(05-14-2014, 02:36 PM)Mystik Wrote: Is he currently one of our Allevi players? I think we have 1 or 2 in the Italy U-17 team
Yep, from what I know Brocchi's got a really talented group in the Allievi level this season. I think I also read he's been in our youth set up for four years now.
(05-14-2014, 03:40 PM)xudong Wrote: What was the Giuseppe Rossi situation, Dev?
Rossi was part of the Parma youth set up when he was 12, but before he was signed up contractually, United came in and effectively "stole" him under Parma's noses. There was quite an uproar about it I remember.
(05-14-2014, 04:06 PM)Nalx Wrote: I've read that in our various youth teams, the current Allievi team is the most promising one with prospects like Mastour, Cutrone, Modic being the stand-out players. Never heard about that Ferarra kid though and I have no idea why we promoted him and Hachim to the first team so soon either.
I'm not sure La Ferrara has been promoted to the senior squad, just that he's got a professional contract now. It could be he'll just be part of the Primavera next season.
Thanks, Dev. That does ring a bell now. I think United also stole a young attacker from Lazio. Can't think of his name right now. Scored two critical winning goals in probably only two matches (?) and helped United win the EPL that year.
It is because of the legal ages of signing professional contracts are different in Italy and UK, I think.
05-15-2014, 03:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-15-2014, 06:28 AM by Aficio.)
(05-15-2014, 12:21 AM)xudong Wrote: Thanks, Dev. That does ring a bell now. I think United also stole a young attacker from Lazio. Can't think of his name right now. Scored two critical winning goals in probably only two matches (?) and helped United win the EPL that year.
It is because of the legal ages of signing professional contracts are different in Italy and UK, I think.
Federico Macheda?
He has been struggling since that season. Maybe he is MU's Paloschi.
yes, that's him. thanks, Aficio. 
@ Dev: You're right, I mixed them up.
(05-15-2014, 03:23 AM)Aficio Wrote: Federico Macheda?
He has been struggling since that season. Maybe he is MU's Paloschi.
At least Paloschi is steadily growing in importance for his clubs and now is playing on top level. Macheda sadly seems to move to smaller clubs in lower league with every move.
per l'amaro e il dolce
Seeing Paloschi and Darmian (who is now in the final shortlist for the WC squad) grow as they have is disheartening. I think the club needs to show guys like this patience, as to rebuild in the future and have money to spend on better players we need a significant portion of the squad to be developed in house, even if they're not going to be starters.
I'd say our goal in the next 3-5 years should be to aim for around 1/3 of our squad to be players we've developed. If we're talking about a 25 man squad, that's around 8-9 players. This might seem like a high number, but it's not impossible, as even now we have quite a few Milan youth products in the squad (Abate, Mastour, De Sciglio, Cristante and Petagna).
(05-15-2014, 09:40 AM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: Seeing Paloschi and Darmian (who is now in the final shortlist for the WC squad) grow as they have is disheartening. I think the club needs to show guys like this patience, as to rebuild in the future and have money to spend on better players we need a significant portion of the squad to be developed in house, even if they're not going to be starters.
I'd say our goal in the next 3-5 years should be to aim for around 1/3 of our squad to be players we've developed. If we're talking about a 25 man squad, that's around 8-9 players. This might seem like a high number, but it's not impossible, as even now we have quite a few Milan youth products in the squad (Abate, Mastour, De Sciglio, Cristante and Petagna).
amen to that. 
These days the management show none of it unfortunately.
Anyway, for those interested, these are the youtube videos of Cosimo La Ferrara (looks like a family member posted them?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDLriFTfo_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nikVpQ9NM&hd=1
The videos show that he defiitely has talent and is one to keep an eye out for in the future. Excellent dribbling skills I must say..without the need to be too flashy about it either. Still some years till these boys make it to the U21 level where we can further judge their progress
Siamo a posto cosi.
05-18-2014, 11:20 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-18-2014, 11:20 AM by ACMILAN1983.)
Yeah I was pretty impressed too. He plays with quite a bit of maturity for such a young guy, actually I'd say even more than Mastour from the little I've seen of the two, albeit Mastour seems technically more gifted.
Truth is if it was up to me, the club would be banking on these guys to play significant roles in the future and therefore doing anything and everything in its power to protect them and help them mature properly. I genuinely believe that if we do things right, we've got the spine for our future already in place, we just need patience (there's that word again) to help cultivate the growth. In defence we have De Sciglio, currently a starter at both club and national level and widely expected to become a world class defender in the not too distant future, as well as Milan's captain. In midfield we have Cristante, a young and technically highly gifted regista, one who is known for his leadership skills, mental strength and personality. Then there's Mastour, who is obviously too young to know what he can become in the future, but has the technical quality to reach the greatest levels. Finally, in attack, we have El Shaarawy, who isn't from our youth system but made the biggest jump in his career at Milan, a player who's already shown to be very capable at the highest level and is a very hard worker.
If you ask me, that's a pretty good spine to be developing for the future. Obviously, at the moment it can't be said they're ready, all of them are very young and therefore we need to let them grow in peace and with confidence. However, I see them as the most valuable assets/players the club currently has and therefore they need to be taken care of more, never mind the fact that at their age they're more vulnerable.
To do this, I'd say we need to have a transitional phase where we get senior players within our means, but most importantly their value comes in the mental capacity. For example, I've already mentioned I've been impressed from what I've seen of Rami so far in terms of attitude and I think keeping him would benefit De Sciglio to grow in peace, as he'll take a lot of responsibility on himself. Likewise, Montolivo and Honda have been going through tough times this year, but at the same time I do value their professionalism and seriousness. This would surely help to an extent the growth of Cristante and Mastour. El Shaarawy's probably the one the least in need of any real "mentoring" as he's already shown so much, but he needs the continuity, confidence and trust of our coach (whether it's Seedorf or whoever). Point is, we need people who can positively influence the growth of these youngsters. I could have mentioned other talents, like Taarabt who is valuable to our current side than Honda, but I'm looking at the human qualities more than technical. This means we have guys in their mid-late 20s taking responsibility to help the younger players grow, but just as important taking responsibility for our current goals as a club.
As we go on, we need to continue to introduce and use our youth products into the squad. As I mentioned before, I think in the next 3-5 years we should be aiming at around 8-10 home grown players in the squad. This not only cultivates the culture within the club (as we have a hand in developing the youth players, we can develop the culture) and is a more sustainable method of developing consistent levels of quality in the group, but it's also lower risk and less costly, meaning when we do need to buy players, we can focus on a better quality of players who meet our needs, rather than our current strategy of getting anyone and everyone who is available at the lowest cost.
I've mentioned a 3 to 5 year plan a lot recently, but for some important reasons. The players I wrote about above for the spine will be ready to mature and take responsibility from the current senior players, as well as possibly reaching their peak around this time. However, it also then falls in line with our current projects as a club when you look at things holistically. For example, the goals and objectives which Barbara has been talking about, symbolised particularly by the new stadium plans are all planned to be ready for this period. Therefore, I think as a club we need to work towards similar timescales for both the business and sporting aspects, as delays or failures in one will directly heavily and negatively impact the other (i.e. a well run business is no good if we have a mediocre team and likewise, a good team can never grow without sufficient support from the business).
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