Summer mercato 2012

[GeoTav]

I too am all for that Geo, and I believe that we are already taking steps in that direction somewhat. But the mentality in Italy is too different from that in Spain. We had perfectly good talents like Merkel, Paloschi, Darmian all shipped out when they were on the fringes of our first team, and ended up losing them completely. They learn our system, they learn to love our shirt, and then we ship them off to the highest bidder for "instant" impact players. It's not working, and I don't see how its going to change either.

Management seem to be at two minds in following their own plans.
We aren't really investing much in youth players, and with this current fiasco of a transfer, we aren't looking at impact players anymore either.

I'm really confused as to what Fester and Berlu hope to achieve for the club, other than to "save 170 Million". If we actually had a sound plan, and a modus operandi to follow through, I wouldn't be so angry or negative. I can wait 5 or 7 years if thats what is necessary to make us into a self-sustaining success of a club again, but currently I don't see us going anywhere, nowhere at all, except down for the long term.

Our current business model of "Hope your cheap players have a breakout year, and sell them off to the highest bidder" is not going to work. I think everyone knows that much at least.

Well, that had worked for years ... But that was our plan A when there was no crisis and we had enough money to spend. The problem is that there was no plan B "just in case" ...

I was optimistic when I read more and more youth players being bought, our Primavera starting to win, and as a consequence, new players interesting other clubs but wanting to stay in Milan. The main problem is Milan accepted the offers and sent them all in other clubs and keeps doing that (in this mercato, half of our last Primavera is going to be sent on loan or co-ownership for sure). That means we develop our youth ranks, not to build our first team in long term, but to get easy money in few years. That's the sad part actually.

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As I said before, Ibra's demands might stop the deal from going through. He wants to make at least 12 mln over 4 years, while PSG reportedly offering only 9 mln. Of course though that might not stop the T.Silva part from going through, but it is also true we might only be willing to sell Silva if we can get rid of Ibra's super wages.

I'm already prepared for the worst, that is both of them leaving and us investing on Destro and Astori/Ogbonna as replacements at best. But I'll wait to see what is done with the money and understand what direction this club is going in. I might be wrong and overly pessimistic you know.

It is reported Ibra wants 14M on a 3 year contrat, PSG offers 9M on a 4 year contract. He'll sign for sure, Raiola just tries to negotiate at maximum and said such a thin to put pressure on Leonardo (Raiola knows how to use medias to get what he wants, he did it with Barcelona when Ibra wanted to leave). PSG are going to offer what Ibra wants because they (especially Leonardo) can't fail again.