Good move AFAIAC.


If true, they have just told us how they feel about Donna vs. Lopez

Rumors about the money from Adriano going to finance a big move in midfield, either Witsel or Fellaini ( ).

How about a good right winger, Fester? We are playing 4-4-2 after all, and our only options are Honda and Boateng...

PS: Galliani confirmed Cerci to Genoa. He also said SES might stay...

Remember when SES was supposed to be the next big thing? Us refusing €30 million from Anzhi etc. Now no-one wants him. Monaco sent him back, we don't wanna keep him...

Well, that's how things go. Nevertheless, I'd rather we've signed a few more SES-like talents then the various Matri's and Pazzini's we had in our team.

Han, your assessment is simply way off. He's a 16 year old keeper who is 6'5", confident on the ball (though he does give me minor heart attacks from time to time), a good shot stopper, and he hasn't made any major error in 11 starts. He's even made big saves to keep us in games. He's the real deal. If you think he's piss poor with the ball how would you categorize Lopez and Abbiati? Abbiati used to make at least one major give away a game with the ball at his feet and Lopez is incapable of more than booting it up the field which often leads to a loss of possession. I agree that he needs to work on his decision making. That's not an indictment of him a player though. He's demonstrated that he's remarkably quick on his feet for his size and he's been able to recover when he makes a mistake. I'm sure the coaches have noticed the same thing and are working on it with him.

agreed.. There was always some chance that one of such player could have been great or better, but the deadwood hiring policy has been shambolic

Don't think that should be any indication.

Donna is young, Italian and obviously talented. United have money to burn over nothing.

Still think that Lopez, right now is by far the better keeper and I'm stressing the now in this sentence.

I do admit that I have come to see that he has talent, and I had previously said that I don't really see anything special in him. He has done decently so far. With only a handful of errors which lead to goals. But aside from that, this has never been the point of my argument. Which has always been about having a keeper with a wealth of talent and experience, sitting on the bench while we're trusting a completely green and inexperienced 16 year old to play, who I do admit now, has talent but is no where near Lopez.

And at this point in time I do not understand taking this risk and not playing our best players at all times (in the league), especially when we have so many issues within the side especially in central defence and midfield


Disagree about Lopes and his distribution, I personally think he's pretty good when it comes to playing it out. Abbiati I agree he's a total liability in that area.

Donna has had several moments where he's tried to overplay the ball and nearly ended up complete red faced because of this, against Roma he sent it into touch straight from a kick out about 4 or 5 times. But his distribution isn't really my issues with him, it's more about his decision making in terms of coming off or staying on his line and that's what really worried me. So far his mistakes in this area haven't really been punished, but I worry about when they do, because these are the kinds of errors that really do send his confidence at rock bottom

As I said above, this is not about his talent or potential, which I do now admit that he has, it's about not playing someone who at this point in time is the better option to be playing for this team. Simple as that really

Rumors about El Ghazi (20, right-winger, Ajax) but we have to accommodate SES and Cerci first.

IMHO for someone that young he is very good, and (more important) he is good enough to play for us. Keepers improve with age, I am sure the coaching staff will help him through his "rough edges".

Also it is good to see us giving space to our younger talent (if anything, we should be doing more of it).

The talent has always been questionable though

Do you remember the outcry to play Di Gennaro? Merkel? Cristante? And the even bigger meltdown when we sold Cristante and got actual cash for him instead of sending him on an endless cycle of loan deals? There really hasn't been a true talent to come out of the primavera in years. De Sciglio and Abate are both good players imo, and they're the only 2 to have made it as first team fixtures in over 20+ years if I'm not mistaken

Cerci to Genoa is almost a done deal. /Mediaset

Loan or permanent buy?

i think he is on loan to mialn?

Is he even our player?

I though we had him on loan for 2 seasons from Atletico... Don't understand why he's even our issue at this point, should have just sent him packing last summer

Anyway. I really do hope we find a solution for some of the players we have on our roster so we can free up space for better players

Reading a lot about the Ranocchia deal. Why does Milan even need that Inter player? I don't see the point of signing him, even with Mexes departing.

On other news, Mr. Bee and Berlu having a important meeting tonight.

MN/Sky

Looks like the Luiz Adriano deal may be off (link)

Good. He was solid, but we can use the money from his sale elsewhere.

He means it's not going to happen. They didn't agree on the terms of contract.

Yep, I misread "off" as "on". Crap...

Has anything other than signing Boateng again on a free happened this winter?

I don't think we've even made 1 single significant move. All this when we should be working on the midfield and looking to get a proper long term partner for Romagnoli, especially if Mexes is leaving

We still appear to be concluding that Mr Bee deal, which occurred in summer

Apparently, we are after Taarabt. Shoot me now ...

AFAIAC, we are seeing a replay of the saga we have seen for a number of transfer windows now:

[Previous transfer window]

We get a number of (mostly useless) players, attracting them with ridiculously high salaries. Still unclear on the rationale behind these selections, except they seem to tick most of the following boxes:
- parametro zero
- "special deal" from a FoG (friend of Galliani), in particular Raiola or Preziosi
- used to be a (reasonably) good player a few years ago but has been sidelined (possibly for a while)
- yet another striker (to make Berlu happy)
(If there is a "grand strategy" or even something vaguely resembling "a project" someone still needs to explain it to me, 'cause I don't get it.)

[Current transfer window]

Galliani: "can't possibly buy any player unless we first sell a few"

<Time passes ... other clubs seem reluctant to take our players (wonder why), and even when they do the deal often falls through because either (1) the player is not willing to compromise on the ridiculously high salary he is getting at Milan (Luiz Adriano is the latest example) or (2) Berlu blocks the transfer for reasons that are beyond me ... we are linked to a number of names but nothing happens ... more time passes ... we are now days away from the close of the market.>

Galliani: "time for the Condor to strike again!", and off we go to get the usual last minute panic-buys, mostly fitting the criteria listed above. Occasionally we do get lucky, and all the Galliani-lovers get to sing his praises.

Sounds familiar?

There are of course side shows like:

[A few transfer windows ago] We steal Honda from Zenith
[Last transfer window] We try to steal Witsel from Zenith
[This transfer window] Hmm ... wonder why Zenith is not willing to deal with us on Witsel

Aaargh!!!

This article basically says that our inability to sell players is self-inflicted, and derives from (1) our selection of mediocre players, and (2) the ridiculously high salaries we pay them. Pretty much the same points I have been making for some time.

So I see Leicester wants Niang and Nocerino should be off for the MLS. Something might happen after all...

What do you think about such a sale?

I mean Nocerino, that's a really insignificant transfer. But what about Niang? He has shown signs of improvements. Honestly, it would be smart to sell him for that price, and then to reinvest in midfield. Specially, since we have plethora of strikers. The problem is we won't reinvest, there is not enough time for it anyway except if Galliani has something in works. We were mostly silent during this transfer period.

I'd welcome it with both arms. Niang is a terrible player IMO. He's completely useless: a striker with terrible accuracy, no feeling for the goal and a completely wrong attitude. Maybe he's a combative winger, defensive winger, call him what you like, but I'm all against such players.

Yeah I agree with that. Too bad it seems that an offer never came.

Milan are in talks to sell Antonio Nocerino and Nigel de Jong to MLS clubs, as LA Galaxy, Orlando City and New York City FC line up.


- http://www.football-italia.net/79159/de-jo...nd-nocerino-mls


This would make me a very happy man to be honest.

As for Niang, I would keep him, I am a big fan of him even though he needs to keep working on his shooting to be more clinical, but his pace and attitude are great. Would be a mistake to sell him, I'd much rather send Balo back to Liverpool by cancelling the loan.

I don't see a point in keeping a striker who hasn't got the most important components a striker needs.

As for NdJ, I don't get this. Why is he now sidelined? When did we cross him off? I still think he's our best defensive player, over Poli, Nocerino, Kucka and Bertolacci.

Yep, I find it pretty strange how 2 players who were essentially our best and most reliable performers last season (Lopez and De Jong) could suddenly just drop off like flies with no explanation and suddenly we hear rumours about how both could be sold for basically peanuts a few months later.

I wouldn't sell Niang for that amount 16M in today's market is essentially peanuts and considering he had a good year last year at Genoa and has been considered to be pretty decent this season makes me think we can get more from him. That being said he has improved leaps and bounds from where he started with us and he is still young so I wouldn't mind keeping him either.

I like NDJ but for me he is a dinosaur, the game has changed to the point that defensive midfielders need to have more skills than just being able to win the ball. Heck even defenders are becoming more and more inclined as passers. For me, we can't sacrifice a midfield spot for someone with little to no ability aside from defending. Without a playmaker and a proper regista we lack creativity first and foremost, having De Jong on the field only exacerbates that problem.

But, I do like him as a player and I look forward to seeing him come here to the States. Always liked the guy and his grit has reminded me of Gattuso. I appreciate that he came here in a time of weakness for us and provided leadership and character when we were devoid of both, wish him all the best for sure.

This morning I heard on RAI that we are actively shopping Adriano as we want to get rid of him and also that Juve might come looking for Poli. Plus Nocerino is probably on his way out. Whatever he was or wasn't he did have one amazing season with us, but it is long past time for him to go.

For 16M I would sell Niang on the spot. Too bad we couldn't monetize on Adriano. With both those sales we could have financed a top midfielder.

De Jong has officially terminated his contract and will most likely more to LA Galaxy

Really strange, just a year ago we chould have sold him for decent money to Man U and now we terminate his contract. Only at Milan...

Really wierd that he went to LA Galaxy. He could have still made it at a top club in Europe.

Wish him all the luck! He was a warrior.

Strange. They way he just, well, disappeared.

Probably the wrong place to post this, but Allegri seems to be doing very well at Juve (link). In light of our recent record, I have to wonder if Allegri learned from his past mistakes or if his performance at Milan was impacted by other factors (management, players, whatever). Hard to excuse his second year at Milan, though (still had a semi-decent team and should have won that scudetto).

As usual, it's a combination. I've been critical regarding Allegri, but I also never underestimated the big factor presented by Galliani and our overall strategy.

Thing is, he had his share of blame. I cannot tell if he learned or not, because Juventus keeps giving a high-quality team. Yes, he managed to excel. But the disastrous start of this season is indicative as well to me.

I personally don't see anything all that special with what he's currently doing at Juve tbh, and you said it yourself, he should have won the title his second season with us but let a far more inferior Juve side take it right out from under his nose, he still had the best team in the league that season, he just proved that he was by and far not the best tactician during that season.

I don't need to go into his following season and a half with us and the disaster that time turned out to be, the man simply had no answer to losing the player who made the entire team tick.

And as Filippo said, his start to this season is also very indicative that his biggest shortcomings are still very present now, they're just very well masked by the fact that he has a squad that can basically steamroll the rest of the league without too much effort

Han, you always bring up the collapse at the end of Allegri's tenure as the reason that he's not a good coach but I think it's worth asking the question: Would any coach have been able to stay as competitive after losing the players we did that year? Granted we have no counter factual of a universally recognized great coach taking over after Allegri left but all of our struggles since then suggest to me that our dearth of quality players is more to blame than coaching.

I think a good coach would have done considerably better. We used to whine around how Carletto was unable to adapt and achieve more, but take a look at his last years: even with loosing his best players, Ancelotti still managed to catch the CL, qualified for the CL on all occasions, etc.

But, surely, you have to see that still Ancelotti had a much much better squad than Allegri then! He didn't so well in the leauge, I reckon...and the CL..well he always possesed that special skill.

Again, I'm not saying Allegri is the best coach ever. I agree of his shortcomings, but the man is doing his job right. He's building a strong new Juve out of NEW quality players. I don't think it's that easy! We've seen several coaches fail to do it..namely Mourinho!

Surely, it isn't easy. But you forget, Allegri embarrassed himself at Milan over and over again. At one moment he completely lost it and played average or comic players in favor of real talents, he neglected club legends, he played ridiculous formations with one or two players completely out of position.

Ancelotti's late years are a myth. People tend to forget that there was a time Milan simply couldn't have won the Scudetto because of the Calciopoli scandal. But let's forget that for a minute. Ancelotti still had to deal with a WC Inter side, while the rest of Serie A was immensely more competitive.

Was it a much much better side? Think about it. No Shevchenko, no Costa, no Billy. Surely, the midfield was intact, but Ancelotti still missed key ingredients. I don't recall anyone defending him much.

In 2011/12 Allegri squandered the Scudetto with basically the same winning side. Next season sure, he lost key players. But the downfall he produced was of epic proportions.

Ancelotti's problem was different. He didn't lose any key players bar Sheva. The problem was the unwillingness of the management to gradually refresh a team of players that were getting old and losing motivation. We've said this many times. Those expensive contract renewals after the 07 CL success was the death of us.

Were they? I still think it's the unwillingness to regenerate the team step by step and failed projects with young players.

I don't buy that at all. Carlo's squads were vastly better than Allegri's post Ibra, Thiago, and van Bommel. Not to mention the loss of senators like Gattuso, Pippo, and Seedorf. Seriously, please look at the squad we had that year. It was really truly awful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%93...C._Milan_season. Even with all that he managed to scrape and claw back up to 3rd that season. The difference for Allegri at Juve is that they lost less of the overall quality of the team and they did a far better job of reinforcing with quality. Galliani owns at least half of that collapse with the terrible deals he made and the anemic response to such a huge loss of veterans.

IMHO it comes down to the following:
- Milan was Allegri's first big team, and he joined us when the team was already in decline
- He made mistakes (which cost us a scudetto), and he struggled once we lost a number of key players
- He did manage to get us to 3rd place his 3rd year (in hindsight not a bad accomplishment), but completely fell apart the year after (though by then the team was no longer competitive and Berlu's lack of confidence did not help)
- His first year at Juve, he inherited a very good squad and managed to improve it further, taking it to the CL final (despite Conte's belief that it could never happen)
- His second year, there were some key changes in the squad, but despite a shaky start he managed to build a very competitive team (stayed in CL and is fighting for 1st place in Serie A). Not a bad accomplishment, and the shaky start is understandable given the extent of the changes.

Bottom line:
- At this stage, he has developed into a good manager for a top team
- Would not want him back at Milan right now (not sure he would do much better than Miha with our current squad)

In any case, my mistake for bringing this topic back up, let's all move on

It's pretty much what I said.

Reports saying the Bee deal could be off...

Basically, looks like Berlusconi got screwed!