Indeed, but some still persist in linking Cesc with Barcelona.

Barca don't really have a budget, if they go over, they just go and borrow some more, but because they are Barca no-one really cares, god forbid it was Man City.

They bought him for €26million upfront, plus €11.5million in future bonuses. I think they still have some money left (also considering that they sold Bojan to Roma for 12 M), though they need a top class CB more than they need Fabregas IMO.

Sure they spent money, just like any other top team, but they usually do only 1 or 2 big transfers per season in recent years. They don't need to do more than that cuz unlike others, they still have 7-8 home grown players in the starting line-up.

Corriere dello Sport as well. And yes, I also have a feeling he'll be ours.



No, they recently declared they've got the money for Fabregas as well.

I would be happy if as a result of both Sanchez and Fab going to Barca, they off loaded Allefay, and we picked him up. I may be mistaen, but i think he can play as a midfielder or maybe as the LCM, which would be good. Id be content if we signed montolivo and another play maker type, whether its Ganso, Hamsik or Pastore, I believe anyone of them is a step up from what we have. And they would get us to that next level.

Laura Esposto .. TV presenter for Milan Channel claims that "Milan's Mister X is someone like Fabregas" from her twitter account.

You guys can quote me on this one.

If barca don't sign Fabregas by Aug 8th, he is ours.

Quoted

After pondering it for a while, I think signing Fabregas would be a bad decision for us. He clearly wants Barça, and he'll get there eventually. Right now, there wouldn't be any place for him considering Xavi and Iniesta have still much to give. But in a couple of years, when Xavi will be too old, obviously they'll want to replace him with none other than Fabregas. I can't imagine he wouldn't want to go there, even if he's having a good time at Milan. With that in mind, I'd look for somebody else. Even if it means selling Fabregas at a higher price and thus making a profit, I don't want us signing a big name only to lose him in just a couple of years. I want our players to be fully devoted to Milan, and not thinking of the right moment to drift to their dream land.

I understand your point, and agree mostly. Though I believe Fabregas would want Barca, I still think he is a great professional and would give his all to Milan and would be respectful when he decided to leave. We'd make a profit or a minimal loss, and we would have recruited a top talent during what is normally considered a player's prime.

Schweinsteiger would still be no.1 for me. I like the Montolivo idea as I think we as a board underrate him. But it would need to be Montolivo plus Pastore or Ganso, not Montolivo alone.

-Gazzetta dello Sport's prediction on Milan's Market:

Montolivo 40%
Ganso 20%
Fabregas 15%
Pastore 15%
Hamsik 10%




-Reports out of Rome suggest that De Rossi could be on his way out and were in pole position to sign him.


-Bari and Hellas Verona want Marco Ezio Fossatti on loan.


-Fiorentina are linked with Acquilani as a result of montolivo's exit.


-Montolivo transfer information:

Fiorentina have rejected Milan's proposal of Paloschi and 5m for Montolivo. They want 10m cash only for Montolivo. Milan have countered with 9m paid in two installments.



-Reports in England have suggested that Arsenal have rejected Barcelona's offer of 37.5m for Cesc Fabregas.



-We are linked with Luca Modric.


-Guardiola: "If only Alexis joins us, I'll be satisfied with the squad. I can't complain."


-Roma sign Bojan for 12m.


-Palermo's sporting director has declared that their is a high possibility that Pastore will join Chelsea this summer.


-Gattuso has told Corriere dello sport in an interview that Milan should get kaka.




MN/CM/TMW/corrier/gazetta

More chance I'm playing for Milan next season. No chance we pay his price tag.

Not entirely true, i'd rather sell outside the league then inside of it if i was in Tottenham's boots

But they still wouldn't do it for less money. If they're rejeecting offers of £30m+ from Chelsea, they're not going to accept it from us. I also don't see us offering that kind of money for him.

So Ringo wants Kaka back

And he will. Mark my words, there is a very strong possibility of him coming back on loan, at least.

What's going on here .. You want your words marked .. Blue wants us to quote him ...

Yeah, we just have our hunch. That, or some special secret source that we don't want out, LOL.

They're trying to pull out a Galliani

Or that.

Personally I don't believe Fabregas is a feasable solution for us, especially taking into account what x-off said in regards to Barca. Of course I'd be ecstatic if he actually came, but taking into account our financial situations and other positions that need to be looked into, is it really that smart to spend the ridiculous amount of money Arsenal would wan for him?

I'd personally be happy if we got Montolivo (who imo is pretty cheap) and Ganso preferably now but would be ok if he's brought in during the winter transfer window because the really tough fixtures come in around February

Looking at our squad, I see a great line up of Keepers, probably one of the strongest line up of defenders in the World, then all of a sudden a very unbalanced and thin midfield (especially in attacking midfielders) and again a World class line up of forwards. It doesn't look good. A couple important players need to come in and fill in those holes. I believe, with the addition of Montolivo and Ganso we will be competitive enough to beat any team. But Ganso, or a player similar to him is essential I believe.

As for Montolivo, he might just surprise us if he does end up in the Rossoneri shirt. He is obviously ready for the next level and he wants to fight. Not all players are flashy nor do they need to be. His contribution on the field will be important considering he is a more complete and modern player than both Gattuso and Ambro.



Alternatively, if Ganso is joining us in January or in the unfortunate event that he doesn't join us at all, we could be looking at something like this:



with Robinho having a similar role as last season.

But this second formation won't be much of a force in the CL race. That much should be obvious by now.

Who cares what that tadpole says. Dunga better stick to ruining careers and burning dreams.

He's right though, I don't think Ganso is capable of playing as trequartista. He should cover Seedorf's role instead.

Agreed about the mid and forward line, but two changes: Okay lineup of keepers. And definitely the strongest defense in club football at the time of this writing. Yeah, does not look good at all. There is little/no linkup between the attacking third, though I think our DMs are quite okay.

If nothing changes between now and the end of the summer window, we could be looking at trouble.


Yeah, agreed. Ganso is no Kaka', he's the very definition of a "lazy artist". Meaning he can succeed in a slower-paced league like Italian Seria A. Seedorf role I see him in, not Pirlo's - that would be too far back. So that's a #10, after all.

I've never seen Seedorf as a true 10 IMO either. And I am also inclined to believe Dunga on his assessment. From what I've seen - a few Santos games and the Copa America tournament, he's talented but there's much to work on that guy. Montolivo? He's just average, nothing more.

I'm gonna risk it and repeat myself once more - it depends on what we want/set as goals. If we wanna be a Serie A contender while at the same time getting kicked out by average teams in the CL last 16 round - then Ganso and Montolivo are the solution we can all welcome. If not - if we want to make an assault on the CL semis or final - we only stand a chance with a player of Cesc's caliber.

Very much agreed. Maybe the clubs is planning to manage their expectations this year. And go for CL next season.

Cesc is more of a finished product, but I still don't believe that just Cesc will elevate us into CL contenders, we'd still need another midfielder imo.

Ganso and Montolivo might not mean instant success, but I believe that in the long run they will be the better options for us. And anyways, it's not like Cesc has ever done anything of note in the big games....

Aren't we a little out of our depth with the Cesc talk, of course he'd be a big name signing but I really, really can't see it happening. If he goes, he goes to Barca, I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed with Arsenal as opposed to come here in all honesty. Everyone knows of his desire to go back to Barca it's been like that for years so why would he not just play on at The Emirates for another year? I'm not sure it's more of a case that he's massively unhappy there, more so that he just really specifically wants to go to back to Barca, in my opinion.

Agreed, this is all hypothetical imo, I always said that I can't see him coming here

- Zamparini: I will sell Pastore this week.

- Hamsik: No to Milan, I will stay in Napoli.

- Massimiliamo Allegri: Fabregas? You have to ask to Wenger and Guardiola, however, I have a good squad.

- Heynckes: Schweinsteiger is ours and will stay in Bayern at least until 2015.

source: milannews and rossoneriblog

Ibrahimovic, Pato, Robinho, Cassano, Inzaghi, El Shaarawy, Paloschi

= this is an issue that needs to be adressed, Cassano should be sold preferably in a swap deal with montolivo and paloschi sent out on loan again. It hurts to look at 7 forwards at the very least(if ive missed anyone)

The bolded two are injury-prone and cannot even hold out half a season without a injury. That would leave us with 4 strikers, of which only 2 are typical strikers. If we follow then your advice and get rid of Cassano and Paloschi, what would be left?

Always thinking of the last case scenario, eh? If it was up to me, I'd get rid of Cassano and Inzaghi immediately. But considering we renewed Pippo's contract for another season, then I'd loan Paloschi. Five forwards are more than enough, injury-prone or not.

Last case scenario? So you think Inzaghi and Pato not getting injured is a real option? That never happened.

And in the chronic lack of creativity Cassano actually could have some use. So no, I completely disagree this time.

Sorry, I meant worst case scenario. Even if one of them gets injured, we'd still have four other choices to count on. Not enough?

Well, I'm counting on two of them going down, while in the mean time I separate the SS strikers from the typical finishers.

But, honestly, Albertino has been loaned off for quite some time. And he actually hasn't made a real progress in footballing terms. So I'd try him out here, with us. El Shaarawy still is a question mark as well. So we have two players that will be tested, two standard strikers and two SS and one Superpippo bonus. All in all, it's a mischmasch, but I'd stick with all 7 of them.

We really need a creative midfielder badly don't we? Not only we need someone who can hold possession, but someone who can deliver defence-splitting passes. For now, I can only think of Fabregas. Ganso may be good at keeping possession but he's way too slow to be an attacking midfielder.

Ganso is way more creative than Fabregas IMO. He's kinda static but he thinks fast.


I can tell you a lot of great playmakers with Ganso's style. Players like Socrates, Riquelme, Zidane, Laudrup, Kempes...etc.

Ganso can hold possession and provide through passes. The fact he's no good as trequartista is because he lacks the acceleration for insertions without the ball, something for which Boateng and Robinho are great at.

The more I think about it the more I believe we need someone like Schweinsteiger.

I'm very pleased with Robinho's form lately. I think his first season was a season of adaptation, to Italian football and to a process of maturity by himself. In the past, he used to play as a winger. He was selfish and he liked making tricks rather than making do. Now he's progressing in the right direction. He's an all-rounder forward that tracks back and plays for the team. If he keeps it up, I think he can easily be our trequartista.

Well, thank God you are not Galliani/Allegri. I very much believe one or two of them would be sold/loaned out. They are just too many.

I think they won't sell them either. But really, what's the fuss all about? Seven is a big number, but that's about it. People will always find a reason to complain.


I hope you are right. And I really hope he polishes his finishing skills, another season of misses like the ones he made last season would indefinitely alienate me from him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZRNmjEuFz4
if he plays at this level i think i can say 8M is a bargain

I'm really no fan of youtube compilations. Almost anyone can look like a star there.

We're being linked with Aquilani. Fiorentina is asking us 10-15 million for Montolivio which we deem as too much, thus we're going after Aquilani. Loan with the obligation of purchase is the preferred option.

Link

Who is better in your opinion?

Aquilani is better overall, but Montolivo more creative and less injury prone. That makes them even to me. What do you think?