Yes, but also some of the players we lost...we don't really necessarily need right now. We have Kessie/Bennacer/Tonali. Also, they needed time to grow like Cristante (whom I don't think is amazing), Locatelli..Sure..Donna is a big miss but we can't compete with clubs like PSG come on.

Speaking of Cristante, I think Mancini completely bottled last night's changes. Subbing in the mediocre Cristante, Berardi and Bernardeschi within regular time explained why they lost their total domination which they had for most of the game (at some point in the second half ball possession was 71%-29% in favour of Italy).

No idea why Locatelli was subbed in only in ET, or why Pessina was completely snubbed.

I think they could have won it in ET had the changes been done better.

I disagree. Barella was piss poor and had a yellow card which usually means trouble. Pessina played badly against Spain, so it was logical to go for Cristante and he did good. The offensive options Mancini had on his bench were limited: all players bar Berardi out of form. Insigne was exhausted, Immobile quite ineffective for the second or third time in a row and Chiesa being injured was not expected.

Taking form, exhaustion and injuries in account, Roberto did good. Look at England, they had players like Rashford on the bench.

Disagreed. I didn't say he made a mistake with relation to the players he took off, but the players he subbed in.

Pessina payed badly against Spain? I didn't think so. And one bad game does not exclude the fact he's been otherwise excellent in the whole tournament. Locatelli was also available, who for some reason after two superb first games has been ignored for the most part.

Bernardeschi also was a bad sub, but that's Mancini's own fault for selecting him over the excellent Politano who had a great season with Napoli. Bernardeschi is a Juve benchwarmer for crying out loud.

I also have to say, that this tournament has made me rethink my evaluations of Berardi. I don't think he's that good, and I hope we don't go after him for the right wing.

Rematch Demand for Italy V England

After the France-Switzerland one, this one is even better.

What kind of IQ must a person possess to start a petition in the hope that UEFA will replay a Euro final simply because Chiellini pulled Saka's shirt. I wonder...

Gazzetta have no clue on what's going on at Milan. At this point I don't think anyone does tbh. Even the usually very reliable guys like Di Marzio and Romano only seem to know once a deal is practically done and dusted

I'll wait. But if we even have an inkling that Kessie does not want to renew, we need to sell him now. The Donnarumma case was made even more obvious following the Euros. We could have gotten a 100m for him after this tournament had we renewed with him for what he wanted. Seeing him be so colossal for the Azzurri (who are the NT I support and love almost as much as Milan) made it so bittersweet for me. Should have never let it get this far. The moment we went into last season with his future unclear, we shot ourselves in the foot. We must never let this happen again

And here I'm not just talking about Kessie who is going into his last year of contract. Romagnoli is in a similar situation. We shouldn't let him walk for free. Either sell him now, or renew him. Simple as

Same goes with guys like Theo and Bennacer. Just tie them down to long term contracts now. Why do we keep letting players run these contracts down? We lose all the negotiating power in these scenarios


But going into the new season with an AM who is not familiar with the system is a risk imo. The management have had plenty of time now. They should have prepared for this even before Hakan jumped ship knowing there was the possibility of that happening.

I don't know. Now that the Euros are over I want to see us get moving. We haven't even closed the Diaz deal which has supposedly been agreed for weeks now

Btw. Huge NO to Berardi. He's not what we need. He'll never be a big game player. Watching Chiesa in this tournament and last season for Juve makes me want to tear my hair out. He'd have been perfect for our right side and I harped on about that all of lat summer. To see Juve take him on such an advantageous deal makes me nauseous.


Calabria needed surgery though.

Obviously I think he's miles better than Di Lorenzo but it is what it is. He'll continue to improve and hopefully will be the starting FB for Italy in Qatar


I'm a lifelong Azzurri fan and last Sunday was hugely emotional

That being said, for me, nothing tops 2006. Maybe it's the fact that I was younger or that Milan players were integral parts of that teams. But nothing tops that for me in terms of sheer joy. Aside from when Milan win that is


Cristante is average at best. Locatelli or Pessina should have come on instead of him imo

Especially when Italy were in such control of the game. There was no need of a more defensive midfielder imo.

Bonucci has been sh!t for Juve as well though. Him and Chiellini are just the type of players who bring their A-game for the Nazionale. Especially when they play together, it's magic imo. He was never really that great for us.

As for Locatelli. Yes of course looking back at it now, it's devastating that we lost him so we could play the likes of Biglia and Monto instead. But he was too raw to be starting for us and he wanted to go somewhere where he would be a starter and did not want to be loaned. The only mistake we made there was not including a buy-back. We really need to learn how to start managing these situations with these young players. We did the same with Pessina who I think would be a great utility guy instead of the awful Krunic


Bottled is a big word considering Italy still won the tournament. But yeah, I do agree that Italy should have killed England off in the second half had he made a more progressive sub then. Barella had to come off. He looked absolutely gassed out there. He's endured a season under Conte so he's basically ran on fumes all tournament. Just had to come off. Would have preferred Pessina or Loca over Cristante who I really do not like


None of the Italy subs made an impact against Spain though because they rarely had the ball. The Cristante sub would have made more sense when England were really giving Italy trouble with Kane dropping deep and playing in the wingbacks. But from minute 30 onward, it was all Italy and I think bringing on a player like Pessina would have killed the game off quicker and we wouldn't have had to go through the shootout.

I agree on Barella though. Simply had to take him off. Kid was running on empty

Anyway, this is all a moot point. Mancini has been pretty much inch perfect all tournament and he brought the cup home. You can't really do much more than that

We're being heavily linked with Vlasic in Russia right now. What do you think Filippo? Would he fit in at Milan?

I would be super happy with Vlasic, but apparently CSKA want 35M. That's a big no-no. Some rumours say there's an opening for a loan of 5-6M, with right to purchase which might become an obligation in case certain conditions are met.

But these are just rumours. I think he would be a perfect replacement for Capanoglu. Plus he's quite young, 24 in October, and can also play as LF/RW.

In other news, Giroud will be in Italy on Thursday and have his medical on Friday. Whereas Ballo-Toure is almost a done deal.

What do you think about the Giroud deal?

I've watched some vids of him and I agree that he would seem to fit into the mold that Pioli prefers for that position.

Looks strong, fast, great foot and decent vision as well. I also read that he's only missed 5 games with injury throughout his career which is insane if the numbers are accurate

I think we need to spend the money in this position rather than the RW position now that we've been backed into this corner. If we can do something similar to the Tomori deal I think it would be perfect for us. Maybe front load it a bit more on this summer so we won't have to pay the majority of the fee on next summer. Something like 10m now and extra 15m + 5m bonuses next summer.

@CorSport: #PSG has made an offer of ?40M for #TheoHernandez!

Huge LOL and a big f@ck you to PSG!! 100m and you can have him. Anything lest and Leo can go f@ck himself.

Cannot believe this club and their audacity. And UEFA is allowing this!! Bring on the Super League FFS and F@ck UEFA as well

Vla?ić would be a great addition, surely.

Not so hyped about the other mentioned signings. Giroud is okay and should provide the classic target man. But we still need much more.

I think Giroud will be a perfect replacement for Ibra and what he provides this team in terms of bringing other into play and not just being a target man. He's better at that than the actual goal scoring...

Yeah, the management have a lot of work to do.

We still need 1/2 backup FBs
Another CDM
A RW
And most important the AM

Another striker would be just a bonus at this point. I think we should be fine with Ibra and Giroud.

Have you not learned anything from last season? Giroud and Ibra surpass 70 years combined, we most definitively cannot rely solely on them. No, we need a third striker option as well, especially if we sell Leao.

I'm divided. On the one hand, we're getting an experienced player basically for free.

On the other hand, I'm not crazy about the player. His scoring record throughout his career is pathetic, and he's 35. Not to mention he'll be earning second to Zlatan in terms of wages, which I don't think he'll be able to justify.

As Fillipo said, we can't rely solely on those two. We need a third option. AFAIK, the management's idea is to sign another young prospect who can lean from Ibra and Giroud and be ready to start games for us next season. Or at least be a full-proof option in attack. Kaio Jorge, perhaps?

Ballo-Toure seems like a done deal, so I guess we'll have our backup LB. I really wish we get Dalot as well, but something tells me that ship has sunk.

DM should be Bakayoko from what I've read, and I'd be fine with that.

AM is an infinite list at the moment.

And then there's the RW... No names being mentioned whatsoever, except Berardi now and then which I think will never happen, or Ziyech who's mainly been linked with us for the AM position. Then nothing. Are we really thinking we can go into next season just with Alexis and Barbie? Cos that would downright moronic.

Surely there must be a talented RW out there who's within our price range...

Cala : " Pioli only wanted me"

gtfo you rat.

Don't know which one is worse between him and Dollarumma. Both pathetic human beings.

Donnarumma wrote a nice message. To be honest, I'm not really mad at him. He is going to be paid twice his salary and will play in one of the biggest clubs in the world. You can't really sit here and judge him for that.

I think our plans to complete our squad is starting to take place:

For the striker position: Ibra, Giroud (as vice-Ibra), and Kaio jorge (Pato like signing in my opinion...could be a stroke of genius).

Left wing: Rebic, Leao, Hauge. I would expect a sale of Leao/Hauge to fund a replacement and other signings.

CAM: Luis Alberto (imo he is pushing for a move, let's see) and Diaz

Right wing: Saelemaekers, Castillejo (imo will also be sold and replaced)

CM: Kessie, Bennacer, Tonali, and Bakayoko (imo, we will get him, we have a good relationship with Chelsea, you can see this through the Giroud deal). We also are close to buying Warren Bondo, possibly one for the future, seems to occupy to be a classic defensive midfielder. Pobega will probably be sold to get some money.

Centerbacks: Tomori, Kjaer, Romagnoli, and Gabbia

Leftbacks: Theo and Fod? Ballo-Tour? (probably we will reach an agreement soon)

Rightbacks: Calabria and Kalulu

Goalkeeper: Mike Maignan and Tatarusanu

Krunic as the joker..

Yes...indeed Kaio Jorge seems to be in the works.

I agree with respect to Giroud. I think it's good because he participates in the play and isn't completely transparent as Leao per say.. but still his goalscoring isn't immense. I have a feeling he would be great for Serie A though!

Luis Alberto is never going to happen. Lotito is asking 50M. Plus I think he's overrated. At 29 has never made the Spain NT, for instance.

We need a quality RW AT ALL COST.

If Romagnoli doesn't renew he must be sold.

Kalulu is not good enough for RB backup.

He can shove his nice message up his anus. Not mad at him? He's a pathetic, money-grubbing whore. After making him debut at 16. After giving him 6M at 18 years old. After signing his good-for-nothing brother on a million salary. After offering him 8M which goes completely against management policy. After making him captain after Romagnoli was benched. He said he was a Milan fan since childhood. He swore love to our colours and kissed our shirt.

And after all this, he bows down to Raiola and money. Repugnant.

In all honesty, I think you're overreacting.

The guy wants to win lots of trophies. He's clearly up to it. What difference does it make if he stays with us until 24 or 25 or 26? He was bound to go away anyway. I'm just pissed how we managed to lose him on a free.

I'm pretty sure most Milan fans share the same sentiment with me.

Was he bound to leave? If I recall correctly, Totti stayed with Roma all his life despite nearly winning nothing. That's dedication and love for your colours. But gone are those times when you had the Maldini's and Zanetti's and Totti's and Del Piero's of this world. Now all that rules in football is $$$.

I don't think Giroud has a significant injury record though and if Zlatan manages to stay fit he'll want to hog all the minutes.

A young striker would be nice but I would first rather concentrate on other positions tbh

Also with have such a difficult opening 4 fixtures, I will stress again how important it is to bring in the AM ASAP.


His wage will be 3.5m so not a huge salary. With Donna, his bro and Hakan off the books I think we have some leeway in the wage budget


I think there's still time for Dalot. He'd be great to have especially if we can include an option this time. I think clubs like Man U and Chelsea will have to sell at some point and will also have to accept that most clubs are not going to be throwing money around. So unless PSG or City come knocking for their players, there is a limit to how much they can ask for.

Ziyech and Vlasic would be awesome to have for those 2 attacking positions imo. I just don't think we have the money to get one over the line, let alone both.


Kalulu cannot be the 2nd choice RB. He's absolutely awful in that position. He's a CB not a RB and imo we should loan him out to play consistently in a Serie A side. Him and Gabbia are wasting their time with us being 5th choice

The line-up of mids if Baka comes is perfect imo.

L. Alberto is not coming and I personally would prefer a different profile for that position

Re Donna. I get x-offs point but I also understand that he's aiming for big trophies and right now PSG is the place to be. Obviously I also think it's a major cop out to earn lots of money as well so win win for him. That being said, he'll be another forgotten man over there, just like all their stars. I don't know a single person who actually watches PSG games outside of CL. What a waste

However I am also hugely p!ssed off that he went for free. Had he held even an ounce of respect or love for these colours as he claims he does he would have at least made sure to get the club a transfer fee for him just like Thiago Silva did, even when he didn't even want to leave and we forced him out. He did right by the club. That is the difference between someone who holds respect for the clubs and someone who is only out for themselves as Donna has clearly always been imo. Donnarumma is small. He can go to PSG and earn his money, but as far as I am concerned he can go f@ck himself.

For the AM I'm hot for either Vlasic or Sabitzer right now. My preference is towards Vlasic cos he's younger and more technically gifted for that role.

For the RW position I have no clue. I don't think Ziyech will come cos Chelsea only signed him last year for 40M, it wouldn't be smart for them to loan him out right away. Plus they need some depth in that bench.

Agreed re the AM Vlasic looks great. Obviously I'm only basing this on YT vids so I could be being mislead here, but he certainly looks like the type of player we need for that role. Sabitzer would also be great but there have been no real links to him

All of the various Coutinho's , James', Isco's etc are a no from me. They've all been out of it for at least 2 seasons. All are injury prone and none are the hybrid, type mid we need. They're all more attackers rather than proper mids and we need that player to put in the miles. Isco although he is a genius on the ball, he just looks completely out of shape and won't bring the work rate Pioli demands in that position

Man you're becoming more sentimental then me. Gone are those days. It's simply unrealistic to expect that kind of approach. The world is a much more global place right now, Italian players are more comfortable moving abroad then ever before. Kids who are deemed stars do not want to end up like local heroes but win more, everything.

Also, context is important. It wasn't that hard for Mladini to stay at Milan for his whole life to be honest: fighting for almost every of his 20+ seasons with us for a big domestic or international title. Same goes for Del Piero. Playing for Juve in the 90's and 00's wasn't that hard of a chore. Totti is another dimension, but then again Serie A was still the strongest league in the world during his era. Zanetti waited and then in the end achieved his swan song. All mentioned legends played in a different era. To be quite honest, I'm not sure Paolo Maldini would have stayed until the end with the Milan of today.

He went to the French league though. It's barely even a challenge over there.

The biggest motivation for this move is the money imo. Plus no one else wanted him. Let's be real here as no other big club needed a keeper

Playing for PSG is kind of an antithesis to playing for Milan. He outgrew our current mindset and ambition. If he stayed for another 3-4 years, what do you think, how many trophies would he have won? One? Maybe two or three. The next few seasons with PSG will fill his record with silverware and trophies Milan cannot guarantee. Then he'll probably move on and find his spot at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester Utd/City or Bayern.

Indeed! He went from a homegrown player with the club he was always a fan of, to playing for the most plastic and unlikable club in the world. You think he signed for them because he wants to win trophies? What trophies? The only trophies PSG has ever won are national titles in a league with zero competition whatsoever, except from the sporadic Lille or Monaco every once in a blue moon.

He went for the $$$, don't fool yourselves. Why do you think his signature came so late? Because Raiola tried his hardest to place him to Juventus, Barcelona, Madrid etc. but nobody wanted him so he ended up in France, in a championship nobody gives two f*cks about.

A trophy is a trophy. We live in the world of CR breaking records, Messi breaking records. You think Messi minds winning his first Copa America under unbearable COVID19 conditions and without fans in the stands? He doesn't give a rat's ***.

Same will be with Donna. In the end, his career will count domestic French titles and other titles once he moves on. This is what counts today. The level of competitiveness will come, what now counts is to add some silverware - something that Milan hasn't done in a decade.

Sorry, but I disagree. Winning is important, yes, but it also depends where. You think winning the Portuguese league for instance has similar value to winning the Spanish league? Not really. The French league has become a joke since PSG and no top player gets great satisfaction out of winning it. They all go there for the money and the remote possibility they might win the CL.

And as for you Messi example, do not undermine the Copa America. It might not be very interesting for us here in Europe, but for South Americans it is a huge deal. And Argentina had not won it since 1993 or something. And it was Messi?s first ever international trophy with Argentina.

Back to us, the Luis Alberto rumors are becoming more persistent by the hour. Mediaset now saying we might offer Leao and Saelemaekers to lower his price.

Man, I really do not want us to sign this guy. He is incredibly overrated, and too old.

Saelemaekers?? What a stupid rumor that is. Luis Alberto is 28.. he's not that old. I would conceed that he maybe isn't the profile we should search for.

Nah man, this is mostly BS Saele isn't going anywhere. Pioli loves him.

And if Leao leaves it will most likely be outright for cash



Anyway. Updates

Giroud done: 3.5m for 2 seasons
Brahim done on the way to Milan now apparently: 2 year loan for 3m, option to buy at 22m and Real have the counter option at 27m
Ballo-Toure also done: 4m fee

Excellent work on the Brahim deal. We're basically getting him for 3 seasons for just 3m

with1 million profit ptential in case Diaz turns out to be a top player with that counter offer clause. So in the long run might not be the best deal

We still get him practically for nothing for 3 years.

For now this is the type of bridge deal that we have to compromise on to get from where we were just 2 seasons ago to where we want to be in 2-3 years' time. We'll see how it goes, Real have a lot of AMs to juggle anyway and it depends on where they are in 2 years time. Plus Brahim seems to really have integrated into the group and seems to love it here, so it also would depend on him.

Not really. You have to consider amortisation. Suppose we sign him permanently for 22M and he stays with us for 2 seasons, then Madrid sign him back. Having stayed 2 seasons with his, on a 5 year contract, his residual value would be 13,2M (22 - 22/5*2). So, the profit would be 13,8M (27-13,2). That's what ultimately goes into the profit and loss statement of that year.

Today the club is the Italian club that paid the most in transfer fees this summer to date.

Think now the club will look to off load Leao, Samu, Romagnioli of the top of my head and bring in like for like replacements.

https://youtu.be/D1uulu9_7_g

Ballo-Toure official.

Let's recap. Thus far we have completed the following transfers:

IN
Maignan - 13M
Tomori - 28M
Tonali - 7M
Brahim Diaz - 3M
Giroud - 1M
Ballo Toure - 4M

OUT
Dollarumma - free agent
Capanoglu - free agent
Dalot - end of loan
Meite - end of loan
Mandzukic - end of loan
Laxalt - 3.5M
Olzer - 3M

Money spent around 56M (not counting the various bonuses), money earned 6.5M.

Excellent point. I always forget that this is actually how it works in accounting terms and not as it does on Fifa.

I think overall we've done excellent business so far this summer to improve the quality of the squad depth.

An AM, RW and an extra CDM is all we need imo to complete the squad. Maybe another RB but we could easily get someone on loan for that. Still hoping we can pull something off for Dalot


Did we get 3m for Olzer? Wasn't he part of the Tonali deal?

Really good. Nice to see the club producing decent content. They should also make these types of vids in English imo.

Btw, did any of you watch the friendly yesterday? I know it was just a Serie C side but Pobega was impressive. And going by the rumours that Italiano wants him at Fiorentina now after having him at Spezia, it's clear that's he's been impressing coaches and other technical staff

So do you think we should keep him? I'd personally prefer to keep him over Krunic and give him the minutes. Krunic should really be sold this summer.

Yes, but he was valued 3M, hence why Tonali's price was lowered from 10M to 7M.



Didn't watch the game, but yeah, I also think we should keep him.

Could be another Locatelli. I think we should keep him and give him a more serious try.

Official: Brahim has taken #10. Not too fond of that decision.

Doesn't really matter though. A number is just that. #10 was occupied by players like Prince and Honda in the recent past and Hakan is not exactly a star player either.

I'm happy with this deal though. Really like Brahim, I think he's got immense potential and with a whole Serie A season under his belt I'm expecting even more this season

Agreed. I don't want to see us repeating the same mistakes. Locatelli was a a very particular case though. It happened between ownership transitions as well. I still don't see where he'd fit into our first 11 though. But that 40m would be sweet for us right about now...