Does Darmian normally play at RB for Torino?

And personally I'd rather not jump the gun, I saw him against Ireland and Fluminense in the friendlies before the WC started. He was solid against Ireland but had a nightmare against Fluminense, I was very shocked at the shift he put in yesterday. I'd prefer to see what he does for the rest of the competition before declaring that we need to bring him back.

Also, he could be a Grosso type player, he looked absolutely phenomenal in 06 but has failed at club level.

I'd like to see what he can do next game if DS hasn't recovered that is and play him on the left and Abate on the right with the Juve duo in the centre, I think that would be a much more solid back 4 for Italy

He plays on the right of a back 5 usually.


Yeah I wouldn't sign a player based on how he plays Internationally. Lots of players perform for club and then not for country, then the other way around too. If we're going to sign him, it has to be based on what he's done for Torino, not Italy.

Agreed, and I personally don't want to see us waste money on a player who we've already given up on once. Just ridiculous that we're producing these players from our youth teams, letting them go on co-owns on the cheap, and then spending big money to get them back. Once the ship has sailed I say we should just move on

If we're going to spend any money on a FB this season it has to go on Santon. That's the only young FB around right now who I can see getting in ahead of either Abate or DS should they have another rotten season of injuries and bad form

Watching Greece yesterday reminded me we had Sokratis too and let him go, now look at him at Dortmund...

Is he doing well at Dortmund?

Don't know he was a total mess when he signed for us

He made it into the Bundesliga XI this season.

He was atrocious for us. And personally I don't think he'd have reached that level with us had he stayed a million years

Darmian can't play on the left.



Atrocious? Nah. I think we blamed him more than he deserved.

He's played on the left in the warm ups for Italy, and if DS is not fit, there's no other option really aside from playing Chiellini which was a bad idea, he was terrible there yesterday

He was very bad when he played, I remember one particular game (can't remember who against) where he was just dropping clangers everywhere

Hopefully De Sciglio recovers soon. Still can't believe Prandelli called only one LB, especially known De Sciglio's injury prone.

He was shaky against Napoli and Juve, that's about it. In no way was he very bad or atrocious.

Shaky? No I remember a particular game where he was seriously bad. And now I'm seriously frustrated because I can't remember who it was against, but I know he got absolutely trashed on here afterwards. I don't think that would happen if he was just shaky.

Don't know, I'm just going by hazy memories of him, none of which are good

Mastour just turned 16 and signed a contract with Milan until 2017

Let's hope this guy justifies all the hype he's produced.

He did? I didn't know that.


I don't think he ever was that bad. I too remember a couple of bad games and overall he didn't play well enough to deserve a starting spot but he was still alright. We should have been more patient as he had showed great promise and he was only 23 I think when he joined us which is still young for a defender. He play what, a dozen games for us?

+1


This is the last season where co-ownerships would be allowed in the league, so we should see much more idiocy with respect to that in the future. (Thank God, as I shared your sentiments!)

Regarding Santon, have you seen him play recently? Has he improved since leaving inter?



Saw this earlier... Hopefully this kid is given the time needed to mature.



*fingers already crossed*

Patiently looking forward at what the kid has to offer.

Like I said to x-off, I'm going by hazy memories of him, which are mostly bad, I can't claim to remember every game he played for us, but my general perception of him from said hazy memories is generally negative

I remember though he only got to play a couple of games(Sokratis)... I also remember us blaming Allegri for not playing him after that horrendous performance. (Not enough chances etc..)

What do you guys think about Astori? He said he'd do anything to get back to Milan. His contract expires in a year, so he should be very cheap. Personally, I don't think he's anything special..and we're pretty much covered in the CB region. http://football-italia.net/50599/agent-astori-wants-milan

Maybe you're thinking of somebody else.

If we're going to let go of Mexes, plus the fodder we have back there in defence (Zaccardo, Silvestre), I'd take him

Let's not forget we have Zapata as well. I think we only need a maximum of 4 CBs next season.

Atm, I'd keep Mexes, Alex (obviously), Rami and Bonera (just for the experience). Silvestre is probably already fed-exed back to Inter. I want to get rid of Zaccardo badly, as for Zapata, I don't think there's much difference between him and Astori. It depends really on what happens with Mexes

Nope. 30 million or f@ck off. Is there any Arsenal player I would want in my team? Only their unselleables actually, like Wilshere.

These things are irrelevant. If Balo has a great world cup, 25m wouldn't even cut half of it. And I expect the management to stick to that. Either we get top dollar for him or we keep him

£25m is about €30m. I don't think Balo is worth more than €30m, honestly. And that's a lot of money, no matter how you see it.

what? in this world cup year? especially after that match winning display? no way!

He's still only 23years old, anyone buying him and giving him a 6yr deal is getting a super great deal.
At this stage Balotelli the footballer alone to me should be worth €35m+bonuses, moreover arsenal/puma want more (they want a strong marketing tool which he is, silly antics or not) we should milk any suitor dry

He's worth more than that in this market, and to settle for anything less would be a blunder of the same proportion as the Ibra + Thiago 2 for 1 deal we gave to PSG when they paid 50m for David Luiz!

Balo is not worth more than 30 million? In a market where David Luiz is worth 50 million? Balo is worth less than Diego Costa who has had one good season and is probably going to flop in the world cup?

No way. 35 million Euros bare minimum.

How much one is worth and how much others are willing to pay are two completely different concepts. PSG paid €50 million for Luiz, but he's not worth more than €25 million max. Nor is Balo, for that matter. What exactly has he achieved in his career? Nothing. He hasn't even ever scored more than 20 goals per season FFS! His attitude alone should drive clubs out.

Hence I'd jump on this £25M like it was worth its weight in platinum.

Get him to hell, bring in Falcao, and I for one would be overjoyed.

I agree about the 'this market' concept but the difference is no other 'marquee' player carries the baggage Balo does.

He tries everyone's patience and not even going to his childhood team tamed him.

Frankly I've had absolutely enough and can't be f*cked with, in 5 years from now, still saying 'if only he could be up like that for more than one in 5 matches'.

His attitude stinks and I have absolutely had enough of him.

And truthfully? I don't think he's even that bloody good any more. The moments of quality he produces aren't anything better than anyone else can. He's a million miles off being his spiritual predecessor Ibra.

PS We got 18M for Ibra and 40M for Silva. It wasn't two for one at all.

+1



Selling Ibra for €18 million has been the most asinine decision Galliani has ever taken. It's like selling Messi for €35 million.

deep down nobody is really against selling Balo, the catch is 25m simply won't do it, especially as i don't think Monaco will be silly enough to give us Falcao for that kinda price........ no other club will sell us a quality forward for peanuts

Falcao???

Come on man! I know for a fact that you're not a naïve guy. And Falcao is nothing but a pipe dream and a media invention.

If we sell Balo expect most of that money to go into "helping" Silvio to cover the losses we make every year thanks to Galliani's excellent financial management


The fact that teams are still very much interested in Balo should eliminate the "baggage" argument from this discussion. Top teams still want Balo badly, and maybe it's not just for his footballing abilities but that shouldn't matter to us. As long as a club who has big money to spend wants Balo, then we should either milk them for all they're worth or not sell him. Because 25m would never be enough to get someone equally as good in plus put some of that cash into covering losses. Because we all know that's how the money would be spent. But if say we get close to 40m (which I think is the fair price for him in this market especially if he has a good tournament this summer), the management would have a bit more that could go into the transfer budget. 25m is f@cking nothing in this market today.

And whether Milan fans have become fed up with Balo or not, I think for now we have to accept that it's either a Balo type player that comes in with all his baggage or a Matri level player, you tell me which you'd choose. And I disagree, I think coming to Milan has matured Mario. Has he ever got sent off playing in this shirt? Can't remember, but the disciplinary issues he had at City have not been something that he's carried over at Milan.

My major issue with him is his consistency.

As for the Ibra + Thiago deal, it was literally a 2 for 1 deal because we sold 2 world class players for just a bit over 60m. Ibra alone for me is worth at least 30m and Thiago... Let's just say if Luiz is worth 50m, Thiago is worth double that simply on the basis that Thaigo is twice the player Luiz is

^ This... QFT

Yes.

We'll just disagree to disagree on this one.

When? I can't remember.

Okay...

But when has Balo gotten sent off for us?

Napoli.

Yup... (albeit for a reaction towards the referee after the final whistle)

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1789340...in-third-person

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/ac-milan...t-napoli-video/

Yes, now I remember, I forgot about it probably because as Trini mentioned it didn't happen during the actual game

People talk and talk about Mario's indiscipline, but really aside from that blip, where he didn't even get carded during the game and left his team mates to continue playing with 10 men, he has been quite well behaved at Milan, especially when you consider the antics at Inter and City.

Even these last few months, he wasn't getting yellow carded every game which seemed to be a regular occurrence before that

I think it's not Balotelli's fault. We are looking at him and demanding a Zlatan replacement at the age of 23. At this point in his life, Zlatan was playing for Juve where if you look at stats he has a return of 23 goals in 70 games in his 3 years there.

Balo has 26 goals in 43 games in his 2 years here. Zlatan was just as difficult to work with. Ask Capello. In fact it was the exact same situation. Everyone recognised his prodigious talent. Here's an extract from his wiki, "In the 2005–06 season, Juventus fans often got frustrated with him due to his anonymous presence in certain important games such as the Champions League defeat to Arsenal." Sounds familiar?


So we're essentially accusing a 23 year old of not playing like one of the world's top strikers in his prime and therefore demanding he be sold.

We are demanding instead that we need a player who will grab a game single handedly by the scruff of its neck when the rest of his team mates are struggling. Right now there are three forwards who can do that - Messi, Zlatan and Ronaldo.


Instead, we need to be more logical here. We have an insane and worthy talent in Balotelli. He is lethal as a striker. His problem is he is too far away from the action and like any youngster who is getting into his prime, slowly discovering his strengths are to play in and around the box. Check out that last game against England for example. That's a normal and healthy progression for a player with another 10-12 years of career left in him.

We should instead ponder how do we build a team that can ensure to get him the ball in those areas where he is most dangerous. What we have is a p.o.s squad that has too often no connection between midfield and attack leading to:
1. Balotelli having to drop deep and do everything by himself and then fail (remember the Boban interview?)
2. Balotelli playing up top with no service and get accused of not being involved in the game.

I'm hopeful that SeS coming back as well as Menez might improve matters. But we still need some strong insertion from the midfield. Both De Jong and Montolivo cannot do that.

A player like Mata would have been nice. I hope we see a few gems come out of this world cup.

Apparently we're still interested in Negredo. We want to get him on loan, but City are unlikely to grant us that wish as they paid €27 million for him last summer. His salary (€5 million) is also a problem. In the meanwhile, City are interested in Icardi.

Link

De Jong: "Right now I'm thinking only about the WC, but I want to make it clear that I find myself very well in Milan. I've never asked the club to sell me and I have no problem staying, even with a different coach"

Link

So, there's that.

Don't trust a footballer. Ever.

Wise words.

This is what the management is wasting their time on this summer

Milan Extend Muntari Deal

Bit harsh. We've made 3 signings already, we're in for a bunch of others, and you're complaining about Muntari who you even admitted was a fair bit better under Seedorf?

If this is the worst thing to happen this summer I think it could be a lot worse!

Because nobody hates Muntari like Han and I do.

This is very true! Admittedly at least Niang has almost certainly gone so you don't have to go for him any more. That said I actually joined you on that one. He had all the ability (IMO) but his attitude absolutely stunk.

Like a really poor man's Balotelli I suppose.

I am no fan of Galliani, but I blame this one on the Berlusconi family. My guess is that they made a sudden decision to reduce costs by selling Ibra + Silva (between the two they were going to cost almost 30M / year, salary + tax). We had offers for Silva, so that was easy. The problem with Ibra is that at 8M salary few teams can afford him, and at the time most teams who could afford him did not need him. So Galliani was stuck unloading him at low cost.

FFS SELL THE CLUB ALREADY!!!!