My take on your three questions:
1) I think we do, and Valoti seems a valid option. Of course the issue with the primavera player is often not the skill/technique, but experience and mentality. In Italy, a common problem is lack of trust from the coach, and the reason for that is the pressure on coach for short-term results at the cost of long-term development. When young players don't play, they don't get experience; when they don't get play enough and whenever they get they are under pressure too for some immediate impact to impress the coach, they don't play well; vicious cycle ensues. Also, when they don't get to play big games, they won't benefit as much. Seedorf is Seedorf because he started playing big games as a teen. Not saying that everyone will turn into Seedorf as long as they play big games; but certainly, that won't happen if they don't get to play big games. Our own Paloschi actually could not have had a better start. He scored 18 seconds into his debut, he scored 4 goals in the few games he played that season in Serie A and Coppa Italia, but still didn't get enough trust in return. None of the above I said is news in Italy, but unfortunately, no coach seems to have the balls to change that.
2) I don't even know if we will buy Mbiwa or Astori, let alone with good money. If I have to guess, I would say "no" since Berlusconi never seems so intrigued by defenders. Even for Silva, the price was only 10 million that we paid. If he was Ronaldinho or another "fancy" striker, then maybe yes.
3) I don't know about that either. It depends. If we aim for a bench player, I feel that the age is not issue (in that case, I am afraid that Berbatov is still "too expensive" - close to 10M euro transfer fee, and probably no less than 3M in salary; I would go for cheap Italian oldies like Di Natale - a crazy choice, I know - or Caracciolo). If we aim for a starter, then we should keep the age down (in that case, even Tevez is too old for me) so that in one or two years we could sell Pato for money when he finally starts to shine.
1) I think we do, and Valoti seems a valid option. Of course the issue with the primavera player is often not the skill/technique, but experience and mentality. In Italy, a common problem is lack of trust from the coach, and the reason for that is the pressure on coach for short-term results at the cost of long-term development. When young players don't play, they don't get experience; when they don't get play enough and whenever they get they are under pressure too for some immediate impact to impress the coach, they don't play well; vicious cycle ensues. Also, when they don't get to play big games, they won't benefit as much. Seedorf is Seedorf because he started playing big games as a teen. Not saying that everyone will turn into Seedorf as long as they play big games; but certainly, that won't happen if they don't get to play big games. Our own Paloschi actually could not have had a better start. He scored 18 seconds into his debut, he scored 4 goals in the few games he played that season in Serie A and Coppa Italia, but still didn't get enough trust in return. None of the above I said is news in Italy, but unfortunately, no coach seems to have the balls to change that.
2) I don't even know if we will buy Mbiwa or Astori, let alone with good money. If I have to guess, I would say "no" since Berlusconi never seems so intrigued by defenders. Even for Silva, the price was only 10 million that we paid. If he was Ronaldinho or another "fancy" striker, then maybe yes.
3) I don't know about that either. It depends. If we aim for a bench player, I feel that the age is not issue (in that case, I am afraid that Berbatov is still "too expensive" - close to 10M euro transfer fee, and probably no less than 3M in salary; I would go for cheap Italian oldies like Di Natale - a crazy choice, I know - or Caracciolo). If we aim for a starter, then we should keep the age down (in that case, even Tevez is too old for me) so that in one or two years we could sell Pato for money when he finally starts to shine.
aka xudong