That was random.

Like Han said, we didn't sign Ljajic because 1) Fiorentina didn't want to sell him to us due to idiot Galliani contacting the player without the club's consent, and 2) they deemed our offer "most certainly late and definitely inopportune", as their official website stated.

Strootman, we never made an offer to PSV.

Pjanic, we weren't even interested.

Here's a question for you guys: between Mandzukic and Negredo, who would you pick?

Always.

Negredo

It is easy to criticize when you have the benefit of hindsight and you do not know what went into the decisions. I agree he made some bad choices. However that does not imply "stupid" AFAIAC.


I think his shortcomings have become more obvious now that we are operating with less money than in the past.


Yes, that is what happens when you try and steal their players using questionable tactics (Monto and Jovetic come to mind). Goes back to "bad choices".


Agreed. That is my biggest complaint about how the team is being managed. It is not as if we do not have money (we have higher revenues than most other Serie A teams). We just do not spend it wisely. We go after "quick fixes" rather than thinking strategically. We think short term and not long term. And the end result is that relative to what we are spending, our team is not that good.

Parma is a good example. Fiorentina. Roma (in a couple of years they built a decent team starting from utter chaos and with less money than we have - or could have if it was not tied up in wages spent on worthless players). And the list goes on ...

Not impressed by Negredo, don't know enough about Mandzukic.

Mandzukic naturally. I don't get the Negredo love here. No Spaniard ever did good with us, Negerdo certainly wouldn't.

According to this, Santon believes both Milan and Roma are after him, but he does not believe Newcastle will let him go.

Some of these decisions he made we could all see as being terrible from a mile away.

Maybe he's not stupid in general but he HAS made stupid decisions. And that's my take


Well anyone can be labelled a guru or a genius if they have cash to spend.


Yep, not to mention the still bitter memory of how the previous season ended


Agreed

old style forward typical No.9 and works really hard for the team. I wouldn't mind him being here at least you could rely on him to give 100%. but to expensive by all accounts here

As for Alex i like what he's saying and maybe with him and Rami together and Santon and DS as full backs a half decent defence for once...noticed i said halfdecent

Negredo "love" is an overstatement. He's a good player, and saying he won't do well because he's Spanish is rather narrow-minded, don't you think?



If Abate and MDS are both staying, I see no reason to sign Santon.

Yup, that I can agree with :-)

squad depth?

$$$

This says we are negotiating with Chievo to get full ownership of Paloschi.

The advantage of not playing EL is that we should not need as much depth as in past years. And we do have Bonera ...

That sums it up

First off welcome to Milan Alex. I think he's a good signing, and he'll help our defence significantly.

Secondly, Madzukic or Negredo? Both are very very good and I can honestly say I'd be quite happy with either.

I also heard a curious rumour about one Bastian Schweinsteiger...

Anyway, hate or loathe B&G we are VERY active in this market and next season's Milan will have a significantly different look to it I feel.

Yeah you can say that, but so far it's 2 free signings and a whole bunch of BS rumours about our best players and nothing note worthy about the guys we really need to be offloading this summer

We REALLY need to offload pretty much the whole team.

PS Balo?

Balo what?

I think there is a core group that should be kept. The team last season was p!ss poor, no doubt, but some players were made to look worse than they actually are simply because of how bad the entire team was, which in part is also the fault of those players themselves, but when you have such an upheaval in a team it's bound to take an effect on everyone.

This is my personal take on it

Keep:
Abate
Mexes
Bonera
Rami
DS
Monto
De Jong
Poli
Kaka
SES
Balo
Honda

Sell/release:
Abbiati
Amelia
Coppola
Constant
Silvestre
Zaccardo
Birsa
Essien
Urby
Muntari
Robinho
Matri

Maybe keep (depending on who we bring in):
Gabriel
Zapata
Taraabt
Pazzini

Loan out:
Cristante
Saponara
Petagna

Obviously this all depends on who we bring in

If we're keeping Mexes along with Rami and now with Alex, I see no need for Zapata. If we bring in Paloschi Pazzini is pretty much redundant, especially if we'll use a 1 striker system. Taraabt could be a decent option off the bench though so I'd probably lean more towards buying him

Would not count on Taarabt (I don't believe we will pay what QPr wants, and the have other potential buyers).

The we don't get him, don't really care all that much about him, just think he'd be a good option off the bench

We need Taarabt. If either SES or Menez aren't available, who do we use? Kaká? I'd rather keep Taarabt and let Kaká go.

And Cristante is staying, Han. In fact, don't be surprised if Pippo makes him a starter.

I don't think he's anywhere good or ready enough to be a starter. It would do him good to go to a smaller Serie A side next season and get some good experience imo

Disagree. I think he's ready, maybe not to start games, but to be an important asset of the first team.

I don't necessarily disagree on Taarabt's value. The point is we only had him on loan, and that is over. We had an option to buy, but we chose not to exercise that (Galliani decided to try to re-negotiate instead). I think we are going after Menez instead of Taarabt (not in addition to).

Does anyone know if we have somwone coming out of our youth system that could cover the role if necessary?

(As for Kaka, love the guy but I don't see him starting in a 4-3-3, he probably will not want to sit around as a sub, and I am sure we can use what we save from his salary more effectively some other way.)

Yeah, (assuming what we hear is true) there is more going on than I expected, including an effort to get rid of players. And I am warming up to the idea of Pippo as a coach. Will see.


... which is ...?

I think(?) I like the Alex signing! Solid defender, seems like a good guy! Not too keen on Menez though.

Very happy at the way we're dealing with the market. Quick and necessary additions as soon as possible. It also gives us the rest of the window to get rid of deadweights.

Previously we used to leave things for too long. Do I dare hope that for once we might approach this window with some sort of strategy.

Jeremy Menez on a free and a fee of 3 million with bonuses is for me a good deal. He is almost a like for like replacement for Robinho.

Would I have wished we got someone more consistent. Yes, but we don't have the money for it. And then we'll be waiting till the end to make some money from player sales and leaving the new coach with about 2 weeks before season start to coach the team.

Don't know, I just don't see him being an important part of the side, and I prefer it if he was out there in Serie A gaining experience rather than warming the bench

You know that Pippo is going to put a lot of emphasis on youngsters, right?

I'll have to see it to believe it tbh

Yes that perception is there because he's been coaching the youths, but I'm not sure that when push comes to shove that he won't revert to using a Muntari type because he's deemed as the "safe" option over a Cristante.

Nah, Pippo has a plan in mind, a project. He'll stick to it.

We'll see, whether the coach has a plan in mind or not, it really doesn't depend much on him tbh

I'm excited to see Mastour next season as well, but he'll be turning 16 so I'm a bit wary of him being played in the league

I don't think so. Who's the last Spanish striker to make an impact in Serie A? I think there's a certain level of incompatibility, and since I do not rate Negredo as high, I don't think he'd do especially good with us.

I rate Mandzukic much higher, because he got tested on many levels and always delivered: with inferior teams like Wolfsburg or even Dinamo, or with superior teams like Bayern. He had a good Euro showing as well.

The more I read about Mandzukic the more I am starting to like him. Negredo, OTOH, I don't know. I follow EPL, and I am far from convinced. Yes, he scored 9 goals and 5 assist last year, but those numbers are not that remarkable relative to other City players (Dzeko, Aguero, Yaya, Nasri and Silva were far more productive and reliable IMHO). And moving to Serie A (where a lot of teams emphasize defense) I would not expect him to do any better.

Agree on all this. For all the justified criticism B&G have taken in recent years this window has started well. Alex signed, Menez following, and a bunch of links, many of which are promising.

Furthermore looks like we'll be able to offload Matri to Palermo for 9M Euros, assuming they get rid of Lafferty and Hernandez.

Why not? He barely played last season. 11 starts, all the rest was as sub. So I'd argue 9 goals and 5 assists for someone who barely featured is excellent.

The others you quoted played far more. You're also comparing 3 AM's with him which is apples and oranges. Aguero is world class and better than Negredo, no one would argue that, and Dzeko at his best is also a great player.

Neither of those players being as good as they are makes Negredo less good.

Still, I'd be happy with he or Mandzukic. Or both ha!

No, you rate Mandzukic higher because he's Croatian.

I get where you're coming from about Negredo, but to answer your question: Llorente. See? Nationality plays no role here. If Negredo was Portuguese, would you think differently? No.

Negredo: 1722 minutes, 9 goals, 5 assists (one goal every 191 minutes)
Dzeco: 1986 minutes, 16 goals, 7 assists (one goal every 124 minutes)
Aguero: 1528 minutes, 17 goals, 11 assists (one goal every 90 minutes)

So, Aguero is miles ahead of both, but he was injured for a good part of the year. Dzeco played a little more than Negredo but was a lot more productive, which explains why Negredo was benched towards the end of the season (when Aguero was out), even though he was heavily favored by Pellegrini early on. Man City scored 102 goals throughout the year, so Negredo's 9 is not that impressive. Now take that in the context of Serie A. Even though (in general) EPL has better quality, I think Italian teams are harder to break down defensively, particularly when they park the bus (which they will do often enough). Bottom line, if Negredo did marginally well in EPL, I don't see him being a success in Italy. Add to that the fact that Spaniards tend to flop in Serie A (particularly with Milan). Net-net, I would be happier if we found someone else.


We will struggle finding the money to get one of the two, and I am already hearing noises that Balo is not enough and that we may also have to sell DS (which would be a bad idea IMHO).

Berlu: Balo will stay if he learns to play as a center-forward

This is from his visit to Casa Milan. Highlights:
- We are still after Taarabt (same agent as Alex)
- Nice words for Inzaghi, but Berlu refused to comment on Seedorf
- When asked if Balo has future at Milan, Berlu said: "I think so, as long as he learns to play as a CF"

The way I see it, Berlu's answers were vague enough, so AFAIAC it is hard to draw any conclusions from what he said.

That's your opinion, but I completely disagree. This theory that Serie A teams are better defensively doesn't stick anymore. Premier League is a much more dynamic league, where pace and physicality are extremely emphasized, so if you can cut it there then I see no problem succeeding in Italy.

He's right though, about Balo learning to play as CF. That's the first step towards justifying his innate qualities. The second step is to stop believing he's Ibrahimovic, and play "honestly" and in the support of his teammates.

What confuses me about this is that he absolutely does this very thing for Italy, but for his club he just transforms into this monster of sorts.

The key is most likely the coach and he knows that he's walking on a tight leash with Prandelli and that he won't tolerate certain foolishness.

We can disagree on how effective defenses are in EPL vs Serie A. However, my point is that Negredo was not all that productive in EPL. Man City scored a lot of goals throughout the year (so clearly they did not have problems with creating opportunities or getting past defenses), and Negredo got Pellegrini's support early on, only to be benched later in the season in favor of Dzeco. I realize we need to reset our expectations as Milan fans, but we are talking about spending 20-30M here, most likely our only big purchase this summer, so I would like to see someone reasonably productive and consistent. IMHO, Negredo is not worth that kind of money. (From what I can tell, Mandzukic is.)

Good point. Interesting to see if Inzaghi can help. (Assuming he even gets a chance, my guess is the we will sell Balo after WC is over, and Berlu is just leaving his options open.)

Yes, we agree on that. But then, I don't think Mandzukic is worth it either. Apparently Bayern want €30 million for him, which is insane considering his age and that he's not exactly a superstar. Even if we drop the price to, say, €25 million, it still would be too much.

Your stats are very unfair and misleading. The psychology of coming on as a sub is completely different to starting. And even then, you're showing his stats are one goal in 3 matches at a higher level than Serie A.

I'd be happy with that. As I am with his one in two for Spain.