We're probably looking at a packed San Siro for this one. Over 50k tickets sold with a projection of sales reaching over 70k

Can you imagine if we get Auba next season? Packed San Siro each week in the league. Glad the 50k stadium plan fell through

I'll probably miss this one.

Hopefully Montella doesn't screw around this time and plays at least Calhanoglu and Silva from the start.

Hakan Time!

Milan sonata ft. HK10 and Patrick 'Crotone' Cutrone.
Produced by : Jack B
Backing Vocals : Suso
Percussion: R.Rodriguez

Sky's probable line-up: Donnarumma; Abate/Conti, Musacchio, Zapata, Rodriguez; Locatelli, Kessie, Bonaventura; Suso, Silva, Borini/Niang.

Question: is Calhanoglu injured or something?

More crucially why no Bonucci. He can register a wildcard. As for Hakan, no clue. Appalled that either Borini or Niang will start up top - happy to see Silva prove me wrong but can't fathom no place for CrOtone.

I think there is some official payment thing which is to be sroted by 11th August for Bonucci and Biglia. Could be for Calhanoglu as well

I think that Hakan might not be in form.

The bond thing is only for players sold from one Serie A club to another. We've already posted the bond for Conti and Kessie (which is, btw, the only bond so far posted for any Serie A transfer).

I suspect that after 4 months of suspension and summer vacation, Calhanoglu is not quite fit for 90 minutes.

Sky reporting this morning that Conti, Loca, and Silva are likely to start.

Hakan is probably not entirely match fit. He had not been playing for four months prior to his transfer. He's actually my favourite signing this season and I can't wait to see him and Jack combine on the left.

59,000 tickets already sold for this one.

Probably gonna reach 70k.

According to the Non Evoluti (who have been pretty damn accurate so far), the surety bond for Bonucci and Biglia was secured via a Venetian bank on Friday. Not sure why it hasn't been announced yet. Perhaps we may see these two tomorrow.

Apparently part of the issue with getting this bond was the new ownership's needing to have relationships with Italian banks. Under Berlu, there was a set of friendly banks that took care of things such as surety bonds. The new folks have to find different banks to do this, hence going to one of the Venice banks.

Does anyone really care about this bond thing? I mean, is it really necessary to go so much into details? There were a few obstacles, being a new ownership and all, but nothing worth worrying about or requiring the attention of. People sometimes like to blow things out of proportion.

I'm not referring to you Fishdoll, don't get me wrong.

Silva has a problem with one of his toes and won't play tomorrow most probably.

I am personally not bothered by it as it's something I am sure will be settled in due course. The only part that bugged me is that other clubs and the media singled out Milan for incompetence because it hadn't been paid (not mentioning that nobody else's had been either).

btw re tomorrow: Montella said Andre Silva had a toe injury and may or may not start.

Sad to say but no loss IMO. Hope Cutrone (spelled his name right for once) starts.

So, you don't even want to give him a chance to see if he's good or bad. *sigh*

Eh, naw, didn't say that. I said that if it's true, it's no loss as things stand and based on pre-season form Cutrone is the best option.

Here are the call ups:

Portieri - Antonio Donnarumma, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Storari.
Difensori - Calabria, Conti, Gomez, Musacchio, Rodriguez, Zapata.
Centrocampisti - Bonaventura, Calhanoglu, Kessie, Locatelli, Mauri, Montolivo.
Attaccanti - Borini, Cutrone, Niang, André Silva, Suso

Craiova to win 2-1 and progress on away goals. Mussachio Red card and Zapata to win it for Craiova with a 91st minute OG.

+1

I think he's not match fit yet after being out since half of last season.

It's not a game where you have to have your absolute best 11. We can do without him so Montella doesn't see any need to risk him


Like with Hakan, the game is basically already done. No need to include any of them. I'm sure they'll be part of the squad for the play offs (yes, we still have to play another set of games...)

I know it's frustrating, considering the alternatives are Monto/Zapata/Borini/Niang

But they're enough for this one


Apparently Juve haven't paid for their purchases either.

Honestly never knew how these transfers were done before so it is sort of interesting to see from the financial side of it all. But really, the only reason this was made public and an issue was because most Juve leaning media outlets were butthurt about the Bonucci transfer. People have been whining about Milan not spending for years, and now that we have the financial backing they're trying to come up with any excuse to delegitimise what the club is doing

Luckily the Chinese have hired a true professional in Fassone, and everything he's done up until now has been admirable.


Not really, especially since it's the standard method of practice for inter-Serie A transfers. Just interesting that it's being made out to be a big issue now that we're putting the money up


Damn! Really wanted to see him start tonight


Exactly


+1

You joke about this but this forum will actually blue screen if that happens.

Starting XI. I am ridiculously excited.

03/08/2017 - 14:45
99 Gianluigi Donnarumma (GK)
5 Giacomo Bonaventura
8 Suso
12 Andrea Conti
17 Cristián Zapata ©
22 Mateo Musacchio
63 Patrick Cutrone
68 Ricardo Rodríguez
73 Manuel Locatelli
79 Franck Kessié
94 M'Baye Niang

Too bad about Silva, really wanted to see what he could do given some decent time

If you need a stream: link

Cutrone offside on that. Feel bad for Kessie. What a hit that was!

JACK!

Getting a bit too over-confident with the playing out from the back.

Doing feints and back passes in front of our box...

Defense needs to stop being distracted, but in general terms that was MUCH better than last week.

CUTRONE!

Rodriguez' free kicks are deadly

Cutrone!!!!

Cutrone! 3 goals in 3 games.

I'm mostly looking at the fitness level of our players which is very impressive considering the heat and how early it still is

They're playing with an intensity that's impressive considering we're in early August

Yep and it's good to see this early. Nobody is really playing terribly and there are a lot of encouraging signs.

Did you guys see the Fassone/Mirabelli banner?

Why is Zapata wearing the armband? That should be Bonaventura's

Nope. What does it say?

Something about them being the best transfers of the summer.

Bah. Can't cut/paste twitter images.

"Passiamo alle cose formale. Fassone e Mirabelli gli Acquisti piu importanti della stsione'

"Moving on to the formalities. Fassone & Mirabelli the most important acquisitions of the season.'

Haha neat....

Niang is such a head down player. Fans getting on his back. And rightfully so

Slight dig at the old management there. Or am I reading too much into things?

Not sure. But it's sure a huge change from the Fester/Berlu banners of previous years. I think the Curva genuinely likes Fassone and Mirabelli.And if they can get in a dig at Fester at the same time? All to the better.

I know it's early in the year and fitness isn't 100% yet but Niang should have made that run for Conti.

Niang being left on the pitch is hella strange. The fans are getting on his back big time, they have absolutely no patience for him

Silva looket better tonight.

65,763 in attendance.

In general, an encouraging performance. The new guys did well and I liked Loca in midfield (a whole lot more than Montoleader).

Agreed, still rusty, but a far more encouraging showing.


Locatelli's problem is that he plays sideways balls too much and lacks a bit of movement. When I think of regista I think of Pirlo, and although he looked like he just sat there at times compared to guys like Kaka who looked like he did a lot of running, Pirlo was always the one who clocked the most mileage during games.

He needs to move a lot more off the ball to make himself available for the pass and create space for others.. His defensive game is currently much better than his offensive/passing one.

It is official, this match was the most watched match in Europa League qualifier history.

Grande Milan

Oh how i missed this smiley

In two/three years time we should be rubbing shoulders with CL winners again, brushing them aside in the finals, and taking the BIG ears back home. Ain't gonna be easy but nothing in life is easy.