Former Milan striker Oscar Damiani has revealed that Milan passed up the opportunity to sign Luca Toni, David Trezeguet and Ruud Van Nistelrooy in order to keep hold of Alberto Gilardino.

So much was expected of Gila when he arrived for £18m in 2005, but the ex-Parma striker has been very disappointing and has been a complete flop in Europe, scoring just two Champions League goals in two years.

The World Cup winner has come under intense criticism so far this season. The forward has yet to score and was booed continuously by the Milan fans during the Rossoneri’s recent home games against Fiorentina and Benfica.

Damiani claims that Milan had the chance to replace Gilardino with any of the aforementioned trio but chose to keep faith with their ex-Verona hitman.

“Milan had taken the difficult decision to sell Gilardino and replace him with a first-class striker,” Damiani told Sky Sports Italia.

“Then they changed their mind and decided to keep faith with Gilardino, rather than choose between either Toni, Van Nistelrooy or Trezeguet, of which positive contact had already been made.”

Gilardino will be hoping to end his barren run when Milan travel to Sicily tomorrow evening to face Palermo.


goal.com

VN is 6 years older than Gila

While Toni and Trez are both 5 yrs older than him.....

Moreover, all three of them are above 30!

So, it wouldn't be the smartest idea to exchange them, although three of them are much better than our "lovely" Gila.

I thought he was injured ?!

It doesn't matter I guess, whether he is injured or not, same sh1t IMO

Yeah and RVN was leading scorer of the La Liga last season and Toni has been one of the top scorers. Age means nothing-- performance everything.

That won't happen twice

i think it would have been stupid to sign all 3...but just one of those guys would have greatly bolstered our team

It sure would be great! But (I also thought this at first) I don't think he means we'd get all three of them together... it's the goal.com headline that confuses thing a little...

All of those were over 30, Great in the short term, but crap for long term

Milan usually buy players in that age for short term (Vieri, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Emerson and so many others). We needed one of those even if it is for two seasons.