AC Milan Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Smithwicks Man

De Jong picked up a knock, will most likely miss the game at the weekend

Allegri really infuriates me with some of his team selections and substitutions

Seaneh

Milan and Genoa have made a straight swap of Bakaye Traore for Valter Birsa.


Makes no sense at all, in his two seasons in Serie A he made a total of 23 apparenced (9 at Genoa, 14 on loan at Toro) and despite looking like a big, strong, technically good winger had never anything special...

Smithwicks Man

Seaneh wrote: »

Milan and Genoa have made a straight swap of Bakaye Traore for Valter Birsa.


Makes no sense at all, in his two seasons in Serie A he made a total of 23 apparenced (9 at Genoa, 14 on loan at Toro) and despite looking like a big, strong, technically good winger had never anything special...

Nonsensical move. We're supposed to be trying to thin out the squad but instead we add another mediocre player.

There's currently 30 players in the first team squad and this has to be cut as low as possible (25 was the target) but with a few additions that we are expected to make, the squad size will be huge.

I'd expect 2/3 additions before the market closes.

Coppola (Shouldn't have even been brought in) , Antonini and Birsa all need to go before the window closes.

At least 1 (preferably 2/3) out of Nocerino, Emanuelson and Boateng needs to go.

Petagna should be loaned out in January when Pazzini is back fit as he'll get zero game time.

Robinho should be moved on in January as well if at all possible.


Honda will come in either now or in January and a CB is a must as well. If Eriksen joins, all 3 midfielders named above should be encouraged to leave as we'll have more than enough cover with Montolivo/DeJong/Poli/Muntari/Honda/Eriksen/Cristante and Saponara for 4 positions and Constant as cover if we're hit badly with injuries.

There's no need for Ljajic to join at all as we have more than enough players up top and it could disrupt the squad harmony to have another player on the bench who feels he's good enough to be playing.

Hoping to see the following but I won't hold my breath:

In: Honda, Eriksen, Sakho for around €30m
Out: Coppola, Antonini, Birsa, Emanuelson, Boateng, Nocerino for around €20m

This would improve us greatly imo.

Pinturicchio

Birsa is being loaned straight away to Brescia. It was just a way of offloading Traore.

Smithwicks Man

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Birsa is being loaned straight away to Brescia. It was just a way of offloading Traore.

Was hoping that'd be the case. Nice one

GTR63

Team vs Hellas Verona:
Abbiati, Abate, Zapata, Mexes, Constant, Poli, Montolivo, Nocerino, Niang, Balotelli & El
Shaarawy.
Bench: Amelia, Coppola, Silvestre, Zaccardo, De Sciglio, De Jong, Cristante, Emanuelson, Robinho, Petagna.
Its on Setanta Ireland btw.

Smithwicks Man

Muntari is suspended as far as I'm aware. Glad to see Poli and Niang start. Excited for this!

GTR63

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Muntari is suspended as far as I'm aware. Glad to see Poli and Niang start. Excited for this!

And Poli scores, to quote Shaking Stevens 'Lovely Stuff'.

Smithwicks Man

GTR63 wrote: »

And Poli scores, to quote Shaking Stevens 'Lovely Stuff'.

Great goal in terms of composure and touch. Balotelli made up for not picking him out earlier in the half!

Poor goal to concede, Toni is running us ragged at the back. El Shaarawy hasn't been in it at all. Montolivo looks totally off the pace. Abate has played well and Niang has had some nice touches.

Balotelli must be the most persistently fouled player in world football? He's been fouled 5/6 times easily in the first half and it happens every single game

Seaneh

Playing absolutely ****e since the 30th minute, Verona deserve to be ahead.

One plus, Albertazzi is fianlly showing the potential thats was obvious when he was a teenager, just in the wrong ****ing jersey.

GTR63

Toni giving us trouble. In 2013 I shouldn't be writing that.
Being torn apart at times, here comes Robinho. Horray!
Toni is killing us now

GTR63

Fùcking hopeless. How do we look so leggy & unfit?

Smithwicks Man

The excuses of match fitness against PSV were fair as they had 5 competitive games played to our zero.

That was a joke though. We looked toothless in attack. Should Balotelli have gotten a penalty? Probably, but we can't expect to be awarded a penalty every single game when things are going against us. I mean, he just blatantly looks for penalties all the time.

Robinho has the strange knack of being useless when we're playing well but always being effective when we're playing terrible. A good option to have on the bench and did well when he came on. Petagna was poor but he's so young and this was a terrible game to make your debut in.

Unacceptable to have a 36 year old Luca Toni run ragged against us. It's professional football for f**k sake. He's probably shocked how easy a time he had.

Very disappointing. Allegri will most likely be gone if we don't make Champions League and the circus will begin again

kryogen

You know, at this stage I think Robinho will finish his career at Milan

Seaneh

I ****ing hope not.

GTR63

Being linked with Matri if we get into the Champions League group stage(hardly a given that). He`d be an awful signing & the last thing we need now is yet another striker.

Smithwicks Man

GTR63 wrote: »

Being linked with Matri if we get into the Champions League group stage(hardly a given that). He`d be an awful signing & the last thing we need now is yet another striker.

Don't think the ultras will be a bit happy with that.

The worst move we could make. Signing nobody is an infinitely better move than that. Disgraceful

Massive night tonight... Wish I was there

GTR63

I always refer to Matri as just a sh!t version of Pazzini.
Wasn't a bit nervous this time last week but after the Verona game I am nervous about the game tonite. We'd want to sign someone good if we get through tonite someone in a much higher bracket than Zapata or stopgap types.

Paco Rodriguez

Are these Matri speculations concrete? I don't think he's a bad player but I think we have enough with what we have. I think we should give Niang more time and I believe Petagna is a great prospect.
Im very impressed with Poli though.
I think they will step up tonight but there is a trend of one strong performance followed by a poor performance. We'll do well tonight and poor at the weekend I would bet.

Smithwicks Man

A lot depends on the line ups: Poli must start. If we line out with the exact same team as the game last week vs PSV then he's an idiot.

Is the 2nd leg on any channel tonight?

Seaneh

Deleted User wrote: »

Is the 2nd leg on any channel tonight?

RTE 2 are hardly showing the celtic match are they?

Sky Sports 1 showed the milan match last week but seem to be doing the celtic one this week, boo.

Seaneh

It's on Setanta Ireland!

Seaneh

Seaneh wrote: »

RTE 2 are hardly showing the celtic match are they?

Sky Sports 1 showed the milan match last week but seem to be doing the celtic one this week, boo.

RTE are showing the Celtic match.

Setanta has TBA (On UPC guide) so im hoping its the Milan/PSV match.

GTR63

Deleted User wrote: »

RTE are showing the Celtic match.

Setanta has TBA (On UPC guide) so im hoping its the Milan/PSV match.

Says on my Sky guide its Milan vs PSV. Trying to get the team news damn you @Milanello for going to the game.

Smithwicks Man

It's on Sky Sports on the Red Button

OFFICIAL XI: MILAN: Abbiati, Abate, Zapata, Mexes, De Sciglio, Montolivo, De Jong, Muntari, Boateng, Balotelli, El Shaarawy.

Same starting lineup as last week EDIT: Actually De Sciglio has been introduced which is a big plus. Same mistake however. Poli should have started and Allegri's preference of brawn over technicality is angering. Muntari and Boateng need big games tonight.

El Shaarawy was, in my opinion, our best player last week but was anonymous at the weekend. Balotelli needs to show maturity in the near future. He needs to stop moaning, stop spending all of his energy on whinging at the referee and trying to win penalties and just play the game.

GTR63

As much as I like Balotelli we shoved El Shaarawy out wide as soon as he arrived & bar his HUGE workrate coming back its clearly not his best position.
I'm more nervy now after seeing that team, at least De Sciglio & Abate can run fast cause the rest of our defence & midfield can't.

Smithwicks Man

GTR63 wrote: »

As much as I like Balotelli we shoved El Shaarawy out wide as soon as he arrived & bar his HUGE workrate coming back its clearly not his best position.
I'm more nervy now after seeing that team, at least De Sciglio & Abate can run fast cause the rest of our defence & midfield can't.

Boateng will most likely drop from wide right into the space behind the strikers ie. attacking corner of the midfield diamond - which means El Shaarawy should be more central than if Niang were to start.

If everyone steps up we have more than enough quality to win but there's usually 3/4 players who don't. I just hope it's not Montolivo, El Shaarawy or Balotelli

Smithwicks Man

OFFICIAL XI: PSV: Zoet, Brenet, Brouma, Rekik, Willems, Wijnadum, Schaars, Maher, Park, Matavz, Depay

No Bakkali again is a positive. Maher needs to be contained better than last week, he will do damage if he is given the chance.

Confident but nervous at the same time. They've billed the game as "The €50m match" in some places!

GTR63

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

OFFICIAL XI: PSV: Zoet, Brenet, Brouma, Rekik, Willems, Wijnadum, Schaars, Maher, Park, Matavz, Depay

No Bakkali again is a positive. Maher needs to be contained better than last week, he will do damage if he is given the chance.

Confident but nervous at the same time. They've billed the game as "The €50m match" in some places!

We got that much for being in the CL last year but doubt it'd be that much this year with 2 Italian teams already in it. I think it was just us + Juve last year. How I wish we'd spend half of it but we're too cheap.

Smithwicks Man

GTR63 wrote: »

We got that much for being in the CL last year but doubt it'd be that much this year with 2 Italian teams already in it. I think it was just us + Juve last year. How I wish we'd spend half of it but we're too cheap.

Yeah we wouldn't get as much if we got knocked out in the last 16 but we could potentially get more if we performed better than last season in the group and afterwards.

Eriksen + Sakho would be nice but Eriksen has been given permission to talk to Spurs this evening. Rumoured fee of €12m which is a steal

GTR63

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Yeah we wouldn't get as much if we got knocked out in the last 16 but we could potentially get more if we performed better than last season in the group and afterwards.

Eriksen + Sakho would be nice but Eriksen has been given permission to talk to Spurs this evening. Rumoured fee of €12m which is a steal

It'd make me sick if we didn't have a look at one of them if not both. But whoever is in charge of our transfer dealing is looking in the bargain bin priced 4m and under.
Getting nervy now.

Renn

Seaneh wrote: »

RTE 2 are hardly showing the celtic match are they?

Going to watch the Milan - PSV game myself, but it's a no brainer that they would be showing the Celtic game.

Smithwicks Man

GTR63 wrote: »

It'd make me sick if we didn't have a look at one of them if not both. But whoever is in charge of our transfer dealing is looking in the bargain bin priced 4m and under.
Getting nervy now.

Exactly!!

Here we go

GTR63

Slightly less nervy now but we aren't pressing them at all

GTR63

Zapata such a Udinese player, hopeless until March then shows ability.

Smithwicks Man

Happy enough with that half. Balotelli is playing very well and showing all his good qualities, very much a confidence player.

El Shaarawy is also playing well and looks a threat. Good goal from Boateng but he's offered little since then. Montolivo and De Jong are controlling the midfield well enough but I feel they fall too deep when they come forward from the defence. Abbiati has had a few saves to make and has made them without any fuss. De Sciglio was playing very well too but lost concentration the last 10 mins.

We need to push on a little bit more in the second half because if it goes to 1-1 we could be in trouble and they would thrive on the confidence boost of an equalizer.

Pinturicchio

Hope ye sign him!

Seaneh

Good performance, great result.

Smithwicks Man

God we better not sign Matri!

Fantastic result and some really great performances. Balotelli was excellent tonight. De Sciglio had a great game too. The midfield were solid and El Shaarawy and Boateng did a great job.

Very happy and I look forward to the expected signing or 2 in the next few days!

GTR63

Thank god for that. No please can we have a good signing

Seaneh

Late bid for Astori please.

GTR63

http://www.football-italia.net/38899/galliani-allegri-was-joking

Allegri made a joke about resigning & then "requested a striker".

The last paragraph of the article is interesting.
The fans protested against this strategy, as there were several banners in the stands at San Siro referencing the moves.
‘Matri, no thank you,’ read one. Another called for new defenders and midfielders rather than strikers.

GTR63 says Non più foraggio.

No more fodder

GTR63

http://www.football-italia.net/38908/matri-hours-away-milan

If this goes through it`ll be comfortably our worst signing since Ricardo Oliveira, we`re increasing his wages too. :eek:

Moneymaker

Matri....

What on earth are they thinking?

Nonsensical signing. Juve must be rolling around laughing, can't believe their luck.

GTR63

Moneymaker wrote: »

Matri....

What on earth are they thinking?

Nonsensical signing. Juve must be rolling around laughing, can't believe their luck.

We`re paying more for him than Juve paid for Tevez. Okay the wages are much different but the last absolute thing we need now is a striker. Did the club not see our defence or paceless midfield in the first two games. You could get a very good Midfielder or Defender for that (€12m) cause on their current form the likes of Muntari, Zapata or Mexes & others aren`t gong to win you much tbh.
Now I am really dreading the CL draw later.

Smithwicks Man

Matri is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst signing we could have made. Worse than signing a player that is past it who would have the experience to mentor the younger lads, worse than signing a young prospect who could go on to be good and worse than signing nobody and keeping the wage bill low.

Hope the ultras put a stop to this, I mean how clueless can the management get

Moneymaker

It's baffling really, the likes of Eriksen, Kondogbia available for what I consider reasonable sums and Milan seem totally oblivious to them.

Maddening.

Smithwicks Man

Hopefully just a smokescreen but I doubt it.

Apparently Petagna is furious as it's a real "f**k you" to him and he posted something anti-Matri on his twitter before deleting it soon after?

Amirani

I don't dislike Matri as much as some on here. The money being paid is ridiculous though, he's not worth that.