It's not the same thing

And aside from very reluctant rumours there hasn't been anything concreet about him linked to us either.

He'd still cost us a decent amount to get him anyway

Sell Abate then

Why is it not the same thing? Not a direct switch you mean?

I'd want both, not one or the other.

And yeah, it's different from like Pirlo and Seedorf the way we absolutely scalped them in both deals. Buying Santon for 10m+ won't really hurt them since he's not contributing to their team anyway

Well, it would hurt them because they got rid of him so easily.

But if you had to choose either Abate or Santon, who'd you pick?

Abate, no doubt about it

Really? On what grounds?

I think Santon is better. While Abate reached his peak I believe and there's little or no room to improve, Santon is still on a rise. He's younger and can do both sides. I'd pick Santon.

He's a Milan product, I don't think he's reached his peak and in no way is Santon better imo. The only thing he has going for him better than Abate is his age and the fact that he can play both sides, but it's become pretty obvious that he's very comfortable on the left and to move him back to the right wouldn't be smart imo.

To say Santon is better is overreaching. I've seen Abate every week now for 3 seasons straight, he's constantly improving areas of his game, and where last season our only gripe was his end product, this season he's taken a lot of steps in improving that by providing more assists than he had in all the previous seasons combined with us. I've seen Santon enough at Newcastle as well. He's a good player, no doubt, but imo he's just not at Abate's level yet. I've also now seen them both in the same team for Italy playing at the same time. To say Abate outshone Santon last week would be putting it mildly

Haven't seen him with Newcastle but he was much better even at Inter than Abate will ever be. Abate is nothing without his speed.

Better at Inter than Abate ever will be?

I think you're just biased in this case and still remember the Abate of his first season at Milan and refusing to acknowledge the player he's become

You can't just say everyone who thinks Santon is better than Abate is biased. Biased about what exactly? Santon played for Inter who most people hate, Newcastle who I hate. If we're going to be biased, it's against Santon.

Biased as in he hasn't seen much of Abate to say whether he's good enough or not. Remembering the Abate under Carlo or Leo? Of course that would give a biased oppinion towards Santon because Abate was sh!t back then. I was one of his biggest detractors in fact.

The team a player plays for has no baring on the argument. Santon showed a lot of promise at Inter, fair enough, but to say he was batten then Abate back then is pretty ridiculoud. At least debating the players in the NOW is more realistic

I can't say if Abate is better than Santon, cause I haven't seen Santon play in a very long time. However, I'm with han in that Abate is great for us. I actually think Abate is a very underrated player, and you can determine such when he's out injured and De Sciglio plays instead: the right wing becomes completely inexistent.

Which is why I don't understand your arguement of bias. Why would we put a player down for no reason? People rate who they rate. I'd happily swap Abate for Santon, simple because he is a better player currently and will be a far superior player in the future. I don't know either of them personally, I don't see either of them talk in the media or otherwise, my opinion is based 100% on the field. Not sure where you get this idea that I dislike Abate for no reason.

I'm not biased, I just don't think Abate is a very good player and better than Santon at Inter. No, I have not watched Milan regularly in 2012 but I still watched about a dozen games between last's season second half and this season's first half and have not seen much improvement by Abate. He is better than he used to be but he's still not as good as I think Santon was back at Inter.

In my head, Abate will always be the better defender. In that scudetto winning season, he was just great defensively. While, Santon I don't rate as much defensively. But, then the amount of games I've watched Santon..maybe he's been bad at the ones I've solely watched so it depends.

Hmm, I didn't tell YOU that you were biased but dst because I got the impression that he hadn't watched Abate regularly in these last few seasons, specifically the ones under Allegri's time and from his words I get the impression that he still has the Abate of the Leo/Carlo days when he was unwatchable, and I'd be the first one to tell you that. I think I once called him a hair brained idiot at one point because he was just THAT bad. And seeing the amount of improvement he's made from that time, I still think he has even more potential for improvement

I don't think YOU are biased. Why would I think that? You stated your oppinion on Santon and Abate, I do think you underrate Abate a lot for your own reasons, but that does not mean that I think your underrating of him is because of bias.

Does that make sense? Don't know if I'm being clear here...


Did you watch Abate in the last 2-3 seasons regularly? This season he hasn't been at his best because he's had a couple of injury problems but his last 2 seasons? Specifically our Scudetto winning season? Abate was the best in the league that season in his position, and this is not just me saying it. He was included in the majority of best XIs, and voted as best RB in countless polls that I saw during that time.

And to say that Abate now is not even better then the Santon at Inter is just a slap in the face which is why I feel that you're biased because you're basing a lot of your opinion of him on his first few seasons at Milan where, yes, he was a very average player. But to say you haven't seen improvements in him just completely blows my mind.

Like I said, just watch the last friendly Italy played. You could easily compare the 2 players as they were playing on oppsite wings. The difference between the 2 is not even questionable. Abate was great, saved a sure goal, was a constant threat in attack and was always in control of his area. Santon was completely quiet and had very little influence on the game. He's more explosive at Newcastle yes, but I think the nature of the EPL helps him out in that regard


Agreed

I only missed the vast majority of Milan games in 2012, I watched most of Milan's games in our scudetto winning season. I remember being surprised by Abate's improvement but that does not mean he became great. He was still pretty average in many things in mt view and obviously, I still think he is. Yes, he probably was the best in the league that season but Milan won the title and he was consistent but seriously, name ONE decent RB that has played in Serie A the past 5 years apart from Maicon.

Yeah that makes sense. And you're right, you never said I was biased, you said I underrated him. Completely different things.

Well if you want to go down that road, name me one World Class RB in the top leagues during the last 5 years aside from Maicon...

Dani Alves? Sh!tty defensively and has all those faults masked because he's playing for Barca. Ramos? Had to be moved to the center before finally showing consistant quality for Real.


Yeah, exactly. Glad we have that cleared up

OK so Abate is comparable to Alves now?

You haven't watched much football lately have you?

I think Abate has been better than Alves the past 18 months. Alves hasn't been good at all, especially defensively.

Say what now?

I didn't compare him to Alves, I just told you to give me some names for top class RBs that you have to remove before even considering Abate. Because that's what you were doing with Maicon, i.e. remove Maicon and Abate really doesn't have anyone to compete with in Serie A so being the best in his position that season doesn't mean anything.


Alves is a great attacking player, far better than Abate in that respect, but put him in a team other then Barca where he actually has to do some defensive work and then yeah, Abate would most likely be better.

I'd really like to see who you guys consider better. It's not like there's an endless pick of RBs out there. I think we're lucky to have someone like Abate, who not only has turned out into a great player, he's a home grown product, loyal to the shirt, works his @ss off, has a pretty minimal wage and there are very few players better than him at RB right now

No!


In a winning season when he was solid, in a league with no great RB's being the best RB does not make him a special player is all I'm saying.

He's nowhere near great, no way!!

Anyway, there's no point continuing this thing any longer I think.

Official: Ligament damage, season over for Milito.

Terrible injury.

Actually the season that we won the league as well as last Maicon was still at Inter, so your initial argument really does not hold much weight. Add to that there is Lichtsteiner as well and also your no great RBs theory does not hold much weight.

Criticising the quality of the league is one thing, but Serie A still has some great quality players to pick from in certain areas of the pitch. FB/WB is one of those areas

Good for us.

I did not say Maicon was not at Inter, I said besides him there has been no other great RB in Italy the past few seasons. Great, not Lichtsteiner quality... I'm not saying Abate is bad or that every RB in Serie A is bad... all I'm saying is that the quality in that position in Serie A is pretty average and so a pretty average (in my opinion) player such as Abate can definitely win that award. That does not make him great. He's not great. Lichtsteiner is not great either. And Maicon for whatever reason has not been the same since their treble. He was even benched for part of last season. He has not had a good season since 2009-10.

For me, Abate is not bad but he's not worth more than 10m and is expandable so if such an offer came I would not think twice.

Maybe, but it's more than just us vs them this season. This injury can end his career.

http://youtu.be/b6iiCKzn2AQ

That's a freak injury, you can tell his knee was destroyed. I'm sorry for him. he's one of those players I always liked regardless of the teams he played for.


Because he won't be able to humiliate Abate anymore?

I got your point, but let's just agree to disagree on all of it, and not just the part about Abate.


He's Abate's cryptonite

It's strange, Abate has played against the likes of C.Ron, Villa, Eto'o and has come out the winning party in all those battles; a game against Milito and boom, he f@cks up.

Sad to hear it about him though, but great for us as Inter struggle without him

It's good they signed Rocchi

Juve about to lose their 3rd game in the season.

It had no idea Juve and Roma played tonight. I fucking missed it!

Your wish, my command: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3pcP_VoE84

Too bad you missed it, it was a great match.

Hah, I edited my post as you were replying it seems. thanks anyway.

4th

They lost aganst Samp as well

Looks like my theory about them last year was correct. When they have a tougher schedule to contend with, .i.e CL football they'll struggle. Too bad they have no one to fight them on the Scudetto front this season.

Pirlo looked dead out there, same for the rest of their players really

When the heck did Roma sign Torosidis? He was quite good too, I did not think he could play at this level.

Anyway...

That shot! I'm surprised Buffon got even as close as he did to it. It's always amazing to see top goalkeepers' reactions on replay, especially on the super slow motion ones, these guys react in milliseconds!

Yeah, Torosidis was really good tonight.

How do you rate Tachtsidis dst?

And how do you pronounce his name? 'TouchDis'? Sounds dirty..

Haven't really seen him play in Italy but he was quite promising with AEK a few years ago. Is he having a good season?

haha, no that would be tah (with the h as in harm) - tsee - this

I don't know, haven't watched Roma, but he is very nicely rated in FM 13.



Oh thanks. But you mean tah-tsee-dis right? Not tah-tsee-this.

Of course!

No it's actually -this as in... this and that.

I too thought it was -dis.

It's only normal since that's how it's actually written... it's the same as in Spanish with names like Nadal.

(by the way, Torosodis is also -this in case you weren't sure)

so the 'ch' is not pronounces like a K sound? I always thought it was like Tak-See-Dis That's how I always said it anyway.

IIRC, they also lost their Serie A game after they beat Chelsea 3-0 in the group stages.

No, it's the same with Charisteas. I don't know who chose these letters to represent the Greek ones but they are way off.

By the way, it's reported that Inter are considering Charisteas as Milito's replacement. Seriously, the guy is awful, how could he replace a player as good as Milito?

Napoli are bunch of chokers.

1. Juve
2. Milan