Wrong. After the last game last season he said in the press conference that we need an attacking RW who can dribble past opponents and score goals. And newspapers claimed Berardi was his favorite. So it is not true that he prefers players like Alexis and Florenzi upfront. We just cannot afford anyone right now.

I believe there shall be a change in formation of sorts, the 4-2-3-1 could be altered to bring in both Zlatan and Giroud. Which would render either the RW or AM unnecessary, hence not sure where the priorities lie.

However I am convinced someone of (good to high) quality is to be signed

Hmm, okay didn't know that. He just seems to favour attacking on the left sisde and using the RW as more of a right midfielder...

I'd still be okay with leaving the RW for next summer, we need a proper AM more


I think that would be suicidal in the league and makes absolutely zero sense to use both Zlatan and Giroud at the same time.

Roma just bought Abraham for 40m(!!!)

How can they afford that FFS and we can't get the AM we need??

Also why are EPL stadiums filled to the brim with people but La Liga stadium ~30% full? Same thing will happen with Serie A games I assume. Once again, the government will f@ck their own clubs over, same as they do with the stadium situation.

The stadiums should be allowed at 100% capacity as long as everyone is vaccinated.

They're simply handicapping the clubs for no reason

And what about Serie A? There was lots of people yesterday in the match...I had the impression.

Nah, stadium wasn't even half full

Think covid has to do with how advanced vaccinations are, capacity of ICU in hospitals, etc ...

I don't think that should matter as long as the crowd is all vaccinated.

I'd rather have a 100% full san siro with 100% of the crowd being vaccinated, rather than a 30% filled stadium with only 50% of that crowd being vaccinated

Vaccinated individuals can still transmit the virus and its variants. I'm no doctor, but each country has its own health system, and I believe the UK' NHS is well prepared, while Italy and other countries tread on limited ICU capacities.

Stadiums are only allowed access to those vaccinated. But that 30% to 100% capacity has no prejiduce to football or clubs, rather the health systems in place.

It's a starting point, who knows maybe during this season the capacity will increase. As the system is able to handle another wave.

Yes, there is a small percentage that can contract covid while being fully vaccinated, but the number of those people who end up in the ICU are basically negligible. That's the point of the vaccine. Not that you will never get the disease, but that it won't kill you and imo that is good enough to allow the stadiums to be at full capacity. So long as you present your EU vaccine pass you should be able to get a ticket, if not, tough luck for you.

I get that Italy are probably a bit behind the UK on vaccinations but stadiums should be allowed to open at full capacity. People can get turned around if they don't have proof of vaccination, simple as that. Clubs cannot go another year like this, especially not in Italy

Florenzi deal done.

1m for the loan, 4m for the option next summer

A very good deal imo and a huge improvement on Dalot as a rotation option. Plus he can challenge Saele for that RW spot

Now let's bring in the AM we need and maybe that Adli kid and we should be fine for next season

Adli and isco would be a very decent overall market and hopefully enough to get top 4

I'm not a doctor, but I know as a fact ICU capacity is the determining factor in opening up or closing down.

All those that enter will be vaccinated. Whether that is 100% or 30%.

What Italy, Spain, US, Vietnam, Australia, UK, etc respectively decide is tied to their Healthcare system's ability to coup with another wave and/or a variant such as delta.

Again, I'm not a doctor to decide this. But this much I do know.

Yeah. True, but this is not the problem. The transmission is still happening and could catch on to non-vaccinated people outside of the football stadium. What UK are doing is highly irresponsible IMO, and almost all scientists have called against UK policies.

I have a PhD in virology, and you know more than me ;P

It really has been surreal with this covid, not sure if our lives will go back to normal next year or the year after... Until a medication is identified, seems like it's here to stay

Vaccination helps a lot...

It's just about being reasonable, you know. Packing 80,000 people in one stadium is not so reasonable. Children also should be vaccinated as soon as possible. I've worked on molecules against COVID, we're hoping they can help with the symptoms, but it's not straight forward to pass to pre-clinical assesment.

Not too sure about Isco, he just seems like such a passive player who is happy riding the Madrid bench, not to mention he's no where near what he was 3 years ago.

I'd prefer James over Isco if it came down to that or Coutinho. Isco for me would have to be the last resort


But that's the point, the statistics show that people who are vaccinated and still contract covid don't end up in the ICU. That's the goal and it's why stadiums should be fully re-opened to those who are vaccinated


But going by that we're never going to return to normal because this thing is here to stay. It's why it is important to get vaccinated and at this point go out and live your life. That's what I have done. And yes, children need to get vaccinated ASAP. The only worry for me is the scary amount of people who are refusing to get vaccinated. Just blows my mind


Wow, that's great!! I'll be calling you Dr. William from now on

Not true Han, my cousin of 28yo was vaccinated two jabs of pfizer and ended up in ICU for a week.

You can never be 100% in this.

I didn't say that it is impossible. I said the numbers were negligible. And that's my point again, sure you can have these very rare cases, but the point of this is not overwhelming the healthcare system. And Vaccines have assured this.

It looks like we're close to signing Bakayoko now, which does not exclude Adli according to Di Marzio...

And we're also in talks for Pellegri from Monaco


I honestly don't understand WTF we're doing now. Going for another midfielder and this Pellegri kid who has spent 2.75 of the 3 years he's had at Monaco on the treatment table. All of this when we a re desperate for the AM. And there are basically no concrete links to any attacking mid right now. I am honestly worried now. We have 11 days left to go. That AM spot MUST be filled with someone competent and not a kid (Adli/Diaz).

We cannot go into the season without an AM, without a RW it's acceptable now that we have Florenzi as well even though I knew this would happen when we let Hakan go. We could not fill both position, hell, we're not even sure we can fill just one of the two atm...

So far, I like all the moves we've made, all sensible and with the objective of strengthening area where we were thin in. But to not make the one key signing we needed to make once Hakan was allowed to leave would be negligent on the management's part. And god forbid we have to switch to a 4-4-2 because of this


One other thing to add is that Kessie, Bennacer, Bakayoko, Tonali, Adli and Krunic for 2 spots is just overkill. Someone else has to go

We still have to get either Bakayoko or Adli first, so let's not jump the gun.

The AM situation is worrying, to say the least. Playing 4-2-3-1 with just one alternative, who was a sub last season nonetheless, is beyond absurd. I get it we don't want to spend beyond our capacities, but it's in emergent situations like this that a sacrifice must be made by the ownership. Otherwise, we seriously risk ending 5th-6th again...

F*cking Capanoglu man, his treason is seriously going to bite us back in the @ss. I still can't fathom the fact that he's earning only 500k more than what we offered him this coming season.

It looks like Bakayoko is practically done and we're close to this Adli kid as well.

I'd say Bakayoko is at 99% chance of happening, Adli more like 65% chance of happening.

Plus Adli can play in a more advanced position as well so he makes more sense for us than Baka at this point

What I don't get is that we've spent all the money to strengthen the depth of the squad but we won't spend to get the one crucial player to connect all these dots? Makes absolutely no sense that we're spending so much time on all these midfielders when there is a huge gaping hole in that Attacking mid position. It makes absolutely no sense to go into the season with just Diaz.

Let's see what they do this last week, we've seen things start to ramp up now, clubs will be more desperate to offload certain players (looking at you James and Coutinho), players who are pushing for a move will most likely force it now and clubs don't want unhappy players on their roster (Vlasic, Berardi)

Lots of opportunities will come up this coming week, I am hoping and trusting that Paolo will push for the one last crucial move to complete the puzzle

If a proper AM is brought in, this will have been a 10/10 mercato. If no AM is brought, I would have to lower it to a 5.5/10

Di Marzio saying both Pellegri and Bakayoko deals are practically done. Will most likely be concluded early next week.




Now bring in an AM Paolo! I beg of you!

Pellegri injury history

This kid has only played 23 games in the last 4 years. Most useless signing ever.

You know what's irritating? That even though we laughed at how Inter dismantled their squad by selling Lukaku and Hakimi, not to mention Eriksen, they already replaced them with Dzeko, Dumfries, Capanoglu, and they're being linked with the likes of Thuram, Correa and Insigne to complete their attack. This from a club that's in severe financial distress.

Whereas we can't even fill one position that's insanely vital to our gameplay. Ridiculous. I hope Paolo proves me wrong, but insofar he hasn't.

Agreed. And for little money might I add as well.

And they started Serie A with Hakan scoring and making an assist.

I fear Pioli is seriously considering starting with a 4-4-2 formation. This all could be a disaster if we don't sign some quality players.

Daily Star: Milan eye signing of Man City star Bernardo Silva in ?53m deal ? the latest

Bruh...

What are they smoking 🤣

Don't even want to think about those Bernardo rumours...


It feels like we're just beating around the bush with the signings we're making. Yes they're all good depth signings in areas where we were lacking last season but we have not improved our starting 11 at all so far. Just weakened it actually.

And with each day that passes I get even more pessimistic. We wasted over 3 weeks f@cking around with the Tonali deal. How are we going to conclude a transfer for a quality AM in just a handful of days?

Going into the season with the attack as it is would be a grave error. And as Fillipo mentioned above, I am also deeply worried about the potential of playing a 4-4-2.

And also, I would like to point out that we are walking into another season with Romagnoli and Kessie both on expiring contracts!!! It's unbelievable that we are risking the same scenario happening again with these 2 as it did with Donna and Hakan...

Is bringing in Bakayoko a tactic to pressure the Kessie renewal? Because man are we gonna be covered with Baka, Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer all fighting to start.

Either Maldini has an ace up his sleeve and he's going to surprise us all, or he has no f*cking clue what he's doing. I'm leaning towards the latter.



It almost feels like we're not renewing these contracts because management wants to keep salaries at 2-3M. Like we're some kind of Udinese...



Don't forget that Bennacer and Kessie will be gone in January.

I really hope that it has nothing to do with Kessie.

But as X-off mentioned, him and Benna will be gone for the AFCON. So we need proper cover in those 2 positions

Being linked to this Messias guy now who plays for Crotone. If we waste money on this guy while we're cheaping out on brining in a quality AM, I'm going to tear my hair out I swear. FFS, Maldini is going to start making me question him now if we go into this new season without a proper AM and Kessie and Romagnoli not renewed

I know we keep blaming Paolo, myself included, but I'm pretty sure he has his hands tied by Gazidis and the ownership. You honestly think he wouldn't renew Kessie's contract and sign a quality AM if it was up to him?

Personally speaking, I've come to terms with the fact that we're not going to make CL next season, and this season is going to be a humiliating one where we'll finish 6th or 7th. Expect Pioli's firing by early December.

Until management is worried more about finances than being competitive, this will remain the status quo.

Yes Paolo is probably hampered by a restricted budget, but this situation with the contracts is self inflicted. Why Oh why do we keep letting these contracts run down? We should never let contracts for the important players go anywhere near the final year. It's just careless and moronic. Let's see if we do the same With Benna and Theo. Icing on the idiotic cake

And imo the wage budget should be there. The management had to have budgeted for Donna and Hakan, not to mention the knew they would have to negotiate with Kessie and Romagnoli as well. We were offering Donna and Hakan 8m and 4m net respectively. It makes no sense as to why we're haggling with Kessie.

Zlatan is the only player on the roster that earns a big wage now. There should be no excuses when you're renewing your most important player.

Why are we haggling with him of all people? Just give him and his agent what he wants and be done with it

Kessie earns 2.2M net, he's demanding 7M net. That's quite the leap, and not an easy amount to negotiate.

Think about it. Our biggest earner is Zlatan, who clearly is an isolated case. Then our second biggest salary is 3.5M (Romagnoli, Rebic, Giroud). No one is earning more than that. Kessie is demanding double that amount. It's way over our budget, and by budget I mean what we want to pay our players, not what we can afford.

Now y'all be saying but X-Off, Kessie is arguably our best player, he deserves a big raise etc. And I agree completely. But not the ownership. They have set clear guidelines that have to be followed by everyone. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had any problems offering 10M to Dollarumma and 5M to Capanoglu.

This club operates under a very rigid framework. Expenses have to be contained at all costs, even if it means losing players for free. I know it makes no sense for a logical perspective, but it's what company policies are.

Bottom line is: make the club appealing to investors and sell it for a profit. No one from Elliott gives two sh*ts about how competitive we've become in the next 3-4 years. Trust me. It's the downside of being owned by a management fund.

These figures imo are mostly media guesses though

First it was 5m, then it was 6m now it's become 7m.

Every time they say it's close and then nothing happens they up it by a million...

If it was 5M there wouldn't have been any problems, I assume.

IMO it's between 6 and 7, definitely.

The way I see it, Elliott want a healthy book to sell the club.

Salaries are the biggest expense on a club and as such, to bring that to a respectable amount viz Revenue, then a potential buyer will come in to take over the club.

Our worry is why not lock in Donna, Hakan, Kessie, Romagnioli, Theo, etc at higher value contracts viz their peers at Juve or Madrid or Tottenham, but reality dictates what we want is not in line with the club. i.e. The management want Milan in the CL and wants to lower the salary at the same time. What we want is Milan to be a protoganist in CL and have quality in depth.

In closing, once we, as fans, understand the motivation of Elliott, we will come to terms that Kessie will not renew at 7M, and even if he does it will be a one-off when looking at the trend of the management's renewals/signings.

That said, I still believe a quality player shall arrive for the AM/RW position before the window closes.

But in essence that is just a vicious circle. Because you cannot have healthy books without consistent CL football (as aside from UEFA money, this also brings in sponsorship deals and other more lucrative commercial revenue). And you cannot have consistent CL football with a squad of players that don't get payed above the 4m mark.

It just isn't feasible in today's climate when a mid-table EPL team can easily offer a player like Kessie twice as much as we deem "appropriate"

So in closing, Elliot will never be able to make he club as attractive and lucrative as they want without sinking some money into it. Which they have. Last report I read is that they're spent over 700m on the club (that's including the 300m loan to Li)

Bottom line is, today it's simply impossible to be a Serie A club and survive without proper funding. Atalanta is the only club that have managed to do this consistently but they are the exception and not the rule. The incompetency at the top of the league will drag everybody down with it.

I think SL will happen within the next 2 years. At this point it is inevitable

Hence what I said what we want is not what the club wants.

We fans look at it this way, the Elliott the hedge fund looks at it another. We have to come to terms with what Elliott is trying to achieve here. And that definitely has nothing to do with making the fans happy or proud. Rather making the bottom line positive, and at the same time achieving CL football.

Their ambition is to sell the club. Our ambition is not the same.

Maldini before the game:

"We have a common line, whether they are renewals or new purchases. I am open to many solutions, but we must do what is sustainable because in the past we have paid for another way of working".

Exactly what I've been saying. We gotta accept that big spending and wages are never going to be part of this club anymore.

But how does it make any sense to lose a player that is easily worth 50-60m for 2m more in wages?? Just does not compute.

Even a brain dead idiot would still say that we should renew for what he wants and if we don't have the resources to keep up with those wages, move him on to an EPL side for top $$$

Just makes absolutely no business sense to let valuable players run down their contracts.

We'll have to wait and see what happens with Kessie and Romagnoli. So far we have only Dollarumma and Capanoglu as examples.

For the first, it was impossible to grant him that salary and then find a suitable buyer when he had such a hard time finding a team as a free agent. Nobody was looking for a GK and even PSG who signed him are currently benching him. And let's not forget Raiola and all the f*cking terms and clauses he would have likely demanded to be inserted in the new contract.

Whereas for Capanoglu, I think something more could have been done. We could have granted him that 5M salary and then put him on the market, I agree. We could have easily gotten around 20M from his sale. I think Maldini mismanaged that situation, and he knows it.

Bakayoko seems like a done deal.

Di Marzio seems confident

It will be a relief not having to rely on Krunic there

We're being linked to Corona of Porto. Anyone know anything about him?

I'm sure Pioli will find ways to play him even with Bakayoko's arrival.



He's a right midfielder, similar to Florenzi in that can also play as RB or RW. No idea why we're being linked with him. Besides, he's become e regular bench warmer at Porto. Are we getting Porto's rejects now? Well, we were also linked with a Serie B 30-year-old, so nothing surprises me anymore.