Our new boy. we really need him to live up the potential people say he has. hopefully makes his way to the Azzurri first team soon.

And will then be sold a year after cause he was good.

Great future for Milan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QweTQgJdnK8

The more I look at him, the more I get the feeling that he should be a starter for us.

We'll see, I don't want to get ahead of myself with this. We've been let down too many times before. But yeah, I do have a good feeling about him

Did I post this already? Either way, worth re-watching.

Yes!He's great.

Brilliant.

So, I was reading some comments on Facebook and apparently Saponara has chronic groin problems, which could mean very little play time for the next 6 months.

..and given MilanLab's achievements, the problem might even become worse

Knowing MilanLab, their attempts will flounder and fail, then with Galliani's pressure on them, they will be forced to castrate. I swear it's a wonder people aren't dying from TB on our team...

Allegri: "Saponara is recovering. He has to grow up, but I'm hopeful"

Finally someone said something about him. It was almost as we had never signed him these last couple of months.

Saponara himself said two days ago that he has a little inflammation and still unknown when he'll be back.

http://www.milannews.it/da-milanello/sapon...mpistica-121530

He says he'll be back soon, but doesn't know exactly when.

Saponara returned to training: http://www.milannews.it/da-milanello/milan...n-gruppo-122303

Was just about to post that. Do we finally have our two AMs?

Great news!Puts all Filippo's theories to bed

Galliani: "We have both Kaka and Saponara for the number 10 position, because Saponara is a great talent."

thats a yes then

Then why the hell was he not called up for CL list and Birsa was for f@ck's sake!?

isn't Birsa over 21 and needs to be registered but Saponara 21 and a home grown player so is included anyway?

Saponara is not a home-grown player. We signed him from Empoli.

my mistake thought he was co-owned by us and Empoli.

The list is just all sorts of fucked up.


Birsa can be left out should they have decided to do so.

Cristante had to be included in the A list because we needed 4 home grown players in that (Abate, Matri, Cristante, DS) so he had to take up a space there instead of being in the B list. At least this is what I read, wasn't aware that you had to include 4 home grown players in that, I guess Antonini was our 4th last season

We seriously need to get Astori on board this January

Unbelievable...

Close to his return; touted as capable, yet excluded from our squad in place of other irrelevant players.

Interview with Milan midfielder Riccardo Saponara to Milan Channel.

We're a good group, both on a personal and a footballing level. I feel a part of this group, and I've felt that right from the start, even though I haven’t been training often with the team. I’m trying to get back into shape. The pain is diminishing and I'm very optimistic. Serie A and B are different and Milan is different to Empoli but I'm settling in well and my team mates are helping a lot with that. You need to have a lot of self-confidence - and I'm not lacking that. We have a good squad with a low average age, but our technical values are still very high."

"The friendly match against Chiasso? I felt well in the position I played in the match - the trequartista. It's always nice to score, and it always increases your self-confidence. Which position I prefer to play? The role as trequartista is the one where I have gotten the most out of my qualities, but in any case, I'm at the coach's disposal, and he decides who gets to play where."

"The signing of Kakà is very important. I’m sure he still has a lot to give to this team and to us youngsters. It's a great feeling to see him here, and he has always been my idol, so therefore I observe every little gesture and movement that he makes. I can learn a lot from him."

"Massimiliano Allegri is a good coach, but I haven't talked a lot with him because I haven't been training much with the squad. I missed the entire preparation for the season, so I need a bit of time to get back into top shape, but the important thing is that the pain is diminishing."

"If I'm like El Shaarawy? I would like to follow the same path as he did. I'm optimistic and convinced that I can have a good season. I will try to do the best when I get the chance."

http://sulia.com/channel/soccer/f/3fc69349...d-d46ed641a346/

I feel this season could be his breakthrough. I watched his clips when he was with Empoli. You can't help but see the resemblance to Kaka in the way he plays. I'm actually quite excited to see him this year. He already scored a goal in the friendly and not a bad goal too.

With Saponara and Mastour, I think we may have something good to look forward to.

I think it's too early to say with Mastour, he played a few minutes yesterday and the skill and talent is certainly there, but you can easily tell that he's not developed enough. If he tries that against some of the thugs in Serie A they'd take out his legs

With Sapo, I'm personally still on the fence. He could turn out either way

What exactly about him looks like Kaka?
Pace? Nope
Intelligent movement? Maybe
Visionary passing? Not yet

We need to judge players by what we SEE as opposed to what management's propaganda machine spews out.