Summer mercato 2012

[ACMILAN1983]

Allegri made it easy for management to decide not to keep Pirlo, as easy as that, I don't know if it's 'blame' or not but it certainly a big nudge or push out. Something I don't agree about though is the general attitude about Pippo. Of course he is old, but we use that word too much for him and less for others who are only not that much younger and have stayed with us without playing all that well either.

Reza, I think it's a good idea to go through the list of ageing players on our squad and see what their place is on the squad.

Roma: 3rd choice keeper with little to no responsibility other than making up numbers. To be honest, no point in replacing him.

Yepes: Performed well last season but no longer really has a place in the squad

Seedorf: Has the odd good performance and that's pretty much all he offers now

Abbiati: Probably the only mid to late 30s player who still performs at consistently high levels. However, 34 for a keeper isn't exactly old

Nesta: Has shown signs of age more than ever this season, but still able to produce the odd high level performance

Gattuso: An unknown quantity, he did well last season but hasn't featured this
Zambrotta: His performances have dropped significantly and really shouldn't be in our squad anymore

Ambrosini: Has the odd good performance, but physically struggles to keep up these days

Van Bommel: Offers more consistency than Ambrosini, but again is a player who many will argue needs replacing this summer

Inzaghi: Lacks the acceleration he previously had and hasn't ever been a player to rely on technique. That leaves him relying solely on his positioning these days.

I think it's fair to say the most valuable players on that list right now are Abbiati, Nesta, Ambro and MvB. Of these, I think the only player that people would want to see regularly starting next season is Abbiati, who has a couple of years left in him. The other 3 might be accepted as squad players given they can still contribute on the odd day, but again they won't have long left before they need replacing.

The rest are essentially in the same boat as Inzaghi. They're ageing (or old) players who are no longer competing at the level required at Milan and therefore they need to be replaced.

It's not just Inzaghi that faces this problem as you can see, I just think he gets spoken about more than the others as Allegri's often criticised for not using him or including him for CL. This argument is based on his history and reputation in the CL, but looking at him now and it's often a sad and frustrating sight.