Firenze wrote:*Vice captain

A feat he achieved in a mere 2 months after being signed

just goes to show what a bunch of spineless scrubs they have in that dressing room

we cant all pay a 35yo £400k per week to carry us

rincon wrote:Both of your clubs are kind of in shambles

Unless Klopp wakes up about the transfer market and proper scouting is done, it seems Milan has a much brighter future in the short term (as long as the sale goes through before the summer).

Liverpool earns nearly twice the revenue Milan does and has a much better chance of qualifying for CL than Milan do in their respective leagues. There is no guarantee Milan are going to spend that money wisely either. Thus making claims like Milan having a better future based on nothing is moot.

@S

Its not based on nothing. I'm not so sure that Liverpool has a better chance of making CL than Milan in the coming seasons. United and City will be there, as will be Chelsea. Arsenal is better poised to make CL than Liverpool in most foreseeable scenarios, even Spurs keeps beating them every time but one season iirc.

On the other hand, besides Juve, only Roma and Napoli stand in front Milan for CL. Napoli might lose Sarri in the near future (this summer?) so its not guaranteed that they will be so consistent. Same with Roma and Spalletti. In 2018 4 Italian teams will go to the CL, it won't take much for Milan and Inter to seize some chances.

Milan this season looks significantly better than before. Even in the middle of an injury crisis they did not collapse, and this is after a summer of pretty much 0 activity. If Milan is sold then there is a lot more money, if Milan is not sold then there is less money but they can at least operate on the market (as opposed to the last 2 windows). Liverpool is struggling for progress.

If you look at the squads of both teams and their rivals, Liverpool's squad will need a massive revamp to compete with United, City and Chelsea when those teams settle with their managers and basically infinite money. Milan will need less and their starlets are all youngsters, the ceiling is high.

if Milan get money I think they are in a better position than Pool in terms of attracting decent players, both are around the same level in terms of prestige atm but Milan is a much much MUCH more desirable place to live. I see Milan being able to attract players just shy of the elite tier but I struggle to see Liverpool being able to.

I also think that unlike Liverpool Milan will be able to compete financially with any of the other big clubs in Serie A besides Juventus. Can see them assembling a decent squad in the next two seasons, at least on the level of Napoli and Inter.

Liverpool's best chance of qualifying for the CL is 100% this season, if not now then I don't see them doing it in the next 3 years, while I could see Milan making it back to the CL in the next 2 seasons.

My point here is that its not necessarily brilliance that may take Milan to a better near future than Liverpool, but opportunity.

Serie A has been improving for a few years now but its in a bit of crossroads with the two challenger teams (Napoli and Roma) possibly undergoing an unneeded transition by losing their coaches that have worked so well. Inter and Milan are a bit of a question mark so its not a guarantee that competition for the CL places in the next 2 seasons will be higher than it is right now, specially since there will be 1 more CL spot. Mlian needs money of course, they'll need to figure that one out.

On the other hand the EPL should recover from the dire state of these last 2 seasons very soon. Mou, Pep and Conte at the helm of super rich teams will dominate the league.

Firenze wrote:if Milan get money I think they are in a better position than Pool in terms of attracting decent players, both are around the same level in terms of prestige atm but Milan is a much much MUCH more desirable place to live. I see Milan being able to attract players just shy of the elite tier but I struggle to see Liverpool being able to.

I also think that unlike Liverpool Milan will be able to compete financially with any of the other big clubs in Serie A besides Juventus. Can see them assembling a decent squad in the next two seasons, at least on the level of Napoli and Inter.

Liverpool's best chance of qualifying for the CL is 100% this season, if not now then I don't see them doing it in the next 3 years, while I could see Milan making it back to the CL in the next 2 seasons.

^This is part of what I mean.

Also, looking at Milan's squad right now, its not very far from being a serious competitor for a CL spot as long as Montella is allowed to continue as he has been so far. Donnarumma, Romagnoli, De Sciglio, Locatelli, Suso are young/very young. They should keep improving. If you add a couple of pieces to stabilize the team like Paletta this season, Bonaventura, Abate then its a very good base in the hands of Montella. The just need a CF that leads the team like Bacca can't, a CM and the LW sorted (Deulofeu?).

They have a lot of potential, with only a few signings they can capitalize on a Napoli/Roma slip up in the next few seasons.

Liverpool's rivals can buy the world and are now coached by top managers.

Well that I can agree with.

But the whole argument is centered around money though. Let's see how much they are going to spend and how they are going to bypass FFP rules.

Yes, they need figure out their financial future soon.

S wrote:

Firenze wrote:can't wait for the heel turn announcement friday morning from Berlu where he says he pulled out because they couldn't guarantee they would spend 500m next season on signings

It seems it's already in the works...

Sky are reporting there COULD be another delay in the final payment for the closing. There seems like there are some economic problems.

What a farce
Usual dirty business by Berlusconi imo

and so it ends. Milan is officially sold to new Chinese owners after 31 years with Berlusconi.

http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Serie-A/Milan/13-04-2017/milan-venduto-cinese-li-yonghong-finisce-era-berlusconi-190703123334.shtml

Official communication from Fininvest:
"Fininvest has now finalized the sale to Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux of the entire holding, 99.93%, of AC Milan..."

I'll translate more when I have time later.

The club is sold, its finally done

I guess congratulations are in order

Waiting

can't wait to see the chinese Ramos Zhang Linpeng starting alongside Mussachio next season. Stuff dreams are made of. Could easily see Milan making a deep Coppa run if they get a kind draw with a few Serie B sides.

740 million euro. Pretty cheap for a club with 7 European titles.

if that was the actual purchase price it's massively overpaying tbh, though CHina have been known to do that in recent years

The 740-million euro price tag includes 220 million euros in debt.

nvm, makes more sense

Why does it make more sense?

So it cost a net $520 million Euros to buy one of the greatest and most historic clubs in European football history? I agree with Breva, that it damn cheap. Real Madrid is valued at $3.7 billion, Barca at $3.6 billion and ManU at $3.3 billion. Even Juve is valued at $1.3 billion.

$520 million net valuation after debt is paid out is borderline robbery by the Chinese. Wasn't Bee going to pay like $1 billion?

Milan doesn't own a stadium so that may also explain the price.

People shouldn't underestimate while historically Milan is a powerhouse in recent years their stock has dropped significantly.

Liverpool were sold for 300m, historically they are worth a lot more but for too long they were irrelevance on the global stage.

Also it doesn't help that Serie A doesn't really have the same reach that La Liga or PL has, which limits the potential growth you can have as a football club for a potential buyer.

Honestly all things considering i think Burlesconi and who ever else were lucky to get this much.

The Chinese paid 740M euro for AC Milan. 740M euro was AC Milan's enterprise value at the time of closing. Debt doesn't just disappear.

To make it easier to understand.

Suppose you agree to buy a car, for $10,000. Along with the car, you also agree to take over, the balance of a loan on the car of $3,000.

Now, though the worth of the car is $10,000, you will pay the seller just $7,000, since you are also assuming the liability of the loan on the car.

If, instead of a car, this were to be an enterprise, $10,000 would still be the enterprise value.

Milan won the Champions League 10 years ago and won the Scudetto 6 years ago. Sure they don't have their own stadium, but I'm sure that is coming soon with the new owners. Once they invest a few hundred million the valuation will skyrocket.

6 years is a life time in football lol, hell one year is most of the time.

It's an instant gratification business, for a club that size to not be relevant for 5+ years feels like 20+ for an average club.

Sure, but the Chinese are taking advantage of that, they are buying at pennies on the dollar. The same could be said of Berlusconi as well, who bought the team when they were in a shambles, being relegated to Serie B not once but twice in the early 1980's before he scooped them up for cheap. He then turned them into a powerhouse and their valuation skyrocketed. The Chinese can do the same, they need to spend big like Berlusconi did in the 1980's and bring in some world class players. It might take a couple of years but I am sure they want to recoup their investment and turn the team around.

There will also be some healthy competition between the two Chinese owner groups (Inter and AC) which will probably increase the incentive to spend.