Looks like the Correa deal has fallen definitely, Boban is in Madrid to negotiate Mariano Diaz of Real.

Link

Ridiculous. I'd rather stay as we are than sign garbage players.

Who would have ever thought that FFP would f*ck us so badly in the long run.

Is it FFP really? I question the whole decision making process this season.

Why have we left Europe? In order to sign Leao and Hernandez?

Oh and you seem disappointed. It was pretty obvious that we won't sign Correa. Perhaps there is still a little chance, but nah...

On a brighter note, Depay being mentioned again...

I think it is. We've been on a leash for quite sometime now, kept pushing settlement agreements year after year. It was no wonder that at some point we'd get banned from Europe if things didn't improve.

I've been doing some research. Inter exited their settlement agreement with UEFA this May, and if you check their financials over the past few years, you'll understand why.

https://www.calcioefinanza.it/2018/10/26/in...-costi-perdita/

They went from having a loss of 140M in 2014/2015 to a minimal loss of 17M last year. Revenues especially registered an absolute record last year, 347M from 198M three years ago. And such increase is mostly due to commercial revenues (131M vs 39M). The Chinese surely have done their homework and it's finally paying off.

That's why they can afford expenses like 45M for Barella and 75M for Lukaku.

We, on the other hand, last year registered a loss of 123M, I think perhaps our lowest point since Berlusconi took over. Our commercial revenues are absolutely pathetic.

And it's not like Elliot doesn't have the money. They can pump new funds into the club anytime, but then we can't justify spending big sums within the constraints of the FFP.

It has completely f*cked us over.



Never gonna happen.

You say proven but he scored 5 goals in like 35 for Utd. He was very good at Udi, failed at Barca, great at Arsenal, but that's all a long time ago. And his salary is actually close to the highest-paid in the world (400K a week, win bonus, sponsorships, and a £1.2M bonus per year just for being Alexis Sanchez). Not sure he can live on his past forever...

FFP was always going to bite. Milan for all its history is not generating income to match ambitions.

But all is not lost, Italian parliament passed the 'Beckham law' which takes effect in January 2020. It was implemented in 2005 in Spain and hence they got influx of quality players.

The Beckham law stipulates that any player/manager who comes from abroad (having spent at least two years outside of Italy) would be eligible for a tax break in salary. So the outlay that clubs pay players is less and hence are able to attract star players again. It has a different technical name but Google 'Beckham law' and you should get all the details.

That sounds good.

Agreed on this. We spent over 50m on 2 huge question mark players.

Why did we spend all the Cutrone money on a propect like Leao when we should have spent it on a sure thing? This is all very worrying stuff now with barely 3 days left of the window, it looks like we're going to end up how we are now, and with that performance against Udine looming large in the background, it is all very worrying. We brought in a coach that plays a specific style and have not provided him with the tools necassary to play that style, knowing he played this system before we even got him

Maldini and Boban are really starting to look like rookies here and having to endure another year zero, all while dropping out of EL to sign average players... Just disheartening on so many levels


Depay should have been the number one target to begin with, he's got much better numbers than Correa and would be cheaper, plus we could probably use Suso as a bargaining chip with Lyon since they were seemingly interested in him at one point

Also, we're forgetting the fact that we're going to be playing a system that lives and dies by the trequartista you have and we're going to rest our entire season on a player who is inconsistent and not even a natural AM. This has disaster written all over it


Also, some news. Laxalt to Toro is a done deal. 0.5m loan with an option to buy at 11.5m. Another huge L for us. We don't know how to buy OR sell it seems

Sounds good. Thanks for the information mate.

So true. We spend lots of money if you think about. But, we didn't not add sure quality anywhere.

Had we kept Gattuso. Brought in Bennacer, a talented winger..we would have been in a much better state spending much less money. But no..we want to play beautiful football..

This. If nothing, Rino knew all his players well and knew what their limitations were

Sure he made mistakes and was limited tactically, but he played a system that was comfortable for all the players at his disposal even the limited ones

Now it feels like we're forcing something that's never going to be achievable with this crop of players.

Honestly, I don't want to blame Giampaolo. This current batch of players is tainted imo, and will never achieve anything. All of them don't strive for anything better, they're all comfortable where they are and that's the problem, we don't have players with drive and ambition anymore, before that's what fueled the team, even when players where old and past their best, that hunger to always win is what drove them, now, it's just a bunch of comfortable losers who have never won anything in their careers and probably never will

For there to ever be a proper revolution at this club, the majority of the players we have today would have to go because they are becoming cancerous to this club. I don't want to be this harsh but that is what I feel, just a general sense of apathy coming from all side, the players, the management and the fans

All the money spent since Berlu sold this club, and it only yielded sub-par players that have barely managed to bump us a few places up the table.

I think the key ingredient is management. I knew from day 1 that Fassone and Mirabelli are bad choices but at least they had some experience. Maldini was a good choice but only as a second in command and a club face. I think he overvalued himself there. Leonardo for me did the trick and he was the only man I would trust to make smart moves (like Paqueta). But we sacked of all people him and brought in Boban on accounts of him being a club legend and a good TV critic. That's not enough. And the learning curve is appalling as well: Milan burned Seedorf, Brocchi, Inzaghi and Gattuso as team coaches. What have we learned? Nothing. We just added a bunch of other legends into the mix, now as directors.

Man, the negativity in here.

Let's be a bit more patient. I get your frustration and pessimism, but the season has barely started, and the Udine game shouldn't be a real indicator cos we were playing an abomination of a line-up.

Yeah, yeah - Bennacer and Leao weren't in the first team.

neither was our starting LB (Hernandez).
neither were either of our hopeful starting CBs (re: Caldara / Duarte).
nor was Bonaventura.
Borini was started... Back up material
Castijello was started (should be sold)

There were so many things which could still very much be easily improved upon.

Honestly what was worrying for me was hearing Giampaolo openly discuss switching the formation back to 4-3-3 after just the one game in.To me it seemed discouraging to hear such a lack of confidence (in his own plan) so very early on. After just the first game, to consider such a drastic change seems a bit ridiculous/ premature /unecessary to me...

Maybe I'm just being pessimistic now as well... loll

But we'll see...

They're all just wasting time and proving they have no valid plan. Let's take a look:

- Milan leave Europe in order to be more financially "independent"
- Milan sign 5 new players, 2 from a relegation side, 3 from abroad
- Milan appoint Giampaolo as coach in order to switch system
- Milan pursuit Correa for the whole summer even though his fee is too big all the while spending 50M on two talents
- Milan spend the summer in preparation for the new system
- Milan forget to sign tactically important/needed players
- Milan lose 0-1 to Udinese
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Milan drop the new system > summer preparations wasted
- Milan lose out on Correa > summer transfer period wasted

I think our management just lost it. The layers of problems probably present a too great task for Maldini and Boban. Under normal conditions they've probably had time to learn, but it was a mistake appointing them in the first place.

I think Hernandez and Bennacer were two necessary signings that will prove very useful in the long run. Krunic for 8M as a sub wasn't a bad investment either.

I have my doubts about Duarte (10M) and Leao (30M), though, mainly because I'm not sure we can afford spending more money at this point. We could have easily kept Zapata and spent those money plus a little more on Correa, Depay or someone else.

I'm not judging their quality, Leao might very well turn into a wonder kid for all we know. But I agree that right now we need proven players foremost.

Also, Silva's failed transfer to Monaco for 30M turned to be a huge blow. In that case we wouldn't have had any problems signing any of the aforementioned players.

Still not clear on what happened with that transfer. But fact remains - no real interest for Silva happened afterwards.

CR is eligible for the Beckham Law, as it stands by January 2020 he would have been at Juve for only a year and a half and as such the clubs wage tab on his salary would be reduced as a gross while CR would receive the same net salary.

Sarri on the other hand has only been out of Italy for a year so taxes on his wage does not count. While Conti was out of Italy for two years so his club would make a saving there.

Why hasn't Milan attracted top plauers/coaches for this season. Mainly attributed to CL football, as the same gives players incentive to join and additionally the extra income the club makes at the offset as well as the potential income from participation.

A lot is being said here of the management being run by Maldini and Boban. When in reality it is Gazidis along with Elliott who run the show. Their plan is clear, clean the legacy FFP slate, unwind the unnecessary wages and offload the players the club does not want/need. Once the club reaches Europe it will be in a position to add the right quality players that fit the system of play going forward.

In that light Milan's management is doing a good job. The club needs to find the right balance between economics and sport, otherwise FFP scrutiny will be back again.

Good job? I disagree. Have we offloaded the problematic players? No. We rescinded a contract and loaned out a player for peanuts. Are we closer to Europe? Last season we were a 2 points short of CL football. This season it could be a double digit deficit.

Torino singed Laxalt for loan with OPTION to buy for 12 million. We really cant get rid of any player man.

Linked with Everton from Gremio again. No idea who he is. 30 million apparently rejected.

The man who scored for Brazil in their Coppa final.

Elliott only took over last summer, they took over a club which was in breach of FFP for years (compounded legacy issues) and they inherited a squad which was assembled by Li and which did not serve the economical viability of the club.

Giving up Europe to clean out the FFP slate was a bold move that only the future will tell if it was the right thing to do. Cutting the squad either by rescinding the contracts or sale of higher earning/unqualified players is a task that was mandated by the top and for which Maldini said it was the focus of their summer plans.

If they were not able to profit from the sale of players or if Silva was unattractive to other clubs, how is that the management's fault?

Think this squad is good enough for Serie A and only time will tell

Wish someone would just singe our first team squad.

You mean avoiding relegation? Yes, probably.

Is this team really that bad?

That it struggled to beat a promoted side and lost to one expected to be in the mix to go down probably says its own story.

We looked disjointed, and haphazard. It wasn't horrible but when you see Borini coming on to save the day it's worrying.

PS Piatek's miss was a combination of horrible finishing and staggering goalkeeping.

But, at least we're off the mark. I suspect most our points this season will arrive at home.

No I'm kidding a bit. But this season IMO will be ugly, as in 10th place and all sorts of lost games.

All in all we're a very bad team I'd say. Individually our players are okay or even good, but it's the team that is simply not there. And like X-O said everyone is completely confortable with the bare minimum.

Looks like we're about to sign Rebic according to Di Marzio...

Disappointing overall

Anyone seen him recently, my only memories are from his WC performances which weren't all that great from what I remember

Silva in exchange with rebic apprently. A Madrid today also declined our offer for Correa.

I also only saw rebic in WC he was okay overall. Not sure how was his last season though

Well, at least the YT highlights are better than Correa's

That's all I have about him. We need Filippo to shed some light


Apparently, the deal will be a loan exchange between him and Silva, both with option to buy apparently...

I'm actually not happy about letting Silva go, should have tried to include Samu in the deal instead

You make it sound like we're exchange vegetables. It's not so easy. Nobody wants Castillejo.

Not happy about Rebic. Didn't really impress me in the WC, thought he was Croatia's weakest link.

Also, I find it hilarious that Silva started yesterday and today we're shipping him off. What was the point of him playing yesterday then? Shouldn't we have given a chance to Leao instead? If Giampaolo continues like this he'll be the new Allegri.

If we are going for silva level player then just stick with him i believe.

Lets hope rebic proves us wrong. Also this 31 year old Tiason bein linked. He is an attacking midfield (wiki). For 30 million i think will be quite a waste

Rebic has landed in Malpensa, so I guess it's a done deal.

Man, what a let down. From Correa to Rebic. I saw some clips on YouTube, he looks even worse than I remember. And YouTube generally makes you look good.

Firstly, you guys seem to remember wrongly. Rebić wasn't our weakest link, he was one of the best players overall.

That being said, it's a complete letdown this transfer period. Rebić is IMO a very strange player. Kovač (current Bayern manager and former coach of Rebić at Eintracht and Croatia) likes him very much but he said few days ago something in the lines of: "Rebić is the most curious player I've seen. One day he's the fastest player on the pitch, next day he's just standing like a veteran". Couldn't find the quote so don't take this literally.

Anyway, he can definitively help and with him we have a left winger but Correa (from what I've heard) would be miles better. I fear that with Rebić we get a very inconsistent player.

So, another Calhanoglu.

I remember not liking Rebic in the WC. Thought he was miles behind the likes of Mandzukic, Perisic, Rakitic and Modric in terms of quality.

Good God, Modrić and Rakitić are WC players, sure Rebić is behind them. But he had a very good WC, his huffing and puffing and overall work rate was very good and helped a lot.

I wonder maybe with Rebic we could play 4-2-3-1:

Have you read the comment made by Giampaolo that Paqueta needs to be "less Brazilian". I think Paqueta (our best midfielder, yes?) will have problems with Giampaolo.

Yes, but it's exactly when you have teammates like those that your limitations become clear. It's like you said, he's a huffing-and-puffing kind of player, lacks class and vision in his passing and touch.

Yeah, I read that. But I think he was referring mostly to his tracking back, as he needs to defend better.

Looks like we're going to get Rebic.

read that there were some problems with Silva transfer so it is still not 100 percent

He wishes.

We signed him, I think. It is official. I'm not sure if we sold Silva though.

They’re both official.