yeap .

lol

Milan are on the verge of completing Jose Mauri. They are also pursuing Kerem Frei from Besiktas

We're being linked with Witsel as well, haven't seen him much outside of the 2 games we've played against Zenit in the CL. But, at least he seems tangible, any person who moves to Russia/Eastern Europe surely doesn't care about the lofty heights of of European football, i'd reckon he'll join us if we offer him a good deal (he currently earns 3m a year)

I could bet money i saw glimpses and some highlights of him this season in the CL , but i don't have a clue as in how good of a season he had . I remember i liked him in the WC tho .

Dude is very strong , with playful feet , has a knack to trick opponents and overall very nice ball control. His passing ways aren't anything special , but tend to be secure and quick , especially in the final third . You won't see Poli/Essien/Muntari stuff from Witsel .

I guess he's decent in the air too . Not particularly fast and doesn't really show particular excellence in anything , but he's an all-rounded midfielder , who would be our best midfielder from day 1.

Also , i'd suggest not making assumptions about him going to Zenit and as to what kind of player/character he is . Zenit paid ridiculous money to get him from Benfica , no way he could possibly say 'no i don't go , lose 35/40m' . Not every player can reject any transfer and Witsel was like 22-23 when he left Benfica , not exactly the big name player either.. doesn't mean much really.

As a matter of fact , compared to Hulk and his behaviour at times over there , Witsel never created problems , as far as i know at least . He's a pro and he acts the part as well .

I am all in for Witsel really. Maybe not a household name but he would certainly be our best midfielder and i think he has everything necessary to improve the level of our midfield play .

As for Jose Mauri , the lad is born in 96 . I say go for it , but that's simply a bench signing . Not sure what's best tho , that we got a youngster and with experience on top of it for the bench , or that it could mean Muntari is actually leaving

Mauri , as i am sure many of you already know , is more of a defensive CM , like Muntari. Let's see , but if we really renewed De Jong , Muntari could actually be on his way out despite what was reported.

We don't really need all 3 . And if De Jong does stay afterall , he will play a lot of games anyway , Mauri is more than enough to cover for him really. Obviously Muntari is a defensive kind of CM , rather than play anchor like De Jong , but there's no other midfielder in Milan that can win the ball and tackle e.t.c , be a destroyer like DJ other than Muntari .

But if we get Jose Mauri ... i don't see why he would stay tbh. If we keep all 3 of them , 2 of them will barely have 10 to 15 games next season and it won't all of them be full games in any case.

We are getting Bertolacci for 20 million...

Discuss.

Williamson and Colback are still available for the low low price of a Robinson's orange juice.

M99 wrote:We are getting Bertolacci for 20 million...

Discuss.

I just destroyed 5 Diamondbacks with the Batmobile, ejected myself, took down a helicopter, dove down as it exploded and then landed inside the Batmobile.

Then i log in to read this shit

El Shaarawy wrote:

M99 wrote:We are getting Bertolacci for 20 million...

Discuss.

I just destroyed 5 Diamondbacks with the Batmobile, ejected myself, took down a helicopter, dove down as it exploded and then landed inside the Batmobile.

Then i long in to read this shit

Sounds just as thrilling as this signing tbf.

At least the fee might throw FIFA off balance as i'm sure they don't watch Serie A, they'll probably push him to a 77-79

If he turns out as positive as Bonaventura did , i am all for it

the price is kinda ridiculous however , but anyway. let's wait for more info yet

He's going to be our midfield 'star' signing , we won't go anyone else anymore imo. They're gonna sign Bacca/some other stiker, they'll bring in a meh defender like Savic/Heaurtaux and Ibra will be announced at the last week of August.

I can read them like an open book ffs

ES already accepting defeat in June

Its not a defeat if Ibra is coming

Honestly I don't mind 20 mil that much. Considering we were going to spend 40 mil on Konfraudbia, I'm not too bummed out on the price. And the signing does make since, what with most of our midfield seemingly out the door. Bertolacci, Jack, Monty, Van Ginkel, and Witsel is a solid midfield tbh, and if we get Abdennour and Ibra I'll consider this a good summer.

Getting Bertolacci, Baselli, and Mauri would be fantastic. I hope the other signings would be Witsel, Ibra, Rabiot, and Maksimovic.

Cruijf wrote:Honestly I don't mind 20 mil that much. Considering we were going to spend 40 mil on Konfraudbia, I'm not too bummed out on the price. And the signing does make since, what with most of our midfield seemingly out the door. Bertolacci, Jack, Monty, Van Ginkel, and Witsel is a solid midfield tbh, and if we get Abdennour and Ibra I'll consider this a good summer.

I wish we could sign Van Ginkel permanently but i doubt it. Didn't seem to be willing to stay even for another season , let alone sign for good . I really hope something happens , but i would understand if he doesn't want to continue at Milan.

Bertolacci i wasn't convinced despite his impressive season , but he is an interesting player with the ball at his feet and in general lines , he's a very capable midfielder for such a young age. Fast movement , nice ball control and a mean left foot. As far as his passing ways go , i haven't seen him that much to judge , but from the little i remember , he wasn't bad at all. Long balls seemed to be decent too . 20m and what not , i want good midfielders at Milan again.

One of the reasons i didn't rate him was his tendency to keep onto the ball for a few secs more at times . And despite having a very good season , there are times his inexperience shows a lot , like attempting stuff when he won't know if he can pull it off or not. At least he likes to take on his opponent , we ache for midfielders with such traits.

As for the price , let's see , i am still not convinced it will be 20m outright. He's definitely a player near 12-15m . 20m are quite the high price to pay , my bet is there are bonuses included , making it 20m overall.

Also , Konfraudbia lmaooo

yeah agreed m8 , Bertolacci >> Konfraudbia imo

De Jong has officially renewed for another three years.

Ideally we still need a box to box midfield, a technically sound central midfielder and an advanced playmaker to play behind the strikers. Unfortunately I feel that we view Bertolacci as our advanced playmaker. I'd have been happy to have him as our additional B2B option but if we're to have him play at the tip of our diamond we're going to need a very good signing behind him.

It would be nice if there were anything to the recurrent, occasional Gundogan links but it's just another pipe dream sadly.

•MilanDevil• wrote:Getting Bertolacci, Baselli, and Mauri would be fantastic. I hope the other signings would be Witsel, Ibra, Rabiot, and Maksimovic.

Getting Bertolacci , Baselli and Mauri is nothing fantastic as i see it , it would simply be some decent moves to the right direction . It would be good news indeed , but fantastic ? I think such praise goes for the 2nd part of your post , if we got Witsel , Rabiot , Ibra and that lad Maksimovic , that would be fantastic . The basis is already there tbh , so far it's fantasy

De Jong renewed his contract , so we can forget about Rabiot . Not that we would be one of his first options , but De Jong staying simply excludes the transfer . Neither of the two would agree for bench time . Rabiot to EPL , almost guaranteed . Arsenal maybe ?

About Maksimovic , have you or anyone else seen him play enough? I think he impressed so much because of Glik really . And something tells me , this gonna be another Bonucci - Ranocchia case .. one gets the legit CB , the other gets the fodder .

I think our midfield plan is clear now.


i don't necessarily like it , but let's see. Witsel is more than welcomed obviously. I just think we need a better player on the ball than De Jong there , i think Montolivo at RCM is risky for many reasons and Bertolacci i would have preffered to see play deeper , with a better 10 in front of him . Say , Felipe Anderson .


However , it depends on the kind of game we are going to be playing i guess.. Bertolacci-Witsel-Montolivo-De Jong could certainly be a very strong midfield . If we can get Witsel that is . Elsewise it will just be an improved fodder version of last season . De Jong ain't magically going to learn how to play football and Montolivo ain't magically gonna turn 26 again . But let's see .

I'd be very content with that second midfield, though partly because I expect to be disappointed by our midfield signings and certainly don't think we'll be able to address our main needs.

As for Maksimovic, as you said, the only players from Torino I would trust would be Darmian and Glik, who have had some confirmation of their worth at international level as well, away from the magic of Ventura.

I don't know what to think really. I am somewhat divided on De Jong. De Jong is very solid defensively and i like him for the commitment he has shown at the club. Always humble , proffessional , works hard on the pitch , has been one of our best players during this miserable period . I trully respect him for all of that.

But really , i have issues with how limited he is on the ball . Half of the game he spends it looking at our half , lol. His passing is secure and not bad at all for a player of his kind , but it isn't enough . He lacks the vision , he lacks the IQ of a regista , someone who will unlock the play . And although he's very strong as a player and always plays it safe , he's not good enough under pressure with the ball at his feet.

I think Montolivo should be playing there. Has the vision , has the passing skill , has exactly the right skillset , height and regista-IQ to play there. And when in form , he's not bad at all defensively. But no. All this means is that our CMs will have to be on top of their game if we are going to have a good season .

Oh well , at least our defence will be more secure i guess.

I'd like to see him tried as a B2B as you suggested, though I personally don't think he has it in him to play the role. We need another midfielder capable of playing in front of the back four in any case however so it's important to have him in the squad but ideally he would be a reserve now with others incoming. Somehow I doubt this is his understanding of his role if he has agreed to a renewal however.

De Jong will be starting games in front of the defence , he would never sign otherwise. It's 100% certain he got the guarantees he was after and you can be sure this was either the first , or the 2nd . The money is the other , but that would never be a problem with him , not this kind of player .

As for if he can play CM . He can play CM , his athleticism is top notch for the role he would have . There's nothing he lacks to be a pseudo-Gattuso. Absolutely nothing on the sporting side of things , what he lacks is the confidence and will .

Confidence in that he isn't agressive as a player and is out of his comfort zone the higher up he goes and he obviously wants to be the last midfielder . These 2 things are much more severe than any sporting trait actually , one could adapt and all . It's not like he will be required to make the last pass , or attempt stuff Xavi did lol . Again , a poor man's Gattuso would be fantastic news for the team. Pressing would be better , our right side would be more secure , we would have more solid presence all over the right side and not just static play from either Montolivo-Poli.. stealing the ball anywhere on the right and initiating counter attacks ..

Anyway , De Jong i am fairly convinced he could easily play as a defensive B2B player , he has everything for it .. but he lacks the mindset to do so. What this means is , best case our CMs will have to be near excellent in order for this to work , worst case , static play and troubles from the midfield to get the ball rolling.

What's certain is that our game won't be as impressive as it could be , however it will probably be more secure and safe.

His touch is quite delicate for a player renowned for being physical and he shields the ball well however asked to do so in more crowded situations, having to deal with being much higher up the pitch when we transition from attack to defence, asking him to make the right movements to receive the ball and support our forwards and the fullback when he is very used to being a very static player himself, I'm unsure how it will work.

Ideally he would indeed play in front of the defence but as Montolivo's reserve to see out games but that's unlikely. There may be merit to a highly physical midfield however, we know for a fact that it works in Serie A.

Bertolacci
Montolivo---De Jong---Witsel

It's not pretty however each of those players is secure in possession and if paired with a reliable front two - in which one must surely be Ibrahimovic in order to make it all tick in the final third - would probably secure a top three spot. Don't concede much, keep the ball away from our back four and run the middle of the park, grind teams down. It's a pretty much guaranteed formula in terms of the league as long as you have an individual up front like an Ibra or a Tevez who can single handedly win you games and a consistent central defensive partnership.

His delicate touch for a player of his kind doesn't result in much though ; he barely even takes advantage of it , most of his passes would have been the same regardless of the advantage he gets from his touch . And in any case , that it is somewhat impressive for a pure destroyer doesn't mean much other than that. Most top players playing as the last midfielder have a better first touch than De Jong if we are to compare and their passing ways ain't 9 of 10 back passes . De Jong is impressive as a destroyer , but in comparison to the best players playing either pure DM or regista , he's surely one of the most one dimensional and limited in comparison , if not the most .

Anyway , again , it's not bad news per se.. but it certainly isn't the best news for Montolivo . This may or may not prove to be bad news , eventually. I am legit worried about Montolivo right now , not sure how he will cope unless the team improves drastically and he regains form smoothly. Even then , 30 year old player who was never fast to begin with , coming off a serious injury , you don't exactly stay calm with him playing CM. I hope his eagerness to play well again and the team improving all smooth his return into things , we really need the best Montolivo we can have and if we aren't going to have him play regista , we can only hope he copes with it all at CM.

He could still dictate play and make meaningfull passes and through balls , but it will be harder now , plus he will have to run a lot more than he would need as regista. I think he can do it because he has done it justice in the past for years , but in any case , let's hope he still has it in him . Because as a regista , i wouldn't have half the concerns i have right now. Ideally i agree De Jong would be his back up or something , but yeah. No reason to be talking about this , we know it won't be the case.

As for the last part of your post , don't see anything wrong with it all , but so far , we have neither Ibra nor Witsel . We will need to improve the midfield as much as we can and add that CF , hopefully ( but unlikely ) Ibra , to improve the level of our play . What you are saying seems like a plan tbh , however we will also require our fullbacks in excellent form to pull it off.

And also , better hope El Shaarawy starts next to our CF next season , seeing that Bertolacci all but confirms he won't play 10 . El Shaarawy will add a certain amount of width in the team and with the fullbacks providing support and assurances as far as width goes , then yes , it may as well work , especially if we got Ibra , it will work too well i think .

As for Ibra . I think we will get him ONLY if PSG get another big star . I don't know who , but if they do not , we can forget about him.

The more I look at that first midfield you mentioned, the more I feel we're trying to recreate Allegri's first season.

De Jong remains as the physical anchor who makes few mistakes on the ball and has free license to crunch people as necessary. He can't replicate Van Bommel's ability to launch the ball out to the flanks but he pops up with handy goals much like Ambrosini at set pieces.

Beside him, Montolivo is given a fairly free role at LCM like Pirlo prior to his injury and Seedorf after him to facilitate possession whilst having a wise head to keep our shape as necessary. The chief source of technique in midfield and additionally given a license to shoot freely from distance.

A new purchase such as Witsel brings in abundance the physical dynamism of the role Gattuso and Flamini filled but brings more to the table on the ball and adds a bit of height to compensate for De Jong's presence.

Bertolacci is an imperfect fit for Boateng but he brings more calm. Is likely to be occupy a somewhat free role like Prince but whilst less likely to waste the ball, it comes at the cost of Boa's capacity to score absurd wonder goals.

Up front, we bring back Ibrahimovic and surround him with mobile, tricky second strikers to run off him, drift wide as necessary and prove a threat on the counter, with El Shaarawy, Menez and Cerci taking the place of Pato, Robinho and Cassano.

Our fullbacks are upgraded if imperfect and we've a better goalkeeper but we lack the same impenetrable central defensive partnership.

If this is the plan, one might hope for something along the lines of:

Lopez
Darmian---Abdennour---Rugani---Antonelli
Witsel---De Jong---Montolivo
Bertolacci
Ibrahimovic---El Shaarawy

Abdennour - 25 million
Rugani - 20 million
Darmian - 20 million
Witsel - 30 million
Bertolacci - 20 million
Ibrahimovic - Free

If one were to replace Zlatan with a pure 9 however then I'd feel a lot less certain of the capacity of the above line up against sides who sit deep though we'd probably still be able grab a top three finish. If Menez or Cerci were to be moved on we could bring in some more promising players to act as depth.

Nice post

1. It won't be Cerci . Cerci will most likely leave .. Not sure what will happen with Menez but you can be sure he won't like it one bit to find competition for a spot next season , because of the season he had. 50-50% both leave , 100% chance one of them does. If the plan is going to be El Shaarawy - Ibrahimovic , then it will be SES-Menez-Niang , Ibra - Matri - Niang . If we somehow get Bacca , let's say IF . Menez and Cerci are out the next day , but Ses will be benched for real . To tell you the truth , it seems he will get benched anyway , this way or the other.

2. Ibra won't come for free . He will come for 10m to 15m , if he does. And will be money well spend , but whatever the case proves to be , he won't come as a free agent . PSG would be absolutely mad to agree to such a thing , there's simply no way whatsoever they do this. That they have money doesn't mean they would say no to 10m euros , especially if they were to lose Ibra .

3. I absolutely agree with your view on certain similarities and maybe about the plan being to replicate certain elements of Allegri's 10-11 , never forgeting some glaring differences , but it's questionable if it will work the same way. Allegri allowed a lot of indivindual freedom upon the likes of Pirlo , Seedorf , Van Bommel , Boateng (and of course Ibra)e.t.c .. you don't know if Sinisa will allow the same. As far as quality goes , current midfield would be a poor man's version really . In any case , i would agree if we went down that road , it would work , especially if we fix the defence and get Ibrahimovic.

4. Your evaluation is more or less correct , but there seems to be a lack of inflation in the prices. No way Witsel comes for 30m when Zenit knows we were willing to spend 40m on Kondogbia and they know how desperate we are. 40m is just they price they paid to get Witsel and it will be the absolute minimum price we will pay for him , IF we get him . Also , may i suggest not to concern yourself with a budget? Obviously we don't have infinite money , but for the players we will be after , price won't be the biggest issue. We were willing to pay 40m on Kondogbia , there's everything you need to know ; it's far more important to have the will of the player with us than care about a budget right now.

5. I like what you said on Boateng and Bertolacci . Boa boa teng teng! was a beast that season and the season after , but truth be told , i'll have a more technical player there than him , even if it means way less crazy goals. Still concerned how Montolivo will return as CM.... and as for Darmian , i've said what i think , the day we lose him to either of the rest i will hate with all the hate that's been left within me.

GET.DARMIAN.BACK .

It shouldn't really be that much of a tough choice to strengthen your team and prevent your opponents of getting stronger , but #justMilanthings . If anything , Darmian would secure both of our flanks with quality and he's very good up front really. Darmian-Abate and Antonelli-De Sciglio is simply fantastic for Serie A , nothing else to add. We would only be looking for CBs and forget about the FBs for years to come.

Overall , i agree with your ideas and all , but it kinda seems this midfield will fall short of expectations i am afraid , unless Bertolacci proves to be a sensation of sorts... De Jong = limited , Montolivo = unreliable atm . Two vital pieces of the plan tbh and there's no guarantee either Witsel or Ibra come. I can tell you this , if we don't get Ibra and don't get a player like Witsel and the midfield still consists of De Jong DM and Montolivo CM e.t.c , our best hope will be Europa League really.

Nothing top notch in this midfield unless you add the right elements to make it work . And that will require signings all over the place . Anyway , let's see , i still hope we will have a great mercato , i am very much eager to watch us play 4-1-2-1-2 again , no matter what they say about the system . I always liked it , but it needs quality players in order to work tbh.