11-07-2015, 01:37 PM
Arsenal have been linked to Rugani, while Napoli appear favourites as he'd get to link up with Sarri again. I doubt Juve would sell him to us if I'm honest. On wanting him, the part of me that wants to dream really would love him, as you said nefremo, he and Romagnoli look to likely partnership in the future for the Azzurri. I've bought him in PES2016 and really love playing with him and Romagnoli.
However, the more pragmatic and realistic side of me also feels we need to be really careful. We could spend big on him to partner him alongside Romagnoli, only to have it backfire because they need someone more experienced alongside them. Alex has really stepped up recently and we can see how it's benefiting Romagnoli to have someone experienced and reliable alongside him, it really takes a lot of pressure off his shoulders. Note that in preseason it was the same story for Ely, when he was most comfortable was when he was alongside Alex who was doing well at the time.
Yet when we had the two youngsters playing alongside each other, things got much less comfortable as they struggled to cope with the pressure and felt the weight of expectation. Not to say any experienced defender will help, Zapata didn't particularly inspire confidence when in the lineup and it clearly affected Romagnoli.
Rugani's a good defender, but he's only got one year of experience at the top level, similar to Romagnoli. As good as they are, it's really hard to put the responsibility on them to handle the pressures of leading the backline at Milan.
The other aspect of this is I think we shouldn't lose focus on Ely. It wasn't long ago he was considered the future for the Milan backline and I think it would be a big mistake to just give up on him as he's struggled when playing this season. It's important to bear in mind that Ely's games this year have been against Fiorentina and Napoli, frankly two of the worst teams he could have hoped to have been put in against, both have been excellent this year and were playing in a way that is seriously damaging to us. I doubt Miha's forgotten about him, but I think he probably understands that throwing him in those high pressure games wasn't the best idea. I'd like to see us start again a little with Ely, give him time against "smaller" opponents first to get used to top flight football (I've mentioned before, it's his first season in Serie A and his first season with the Milan senior side) and build confidence at this level. I'd like to see us take a year or two getting him set for the first team and ready to partner Romagnoli, he's barely just turned 21, there's really no rush.
We also have Ivan De Santis coming from the youth set up, another who's always been touted for big things
However, the more pragmatic and realistic side of me also feels we need to be really careful. We could spend big on him to partner him alongside Romagnoli, only to have it backfire because they need someone more experienced alongside them. Alex has really stepped up recently and we can see how it's benefiting Romagnoli to have someone experienced and reliable alongside him, it really takes a lot of pressure off his shoulders. Note that in preseason it was the same story for Ely, when he was most comfortable was when he was alongside Alex who was doing well at the time.
Yet when we had the two youngsters playing alongside each other, things got much less comfortable as they struggled to cope with the pressure and felt the weight of expectation. Not to say any experienced defender will help, Zapata didn't particularly inspire confidence when in the lineup and it clearly affected Romagnoli.
Rugani's a good defender, but he's only got one year of experience at the top level, similar to Romagnoli. As good as they are, it's really hard to put the responsibility on them to handle the pressures of leading the backline at Milan.
The other aspect of this is I think we shouldn't lose focus on Ely. It wasn't long ago he was considered the future for the Milan backline and I think it would be a big mistake to just give up on him as he's struggled when playing this season. It's important to bear in mind that Ely's games this year have been against Fiorentina and Napoli, frankly two of the worst teams he could have hoped to have been put in against, both have been excellent this year and were playing in a way that is seriously damaging to us. I doubt Miha's forgotten about him, but I think he probably understands that throwing him in those high pressure games wasn't the best idea. I'd like to see us start again a little with Ely, give him time against "smaller" opponents first to get used to top flight football (I've mentioned before, it's his first season in Serie A and his first season with the Milan senior side) and build confidence at this level. I'd like to see us take a year or two getting him set for the first team and ready to partner Romagnoli, he's barely just turned 21, there's really no rush.
We also have Ivan De Santis coming from the youth set up, another who's always been touted for big things