I agree with Tennie/Fillipo that Milan should be buying Italian. Nothing to do with Brazilians, I just think it's always good to keep a strong core of homebased players - preferably with a few that came through the youth academy.

Now I understand why you typed 'puke' after the name of two Brazilians that were linked with us...

I never ever doubted you'd understand.

I agree with Tennie/Fillipo/Kurt surely to understand and comprehend what it means to play for a club in any league it's better to come from the country of which the team is based. A sense of its history and statue no matter how big or small is only truely appriecated by a native. I support a Italian team i want to see Italians play for it, of course the foriegn influence will always be there but what upsets me is the fact that we but Silva another foriegner but i and several other members know full well that Darmain is more than capable of for-filling that position, is he world-class well my answer to that is not yet but maybe with the correct handling could well be. same as the LB position we have a natural left back already playing in the team with Antonini, again is he world-class again not yet but maybe.

This predicament that most coaches face nowadays of not enough time to wait for the youngsters to come good shouldn't be and isn't one that Carlo faces as he's been here since 2001 so its safe to say that Don Silvio has his trust and those who watched the Udinese game saw both Darmain,Antonini and the bonus of Strasser playing and none of them looked out of place indeed Strasser and Darmain looked perfect once they'd settled into the game so my theory is this yes we need established stars but lets not lose the sense of who we are and what we are.

After all every season we battle for Lo Scudetto not the Campeonato Brasileiro or La Liga etc etc. and as most fans would, i like to see home grown players make the majority of the team not the minority.

This answers my question.
Though I still don't get it how (for example) having in the squad 5 Brazilians is different to having 2 Brazilians, 1 French, 1 Portuguese and a Japanese.


That would be ideal.

so some colombian defender is on trial and we might sign him?

He would only be signed in summer right? The article reads Giugno (June)...

Yep. It's a trial for a potential summer signing.

is it official?

No, it's form tuttosport...

Shoot i dont know if you guys (and gals) saw Inter take on Calgari but i think Canini holds promise and i bet we could get him in January. He would be a good fit as he played quite well today.

Italian players will understand the history and the passion of wearing the red and black, but perhaps the jersey weighs on them too heavily? Brazilians can come in and play without stress and thus with confidence.

I also actually like the "foreign magnet" approach - I recall a Dutch-laden Milan squad winning quite a few trophies. Perhaps we should have sold Rijkaard and Van Basten when we signed Ruud Guillit? Based on your reasoning, that would have been necessary right?

At the risk of being attacked yet again, I will observe that Milan had, under Sacchi, three Dutch players: Van Basten, Rijkaard, and Gullit. Currently, Milan have more than three Brazilians.

I will further observe that statements like 'Brazilians can come in and play without stress' would appear to me to be rather biased.

It's a generalisation, I know, but I find Brazilians very lazy. Yes they can put on top performances, but as a group I find them nowhere near consistant enough. I wonder if this is why we never win the league anymore? Well, that and a certain somebody.

3 dutch players and 8 brazilians cannot be compared.

We had a buch of french players to, also a few of the younger generation Ajax-players (Bogarde, Davids, Reizinger, Kluivert), but it's a different thing.

We actually have 6 Brazilians, and we never field all of them together. Kaka and Pato, and to a lesser extent, Ronaldinho, have been our only regular starters this season.

Irrelevant for the discussion that we field or not field them.

1. Dida
2. Kaka
3. Pato
4. Ronaldinho
5. Emerson
6. Mattioli
7. Thiago Silva
8. Digao

But okay, I get that Digao and Silva can and cannot be added to the list.

Fazit to me stays, we have them too many.
And that Van Basten - Gullit - Rijkaard time cannot be compared. Why? Because for example, in 89/90 we had 3 dutch players and 20 italians in our team.

I wasn't talking about how were in the late 80's. in the 'future' Silva will be added, but on the other hand someone like Emerson might leave. so it's not appropriate to count Silva in already.

I don't think our problem is the players' nationalities.

Our problem in the performance dept. is not the player's nationalities.

Barring Beckham, Senderos,Emerson (all the new arrivals), ever single foreign player will say Milan is the numero uno club. I doubt any of them are in it just for the money and the personal glory, like in Chelsea or Man City.

But the player's nationality is a different issue. An Italian club should have mostly Italian players right? It plays in the Italian league, and it is meant to be watched by Italians first. Hence the logic. And Milan already put out proudly how we fielded 7 Italian players in a match against Inter (which we won), while Inter had one in Materazzi.

Im with Tennie. We need more Italian youth in our team. There are loads of promising Italian defenders out there but they dont get a shot at making it big because the big italian teams are buying foreign youth.

Im with Tennie. We need more Italian youth in our team. There are loads of promising Italian defenders out there but they dont get a shot at making it big because the big italian teams are buying foreign youth.

I agree, but I think of the irony that some of Milan's most memorable players were non-Italian (Gre-No-Li, the Dutch trio).

Milan's most memorable player is Franco Baresi.

Other then that - Costacurta, Tassotti, Gianni Rivera,...so it's 50-50..

milan apparently want puyol
Milan have laid their eyes on Barcelona and Spain international Carles Puyol as a possible replacement for the legendary Paolo Maldini, according to Tuttosport.

Maldini confirmed he will retire at the end of this campaign back in January. His club have had ample time in planning a new strategy for their defence and they seem to have come up with the answer.

The Turin-based paper reports that Puyol's name has been added to the hit-list by transfer chief Ariedo Braida as his European scouting mission comes to an end. Having seen Philippe Mexes and Simon Kjaer in action, as well as the Spanish international, Braida has highlighted the latter.

Puyol, 31, has plenty of experience in Europe. He won the Champions League in 2006 and Euro 2008 with his national side. Vice president Adriano Galliani claimed grandiose spending would be cut, however, he has promised reinforcements in defence.

In addition, three years ago the Spaniard claimed that Milan would be the only club he would join after Barcelona.

"Only for Milan could I leave Barcelona," Puyol stated.

Signing the stopper will prove an arduous task. The Blaugrana are unlikely to renounce their captain easily.

However, the Rossoneri enjoy a good business relationship with Barca, having signed Gianluca Zambrotta and Ronaldinho last season from the Catalan giants. This could work in the Italian side's favour in the eventuality of a deal taking place. from ****.com

Please if u're posting, kindly post in the Summer transfer window 2009...January is very far away from now....Thanks

IMO Puyol's one of the few top CB's around. It would be a big signing.

Huge signing. I don't even think it's possible.

I'd love it. Not just because Puyol is a great player but also because this particular fact would once again demonstrate Maldini's importance!