The biggest reason I'm not getting this season's jersey is the crest and the shirt design. It's pretty ugly. Oh, and it'll be disgustingly overpriced as always.

As for Cissokho - hard working defender, tough, but prone to a LOT of errors. Hardly what we need.

Yeah, agreed that there's a lack of an emotional connection for me with this squad. Only few players I personally really like, but I wouldn't feel a hit like I did when Sheva and Kaka left for example if we had to sell them.

Well, he'd certainly be better than Emanuelson and Constant, wouldn't you say?

Well he's CB not full back.

Cissokho?

He's a LB. Remember the guy that Galliani signed a few years ago without consulting Silvio and had to get out of the purchase somehow so they blamed it on his teeth? This is the same guy

Yeah Danny, he's a LB.

Maybe you confused him with Sakho?

Probably.

I did. My error.

PS we've signed Agazzi. Deal till 2017.

Oh FFS!!!

Is this supposed to be the precursor for the mediocre transfer window we're about to endure?

No biggie. We can do far worse.

Good shot stopper playing in a crap team. Prone to occasional brain farts. Abbiati v2.0 on a free. We need reinforcements elsewhere so I'm not going to complain that we got the Italian Ochoa.

Even heard we are discussing trading Agazzi+money for Perrin.

adrianogalliani.com?

Mediaset suggests we're going to offer Constant + money for Santon.

Ha. I deleted that statement. I couldn't find it anywhere. Might have confused something with something else.

I'd take him.

Utd are close to getting Kroos, are in the market for Robben, and just got Van Gaal.

We signed Agazzi.

Utd know they have problems and they're making damn dure they stop.

We...er...unconvincing, eh?

United have money, we don't. That's the problem.

Yeah right! Are they going to plow the the guys over at Newcastle with Vodka before making that offer?


Our Club's drive and ambition is head warming

Or maybe gin.

Eh, if our resident pirate has any say in proceedings, we could try hard rum. Jack, what say, you?

Vodka is better

This is brilliant:



1. Today I want to buy a goalie for Milan
2. Search player: min. price -> any; max. price -> free agent
3. Agazzi, price: €0
4. Now we're ultra-competitive!

Apparently we've contacted Unai Emery.

Link

We also renewed Abbiati for another year. So instead of investing in a young keeper like Perin (won't surprise me if a big team will sign him soon), we are keeping the 37 y.o and adding a mediocre Agazzi. Awesome.

Tell me about it. So in a way, nothing changed, except it got worse.

Not actually true. Man Utd remain heavily in debt - £389M of it in fact. Furthermore while they are third most valuable football club on earth, we're not far behind in 8th (placings valid as of this month). We do have cash, quite a lot of it. It's just that we also have an owner completely unwilling to spend. Or he has been up till now. Here's praying Daddy's Little Angel can persuade Pops to open his wallet, and indeed she has said there will be investment.

I am praying Agazzi has been signed as third choice. Abbiati has been extended for a year and he's apparently going to be number 2 now. So here's hoping a decent bloody keeper comes in as our new first choice.

If I subscribe to you and Han's praise of Mexes and Rami, then we get Santon at RB and have DS/Cissokho at LB and that would be ok.

De Jong for sure in midfield. But the other 5 slots are completely requiring surgery and we desperately need to spend a LOT of cash to get quality of the level required there.

I'd honestly say what I said we should have done in 2011. Spend at least 100M Euros. Yes. Really. Get in a sh*tload of top class players. Assuming it fits in FFP and given we have massive income but never spend anything, that surely fits the bill.

Won't lie, didn't see that coming. He actually did not bad in Spain this year, with only Spain's big 4 being better than Sevilla. Obviously they were all quite a distance ahead of Sevilla but tbh Milan could do a lot worse than Emery. Hell, we HAVE done a lot worse. And of course despite being totally outplayed in the EL final they won the damn thing, so he knows how to win against teams of the quality of Benfica, Porto and Valencia.

Not the worst manager around by a long shot.

I'm just wondering how a coach with no experience in Italy even as a player, and who probably doesn't speak the language is going to fit in.

We're not giving any thought to this. Bring in Seedorf coz it worked with Pep and Barca. Now bring in Emery coz it worked with Roma?

Danny, the 389 million Man U have is total debt. I believe they need to pay only a smaller amount year on year as repayment.

Their revenues mean they can spend the cash and be within FFP.

I think after wages (110 gross) and considering the reduced revenue (220 million - CL money and sponsor bonuses), we'll be stuck with some 20-40 million in cash to spend on transfers AND new wages.

I see no world class player coming in without massive sales.

The key to this is getting rid of the dead weight that is hiking up that wage bill to such embarrassingly massive proportions.

When you consider where we finished and where Juve finished this season and compare our wage bills it's really an abomination when it comes to running a football club

Let's kick Galliani out first. And then we'll talk about running a football club.

Yeah, exactly.



You forgot Poli, El Shaarawy and Balotelli. I won't lie, Balotelli should be sold and replaced with someone like Immobile. But even so, he has to be considered as a first choice player. And personally I would include Honda as well. Haven't given up on him. Hopefully a good WC boosts his morale, and the next coach plays him in an adequate position on a constant basis.

I...didn't say otherwise?

I didn't forget Poli but that's two managers in a row who refuse to give him a run. I really like the guy but he's getting a raw deal at Milan and should leave for the sake of his own career.

El-Sha will be sold this summer if an good offer comes in.

Balo remains an enigma who disappears too often for my liking. I agree with you that he's a first choice player, but that's a first choice player in THIS Milan and the point of my signing new players is to replace THIS Milan with a good one.

As for Honda, another one who is being wasted by the manager. Add to that the fish out of water scenario and I don't hold out much hope for him.

Yeah, that's why a new capable coach will see how good the guy can be for us.



Nah, not happening, trust me.



I agree.



Same as with Poli, he can be good for us if used properly.

Don't disagree, but IMHO it is unlikely to happen. I believe we are already running at a deficit, which means 100M would probably violate FFP (and it looks like FFP has some bite now, though not much). More important, the way I see it, FFP is a convenient excuse for Berlu not to invest; the real reason is that he has been hit financially in recent years and is not willing to sink as much money in the club as he did in the past.

Yop. However, IHMO the large salary burden is mostly a side effect of going after "zero cost" or "low cost" players (higher salary is what attracts them), and it does not look to me like Galliani is changing his approach. Would love to see us get rid of "dead wood", but most of these are the ones sitting on ridiculous salaries and thus unlikely to leave. (though getting rid of Robinho could be a good start).

Isn't Uniteds debt technically to the Glazers, as in they've loaned the club money to sign players, etc? If so, then it's not really true debt. Villa had the same and our owner just wiped it out.

So I gave it some thought. Even if you went totally ruthless, and quite literally sold players to clubs for free just to get rid of wages, you'd maybe cover about 15-20 million in wages max?

Is that really enough to bring in top class players and cover their wages? Not to mention all the depth we lose in case of injury.

This season's transfer market will reflect this season's ambitions. A CL place. So I expect us to maybe bring in a left back, one more midfielder and get rid of a couple of players. Maybe a like for like replacement in a few cases.

We need a lot more than a left back and a midfielder for top 3.

We'll be 4th/5th with Inter.

We will get Sharaawy back. Our defence is 'solid'. A new left back is what is missing. Midfield De Jong and Montolivo pick themselves. Honda probably will get one more chance at redemption. Then there is Sharaawy, Pazzini and Balo.

So with the exception of one top midfielder, I think our first team for a CL place attack is more or less set. The rest will be swaps for the reasons of depth.

FWIW, I do believe that team above with the right chemistry can mount a CL challenge.

I don't think you're factoring the massive taxes they pay along with those wages, that's wy it goes as high up as 120m per year

New left back? You've given up on DS?

Both Abate and De Sciglio are injury prone and back each other for the RB position. We're one injury away to either to being fucked in the LB position.

hasn't it been the case for the last 2-3 seasons.
change the coach, the playing staff of even the tea lady but nothing will change till Silvio starts to take the club seriously again and Galliani leaves.....that my friend is the facts, we all know it

Arsenal and Liverpool are interested in Balotelli. They could offer around €25/30 million.

Link

SELL!

30m at least, then sell

But question. What will we do after we sell him? We know that won't be re-invested into the squad, just used to halve Silvio's burden to take us out of the red.

Forget about Immobile, ambitious clubs like Juve and Dortmund want him

Well, naturally one would think so. But I highly doubt we won't replace Balo if we sell him.