Apparently we've secured a deal for Musacchio for next summer

Milan have secured the signing of Villarreal defender Matteo Musacchio for €18m. Player should earn €3m/year [@MCriscitiello].

Take it with a huge pinch of salt

Is he not a good player? I never seen him before.

I haven't either but I gather he's not half bad. Been linked with him for a couple of months now.

We'll see if it's actually true

Anyway, looks like the bottom just fell out of this Sino Europe Sports farce. Most sources saying that SES has disbanded with only Yonghong Li remaining and basically a bunch of loans to fund the closing.

If this thing goes through I'm actually worried we'll just be moving from the frying pan and into the fire

This club needs restructuring, and a lot of fresh investment and fresh minds. One man holding on by a thread could lead to things becoming infinitely worse for us...

The moment it went on for more than two months it was completely doomed. I let myself get caught up in the hype at the start of the year but deep down I never believed it would happen. We're a mess and going nowhere. What we're achieving on the pitch defies the nightmare off it.

Apparently Fininvest have made an official statement now reiterating that the closing will happen (gave a definite date of April 14th now). Fact is, they're desperate to offload the club, so I think it will happen whether it will be a good thing or a bad thing is something else all together

The only hope we can cling to if this goes south is that the new owners would be more quick to sell up shop (like what happened with Inter and Thohir

Now we're hearing Silvio is going absolutely nowhere. That even if this fabled thing does close, he's staying on as pres.

Maybe as an honorary figure but nothing else. There's no way a majority stake owner would ever let someone else stay on as president let alone give him decision powers. If this thing happens, which I'm quietly confident that it will, Silvio is out and Galliani along with him.

Few things to report:

We've received a bid for MDS from Juve.

Barca want Deulofeu and it appears he wants them.

We've made interest in Lorenzo Pellegrini of Sassuolo.

Potential good news. Says that the Elliot fund (which is loaning 300M to Li for the closing) wants to be assured that the value of the team will not drop. This means that if we sell someone of relevance (like, for example, Bacca), management needs to re-invest the funds into the team. Also, this puts more urgency on renewing contracts for key players (like Donna), as losing them would affect team value.

Question - Is Elliot giving a loan? I read somewhere they were actually the new partners and will be given a seat on the board. Basically Yonghong Li disbanded SES, took his money and formed a new group called Rossoneri Sport. I admit a US presence does make me feel a bit better about things.

Few things to report:

We want Fiorentina's Kalinic to replace Bacca, and we're looking at Schalke's full back Kolasinac.

I have read somewhere that they are loaning the money (at rather high interest, I may add). But I could have it wrong. But even if they are just loaning the money, given the amount it is not unreasonable for them to expect a seat on the board.

EDIT: it looks like it is a loan. They are in for 303M, a first part due back in 18 months (11% interest), the rest later (7.5% interest). And, BTW, the closing has apparently pulled back to an earlier date.

Sky reports Silvio giving Galliani the green light to run for Serie A presidency. That points to an imminent sale of the club.

Forza Milan that's a leveraged acquisition alright, this could mean a lot of things. Think Blazers and ManU, they mortgaged everything United to the banks for the banks to buy them the club. What's the size of the offering from the Chinese? 700 or 500M ? 303M is a sizable amount both ways.


Edit: Gattuso had comments about the Milan sale in a press conference, it went like this;
Reporter: Juventus was sold to an Italian family while Milan to Chinese?
Ringo: Juventus's competitions are local only that is why the investors interested are Italian, while foreigners might not even know them.
Reporter: Milan took months in the sale process?
Ringo: That points to the importance of Milan, while Inter was sold in half an hour, If a girl wanted to buy shoes she would need more time than half an hour.

Yeah they're loaning the money. I've read a few reports which are basically saying that the money from the US/UK companies is just being used to get the deal done. Once Milan is in Li's possession the initial investors will come back into the fold, it's why a Haixia representative will still have a spot on the board of directors.


Classic Rino

Anyway, I read that the set up will be as you said, similar to that of Man U

Anyway, I'm not big on the financial aspects of it all. As long as we'll see an upper managerial overhaul and a proper re-structuring of the club so it can be run as a proper business, I don't really care where the money will be coming from.

Two very good moves, and if true we're finally seeing people who work with clear ideas and intent.

Making our moves in the market early will be a huge factor come the start of next season

Plus, with these 2 we'd be improving our defence significantly without breaking the bank and leaving a sizable amount of money to improve the midfield and the wings

On another note, it looks like Barca could activate their buy-back clause for Deulofeu, so I don't think it will be possible for us to keep him if that's the case

Hmm, I don't think Deulofeu is good enough for Barça's ambitions, and I think he'll end up getting loaned again to smaller clubs if he returns there.

I think their intent might be to use him as a bargaining chip for other transfers. But I don't know if they'll make any moves till they finalize their new coach.

Like Jack said, they'll most likely use him to make a quick buck or as leverage for some other deal.

We'll see, I'd like to keep him as it would mean having the wide positions set for next season and we can focus our transfer budget on the midfield and maybe a Bacca replacement (silently praying for Belotti, but it won't happen)

Han, have you ever seen Kolasinac play?

I'm just concerned this Kolasinac guy means we'll see the end of Antonelli and/or De Sciglio.

How is this guy? I don't watch Schalke at all, so I was going to ask you in any case.

Am I like the only fan who doesn't rate MDS?!

Perhaps.

How good is Kolašinac? In Danny's favorite word - abysmal.

Honeslty? No, but I've heard good things and I'v watched some youtube vids to get an idea (I know, I know)

We'll see, now they're saying Everton have agreed terms with him.

I'm not worried if we have the cash to splash there are other possibilties


Antonelli is average at best, I HOPE this means the end of him

DS needs to be renewed ASAP and I've always been an advocate of him as a LB and have always said that he's better there than on the right, but the few times he's played at RB this season I thought he performed better there

So bringing in a new LB (whoever that might be) will most likely mean that DS is shifted to the right, with Abate, Calabria and Antonelli as the backups. Hopefully we'll get rid of Vangioni this summer


Nope, he gets his fair share of hate, I personally think he's a good player that's just stalled a bit in terms of growth and has gone through bad phases with injuries and fitness. But aside from that I think he's currently our best FB (Abate has really gone downhill this season and Calabria is still very young)


Really? Have you seen him play? I honestly don't know but people on social media were excited about the rumours so I assumed he'd be a good catch, plus he looks good on youtube

Some blurbs off of twitter

@TheMilanBible Milan are ever so eager to burn out the competition for Mateo Musacchio for around €16M this summer. [Gazzetta]

@TheMilanBible Milan have lost out on Sead Kolasinac. Milan had the deal locked, but the delays of the closing allowed Everton to snatch him up. [Gazzetta]

@TheMilanBible Gazzetta reports Mirabelli has offered Aubameyang a contract worth €7.5M per season, but a deal is difficult with Madrid & Barca interested.

@TheMilanBible Roma have an option to bring back Lorenzo Pellegrini for €11M & should take him back, but the player would like to return to Montella. [GdS]

@TheMilanBible The new Milan leadership have an agreement with Keita Balde from Lazio, who's contract expires in 2018. [Gazzetta]

@TheMilanBible Milan have had Fabregas' 'YES' since January and with Montella's approval the chances of Cesc in Milan's midfield next season are high. #GdS

@TheMilanBible The new Chinese Milan owners' priority is to extend Montella's contract. They will look to set up a meeting to negotiate. [Gazzetta]

Basically, the press is going a bit mad. I'd be insanely happy if we could just get Cesc off of that list

The new Milan board of directors

I like those rumours. I honestly believed Cesc was a past it washed up superstar - but he has been good for Chelsea. I can see a partnership with him and Montolivo and Locatelli being our mid three and that could be very good.

Especially if we hold onto Suso, Deu and Bacca. Essentially we have three Barca creatives with the same philosophy and one bloody-minded finisher. Looks good. Now we just need to shore up that defence though. Who will partner Romagnoli AND we need a top fullback.

We're linked with Daniel Sturridge. God no. So talented but so injured. It would be Pato all over again.

PS YES again to Cesc. I've been whoring this one off for years.

Just saw the Sturridge thing. And I totally agree with your sentiment; God NO!!

Personally I don't care about either the attack or defence getting an upgrade, if it were up to me and I had a 150m to spend I'd use it entirely on the midfield and then worry about the rest later

Get Cesc, Radja and a young talent like Milinkovic-Savic / Tielemens / Neves and we're good to go imo

I'd absolutely cream myself with Cesc and Nainggolan in midfield.

The thing is, if we do have a 150m budget to spend and Mirabelli is aggressive both are totally achievable targets

Cesc is being used as a sub by Conte, if we have the go ahead from the player himself than I think 25m max would get the deal done

Radja is another issue altogether, but Roma have proven to be easy targets as a shopping outlet. Just hand the cash and you can have anyone

I think something similar to what Juve offered for Pjanic would be enough

So that's 25m for Cesc, 60m for Radja a total of 90m and our squad has already been elevated to a completely other level that we haven't seen in years

We'd have 60m left over, I'd close the deal for Musacchio, that's a rumoured 18m, try to get Deulofeu from Barca/Everton that's probably another 20m and try to make a cheeky offer for any one of those young players I mentioned above, Milinkovic would be the most ideal but Lotito is a pain in the @ss. Ruben Neves would also be a great addition but he'd mostly be stepping on Locatelli's turf plus Porto are an even bigger nightmare than Lotito. Tielemens would probably be the easiest target, just go with the remaining 20m to Anderlecht and he's ours

The rest we can worry abou later but these 4-5 moves would put us back in contention for that 2nd place behind Juve

We should definitely not be going for glamour moves like Benzema or Aubameyang for now, what's important is upgrading our midfield

Ahhhh to hear us talking about Milan quality players again. SOOOOOOOOOOOO NICE!

It's an amazing feeling for sure, let's see how things play out

Some key points regarding the squad from Fassone in the press conference were:
- Player renewals, they definitely want to lock down key players who have contracts running out, Suso, Donna and DeS were all mentioned + Deulofeu's situation
- Integrating more experienced players of a high calibre to help the young talent on the team
- Making a couple of very important signings this summer. The way he mentioned this point, I took it to mean that we'll be signing 1 or 2 top tier players and maybe a couple of very good ones
- They want the squad to be at the very least 70% complete before the team starts pre-season in July, so no more waiting until the last minute to see if we can beg someone to come play for us
- Montella was confirmed in his position and they want to collaborate with him in terms of transfer market decisions
- The transfer budget will be substantial. Now whether that's the 150m that's been mentioned or more is yet to be determined, but he emphasised that they want to get back into the CL pronto so I would assume that they're going to make the necessary moves required to achieve that
- He also admitted that there are teams in the league which are better than us and it's an issue that will be addressed. No more we're good as we are bull cr@p

So basically everything points to us finally having a proper, well thought out transfer campaign that is a joint effort with the coach

Yes, I saw a lot of the quotes. It LOOKS promising. I'm pleased Vince will get a chance with real money.

But we may find he's not big enough in time for Milan - hopefully he is, hopefully he's not 'able to work with poor resources but struggles with big ones'. Lots of managers like that.

Personally, I don't think that's the case, Montella has shown that he can be tactically diverse, not to mention that he doesn't just rely on a motivational factor to prepare his players (like say with Miha)

I have high hopes for Montella if he has the right resources to work with

If he doesn't live up to that we can look elsewhere, but I think that for now, he's the correct man to move ahead with, especially in this transitional phase

Who knows. At the present moment, he's our biggest hope and chance.

And hopefully we'll make the transfers right this time.

Agreed

Plus I don't see any marquee type coach becoming available this summer

Carlo could be KO'd from the CL next week but I don't think Bayern will let him go just yet. Conte will definitely stay on at Chelsea, same with Sarri at Napoli, Mourinho at Chelsea and Klopp at Liverpool. Guardiola could be the only one available but his time at Man City is worrying, he's never been able to replicate what he did at Barca with another team, and unless we have a top class side capable of playing his style (which he's never shown to be able to deviate from no matter the players he has), it would be a complete failure

Any other coach would be a redundant exercise imo, because I think Montella is one of the best in his tier in terms of coaches

Agreed about Montella. No reason whatsoever to let him go. He's done well with the limited resources he has.

You'd think. But it really is Li's trainset now, and whatever he has planned for Milan is up to him and the board.

If they simply don't like Vince, he's gone. New regimes more often than not simply like having their own men even if the existing one is doing well enough - simply because he isn't theirs.

For Abramovich/Chelsea see Ranieri. For City see Hughes.

True, but Montella was a joint decision between the previous management and the new one. Fassone confirmed this yesterday

Either way I personally think he'll still be Milan coach next season. Now whether he can live up to the lofty expectations the new management have is another thing altogether, especially if they provide him with quality signings

Indeed.

If Lux etc had a hand in this decision, I'd say he's more protected then. Not entirely, he's only 50% their man. But that's much better than it being 0. But yes, lofty expectations they will be.

PS is anyone yet starting to have doubts about Donnarumma yet or will I remain alone on that one too?

I think you'll remain alone, mainly because I think you fail to realize that the kid's only 18. No goalie has shown such promise in such an early age since Buffon 20 years ago.

The positions to be filled are a cb, a fb, two midfielders and two strikers cause Bacca can go bacca himself off.

I do love the 'the kid is only 18' fallacy that is being used over and over again. We have a phrase here in the UK:

'If you're good enough, you're old enough'.

People regularly cut Donnarumma slack 'because he's 18', but guess what - he's AC Milan's goalkeeper - his age should NOT be a factor to justify his mistakes and his 'learning'.

He has been given that position not 'because he's 18', but because he's supposed to be good enough.

Well in the past 6 months, he hasn't been - whether he's 18, 28, or 38 doesn't matter. I'd have agreed that 6 months ago he was indeed showing that astonishing promise you allude to - but for me since then he's gone backwards and simply has not developed.

In short, he is no better than he was, and is definitely worse.

I'm not saying he's absolutely rubbish, but he definitely hasn't improved or learned much in the past half year, which is exactly what an 18 year old kid is supposed to do.

Both goals, the first one especially on Sunday, worried me hugely. A world class goalie would have saved that.

'But it's ok, he's only 18'.

Oh well, it's ok we didn't win then! It costs us points and goals, you know.

Something about Bacca doesn't fit this system. Never did. Yet despite it, he's still our top scorer with a one in two ratio this season and the highest shot conversion rate in Serie A, I believe.

He's not Shevchenko not is he Inzaghi, I see where your coming from Danny but you got to admit the standard is definitely higher than Bacca. He is our highest scorer because he is our only proper striker and his shot conversion rate is high because he rarely takes the shot I guess. Regardless, he could be as profilic as can be, he still needs to go

I think you're exaggerating on every argument you make.

The GK position is not like other positions. It needs more time, hence why most goalkeepers reach a maturity phase much later in their careers than other players.

Donna is still a child, and for someone of that age he has shown great things in leaps and bounds. His biggest flaw and where he needs to improve the most is positioning. Once he grasps that aspect then he can be considered world-class.

Right now he's simply a talented kid that's been overhyped by the media and fans, and that has A LOT to improve upon.

Bit harsh!



... isn't that what I said?!

Difference is everyone else is more forgiving of it than I.

Yes, but you are bashing him. I mean, what exactly are you trying to say? That we should bench him and play Storari instead? Or that we should sell him and cash in?

I don't have doubts about Donna, because I believe he'll turn into a fine GK. Patience.

Not quite. I'm only saying he's not gone forward in 6 months.



Yup. I'd sell. He'd fetch a boatload of cash to buy a bunch of players including someone who doesn't cost us points. We're not an academy X - he shouldn't be learning his trade in our first team with points on the line.



I don't. I think he peaked 6 months ago and I don't see much development. Right now he isn't impressive.

PS no one has more patience than me - I've waited half a decade for my teams to be good again. Still waiting.

(hopefully you're right on this one rather than me. I'd like to see him improve and realise the potential of last year. But equally we could use the cash)