Mercato Rossonero: Milan Transfer Activity Inside Out

El Shaarawy wrote:Yep, Zapata didn't start too well, but he improved a lot. Made me really impressed tbf. Mexes also was a beast for us, although he might be a bit error prone. Still does that mean we our CB's for next season are set with Zapata/Amu and Mexes/Salamon?

Who is Amu?

No, we definitely need better than Zap-Mexes for the big games. On occasion, they look like Baresi and Beckenbauer, but the fact is that they are unreliable and are the reason why we shipped a lot of goals at the start of the season.

Individually, they are both alright players. I prefer Zap because he's prime age and 2nd half of the season stability as a starter helped him a lot. Mexes is very capable and experienced when he has his head screwed on, but sometimes he is a red card liability. Also, he gets cut to pieces by any quick forward. Walcott on Mexes and we'd be monumentally screwed. People who saw France at Euro know this well.

Yepes will retire and maybe Bonera will leave the club, so that will free up at least 1 space in the squad for another CB. Sakho is likely to be v. expensive if Barca are interested, but I feel that Torino could be persuaded to sell Ogbonna to us for around 10m. That seems like a lot of denero for a young CB, but we got T. Silva for that much and he repaid that debt 10 fold (and I'm not talking about his re-sale price).

I see Salamon challenging for a starting spot too. Having Salamon, Zapata, Mexes and Ogbonna is a potentially world class quartet of CBs. That means no more days of sweating on the fitness of the 2 starters. Plus, they can be rested ahead of big games. This is the kind of squad depth that wins titles.

And then there's Zaccardo. Don't know what we're going to do with him. He'll probably be the new Yepes.

Amu is an 18 yr old Colombian CB that we signed a while ago

But yeah, i really think that it wouldn't hurt to get one good CB, Salamon and Amu are young and inexperienced, Mexes is 30 and can get a bit hot-headed at times, Zapata has been a mixed bag, his first half of the season was atrocious, that sending off against Fio, the amount of errors he made too. But in the 2nd half he delivered for us tbf

Oh, you mean Jherson Vergara? Yeah, he won't get a look in next season.

Nice post there Forza. Agreed. Although i wouldn't be that confident about Salamon , i certainly wish he pushes for it.

As for Zaccardo , he came to be the new Yepes , though he might be the new Legrottaglie .. Not sure what he did to earn a stay at Milan , when Yepes came he made it into some games throughout the season. He's done squat and he could just be the price we payed for Mesbah to leave . Glad we payed that price if that's the case...

Not sure if he's going to stay , i don't see any room for him. Why not Bonera to be the new Yepes. And the new Bonera all together

Bonera, remember when he started? We were in 15th place.

Zaccardo is 6 years younger than Yepes, that's something. And he's won a World Cup.

El Shaarawy wrote:Amu is an 18 yr old Colombian CB that we signed a while ago

But yeah, i really think that it wouldn't hurt to get one good CB, Salamon and Amu are young and inexperienced, Mexes is 30 and can get a bit hot-headed at times, Zapata has been a mixed bag, his first half of the season was atrocious, that sending off against Fio, the amount of errors he made too. But in the 2nd half he delivered for us tbf

The problem with Zapata is his a bit akward with the ball at his feet.And by that i mean he's clueless what to do with it. He's unable to move the ball high up the pitch also. He really doesn't fit the criteria of our tactics, but he's a good defender , quite fast and versatile off the ball. Having said that , Mexes makes him look a bit better than what he really is imo , but that's another talk..

The case is , pray we buy a new CB that's more skilled with the ball than Zapata. It will unfold itself after that , Zapata won't be able to keep his spot. I am quite certain of this.

Zapata will be ok with someone who has good distribution capabilities next to him.

The days when we lined up with Bonera-Yepes, it's still a painful memory.

I believe we need two central defenders who can realistically start next season, with Mexes providing competition and Zapata and Bonera rounding off the rotation. Vergera will certainly not be ready to start, whilst it is unclear where Salamon's future truly lies. With no real indication from the management on his future however, I am not prepared to truly consider him part of our rotation in defence. Whether he will be confirmed in this role, be used as a back-up for De Jong - something that intrigues me greatly as a possibility - or depart Milan either temporarily or permanently remains to be seen.

Forza wrote:Bonera, remember when he started? We were in 15th place.

Zaccardo is 6 years younger than Yepes, that's something. And he's won a World Cup.

Bonera , forever substitute

Of course it matters that he's younger and to be honest with you , i don't have a single problem with Zaccardo. I just don't see a role for him. Unless he's comfortable with playing like 5 games a season or so , wouldn't be better for him to leave ?

I mean , Bonera is fully comfortable with that role , why spoil the only thing he's been good at

The man (Bonera) will tell his children about the day he held off the world's greatest footballer and co for 90 mins

If it's a choice between Bonera and Zaccardo it should be Bonera without a doubt; he's a senior figure in the dressing room who understands the culture of the club and aids youngsters in this sense and whose entire life and family are centred around this city. Zaccardo rocked up six months ago and has played what, one game?

I have well documented issues with Bonera, however we're discussing a player who is meant to be fourth or fifth choice and whose competition is far from illustrious. Either way, neither player is going to have much of a say in our destiny. In cases such as these, loyalty should be the deciding factor.

dostoevsky wrote:The days when we lined up with Bonera-Yepes, it's still a painful memory.

I believe we need two central defenders who can realistically start next season, with Mexes providing competition and Zapata and Bonera rounding off the rotation. Vergera will certainly not be ready to start, whilst it is unclear where Salamon's future truly lies. With no real indication from the management on his future however, I am not prepared to truly consider him part of our rotation in defence. Whether he will be confirmed in this role, be used as a back-up for De Jong - something that intrigues me greatly as a possibility - or depart Milan either temporarily or permanently remains to be seen.

I must admit i've been thinking about this also. In fact , i was about to post it as well , though i believe it's far away from happening. The fact is , Allegri has his mind on Cristante for this role . In any case , De Jong won't be going anywhere and i think it would take a lot of time for Salamon to establish himself as a DMF.

Ambro could help groom him , but i am not sure how this could work , with him playing Salamon's matches . Even though i like the idea very much ,especialy when i consider the criteria Allegri chooses his DMF , i think he will have more chance at CB , as things stand.

Forza wrote:Zapata will be ok with someone who has good distribution capabilities next to him.

He will be ok against Genoa and Chievo ,yes.. In derbies or in CL , with teams that actualy press and play modern football , he won't be ok. You may say he did well , let's say against Barcelona in San Siro , but that day the whole team over performed . He won't have that luxury all the time.

Notice him closely ; he always passes the ball to Mexes or Abbiati , almost always. He limits our play , that's what i am trying to say. He used to try to be like Thiago Silva and he couldn't . His long balls were pretty slow and most of the time meaningless , his distribution was so uncertain and he couldn't move the ball high up the pitch . When he stopped that somewhere close to mid season , all though he was doing better , but truth is , he's hidden his shit under the carpet.

He limits our play with his inability on the ball , although he's good at defending and he's pretty fast and versatile off the ball too .On the air his very good.Ok with that but , apart from his speed , all the rest are quite easy to find from other CBs.

I personaly rate Mexes , i always did and i knew he was able to lead the defence. He did very well this season and he deserves his spot next season too.I can't say the same about Zapata . That the whole team progressed and improved and his flaws aren't happening that often , hasn't changed my mind. Against Barcelona in Camp Noy , is a good example to judge him. Although we played terribly as a team that night , his individual errors can be spotted easily. Nervous , clueless with the ball , losing position frequently , in Villa's goal he was nowhere to be seen , he practicaly made Mexes life worse that night.

Again , i am quite sure he will lose his spot from the next defender who knows how to stay calm with the ball at his feet. It's not necessary to have Mexes doing this. He's practicaly doing everything at the back , although it helped him improve i must say. Zapata is playing right now because we have none better to challenge him for a spot. Even Salamon who's trully uninitiated can take his place , given some time of course.

Galliani: "I won't talk about the transfer market until next Monday, but it wouldn't be bad to get a right winger."

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean we will sell Niang

El Shaarawy wrote:Galliani: "I won't talk about the transfer market until next Monday, but it wouldn't be bad to get a right winger."

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean we will sell Niang

No, this is probably just to replace Robinho and probably Boateng. Niang isn't ready for a starting role and I think management sees that.

http://www.football-italia.net/34045/milan-make-ljajic-move


i would love to have him in this milan team

Milan31 wrote:

El Shaarawy wrote:Galliani: "I won't talk about the transfer market until next Monday, but it wouldn't be bad to get a right winger."

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean we will sell Niang

No, this is probably just to replace Robinho and probably Boateng. Niang isn't ready for a starting role and I think management sees that.

Galliani: "A new right winger? I won't speak about the market but a new right winger will be good because i see boateng more as playmaker or mezz'ala."

probably to drop boateng a bit deeper

El Shaarawy wrote:Galliani: "I won't talk about the transfer market until next Monday, but it wouldn't be bad to get a right winger."

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean we will sell Niang

Buy Alexis Sanchez

Nah , seriously though , at least he admits the necessity for a right winger. That was a relief , great news. Both of Robinho leaving and Niang staying at the bench , or whatever .

I'd really like Alessio Cerci. I've been watching him all season long, must say when in form he is one of the most exciting players to watch in Serie A.

Sanchez would be amazing. Watch him revert back to his Udinese days. Let's send secret agent Zapata to Barcelona to take Sanchez away from "the suffering".

Associazione Colombia Milan
Associazione Chile Milan

Funniest story I've ever heard of

Milan to swoop for Modric, Di Maria, Pepe, and Diego Lopez. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

Milantildeath wrote:Funniest story I've ever heard of

Milan to swoop for Modric, Di Maria, Pepe, and Diego Lopez. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

That is stupid. But if it were to actually happen , it would be interesting.

we are virtually linked to every football players on the planet!!!

hell... messi comes to milan to shop at Dolce & Gabbanna boutique, media link him to AC Milan...

expect a lot of this, in summer lol... its time for media to make money by making things up

Sky reports that Abate will be sold if Milan get an offer of at least €10m. Nocerino and Robinho are also set to leave.

Not Abate again

Abate recently stated in an interview that when Zenit made an offer for him in the winter, Galliani didn't even consider it and told him that Milan wanted to retain him. He's still our best fullback and it is beyond our power to bring in a superior player through the market given our financial priorities. The squad needs to ensure that those players in their prime are retained during our transitional period to keep us on track to meet our short term objectives in the league and Europe. I doubt we'll see any movement unless perhaps Santon becomes available for a reasonable price, which is highly unlikely.