But no one really said anything about a sensation. It's just us anticipating and making fun of the obvious.

Period is still not over, plenty of things to happen I suppose.

What about NDJ? Is he set to leave or what?

On the serious side though, you guys are making it seem like we were in contention to sign Falcao or Costa. I mean are you for real with this Destro thing? He's decent, but not as special as you make him out to be. Like I said in the other thread, I'd rather make do with Pazzo for this season and go after a better target in the summer if we really do have 20m to throw around (I personally don't believe that was ever the case you should have known better than to believe that we'd spend that kind of money on anyone)

If we're going to sign someone else in this window, I'd rather it be Witsel, now that's someone to get excited about, not f@cking Destro!

More or less confirmed today. We only have to pay a minimal fee and he's ours now.

Key word there, I think we'll wait then

Who cares. Suso is a future investment, he surely ain't gonna steal Bona's or Monto's place. For that, we need a real midfielder.

Croatian media reporting Milan is still negotiating for Brozović. Okay player, versatile, young, talented. But again, not what we need right now.

What type of player is he?

We should transfer Fernando Torres . Already 2 goals against Real Madrid.

Golden.

All rounder. But tactically not on level yet. He's got much to learn (played a solid match against Italy as a DM next to Modrić, that's why we're thinking of probably teaming him up with Monto).

Yes, cos Modric and Monto are the same.

Well he's a winger so he sure ain't vying for a midfield role.



I saw a bunch of Croats saying Brozovic is mediocre.

Won't lie, he looked way better than he did v Real in the first leg.

Pity he couldn't do it for us but hey ho.

Mediocre? Nah, too early to tell.

Btw. where do you know a bunch of Croats?

He's basically proving my point that any striker will struggle with us because they absolutely don't get any service.

Torres had to basically feed off breadcrumbs any time he played for us. We couldn't even get the ball to him but people were expecting him to score a tonne of goals, when in reality I can count on one hand the number of times he was in any sort of position where he could realistically score from.

Odd that. There was me thinking Oscar, Willian, Hazard, and Shurrle could give him service at Chelsea...

I know a bunch of Americans, Aussies, English, Dutch, South American and just about everyone in the Middle & Far East.

Twitter is a marvellous thing.

But Chelsea is quite a different thing. They have Remy and Costa plus Drogba. It's only natural that Torres comes as a surplus.

Saponara to Empoli on loan is official.

The environment at Chelsea wasn't really all that good for Torres, he needed a fresh start as he wasn't working there and that was the case for him from day 1.

But the problem is that he switched to one of the most sterile teams anyone could pick. Give me one other top side that plays such a flat, slow, lethargic game as we do.

Obviously one game does not erase years of bad form, but I do believe that he's still a good striker with good instincts, you give him service and he will score, maybe not a lot like he used to but a decent return, he wasn't even getting that with us.

It's not like we have other prolific scorers that do debunk my theory on this. Our top scorer is Menez and the majority of his goals were scored from the spot.

Every CF we've snared in during these last few years (Ibra aside but he's a completely different beast as he can create his own opportunities) has failed miserably with us, no matter how good or bad he was

Must admit your reasoning for his failure at Chelsea is clutching at straws.

Could be...

But when you have a situation like that you have to look at everything, not just the player himself.

There are many players who do great things with one team then switch over to another and are complete failures with that team. Usually it's a conflict of styles and/or personalities. Sure Torres declined but I do think that both of those issues came into play for his failure at Chelsea, add in the huge transfer fee and it was a recipe for disaster.

Think of Sheva for example, I'm pretty confident that had he stayed with us, he'd have continued to do great things with us, and his decline would have been more gradual and natural. He was still as prolific as ever before the move.

But factor in the injury, moving to a new league and club who had a coach that never really wanted him and never made space for him and you have the massive plummet that Sheva went through

Suso confirmed. He's here now.

Suso is official. He will join the team on Monday.

SUSO | Goals, Skills, Assists | Almería | 2013/2014

He's got talent, can't deny that.

Did we really need another Menez/Cerci though?

I never for one second reckoned Suso can't play, I just didn't feel we needed to sign him.

He's free. Nothing else matters. You should know that by now.

That's not it.

He's an investment for the future. Now he'll be the backup option with talent. Maybe he'll turn into the next Grimi or Saponara, but anyway, why shouldn't we give him a fair chance? Don't get why the negativity is necessary, unless you guys are preparing for another round of "I told you so".

"Investment for the future" is not exactly a term that's very popular around here, you know. He was free, and we took the opportunity. That's all there is to it. The kid should get a chance to prove his worth, no doubt. That's another matter entirely.

So what's the point? We are cheap and sing free players? At least the paradigm changed and we didn't sing a 33 year old has been. I don't see how Suso isn't an investment for the future.

Yes, because one signing is enough to "change the paradigm". Don't get me wrong, it is an investment for the future if taken per se, but such investments are made by following a specific plan, which we do not have. We saw his was free, made an offer and took him. Just like we did with Essien, Torres, Lopez, Alex, not exactly "promising youngsters".

If you wanna talk about investments, then consider Saponara, who was taken with a clear goal in mind, yet we just loaned him out. Same story with the various Grimi, Cardacio, Viudez, Mattioni, Didac Vilà etc. All our "real" investments turn out crap because we sign players because they're cheap or free, not because we follow them to decide whether they're worth it and whether they suit our plans. It's plain as day. A few isolated examples like Kaká, Pato and El Shaarawy don't prove anything.

We will renew Bonera's contract, according to Mediaset.

Yay!

I must say, I don't get this discussion. Lopez and Alex may be old, but they are very needed and valuable. Torres was a miscalculation, with Essien you're spot on. The thing is, Suso is young and talented. I really don't think Milan only signed him because he's free, like you implied, because there's lots of free or almost free young players as well on the market.

Secondly, we can always hope for a change of paradigm. Why should we now moan and act negative?

I don't agree with your analysis. We didn't sign Saponara because he was cheap, we signed him because we expected much of him, but he never materialized the potential. Cardacio, Viudez, Grimi were all filler players. Agreed, it was the wrong strategy, but we never signed them with a serious wish to develop or even play these players.

All in all, Suso could be a good signing. Whining around and listing past failures has not much point IMO.

Wait till we renew Pippo's.

Mediaset reports that we're strongly pushing for Siquera (LB) of Atletico. They want €10 million, we're willing to sell Muntari (US) and Essien (WBA) in order to make the transfer possible. Fiorentina's Pasqual is the alternative.

Link

This I don't get, at all. Do we really need to spend so much energy and resources into signing a LB when we already have De Sciglio and Armero? That's the least of our worries. We absolutely, desperately need a playmaker in midfield, someone like Witsel. That's who we should concentrate on, not Siquera, who's 28 and barely used by Simeone. And his alternative is frigging 32-year-old Pasqual. Does this management have marshmallows instead of a brain?

Well, here's the thing. If we really push for the guy, than it's either we'll move MDS permanently to RB and Abate won't resign and we're losing him or MDS will be sold. Must be.

It's because MDS is injured. Nothing more. Pippo said it's his priority position. Right now we've Armero & Bonera there. Utter garbage.

I also think we are planning to sell MDS to Real.

How long is MDS injured? 6 months?

Two I believe.

OFFICIAL: Niang on loan to Genoa.

Again on loan. Why can't we sell this guy for 5 bucks? He's not worth anything.

Niang has more to offer than you think, he just needs better coaching. His mental attitude is going in the right direction, but he needs care and attention rather than the poor coaching he's had from the past 3 managers.

So you think Gasperini will do "better coaching" then Allegri, Seedorf and Inzaghi? I don't think so.

But I oddly agree that Niang still hasn't said everything. I see some potential in him. Playing time with Genoa will make the difference and could give us the final clue in whether we should keep him or sell.

How did we get on in Genoa, exactly? PS hate to break this to you but his weaker squad is above us in the table. So yes, I do.



I hope he does well there and shows that potential starting to realise itself. He seems a nice wee guy if not the brightest and slightly misguided. I don't want that potential going the way of Balotelli and wasting itself.

He will never be Robben but could have a good career for himself.

Gasperini is not a bad coach, would not mind having him instead of Pippo. (AFAIAC, his failure at Inter was due at least in part to of factors outside of his control.)

I think this will do Niang good, it was a mistake in the first place to send him back to France last season, if we're ever going to see anything fruitful out of him he needs regular time with another team in Serie A. The guy has all the characteristics for what it takes to become a very good player, it's just his mentality and decision making that lets him down each time.

I have to admit that I was one of his biggest detractors, but I do think that under the right guidance he could really become something special. He has the skill, strength and speed, he just needs to learn how to actually use his brain and compose himself both on and off the pitch.

I also have to admit that we saw the worst of him while Balo was here. It was obvious he was trying to emulate him, that's when he was really rubbing me the wrong way. First with that car incident then acting like a drama queen on the pitch when he wasn't allowed to take the free kick. It seems like he's settled down now since his return. Hopefully this move will be good for him

Nah, personally I see nothing in Niang. Too rusty on the ball, very bad passing, poor finishing. He just doesn't cut it for me.

Inzaghi wants a striker. We're interested in Osvaldo and... Borriello.

Link

Oh, the agony...

Agreed. He's got an attitude problem, which overshadows any talent that he has. Would be very surprised if he makes it to the very top, unless things change in his head and around him.


.

We signed Bocchetti, and Destro. Both on loan with option to buy.

Sources:
http://football-italia.net/61820/report-mi...ave-destro-deal
http://football-italia.net/61822/report-milan-sign-bocchetti

Absolutely brilliant on both. If this is true I am absolutely delighted.

PS Conte is being lined up as manager this summer. Apparently he'd agreed to join us last summer but it fell through, and that's why we ended up with Pippo. He'd do it as well as being Italy coach.

If that really is the case, then I think giving Tasso an interim position until the end of the season would be just fine.

Conte would most likely want to bring in his own people if he does sign for us. However I do see this as far-fetched considering he left Juve because their management wasn't ambitious and didn't listen to him with regards to player signings because of the CL. So I can't see how his partnership with the 2 numbskulls running this club would actually work

Silvio needs to send Galliani packing once and for all