Can you guys believe all the names we've been linked with in midfield during this window? Kondogbia, Witsel, Gündogan, Moutinho, Illaramendi... Who did we end up with? Bertolacci, Mauri, Kucka and maybe now Lulic. I am utterly disgusted.

Apparently Zenit did not want to sell Witsel now, but only in January. That's what his representative says.

Link

Btw, Soriano to Napoli almost done. So you can either look at it as a bullet dodged or our last chance at a mid coming in gone

Now Mediaset saying the Witsel negotiations have been reopened. What a clusterfuck.

I seriously don't think there's enough time now to complete this thing

Di Marzio saying they'll make a last attempt before 11pm (I'm assuming that's the deadline for posting in new contracts with the Lega)

Mediaset also reports that Zenit could accept the formula of loan with an option to buy from Milan for Witsel.

Matri at Casa Milan to sign his loan deal with Lazio

Sit back, wait and relax. You guys make are far to deep into this.

Yea, I'd take the last chance at a mid coming.

Where's the fun in that?

This is the day where it's appropriate to actually lose your sh!t.

Han has been feverishly at his PC/laptop/tin can all day focused on this.

The sweat is flowing down his face, and every time he sees the name 'Witsel' his heart flutters and a further bead of sweat drains down.

See? It just happened again. The poor boy is shaking.

I think for the Sanity of Han Galliani really needs to get Witsel signed.

No Witsel. Milan's mercato is closed.

Expected.

Specifically we failed to reach agreement.

Mainly Galliani being a d*ck, tbh.

.

We have 27 players in our roster right now. Who will be the two that shall be left out? Nocerino and Mauri, I assume.

Under 21s can be passed off apparently.

What a total let down of a mercato. Over 80m spent and we're still as bad as we were last season with only a couple of upgrades in attack

Galliani should hole himself up in a dark room and not come out again

The only thing I commend him for is that he managed to restrain himself instead of panic buying someone just to say that he signed someone (but I guess that's also negated considering he already did that with Kucka)

Well what can be said for this transfer window, started with a lot of promise and ended as usual, with disappointment. Compared to our direct rivals who got a bunch of key players and generally improved the squad, we seemed to have stalled. Our only real improvement came in the form of a clinical finisher in Bacca. Hopefully our best move will have been the coach who can coax greatness from mediocrity, otherwise this will be a long year indeed.

tbh, and I know this will be unpopular, but....

As much as a morale boost Witsel might have been, he wouldn't have been enough to fix this team.

Our defence is shite, our midfield non-existent, and all we have is an attack.

Having Witsel would have given us a bit of spark in midfield but given only he & De Jong would have been worthy of all four midfielders, it wasn't enough.

Defence we have zero defenders we all trust - Mexes' is combustible, Alex is injured, Zapata needs one of them to really function, Romag is 12, Ely is green.

So...truth be told, wtf difference would Witsel have made, great though he is?

It's been a desperately awful Mercato, where we've managed, with 100M, to go backwards.

Well done Galliani. Well friggin' done.

Tell me when Galliani is fired.

Fixed that for you.

Milan for the 2015/16 season have 28 players, 5 of them are U21 (Niang, Calabria, Donnarumma, Romagnoli, Mauri). The rules of the Serie A allows teams to have 25 players + U21 players, so the number of Milan players is ok.

Witsel blocked by Berlusconi, who is disappointed with Milan's start after spending almost €90m. CorSport

Can he become any dumbber ? Exactly because the team is not working without a (more) creative player he should have spent extra 25m to make the previous 90m spent work. Stupid very stupid.

Maybe he finally lost confidence in Galliani and wants a reshuffle first? Too good to be true, but hey..

Witsel wouldn't have fixed all our problems, no. But he would have been a start. We still need a proper regista desperately and if we had signed Witsel we maybe could have gone for someone in the winter window with that position being the only real crucial area to fill.

Sure we still need a great AM and also a great experienced CB. But I think we can wait until next summer for them. Without Witsel and a proper regista this team will struggle in most games we'll play this season

Witsel was the only one we were getting. And that failed. So forget the regista notion, not happening.

My post was focused purely on him because he was the only one who looked like he might come.

And now we don't have him I have to concede we're not really that much worse off.

If we had got him we'd still have a shite defence, and a shite midfield 3. The only place we'd have been half decent would be AM, plus the strikers.

Still woefully imbalanced and ultimately we're barely that much worse without him.

Abate-Mexes-Romagnoli-MDS/Antonelli is not a shite defense, especially if it was backed by a capable midfield. But our midfield sucks so much that our defense is exposed wide open to any attack. And it not being a top defense, it gets to look worse than it actually is.

I can make the same argument about our attack. Bacca, Adriano, Menez and even Balotelli is a decent enough line-up, but sometimes they look too isolated because the midfield doesn't help them.

Our main problem has been the midfield from the get go, for a few years now. Yet we never try to fix it. We get average players with different characteristics than what we need. We lack a true regista, a couple of creative players actually. It's as obvious as the air we breathe, but we completely ignore it. And we all know whose fault that is.

#GallianiLeave

Completely agreed. We have to tackle this problem coming this winter. All our midfielders should be under evaluation and reassessment. Then we should sell 2-3 of them and sign us at least two fresh a creative players.

What I don't get is why we don't double our scouting efforts here. It's so evident that Serie A lacks that kind of creative players, but also England and France. So rather then spending small money on useless copies of players we already have or pay overrated fees, we should be able to find a few young, fresh, talented gems out there. Look at Inter, how much they profited by signing Kovačić in the first place.

You've just cited a back four that Miha hasn't even used yet. How can you evaluate it either way? On paper?

My comment was related to the depth that we have there. MDS is being used as RB, Abate's on the bench. Cr*p start already.

Central defence sees the unreliable Mexes/the constantly injured Alex/the unpopular Zapata and the totally underwhelming Romagnoli. Oh and Ely. MEH!

It might not be 'shite' but it is far from good.

Mexes isn't used because he's still not match fit. Once he regains that, he should be a starter. Abate is a question mark to me. Why is he sidelined in favor of MDS?

Are you telling me that Abate, Mexes and Antontelli haven't played together before? The only new face there is Romagnoli, and given his characteristics, Mexes would be the ideal partner from the players we have. Hence, why that line-up is the best we can field and it's not so bad.

Mexes' agent: "He wanted badly to go to Fiorentina. He feels that Mihajlovic does not consider him important. There was indeed a genuine interest from the viola, but there never were any negotiations because Berlusconi placed his veto and nothing could be done afterwards."

Link

Well now...

Was that really necessary now? Also, hasn't he recently signed an extension?

He did, but that was on request from Silvio. Apparently Miha never really wanted him.

Miha will cave to the powers of Mexes just like Allegri, Seedorf and Pippo had to do before him

IMHO the problem is not limited to Galliani. Galliani will do what will keep him in good terms with Berlu, which I believe explains his obsession with forwards. Berlu also complicates matters by halting transfers in apparent conflict with coach and management alike. Mostly this has to do with sales (think Mexes, Monto, and going back a few years Pato), but it looks to me like he also decides to close the purse strings at random times, mostly to make a point. But AFAIAC Berlu's biggest mistake is continuing to rely on Galliani.

As for Galliani, it is quite possible that the best way to describe his current state is the Italian term "rincoglionito".

Gonna be a long year, and my expectations are low. Best hope is that we will wake up in the Winter transfer window and find a way to fix our midfield mess. It is also possible that Miha may be prove to be a better coach than I give him credit for, and may get the current lot to perform decently. In any case, hope is all we are left with right now, 'cause reality looks rather disappointing ...

That made me .

Wouldn't that be a sight. As long as he doesn't play Zapata. Man, his misplaced passes and basic defending mistakes are legendary. Not sure I can stand another season of them. At least, we got rid of Abbiati with his direct goal kicks to opponent forwards, those were cruel too.

Zapata gets too much shtick in here. He's not so bad.

Oh no, he isn't. It's his brain freeze moments, which are at least one per match, that get me. Were it not for them, he would be an okay member to have in the team. At least, better than Kevin Constant as a player. But his moments have cost us in the past, and continue costing us points or goals.

Kevin Constant, that's one name I had forgotten. I just did a quick Google search for him, and this is what I got:



OMG!

Aye, he's seen better days.

Don't get it. What's so bad here?

His picture with the Ballon d'Or...

Exactly what we're missing to make our formation work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdeQXpIg4qI

Oh f*ck off

Rui Costa. Indeed. One of my top five players of all time, massive talent.

Ditto. For me, the guy had more class than any of Pirlo, Xavi, Iniesta etc.

Aye, they don't make them like him anymore. Even though he was here towards the end of his career, he always put in a good show, knew when his time was up and said goodbye. His time at Fiorentina, though, man, that was something else entirely, and same goes for his stint with the Portugal National Team.

Right up there with the best, and I'm just glad he player for us, played with our best.