M’Baye Niang has reportedly given the all-clear and will complete his move to Watford, on loan from Milan with option to buy for €18.5m.

Where's that facepalm pic when you need it?

And we still can't make a f@ckin dime off our players! just ridiculous Galliani. When are you going to finally gtfo?

And it's an option as well/ Watch Watford send him back with his tail between his legs at the end of the season. And now the chance of selling him to an EPL club will be greatly reduced since they'll actually see how shite he is.

I don't know. To me it's simple. Either the takeover happens and we can start planning a much brighter future or it's darkness. You were always concerned with details and I admire that. I've lost interest in these small things. I think it's pretty much irrelevant whether we sell him for 5 or 10 or 15 million. It's not that we can buy a good CM for that kind of money during the winter in a span of 4 days.

It's still something....

And if the takeover falls through or it's not as rosy as it's being painted out to be, we need any cash we can get.

No we won't build a team of stars, but 15m could get us Badelj, who would be an instant improvement over the players we currently have. When you have nothing, every little drop counts. And when we're just happy to give away our players for free as long as we don't have to pay them anymore just makes me furious because it just shows what an obviously stupid move it was in the first place. Like the Luiz Adriano deal. An unnecessary purchase, a big wage all for nothing and when we didn't need him but were desperate for mids, as has been the case for a while now.

So that's 10m down the drain plus all the wages we paid him. All this when we can't scrape together the change to get the players we actually do need

The gross mismanagement this clubs has been under is what truly irritates me and these types of deals just epitomiz how truly out of touch Galliani has become with football

+1

I agree with much of what you are saying but, in fairness, it is not that easy. Selling something (anything) when people know you need to sell is always very, very hard. Not overly impressed with Galliani's contribution to the club over the last years, but I can see how things have been rather challenging for him.

Ocampos close to being done. God what a f*cking depressing window this was.

We needed quality in midfield and up front and ended up loaning out Niang, chucking away Adriano and signing two loan wingers.

The only area I'm content enough with is defence - Donna, Abate, Paletta, Romagnoli and Antonelli is as good a defence as Serie A has. The problem is the painful lack of quality in midfield and our system's struggles to feed our striker. Midfield filled with loans and journeymen - there isn't a single midfielder we have even close to the quality we need for UEL never mind higher ambitions. Mati, Locatelli, Sosa, Pasilic, Kucka - the only player we have I rely on is Jack and he's been getting used as a winger recently to cover for Niang.

Following this window our strongest team is probably:

Donna, Abate, Paletta, Romagnoli, Antonelli, Kucka, Jack, Sosa/Pasalic/Loca, Suso, Bacca and Deulofeu

We're going to struggle to be a top 6 team this season.

So with this alleged *COUGH* takeover coming in, we're linked again with Fabregas, and have competition from Chelsea for Villarreal's Musacchio .

We're also been linked with a move for Aguero.

Suddenly the big names are now being linked rather than Lapadula. If the money happens we could see a REAL change this summer.

...AND it's gone!

Lasted long didn't it!

We'll see what happens next summer. If the transfer market is once again left in the hands of Galliani expect a defender and a striker with the midfield being left to rot once again. Expect a couple of shady deals with Genoa as well

If the takeover actually does happen, I'm interested to see what Mirabelli brings to the table, we've been linked to very interesting names. Whether we'll have the funds or if Mirabelli wil get the chance to actually work with us is another thing altogether though

Spurs, Juve, and significantly, Atletico Madrid now linked with Suso. Heavily. Big enough offer I doubt we'll keep him especially if this fabled Chinese takeover doesn't materialise.

Why not? We're sitting on 200MM cash. That kills debt completely of course. Or can be good enough to hand out some good contracts.

We have no assurance that that money is actually real, and if it is, I'm pretty sure Fininvest won't put it back into Milan

And even so, it's still a very short term outlook. 200m in today's football is nothing. We're barely spending anything on transfers these days and yet we're still clocking up 60m euros of debt each year. (which just shows you how terribly run we are as a business and as a club)

The problem is that Silvio no longer wants to invest, we're no longer competitive so we can't even demand high sponsorship deals anymore since we haven't been playing any continental football for a couple of years, not to mention our current sponsors don't even want to renew their deals because they think their money would be better spent elsewhere

So if this deal is a farce (as it is looking more and more likely with each passing day) then we should be worried about the future of this club and where it's going, because carrying on as we currently are would mean having to resign ourselves to being supporters of a mid-table team that was once great but no longer is

Yup, the deal is seriously at risk. And if it did happen, the new owners look like a bunch of clowns, so I am not sure it will end well.

As for the 200M, I believe they are real alright. However, they are going to Fininvest and not the club,, so we are back to where we were before (limited money, no clear direction, etc). Even worse, if we pull out of the deal, most likely there will be a big legal battle. which will not help.

Yeah, after all these delays, even if the deal does go through, what guarantees us that the new owner will start spending big bucks on the mercato when they're having so much trouble finding the money to purchase the club in the first place.

I agree with you, the Chinese don't seem serious at all. They missed Friday deadline for another 100M.

It's all up in the air now; but one thing is for sure Silvio has set a price on Milan and if it is met by XYZ Milan will be sold. Silvio is playing it cool and that he can take Milan back on his own (I beg to question what changed in the climate of football and in Silvios finance? Nothing). The 200M is Fininvests all right and with the club on sale, I believe it's not intended to be reinvested in Milan.

Then the irony of a potential future Captain Donna, whom his agent stated has a year and a half left on his contract, agreeing not to talk about the players renewal with the current management and on top of that calling the Chinese investors not serious. Does this mean we loose this player on the cheap or on a Bosman?

A sale of this club has to be concluded, whether the Chinese pull through and end up dry on the transfer market, or to different investors.

The player situation is what is most worrying and pressing atm

Donnarumma, De Sciglio, Suso, Locatelli, Calabria, Deulofeu and Romagnoli; with the first two's contract situations being the most alarming as we could lose both for free or next to nothing if they decide they want to leave this mess of a club, if the ownership situation is not resolved than the futures of all those mentioned won't be at Milan. I included Deulofeu because we should be trying to make an offer for him, he's clicked with the team so quickly and he's obviously a special player, I'd really like to see us keeping him, but with the situation as is, that's not going to happen either

Lets not make the mistake in indirectly stating this situation is intentional. Sure Silvio wants to exit, and this party intending to come in can not clear funds out of china to close the deal; hence this situation of players contracts left to expire due to uncertainty of the future.

We can not beat our heads to the wall due to external factors to this deal. After all, i think we have been through much heartache already so this whole issue does not really hurt. Tis just Donna whom I feel could have been the new Maldini for Milan. The kid who benches Lopez at 17. Oh well, Istanbul, Sheva's departure, and the retirement of the old guard stung more.

Summer transfers probably needed now Han. Open that one?

PS we're now linked with 40M Euros for Berardi.

Football Italia is running a story that Man City is considering a 120MM - 150MM bid for Donnarumma. That figure gives me pause I have to be honest. How good is Plizzari?

For 50M I would be happy for him to go. At 100M+ what is he still doing here? And suddenly the Maldini esque career comparison poofs into thin air

I'm with you. I'd go further. I actually consider him overrated now. I haven't really been impressed with him since about November last year. Last truly awesome save I saw from him was the Juve one which won us the match.

I don't think he's developed at all for about half a year. If we get a megabucks offer I'd be more than happy to accept.

That's ridiculous Danny. The kid has more clean sheets than any keeper in the top 5 leagues in Europe this year, look at our defense and tell me that the kid isn't a star. If you need more proof go back and rewatch the Lazio game or the Fiorentina game.

Yeah, he makes a mistake here and there, and at 18 I am completely fine with that. We need to keep him at all costs. I wouldn't sell him for anything. It's players like him that have made Milan what it is. Players who would bleed for these colors are rare, and there should be ~no price ~ that would make us sell. 100M gets you almost nowhere today. I would rather the rest of the team continue to be filled with cheap throw away players and have one or two real Milan players around than sell the young stars we have to replace them with expensive declining players from other teams.

The stars won't come here as long as we aren't in the CL. Without a continuous flow of money, 100M gets us almost nowhere.

Indeed. At his age, he's great.

True.

I don't understand this statement, it's patently false. He has 10 clean sheets, and is 18th in Europe. Top is Yohan Pele of Marseille with 14.

I may have wildly misunderstood what you mean.

But it doesn't change my mind. I don't think he's developed in 6 months and that's all I have to say. Please don't be angry at my opinion.

I said back in 2011 that we needed about 100M minimum to rebuild the team after we won the Scudetto. That didn't happen. Now it's about 500M we need. To get the level we expect. But none of this is really related to my opinion of our keeper. He's great, he is, but he's not become as exceptional as I expected him to. And I'd sell him if a crazy offer came in. What is done with that money is a completely different issue.

I think I understand everyone's perspective, and I see the value in a keeping true Milan players. I also believe that Donnarumma is exceptional (yes, he makes occasional mistakes, but he is still 18 - anyone remember Dida?). However, he is represented by Raiola, and I simply do not trust Raiola, so I fear we will eventually lose Donnarumma anyway.

With this in mind, under normal circumstances I would take the 120-150M (or anything north of 100M). However, I have no confidence in our current management, and even less so in our future management. Not knowing what we would do with the money, I would rather we hold on to the player.

Will do

But honestly guys, selling Donna?? Atm he should be untouchable, 150m won't really take us anywhere anyway, it won't be a case of like Juve with Zidane where they built an entire team off of his transfer, not to mention we've been down this road many times now and we know that not even a fraction of that sum would be re-invested into the team.

We need to make sure that we keep our young stars. As soon as this ownership fiasco is over, one way or another, we need to make sure to tie guys like DS and Donna down to long term contracts.

The make a quick buck solution has never and will never work for us, so why sacrifice one of the brightest young stars of modern football?

Indeed. Completely agreed.

When did we ever sell someone for big bucks and reinvested the money smartly?

100M is Messi type of money. Its ridiculous we are even considering an 18 year old with that valuation. What will he be worth after winning a scudetto or CL?

50M is also a big number for the kid.

He is not going anywhere until Berlusconi receives his payment in full from China. If after the closing Raiola decides Donna is going to Madrid for 20M and a year left on contract, then guess where he is going? I sincerely doubt that scenario and instead would entertain a renewal for key players as one of the pressing priorities and the second being taking Milan back to Champions League glory.

But to put things into perspective here, Donna is on a year and a half left worth of contract with Milan and all negotiations for a renewal with the club are put on hold. Yes there is plenty of time if April 14 comes and the Chinese start showing their true weight around, but until that happens ... .

Sure it's ridiculous money, but in today's football Donna is worth more than 150m. Why? Because he's a once in a generation type talent.

This old-age mentality of thinking the maximum amount a player should go for is 50m and he has to be Zidane level of good to qualify for that kind of sum has got to stop. It's the way Galliani still thinks things are run but that is no longer the case, when you have PSG paying 50m for David Luiz or Madrid spending nearly a 100m on Gareth freaking Bale then you know things have gone so off kilter that a player that is a true talent, and such a rare one like Donna, the fee would have to be exceptional.

As for their contracts, I think both DS and Donna are waiting to see what happens with the ownership. If Silvio stays they'll speak with Galliani and if the Chinese come in they'll speak with Fassone. Atm we're in limbo so it's understandable that the players are taking a step back and not fully committing when they don't know what they're committing to

han, please don't take this the wrong way; but I didn't get the '100M being the new prices and 50M being old age'?

100M for a club like Milan, where income is scarce, is a complete blood transfusion for the club and the team. In Spain RM and Barca rule (TV rights, global fanbase/merchandise); plus you are talking of turnover of over a billion combined (our turnover between 150M and 170M). In PSG you have the government of a wealthy country promoting itself for an upcoming WC. These are clubs who pay the astronomical sums, not a team like ours.

On Donna being once in a generation, I do hope he signs as it seems he is fond of Milan plus he has not yet developed (for his age he is very remarkable and impressive, but in experience) into a mature player Ala Buffon or Dida.

If he does leave though, and this is where you set a disclaimer for yourself, why assume based on him being once in a generation kinda player when it is a fact that his contract is expiring in 1.5 years. If by this summer Raiola and Donna agree RM is the better club, then he could refuse our extension and force our hands for 20-30M max.

It's curious, you seem to want to give a rational reason for a multitude of clubs paying colossal cash for players as opposed to accepting prices have gone up.

Han is dead on - 100M is the old 50M.

It's not just Barca, Real and PSG, it's City, Juve, Monaco, Chelsea, Zenit, Utd. Or had we all forgotten about Paul Pogba and Gonzalo Higuain?

Like Danny said, it's not just 2 or 3 clubs driving up the prices, it's a multitude of them and now we're seeing ridiculous offers coming in from China as well

And the new 100m isn't even just the old 50m. 50m 10 to 15 years ago was only paid for the absolute best, Zidane is one of the few examples because he's the only top class star back then who was sold in his prime for such a huge fee. Al the other great player were sold for relatively reasonable prices (meagre compared to today's) players like Nesta, Baggio, Rui Costa, Figo, etc all went for around the 20 to 30m mark and all were considered gasp worthy moments in football. Now things have just gone crazy.

In what world is Pogba worth 110m? Higuain 90m? An overweight and close to 30 Higuain might I add. Gareth Bale 100m. Just ridiculous numbers. The only players worth that much for me are only Messi and Ronaldo, but with how prices are so over-inflated we're seeing player who back in the day were worth 20m max go for over 60m nowadays

So no, we shouldn't be letting Donna go for anything other than something huge, and by today's standards 150m for a player like Donna is not enough. That's why it's of the utmost importance to resolve this ownership issue so we can finally renew contracts and lock players down, most importantly Donna

Also, I don't think he'll force his way out, Raiola might be a POS but he generally acts in the best interest of his client, so if Donna wants to stay he'll make sure to get the best deal for him from Milan, if Donna wants to leave Raiola will make sure to take him to the club that's offering him the best conditions.

There's a reason Messi's escape clause was set years ago at 250M. They not only wanted to protect their prize asset, but like Real and their similar clause for Ronaldo, knew the player could actually fetch that in the future.

Frankly players who couldn't lace Zidane's boots (and as my mates would tell you, I don't even rate him as highly as the rest of the world does) are now fetching double what he did.

It doesn't have anything to do with a few freak incidents, the reality is inflation has gone absurd.

And while I don't rate Donna as highly as you guys clearly do (I still say he hasn't developed in the past 6 months as much as I expected) by the rates of players' prices these days, players inferior to him, as Han said we're talking 200M range here.

But that said, there's one difference between us, Napoli (Higuian) and Juve (Pogba) - we're financially struggling. In both of those cases they far from needed the money. We...need it a little more.

If push came to shove, both Juve and Napoli have proven to be selling clubs

Italian teams no longer have the financial clout or name backing to be able to keep their biggest players

Juve have more financial strength than Napoli, Napoli have to sell players in order to keep their books healthy. Even so, I get what you're saying, most clubs can small the stench of desperation rolling off of Galliani when they come knocking on our doors for players, that's why we generally tend to get the short end of the stick

And it's why it is imperative that Fassone (who will most likely be the ones dealing with the financial aspect of transfers) stands firm when we're in negotiations to sell players. Look at Juve, they get good money for their duds, while Galliani can barely get them off his hands for free and then pats his back for not having to pay the ridiculous wages he initially offered these players

Less selling clubs, more 'who the f*ck would turn down 70M+ for this player'. Especially in Higuain's case. Going by your stance, Man Utd are a selling club because they didn't reject 90M for Ronaldo, or we once were because we didn't turn down 60M for Kaka. Fact is every player, every club, no matter how important, has a price, even Barca and Real players - remember Barca sold Sanchez and Ibra and Real sold Ozil and Di Maria.



No one can keep their biggest players if an offer from stupid street comes in. Not Utd, not Real, not Barca, not PSG.



If Napoli had to sell players constantly they wouldn't still have guys like Mertens and Insigne. They sell if they get a stupid offer. But you're quite right - we are far more desperate, and that's not just financial. We stink of bending over backwards to sell below market rate. When was the last time Milan sold a big player for good money? Was it really Silva and Ibra for 50M in 2012? That's five years ago!

Unfortunately, R7 is right. If Raiola talks Donna into leaving, we *will* lose him. And if we do not get a contract renewal before he decides to leave, we may not see even close to 100M. And frankly, I do not trust Raiola (he will look after his interest first, the player's second, the club not being a consideration).

Bottom line, keeping Donna is not entirely up to our club's management, and if we are not careful we are not going to see the kind of money that (apparently) is being offered right now.

Not sure what this all means, as our management (old and maybe-new) is a mess, and I would not count on having lots of money (transfer budget or player salary), sale or no sale. If anything, I am seriously concerned that if the sale closes, the new owners will have no money and a high interest loan to deal with.

Yup. Napoli did the right thing (not sure about the other examples). The point is that most clubs sell players when they believe it makes sense. Even the big clubs, the ones with lotsa money.


... or if the player decides to leave.


The problem is, if everyone knows you have to sell, it is real hard to get a decent deal, no matter how good you are. That has been the problem with Galliani. In some cases this was self-inflicted (paying players too much), in others he was set up for failure (I believe Fininvest forced him to sell Ibra and probably Silva).

Juve gets better deals because they have their financial house in order, so they are not forced to sell anyone.

Huh? Juve is not a selling club. They sold Pogba for a crazy amount but purchased Higuan for another crazy amount. Likewise, when Napoli sold Cavani they signed Higuain right away. I can't see how you'd call them selling clubs.

It's as Danny said. Every player has a price, regardless for which club they play.

It's not just a monetary issue for clubs in Italy though, Juve had to sell Pogba not just because of the money, but because the player wanted to leave, same thing with Vidal.

Napoli are run amazingly well, especially considering where they've come from. But let's not kid ourselves, they can't afford to keep players like Cavani long term. They can't afford to meet certain wage demands, and especially not for a large number of players, they've managed to hold onto Hamsik, but all the other top players they've had have been sold.

Also, I disagree with that saying, that all clubs are selling clubs, you don't see Real and Barca selling their best players. Danny mentioned Di Maria and Ozil, let's not kid ourselves, Real only sold them because they wanted to make way for the more marketable "It" players of the moment (James and Bale)