Absolutely. Well said.

I disagree with that part. If that were true, you would be hearing statements of letting Mexes go to bring in Bonucci and/or Barzagli.

I think while we accept Mexes is our best defender on paper, we don't feel our best is nowhere near good enough.

The question on my mind is Mexes' 4 million wage keeping us freeing wages that would let us get in a truly class player (not necessarily for defence) ?

Please note, not saying 4 million will get us a top player, but freeing 4 million plus whatever money we have left could together give us that sum to pay a top player's wages.

Theoretically it's good. But starting from Sheva who got replaced by Oliveira, which sale of a "top" player freed space and made us stronger in recent years?

The bigger picture with Mexés comes back to his questionable discipline. If he were a straight-shooter like Thiago, I don't think anyone here would be dissing him.

Yep, let's sell our most established CB and bring in some unknown from the Brazilian league...


Completely correct


Mexes has discipline issued yes, but people here make it sound like he gets sent off every other week. He's had something like an average of 1 or 2 red cards per season, which is not exactly a picture of what you guys are implying. Sure he can lose his head once in a blue moon ala what he did at Juve, but that's a rare thing and I'm willing to put up with it because we have no one of his quality on our roster. And if Rami flops, we're absolutely, 100% f@cked over big time!

Precisely.

What?

You implied that his being non-Italian had something to do with his lack of support from fans. I didn't think that was the case.

lol, no way; such a weak statement

Zapata is our best central defender, not Mexes.

I don't think it's about support from the fans, it's about being acknowledged for your quality, and while Barzagli and Bonucci are hyped up for no reason because they're Italian Mexes is underrated, when in reality he's better than both.

The fact that Giorgio - manhandle - Chiellini is considered the best CB Italy has to offer speaks volumes of the quality of CBs coming out of the country these days

Zapata? The player who single handedly cost us a probably total of more than 9 points this season thanks to his errors alone?

Be real now!!

Your personal dislike for Mexes is clouding your judgment BIG TIME!!

Without Allegri and Mexes, but with Seedorf, Zapata will let you eat your words later.

Go f@ck yourself.

I sort of agree with you, I like Mexès, but that is definitely why people don't like him so much around here.

I get that. But didn't get the part to do with us being linked with Bonucci or Barzagli...

So half a season played in a bad fashion undoes everything Zapata has done good last season?

Maybe. But not for me. I still think he can make it and become more reliable. This is a special season where almost every of our players flopped and showed his bad sides rather then the good ones.

I agree to an extent and I do think he's as good as Bonucci. He's not as good as Barzagli though based on the last few years.

Mexes-Zapata partnership annoys me, because they could make a pretty damn good partnership, it just seems like every game one of them will make a huge mistake.

Considering Seedorf played with him , has the clout to bring him to us , hes young , cheap , could be the next big thing is highly rated in Brazil to move to a big european club after the world cup , Mexes is leaving we cannot pay for an established centre back and won't be in the near future so we have the Rami's coming in which are still not quality more so then Mexes is... this is the times we live in you buy young and cheap and sell them on later. So yeah if we sell Mexes i would rather we bring in someone like Doria or Bianchetti from Verona but he will cost more then Doria.

+1

They had a string of good games if I remember last year, I think. Hopefully, it'll work again.

Lol, what does Seedorf have to do with Zapata making mistakes equivalent to those made on the school yard? This is one area where even Allegri cannot be blamed. Zapata has been a player who's made some horrible individual mistakes this season. That's a fact. Not only has he made these mistakes in the league but he's also made them in the CL (That ridiculous mistake against Barca when he went up with the ball and passed it straight to Iniesta)

Mexes helped Zapata have a great first year with us, that's the reason why we conceded the least amount of goals in the second half of last season. Mexes spent nearly this entire season covering Zapata's @ss and his ridiculous mistakes

And I'll eat my words? Yes, sure, I'll eat them as soon as we have another shocker with the Bonera-Zapata starting combo like we did at Sassuolo


No it doesn't, he's a good defender, but ideally he'd be third choice behind the better 2 CBs which as it stands are technically speaking Rami and Mexes. I said technically speaking because in Rami's case we have zero clue on how he'll adapt so at this moment in time, Zapata and Mexes would still be the ideal pairing


Doria could just as easily turn into Vergara 2.0

@ kurt, this season Zapata has been having a mare, he's made mistakes that cost us points, agreed, but Mexes hasn't made these kinds of mistakes, in fact at certain points he's been having a hard time trying to cover Zapata's @ss and even Constant's. And I've always said, that Mexes individually is a great CB, as well as all round player, but he's not good enough to be covering for the mistakes of his partner like Nesta or Thiago could. Which is why we've suffered this season because Zapata has been pretty bad, while last season when Zapata was having a very good season we conceded the least amount of goals in the league from January up until the end of the season

Our CBs are bad. Mexes is not just rash, he also zones out. Unfortunately our team isn't so good to carry weakness in that crucial position.

I personally think Mexes and Bonera would be a good combo, since Bonera is always a little more positionally aware but his tackling and pace are off.

Zapata compensates the other two, but yes too many brain farts.

I guess we'll just have to make due with Bonera, Zapata, Rami and Silvestre till the end of the season. Hopefully Rami turns out good for us, and we can sign another quality CB (preferably left-footed) in the summer.

BALANTA!!! (though we may have already missed our chance, Barca is after him if rumors are to be believed...

Yeah, that seems to be the plan. Our defense will be tricky, also with Mexes, the pro Mexes people have to agree with? The focus is to sign a real quality CB in Summer, and Mexes leaving helps by making place.

lol, since when have we sold at this club and bought up?

Nearly every time we sold a quality player we've either not replaced them or replaced them with a couple of fodder players we scrounged on the cheap.

Selling Mexes only means that we're taking 2 steps back after making 1 step forward with Rami. Thus, we're in a worse off position than we started the season with and I'm 100% confident that we're not going to break the bank to sign the top quality CB people here are imagining

Seedorf knows we need a quality CB, so we'll get one. Allegri didn't push for one, but I'm hopeful Seedorf will. Rami has little to do with it, while he's on loan with option to buy, but mostly it happened before either Seedorf was hired or Mexes is going to be sold. If Rami impress, it's nice, while we can sign a quality CB; if not, then we may not sign him, and sign someone else instead (or two). With Mexes, Silvestre, and maybe Rami leaving, surely new defenders will come? Seedorf puts priority on a new quality CB, unlike Allegri, so for a change, we may spend money on one. Be pessimistic all you want, but you're not going to take away my faith.

^ Agreed.

The club's roster is bloated at almost every position right now. If we manage to sell Muntari, Nocerino, Zaccardo, and Mexes that should yield enough cash along with wages saved that we could only use half of it on a new CB and come out alright. Selling Matri in the summer could get us a little extra cash too.

We currently have 30 players in our roster. 25 would be optimal.

Gabriel -> loan
Vergara -> loan
Zaccardo -> sell
Nocerino -> sell
Muntari -> sell

...honestly wouldn't mind if a couple of the ones listed as 'loan' were turned into a 'sell'.

Well considering there are only two others listed as loan, you want to sell them all. Sneaky Trini!

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Well considering the selling spree we seem to be on, he just may get his wish.

The sarcasm is strong in this one!

Muntari, Zaccardo and Nocerino won't be bringing us any good money, we'd be seriously lucky if we managed to get a combined 10m for all 3, and even that's reaching a bit too far

Mexes, I'd only sell for 12 to 15m, especially if Monaco really want him and we really go after someone of true quality, if not, I'd rather he stays.

Matri, if he does well at Fiorentina we could recoup 10m of the 12 we paid. Fiorentina even hinted about possibly making the deal permanent.

So all in all if we are ridiculously lucky, we could make a combined amount of around 25m to 30m from all those sales. If that's the case and we go after a real quality CB that could elevate our defence to the next level, then I can agree that selling Mexes was good, but when has this ever happened?

@ chu, you have zero idea of what plans Seedorf has, there are no indicators that we want to go after any huge names right now

Why, thank you! There was a part of me that knew the only reason why we even signed up Rami on free was to sell Mexes at the first opportunity. Just like we sold Silva after securing the free signature of Mexes. It's an evil strategy, and one that the club seems to be happy indulging in. Sign up free players on high wages for profit later.

Not only does it mean we have zero team chemistry, we would be lucky if we got any silverware in the near future.

I got an idea, or may not, but nothing I can know for sure, which is why I used the terms 'faith' in my case, and 'pessimistic' in yours.

"I want to respect my contract (ending in 2015). I'm not looking for a new club to make more money. I want to stay and extend my stay"

Source: Mediaset

If he gets a pay cut, then we should keep him.

I'd be on board with that as long as we still get a good young CB as well.

I think if we manage to offload Zaccardo plus the fact that De Silvestre is back to Inter in the summer, we'll have space to bring in someone really good.

That way we'd have Rami, Mexes, Bonera and a new CB for that position. Personally I think it looks like a good line-up of CBs

Technically speaking if all our players are used correctly we'd have - on paper - one of the best defences in the league. But Seedorf needs to make use of both Abate and DS. And he needs to be consistent with his picks of CBs

I think we've seen a total 180 of improvement in midfield and attack since Seedorf took over, but imo, the defence has taken a step back, and that's saying something considering how bad we already were this season before Seedorf. He's been constantly messing around with the CB pairing, and the fact that he omits either Abate or DS to play duds like Constant or Urby on the left is really grating for me personally

But since he's played Bonera, Mexes and Rami in defense consistently, we've conceded only two goals in the last four games. It just shows you how important it is not changing things game in and game out, especially when it comes to defense.

Yeah, he's been more consistent in his choices as of late but in the previous weeks we hadn't played with the same CB pairing 2 games in a row

I think he needs to have a set ENTIRE back 4, and stick to it religiously, only injuries should force him into a change

It's Silvestre, De Silvestre is a different player

And you forgot about the existence of Zapata, haven't you? I don't think we could bring in someone good for Silvestre and Zaccardo. We'll get peanuts for both. The only option is to bring in someone young, with potential but unproven, like Veltman or van Rhijn.

I'm still undecided on our defense. I rate Bonera and Mexes, but both are capable of playing a horror show. Rami is not a good match with Mexes, that's IMO also a problem. Then we have the keeper situation; signing Agazzi brings nothing.

The fullback situation is dire as well. We must offload both Emo and Constant.

We aren't actually getting anything for Silvestre cos he's on loan.



Why? And please don't say they're too similar cos I don't see it.



It's dire because Abate and MDS are injured. Seedorf is just creating a problem out of nowhere with his handling of the fullbacks. We had a really nice combo in Abate and MDS, but then he came in and decided to mess things around, benching Abate, switching MDS to the right, playing Urby as starter etc. Was it necessary? If we go back to Abate and MDS things will be more than fine. No need to waste money on fullbacks.

Yes.


They're both relying too much on physicality and brute force. They are good jumpers but not exactly Jaap Stam in the air. They lack anticipation and both end up mispositioned too many times. Indeed, I think they're much alike. They both make Bonera (not just them, the whole Milan situation) look like the heir of Nesta, at least when it comes to fine tackling, anticipation and covering.


We need a good backup, with MDS injury rate, this must be evident to you? Agreed, Seedorf did create a bit of a mess, but if Abate leaves we'll have a problem. And I have a feeling he'll leave.

Respectfully disagree. I don't think they're similar. They're both really good in air, especially Rami, who's a fine tackler as well, whereas Mexes is great at positioning. Nobody's a Nesta or Silva, but at the current state of affairs they're two decent players we should rely on, even though they have their own imperfections.



We don't know if MDS will keep getting injured. He could very well play all games next season. I think Abate and MDS as staters, and Bonera + Urby as subs is good enough.

Hopefully you're wrong about Abate.

Inzaghi: "Mexes has always trained. I have a good relationship with him. We decided to go with Alex, but Philippe has always been ready. I know that I can count on a great person and a great footballer"

No Pippo, you don't get to talk like that. You've treated him like sh*t. You decided to go with Alex? What about when Alex was injured? Oh yes, you preferred Bonera, Rami and Zapata over Mexes.

Politicians. The lot of them!

Well we have to sell him, he can't bad-mouth him. I wouldn't be surprised if more stories about how great Mexes is at everything come out in the time before he goes.

I don't rate Mexes at all but he's one of many of Pippo's victims in this new regime.

I am truly shocked at the quote about MDS: Pippo's confirmed if he's fit, he starts. No matter what his form is.

So we have untouchables in this squad, my guess being they're Abate, MDS, De Jong, Muntari and Honda. Two of them are fine, they're great players, but their form will dip at some point. Guess what? No one will come to replace them. So while their form is poor, we'll be weak. Because they're Pippo's untouchables.

We're 100% stuck with MDS, Muntari and Honda always starting regardless of form. Which, when in form is of course fine. But that loss of form won't see loss of place? That's just ghastly management. As is starting Muntari in general.

He's the Lee McCulloch of Milan.