milan will most probably part ways with him there is no sense in following his nods.

If he wanted not to play him he would just...not play him like with let say Ronaldinho. I find it hard to believe that he would invent an injury and stick with it in every press conference and that our managemet will play along. Plus, that agent thing is not reported in major italian press while all state that he's injured.

A season is a season. We sit in a position around equal to our squad rating even with a terrible start. So if anything, that means on current form we're set to overacheive. Unless people here actually believe we have a top 3/4 squad?

Lemme go slooowww here:

1) Ibra: strong personality, strong person, physically imposing, mo$t expensive player in the squad, instant best performer = Allegri has no choice BUT to play him. Allegri even played iBra when he was tired and not completely fit

the facts seemed to indicate that iBra intimidated him.

2) Average players: (Prince, Noce, Urby etc) will give the coach less trouble because this may be their one and only chance to play at a "big club". Actually good players know that if Allegri treats them like cr@p, they can always fall into the open, waiting arms of another big club and perhaps do even better. Allegri, could only freeze these out of the squad.

CR@P players will ALWAYS sweat blood for him because their position is completely opposite to the good players and hence many of them often get to play with varied results.

If you still don't get it I'm an engineer, so I have no problems producing some structural or cause and effect diagrams for your perusal

What the hell??! Can no one relax on this Allegri issue?

Yes, there has been massive improvements in the squad. To blame all of the start on Allegri is not fair, but he did make mistakes.

All the same the situation we are in, is also thanks to some tinkering around by him. And he has found for now at least a decent combination.

Finally, I do believe we are a top 5 side in Serie A. And actually would go as far as to say, we could make a realistic chase for the 3rd place.

seems not , haters gunna hate no matter what whether Allegri shits a golden ball people on this forum are not going to like him.

In my book yes we had a shite start but we are on a good run now with the team we have its good going atm and thats thanks to Allegri whether people can swallow it or not its down to him. He tinkered and finally came out of the rough patch.

Regarding $litlegr!:

I think it's a tad funny that his supporters were bemoaning the lack of quality in the squad....back on the Red and Black forum there were those that even claimed that the likes of Atalanta and co were better

Now we're kinda on a winning streak after beating the Italian champions, these claims seemed to have subsided

This is what a I think too. Still though, you have to admit it's unclear exactly what is wrong with Pato. It's doesn't seem like everything is peachy and dandy either regarding his overall situation..

Duh, yeah! After Juve, Inter, and to an extent, Napoli, we have by far the best team in Serie A. You believe Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina are better than us? Think again.

I wouldn't say we're better than Roma/Lazio, more on par. Which is what I'm saying. We're not a CL level team, we're a Europe League team from this league and we shall finish as such.

Even if we're on par, that means we can challenge for a 4th place, although I believe that with a few changes in January we might even aspire that coveted 3rd place.

Kurt always like to underplay our quality so Allegri looks like a tactical genius.

Juve had by far the better squad in Serie A last season according to him.

Forget all the star players we had from the defence all the way to the attack

I say we're a Europa League quality team this season 4-6. How is that underplaying it?

If you genuinly think we have a top 3 squad in the league I suggest you do 1 of 2 things. Wake up, or stop smoking whatever it is you're smoking.

And my stance on Allegri has always been the same - this season isn't all his fault, our squad isn't enough to challenge for the title. For some reason this is translated into me thinking he is some sort of tactical genius, which I have never said or even hinted at.

But hey, those that can't debate generally have to make stuff up to try and get an edge. Cool.

Who ever said anything about the title for crying out loud?

No one in their right mind ever expected it.

However, yes we do have a top 3 squad considering outside of Inter and Juve who the other clubs are!! And at the start of the season the majority of people were expecting us to challenge for that spot

This is not the EPL where you have 4 or even 5 really massive teams competing. If you consider Napoli so much better then I'm not the one who needs to wake up.

Take out Hamsik and Cavani and Napoli would struggle to make Europa League, put them back in and they're decent enough to compete for third with us. Our problems have not been because of the personnel we have but because of how that personnel is being utilised. Whereas Napoli are miles ahead of us in this regard

When your arguement is based on removing the top 2 players from a team, I don't know what to say. Defensively they're better than us, their midfield is far more mobile and their attack is better. Hell, they even have a better keeper. Napoli are better than us all over the pitch.

De Sanctis - Abbiati-level GK;
Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Aronica, Britos, Gamberini - they're all very mediocre;
Inler, Dzemaili, Behrami, Maggio, Zuniga, Hamsik - the Slovakian aside, the rest are all average to decent players;
Cavani, Pandev, Insigne, Vargas - same argument.

Really Kurt, where do you see this supremacy of theirs? IMO players like Mexes, Zapata, Abate, De Jong, Nocerino, Montolivo, Boateng, Bojan, El Shaarawy etc. are far superior. The thing with Napoli is that they are a cohesive team that's been playing together for quite a while under the same manager. They haven't incurred big changes and this is only to their advantage.

I see it this way too. Let's not even get started on teams like Fiorentina or Lazio...

Roster-wise, we are top 3.

De Sanctis is far better than the keepers we have. Not just better.

Campagnaro and Cannavaro are not average, they're very good CBs. Aronica is also not average, he's terrible, though they have Gamberini now who's better than decent. We have have Mexes, Zapata and Abate who're severely overrated, particularly Abate, but I wouldn't say their defense is better even though their backups are somewhat 'solid, but not good' rather than the **** ups we have.

Inler, Maggio and Hamsik would walk into our team. They are superior to the likes of Boateng, Nocerino, De Jong. The only midfielder of that quality we have in Montolivo.

Cavani is in a different universe to the strikers we have, if he scored less than all of our strikers combined it'd be a disappointing season for him. I think Pandev is overrated though and I haven't seen enough of Insigne/Vargas to really be able to say much about them.

People often overrate their own players, so this doesn't surprise me. We are not a top 3 squad.

The irony of this that makes me smile is that these are the same players that people complain about all match thread and yet apparently they're amongst the elite in the league at their position.. yeah right. Agree, disagree, I don't care. I won't be drawn on the topic after this.

You always say this, yet this must be the third time you've had this discussion. Are you my girlfriend in disguise?

Honey, all this nonsense these people say about my womanising and drinking are lies okay?

Well remove Ibra and Silva from our team and look where we are

It's not rocket science, Napoli have regressed this season by just losing Lavezzi and imo he wasn't the best one out of their "magical" trio. This is the reality. And I love how you cut out the part where I admitted that on the pitch they are ahead of us simply because they're a much more cohesive unit then us. THEIR coach has a very specific style, they know what their tactical gameplan is, they know their roles on the pitch. Compare that to us and the answer is slapping you across the face.They're far from better than us all over the pitch, you tell US we're overrating our players?? Then what are you doing with this? Trying to make yourself feel better so your arguments about Allegri are more relevant?


Totally 100% correct!


Agreed


Are you serious with this??

De Sanctis can be the biggest screw up on his day and when he's good he's not a goal keeper that can pull off the amazing saves like Abbiati. Both can screw up majorly but Abbiati has a knack for the spectacular at times. We have Amelia as well who's average but he's stable and reliable and rarely f@cks up as badly as Abbiati or De Sanctis can.

Cannavaro, Campagnaro, Aronica? They're all mediocre, you don't have to look far to see this. When up against the better sides they're terribly exposed. Mexes, Zapata, hell even Yepes and Bonera are more reliable than these 3.

Maggio would never get into this team, he's a wingback but a terrible RB. Abate trumps on hm every day, even DS is a better RB than he is. Case in point Italy at the Euros. Prandelli started with him because of the 3-man defence system Italy started the tournament with, but once Italy switched to a 4 at the back Maggio was horribly exposed and Abate walked right in and he was incredibly missed in the final after he got injured against you lot. Hamsik would walk right in and I conceed this. Inler is at the same level as De Jong and Nocerino, he'd be a nice addition but to say he'd walk right in is falling into the trap you're accusing us of falling into.

Yes, Cavani is in another universe and no one ever denied this

Notice that aside from a select few players such as Urby, Robinho and Acerbi people don't lament the player per se, but more the way he's being utilised, which brings this argument back full circle to your main man!

Sure people complained about Boateng and Nocerino at the start but they're showing their quality now as their form is getting back to the levels expected of them. You say these guys are mediocre yet you're saying guys like Zuniga, Maggio, Campagnaro, etc are all really good players... Talk about building up an argument!!

Yeah. I agree.

These (Napoli) players look so good, because they're being played to their strengths. But in our defence, we basically had the carpet pulled from beneath our feet and then had to make do with quite a few squad members.

I think, in a couple of years we too shall have a more cohesive unit. Yes, this does mean I'm supporting Allegri. Let's face it...the days when Milan played 3 number 10s and a Shevchenko are over. No team has the balls to do that, well except Barca and maybe Bayern.

More like wanting him hung drawn and quartered

Poor sod. He was lost in a system which didn't play to his strengths and team mates who lacked confidence.

Now it seems we've found a niche for him and his colleagues are a lot happier.

Bar that messy loss to Zenit our form in the past while has been a vast improvement.

And the whining about Boateng has all but disappeared

Think what you want.

Apparently De Sanctis is a great keeper

Inler is a top class CM which is far better than the mediocre Nocerino and Boateng. And lol, Zuniga is also a great player...

My my my

@ dru. I said that to kurt because he's saying that we overrate all of our players while he's saying that Inler would basically walk into this team where the central midfield 3 are Monto, De Jong and Nocerino. Which I find ridiculous as if THAT is not exxageratng then I don't know what is.

Inler is a good Serie A player, but nothing amazing. It's not like we're talking about someone like Vidal or Marchisio here. Now 1 of those would walk right in instead of either Boateng or Nocerino, but not Inler FFS!

You are doing exactly what I say you do 1) overrated own players (Inler is better than De Jong and Nocerino, I did say he isn't better than Montolivo) and 2) making things up (I never mentioned Zuniga, in fact I thinkk he's poor).

Gotcha

Overall I agree with the sentiment. Our squad is good enough to make 4-6th place. if $h!tlegri fails to get us there then he's absolutely useless

Well it seems like all of us then are making things up and seeing things differently because it looks like the majority feel the same way that I do.

Have you considered that it might be the other way around and you're overrating other teams' players while underrating ours?

Huh? How many other people have claimed I said a player is great when in fact I said nothing of the sort, with my opinion actually being that he is poor?

Otherwise it's subjective and Inler to me is far better than De Jong and better than Noce/Boateng and he has been for a while.

But hey, I'm talking to someone who thinks Yepes/Bonera are better than Cannavaro/Campagnaro, so whatever. I think we're 4th-6th type squad, not 1st-3rd. I'm not debating it anymore, neither will change what we think.

Never said anything about a particular player, but about the general notion that you presented about Napoli being far better than us EVEN on paper. Which everyone aside from you seems to think is far from the case.

You've underrated De Jong and Boateng forever now yet you think the sun shines out of Pazzini's @ss. Yes these things are subjective and an oppinion can never be wrong, if your oppinion is that the sky is hot pink than that is your oppinion and I can't tell you that you're wrong. And if you think that a player like Inler is far superior to Prince/Nocerino/De Jong than good for you, I think that's far from the case and I feel many others would agree with me. Once again, you tell me I massively overrate our players yet you come out saying that Inler is a far better player...

As for Yepes and Bonera it was a tongue in cheek statement considering we were just debating Yepes yesterday and you were all in for him being our STARTER. But do I think that Cannavaro is a far superior player to Yepes? F@ck NO! Cannavaro can make a doosie as much as Yepes, I've seen enough of those in these last few seasons.

Also, don't say you're not debating this anymore as if you're right and I'm wrong and that's that. This debate started because you make every other team seem like they're the second coming compared to the leftover scraps poor old Allegri was left to deal with. Ridiculous!

And one other thing. I never said we are a 1st to 3rd position squad! I said a million times now I think that 1st and 2nd are completely out of reach, and based on squad quality those positions are occupied by Juve and Inter respectively. However I do firmly believe and EXPECT, like the majority did here at the start of the season that we'll be in 3rd, and if not 3rd then we'll come in a close 4th after a hard faught season. We were languishing near the bottom of the table at one point did anyone see the uttely miserable start to the season we were going to have coming?? No! Because yes we suffered a huge loss this summer but the sheer abysmal quality of our play was simply not expected, and that is what held us back not the quality of the squad.

Hence back to Allegri!

Not sure how often I have to repeat things to you, clearly you aren't going to get it. So yeah, whatever.

Well, your opinion is wrong... It's spelled with only one 'p'.

Good way to finish this debate as well. this is the Pato thread, not Milan vs Napoli.

I think you're the one not getting it. So yeah, watevah.





Nice spot


Well I think you off all people would rather us talk Napoli vs Milan rather than Pato and his constant injuries

It looks like Pato and Barbara didn't break up after all.

Is that Barbara? how can you tell?

Her butt is well known in Italy.