If only he wasn't 32. Haven't seen him play for a while, but I'm reading that he's been quite injury prone lately.

Missed 12 games this season due to leg and muscle injuries, and 20 games last season due to herniated disc and groin injury.

Your wish is my command. He's 30



He's only missed five matches this season, and only one of them was injury related. Are you talking about the same Douglas Costa of Bayern? Brazilian dude?

Yes to last season, had a few niggles.

He's 32. Born in 88.



https://www.transfermarkt.com/diego-costa/v...n/spieler/44779

Diego costa 32 but Douglas costa is 30. So I think different people being discussed. And we I believe were linked to Douglas costa the winger not the forward diego Costa

You guys can't even agree on players names 🤣

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/douglas-cos...l/spieler/75615




You're a dufus. I say that with love and respect

Did the 'Bayern' bit not give it away? Diego's never even played in Germany!

Oh crap

tbf the peak Diego Costa was a monstrous striker. No defence on earth could contain him.

Maldini: "Tomori? He has a very high purchase clause, we'll have to see"

Sorry Paolo, I love you and all, but if you don't sign Tomori in June you're going to be the biggest fool around. I don't care what it takes. Sell half the team if necessary. The kid is showing exceptional qualities, he's the future of our backline.

It all depends on 4th place.

Quite happy to say I told you so on this one. Or whoever it was I told.

Romagnoli asking 6M

I don't know what's more irritating: 1) Raiola, 2) the integrity of certain players, or 3) the absurd $$$ that's being requested in general in this Covid financial crisis.

The world has gone tits up.

Man, is Raiola an agent for all our players? They need to GTFO with this bullshit.

6 million lol, he can leave honestly, I don't care. Let Juve do the same mistake of Ramsey again, paying high wages for a player that doesn't deserve. This is the problem with free agents.

So, next summer we're gonna lose Donna and Hakan for free and Romag for peanuts?

If this happens, we're complete fools. Raiola or no Raiola, this is going to be on our management.

Personally I think Hakan will renew in the end, but I'm pessimistic about Donna and Romagnoli because Raiola.

There is a high probability Milan will loose one of those three, even if CL is secured.

If CL is not secured, Milan will most likely loose all three of those players.


On a side note, if Milan do make it into the CL then there should be a restructuring of the squad. Focusing on retaining the core and adjusting for better utility players.

Zlatan to extend. I was absolutely for him last season, 100%, but the guy is now breaking down and if we agree to it, this is desperation.

I love him, but he can't keep going. Fair enough on a reduced wage and a lesser role, but now we can't rely on him.

But it still is a disastrous move by our management. And it has nothing to do with CL football. These contracts should have been sorted out a long time ago, or we should have sold them otherwise.

If we wanna be like Borussia or that kind of teams we have to sell our top youth players, not give them away for free.

When was the last time a club lost 3 such important players on Bosman rule?

+1

I keep reading about Belotti and Vlahovic being considered for next season, so maybe there's still hope.

Oh, and Mandzukic. What a huge waste it tuned out to be.

What a surprise... a player that hasn't been playing pro football for more then a year...

Abdolutely! We should have sold, however on hindsight when I mention the core of the team I would include both Donna and Cala. It's a pickle where the club is with their contracts at the moment and I can not digest why their contracts were left to run.

Would I be wrong to 'assume' the respective players were holding out for CL football during previous negotiation attempts by the club?

Handful of games left to make or break this.

I got Mandzukic wildly wrong. Saw the CV and the rep and got seduced by that. Rubbish signing.

Class is supposed to be permanent...

Yeah, but he's barely played because of injuries. In hindsight it really looks like a very bad deal. Could have gone for someone cheap in Serie A instead. At least we'd have someone.

According to Tuttosport, Jonathan Ikone is our primary target for the right wing.

Also, Castillejo will most definitely be sold.

I think Mand?ukić is pure class. But we should have signed him the moment he went on being free agent at least and give him proper time to work and bring himself back to full fitness. Don't get me wrong, Mario is a beast and a hard worker, he'll regain fitness even now and I'm 100% sure he'll be motivated to show he's worth a stay - which could give us the extra push we need.

But the point is, at the given moment (in late January) we needed someone who could immediately make impact. It was quite obvious that Mand?ukić is not that kind of a player.

In other news I see Andre Silva scored 22 in 25 Bundesliga games. Another Gilardino perhaps?

And once again the rumors about Thauvin joining us died off. Great...

I think because he is demanding 4M per year or something.

I think so. Guy never truly impressed me.

Do you really think he'd be that much of a difference maker though? I see him as another middle of the road kind of player. Would prefer someone more explosive tbh


Anyway, some good news imo

DONE DEAL: @Ibra_official reached a verbal agreement to stay at @acmilan until 2022 Handshake (via @FabrizioRomano)

I think this is hugely important. What we can't do now is make the mistake of relying on Ibra only. WE simply have to get someone in who would not only be a rotation option, but someone who can seamlessly take over the season after, when Ibra will probably retire. For me, it would have to be either Belotti or maybe Zapata from Atalanta.


As for the transfer market in general. We have to make Tomori permanent for sure. I'd take Diaz as well for a reasonable price. Then a LW and a substitute for Kessie. All of those for sure, plus maybe a reliable RB if there is any money left. A striker of course is a huge priority as well.

Hopefully we'll hear something soon about the various contracts running out. We have to add Kessie and Romagnoli to the list of worries now as well. I seriously do not understand why we let these run down so much

Because players seem to be demanding more than what we're willing to offer.

Well that will obviously be the case when they have all the power in the negotiations. Which is what happens when you're on your last year.

Look at Theo, Bennacer, Calabria, etc All have outgrown the initial contracts we gave them. We should be proactive and offer them better deals that still fit within our financial constraints but are better than what they're currently getting. It will keep them happy, make them feel appreciated and above all, gives the club security in terms of the future. And should other clubs come to the table for them, we'd have the power

Now look where we are. At a moment when we could literally lose 2 players who have a combined value of 140m plus imo for nothing.

I say give them what they want, and if the opportunity arises sell them big if we can't keep them. Similar to what we did with Thiago Silva for example. But losing them for free is unacceptable for this club just when we're finally starting to dig ourselves out of the hole we'd buried ourselves in

The problem is, we cannot offer them those better deals that would make them appreciated, because they're simply demanding too much. Romagnoli 6M? Hakan 7M? Come on, they're not worth more than half of that.

At Inter you got guys like Lautaro, Barella, Skrinar etc. who earn no more than 3M and yet we don't read about them bitching about their salaries. Our players need a reality check, starting with Donnarumma.

Anyway, I keep reading rumours about Vlahovic. 40M his price tag.

Dunno, I've seen him play a few times, doesn't look bad, but 40M seems way to excessive.

There is a plan A and plan B. Plan A assumes Milan qualify to CL, lots of happy posts. Plan B, well let's see what happens in the last 8 games.

Agreed. Not sure what all the fuss is about. This season he's decent enough. Yet his scoring ratio isn't that impressive.

15 goals in 29 games, 8 of them as a sub. Could very well reach 20 goals by the end of the season, which in my books is a very good scoring ratio. And let's not forget he plays for a very shitty Fiorentina side.

Could be a decent signing, but again, absolutely not worth 40M. I'd spend 20M max for him.

I'm not talking bout those guys there, but players like Theo, Bennacer, Calabria and Kessie for example. All have very low salaries relatively speaking, which can easily be improved upon without much impact to the budget but will keep all of them happy and secure our long term strategy.

Donna and Hakan do need a reality check. But I still think it would hurt us more financially to lose them on a free than renewing now for what they want and then selling

Mourinho new Roma manager.

Should have tried to snatch him. Let's keep Pioli and swim into mediocrity.

You know what makes me even more angry? If someone here even mentioned Jose, we'd instantly say "no CL is a dealbreaker", "he's not willing to come to us for peanuts", etc etc. Yet Roma made their move efficiently and smoothly. That hurts.

Gone are the days when CL was a deal breaker. Nowadays, if you present to someone an interesting project and a rich contract they'll sign immediately. Mourinho will earn 7M per season, and management must have promised him a decent enough signing campaign.

In other news, I keep reading a lot about Rodrigo De Paul. We're offering Hauge + money to Udinese. Makes me wonder what is the point, considering the wings are a more pressing matter. Unless we've targeted him as Hakan's replacement...

Or it's just a strategy to lower Hakan's demands. Either way, I'm completely unimpressed with De Paul and also baffled about the way we treat Hauge. Sure, he didn't turn out (yet) as a big signing. But he's in principle everything we ought to be: cheap signing, no big contract, young and talented. Scored against Samp, Napoli, made more then a couple of decent games yet still gets less and less time compared to Krunić or the completely ineffective Samu.

Or even the inexplicable Leao for that matter. I guess Pioli just doesn't like Hauge.

Either way, assuming Hakan will stay, we need to sign three good forwards this summer: two wingers and one striker.

As much as I like Rebic, he's been completely underwhelming this season. And Saele can't be more than a decent backup.

Oh, and also ship out Leao to wherever.

Rebić is a curious player. But I think what's vital for him to play well is having a stable and consistent central striker. Also, Hernandez playing badly and Milan missing a dynamic/proper leftback option makes Rebić even less effective. Croatia had both in Strinić and Mandzukić and he usually delivered.

Yeah, but besides not being involved you could also see him being pretty poor in his dribbling and touching of the ball. Many mistakes in passing or decision making. Maybe he just needs to play regularly to gain momentum and confidence, and obviously this season he's been in and out all the time.

Nevertheless, if we make CL next season we need two great wingers who can bring us that hoop in quality.

Of course.

According to Sky Sport Italia, Hakan Calhanoglu is considering a move to Qatar, where Al-Duhail have offered him an ?8m-a-year contract.

The deal of the Turkey international at Milan expires at the end of the season, which means he can sign with any club and leave the Diavoli as a free agent in the summer.

Sky Sport Italia reports the 27-year-old has received an ?8m-a-year offer from Al-Duhail, the Qatar club that signed Medhi Benatia from Juventus in January 2019.

The offer comes with a signing bonus of a further ?8m, according to the report.

That's the highest offer received by Calhanoglu so far and for this reason, the player is considering a move to Qatar.

Calciomercato.com reported last week Juventus have put a ?5m-a-year deal on the table to sign Calhanoglu in the summer, while Milan?s proposal is in the region of ?4m, although it could be slightly raised if the Rossoneri snatch a top four finish.

The player?s agent, Gordon Stipic will meet the Al-Duhail representative last week, according to Sky Sport.

Last week, Calhanoglu said his future ?does not depend? on the Champions League.

Get rid of him. Such an overrated player, always inconsistent and never delivering when it matters.

The Qatar league is perfect for him.

To think he has the audacity to demand CL football whereas he played such dreadful games, not to say he completely botched his performance against Cagliari...

Good riddance I say...

He'd be a fool not to take it. He's not good enough for top football, and he'd be earning 32M for three years.

Anyway, I keep reading De Paul is our objective in midfield. Udinese ask 40M, we're willing to offer Hauge + money.

Honestly speaking, I've never been too impressed with De Paul.