AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[The MAN]

We will easily get more than that, easily, as long as there are suckers like Man City and PSG, life will be good

If we wait a couple more years his value will decline tho, I think this summer is high time to do it. It's interesting that even Galliani today failed to give unconditional backing to him....right now, the only thing that might tie him to Milan for the forseeable future is Silvio and the fact his daughter is being banged by Pato, we'll just have to wait for the inevitable breakup I guess

I hear 50 million being offered by PSG, probably BS, but I think we can get 30-40 million from these suckers, get Tevez and some quality midfielders and a LB, and we'll be good to go for CL 2013...this year we're probably going to 1/4 Final or maybe 1/2 Final if we get a good draw, still a step up from recent years, but next year might well be our year

[vtec]

you guys are shitting yourselves if you think that teves is a harder working player - at least in any useful sense. he will do a bunch of useless crap before losing the ball because of refusing to pass and then running back and get booked for rashly challenging to get the ball back. the guy has never understood anything any coach has ever told him.

[forzaitalia]

I like Pato, although I see what you're saying about him, but what if Tevez starts kicking off again? He has done at Man United and Man City when something hasn't gone his way.

Better to have an inconsistent Pato than a trouble making Tevez.

If Tevez keeps his mouth shut, then yeah, you've got a great deal. Big if though, given his recent record.

[San Paolo]

RE Tevez he also has history in Argentina for causing trouble, i believe in the River vs Boca derby he refused to come on because the match was too physical and heated for him.

[RomaShield27]

Ibrahimovic excited by Tevez deal
/ ESPNsoccernet staff / January 2, 2012

Zlatan Ibrahimovic says rebel Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez will provide AC Milan with an "extra weapon" if he completes his proposed switch to the San Siro. Although officials from both clubs have met to discuss the January transfer it is far from complete, with Milan keen on an initial loan deal while City insist they will only consider a permanent move.

But with AWOL Tevez eager to quit Eastlands and Milan desperately seeking a replacement for Antonio Cassano, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2011-12 campaign after undergoing heart surgery, both parties are eager to push through a deal.

And Milan striker Ibrahimovic would be happy to see Tevez join the Rossoneri. "For me, Tevez is a great player. I don't know how the situation is and if he's coming, if he's not coming. But he's a great player and if he comes for sure he will do a great job for us," said Ibrahimovic.

"It would be an extra weapon for us. Everybody knows what kind of a player Tevez is. He's a fantastic player and he will bring extra quality to the team." The Italian Serie A season resumes after the winter break on January 8.

[p_maldini_3]

tec is right about tevez, he is one of the dumbest players in the business, but i think he would still offer morebthan potato.

apparently roma gave ddr an ultimatum to sign by january, i really hope we sign that mofo. he deserves a team like milan.

[RomaShield27]

[San Paolo]

Ezequiel Schelotto has warned Milan to expect a battle when they take on Atalanta this weekend.

The Rossoneri will look to maintain their League leadership, which they currently share with Juventus, when Serie A resumes.

However, Atalanta ace Schelotto has told the Gazzetta dello Sport that his side won’t make it easy for their opponents.

“Milan are training in Dubai, we’re at our usual base in Zingonia, but on Sunday the game is in Bergamo,” he noted.

“And those 90 minutes will be a battle.

“The Rossoneri will be favourites, but they shouldn’t take the game for granted as we are afraid of nobody.”

Atalanta are unbeaten at home this term with four wins and four draws, but Schelotto knows that Milan have a real threat in attack.

“It’ll be better for us if Zlatan Ibrahimovic doesn’t play,” the Argentine-born former Italian Under-21 international added.

“He is someone who can make the difference. Let’s hope that he’s not on form.”

[RomaShield27]

Milan-PSG line-ups
Wednesday January 4 2012 / http://www.football-italia.net/node/14302?

Gennaro Gattuso starts from the bench for Milan as the official line-ups for their friendly with Paris Saint-Germain are confirmed. Gattuso yesterday confirmed that he is set to make a comeback during Wednesday’s friendly, whilst Massimiliano Allegri admitted he is keen to give the No 8 at least a 45-minute run-out.

That is set to come from the bench, though, as Allegri names Alberto Aquilani, Mark van Bommel and Antonio Nocerino as the starting midfield in Dubai. After his outburst in late December, Alexandre Pato gets an opportunity to prove himself on the pitch as he starts alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho in attack.

The Rossoneri face former Coach Carlo Ancelotti for his debut as PSG Coach in this afternoon’s friendly. The match kicks off at 15.30 UK time.

Milan: Amelia; De Sciglio, Mexes, Thiago Silva, Taiwo; Aquilani, Van Bommel, Nocerino; Robinho; Pato, Ibrahimovic

PSG: Sirigu; Ceara, Bisevac, Sakho, Tiene; Jallet, Bodmer, Sissoko, Nene; Pastore; Hoarau

[The MAN]

Tevez turned down PSG, he turned down Inter, he will take a significant paycut if/when he joins Milan, for me this a great signal about his motives for the move and why he wants to join us. He did have a problem with that clown Mancini but I don't recall him ever having such problems in Man U, West Ham but I don't follow the premiershit too closely so I could've missed something but I don't see him as somoebody with attitude issues...his previous moves were about the money but not this one. I hope we can seal the deal, because he will be a great addition to help us in Serie A this year and, more importantly, our CL assault next season, I think Milan is building a side to win it in 2013, hopefully selling Pato over the summer would finance our other key pieces additions for that goal

[RomaShield27]

Cover of todays Gazzetta:

[San Paolo]

a nice picture there of Tevez but City are playing hard ball and i hope Galliani sticks with it rather than throwing the proverbial towel in on the deal.

[p_maldini_3]

citeh have no leverage in the matter. as long as we make a reasonable offer, they'll have to take it. and look at those bitches at inter milan trying to steal the deal at the last minute, what fuckfaces they are. they have no originality in anything, they're always peeking at what we are upto and they try to replicate it.

[San Paolo]

to be honest they should have learnt their lesson on the Suazo fiasco.

[San Paolo]

a report here says that Tevez has signed a deal for 5 mil a year for 3 years

http://www.europeo2012.it/calciomercato ... -anni-4510

[San Paolo]

i only managed to see the first half but the penalty was a fair call, the Atalanta player just ploughed straight through the back of Pato. i had to leave for work at HT so haven't see the goal from Bang bang Boateng. Atalanta though did seem a threat from set pieces and with a little more adventure or luck could have scored one of their own to make things much more interesting. overall though a good solid 3 points before the Derby next weekend!

[maro]

Has Mexes been playing for you punks of late? I see La Gazzetta claims he has had six appearances this season, but I wonder how many of them have been starts and how many bit-parts.

[p_maldini_3]

he's started the last 2 or 3 league games for us, and he's been pretty solid and has made no mistakes. he's pretty good on the ball too. although i'm pretty sure that nesta will get the start ahead of him in the derby. regardless, i hope his form continues.

[RomaShield27]

/ January 10, 2012, 10:29 AM ET / By James Horncastle

On accompanying Kaka and a Milan delegation to collect the Ballon d'Or in December 2007, Leonardo promised reporters that he would be back next time with Alexandre Pato, the teenage striker he had helped the club sign from Internacional for 19.4 million pounds.

Four years later he might still get that pleasure, if reports are to be believed that the modish director -- now in charge of recruitment at the big-spending, Qatari-backed Paris Saint-Germain -- would like to lure his former protege away from San Siro to the Parc des Princes.

Pato's future at Milan has come under scrutiny ever since he gave a pair of prickly interviews to Corriere della Sera and Corriere dello Sport on Dec. 27 in which he expressed his disillusionment at the way coach Massimiliano Allegri has treated him in contrast to one of his predecessors, Carlo Ancelotti.

"Carlo talked to me. He told me what to do on the pitch," Pato said. "If I must improve, [Allegri] should suggest how. Every now and again he gives me explanations, but a coach should suggest to his players the way they can correct their mistakes."

It was a bolt from the blue, as Pato, after the breakup of his first marriage, has usually been quite guarded in the media, but also because in October 2010, he had painted quite a different picture of Allegri to La Gazzetta dello Sport. "He is a coach who motivates you because he talks a lot and with everyone," he said.

So the question is: What has happened to change that opinion? Why has the relationship deteriorated? How can a player who has already scored 51 goals in 111 Serie A appearances and found the back of the net at the Bernabeu and Camp Nou in the Champions League at the age of just 22 seriously risk no longer figuring in Milan's long-term plans?

Cracks first began to appear on Nov. 27, when Pato was overlooked for the captain's armband before a home match against Chievo. It's a long-held tradition at Milan to give it to the most senior player, which is determined not by age but by how many games one has played for the club.

With veterans like Massimo Ambrosini, Rino Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi and Christian Abbiati all out injured, Pato was the next in line to receive it. However, Allegri instead chose to hand it to Thiago Silva.

Snubbed, Pato added it to a list of grievances, which apparently includes being on the bench too often for his liking. Although he generally boasts a better minutes-per-goal ratio than his wasteful teammate Robinho, it's his fellow Brazilian who gets the nod to start alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front.

As a partnership, there's no denying they have better chemistry, partly because, with Pato's injury troubles, they have spent more time playing together and have developed a real understanding. "Off the pitch I'm not very close to [Ibra]," Pato admitted. "I know that he has kids and a beautiful family."

That feeling of aloofness comes from missing 47 games in the past two years after suffering 11 injuries. Muscle strains and tears have often seen Pato train on his own away from the group, either at Milanello or sometimes with an orthopedic specialist at Duke University in the United States.

With such a record it's entirely understandable that Allegri has, to an extent, come to rely on others. Opta figures show that although Milan's win percentage is down from 57 to 53 when Pato isn't playing, it's also up from 55 to 56 when he isn't starting.

That might appear marginal, but it does go some way toward justifying Allegri's strategy of keeping Pato on the bench and then using him as an explosive impact substitute as he has done in four of the player's 10 appearances for the club this season.

For someone with so much latent potential, Pato is a great tease. He has repeatedly threatened to but never really gone on to make the center forward role his own at Milan.

In Ancelotti's last season, Pippo Inzaghi had a better minutes-per-goal ratio in Serie A (121 to 149). So, too, did Marco Borriello in Leonardo's only season in charge (181 to 182), although at the time Pato was used out wide on the right. Then, under Allegri last season -- as Pato, Robinho and Ibrahimovic all scored 14 goals -- the former finally had the best minutes-to-goal ratio, but no one would dispute that the latter weighed more heavily in Milan winning their first Scudetto since 2004.

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Allowances must be made for Pato's age and development as a player. Yet as strange as it sounds, there is a sense that he has not entirely lived up to the expectation that came after that ever-so-bold assertion made by Leonardo at the 2007 Ballon d'Or gala. Ironically, one of the football men to have made that case is Ancelotti, the coach whom the player still regards as a father figure.

Working as a Sky Italia pundit before taking the job at PSG, he surprisingly picked his former student up on the matter during a postmatch interview after Milan's 2-2 draw against Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League on Dec. 6.

"From the very first time I saw you I thought that a goal a game for someone like you wasn't enough," Ancelotti said. "Once again, you could have scored three. At times it's like you play with sufficienza." What he meant was that Pato only does what's required, nothing more. "You're right, mister," the player replied deferentially.

"If we expect something more from Pato, it's because he's capable of that something more than other players," Gattuso said. Those are the words of support from a dressing room that Il Corriere della Sera claimed was a bit embarrassed by Pato's relationship with the club owner's daughter, Barbara Berlusconi, and the circus that it has created.

"Something of this nature has never been seen before," one insider told the paper. Even though Pato's teammates don't see him as a "mole," there have been suggestions that they aren't completely OK with the idea that what goes on at the training ground or in the dressing room might be the subject of their pillow talk.

Still, Barbara insists she has no influence over Pato's future and that any decision would be made in the club's best interests. "All players are sellable," she said, and she's right. While it's often with a heavy heart, Milan have in recent memory been prepared to part with their best-loved players, from Andriy Shevchenko, who moved to Chelsea in 2006, to Kaka, who joined Real Madrid in 2009.

Both went into unexpected declines shortly afterward, leaving Milan with a handsome profit and a sense of vindication. The fear with Pato however is that, as a player still only in his early 20s, he is yet to reach anywhere near his peak and that the club might come to regret selling him in the near future, even for a figure in excess of 50 million euros.

"I haven't received any kind of signal either from Pato saying that he wants to leave or Leonardo saying that he wants to sign him," club CEO Adriano Galliani said. "As far as I'm concerned he is absolutely staying with us." That sentiment has been echoed by Allegri, the player, and Ancelotti too.

Speaking after a friendly between Milan and PSG in Dubai last week, in which Pato scored the only goal, Ancelotti told reporters: "Pato is a Milan player. He has a contract so we're not interested in him."

To clarify, Pato is tied down to Milan until 2014. Whether he'll still be at the club then remains to be seen. The shadow of Carlos Tevez looms large over this transfer window, and although his proposed arrival wouldn't necessarily herald Pato's exit, it would perhaps lead him to seek further assurances ahead of the World Cup in two-and-a-half years' time.

On Sunday, Pato started against Atalanta. He hit the woodwork and won a penalty that Ibrahimovic converted to break the deadlock in a 2-0 victory that kept Milan at the top of the table. Allegri, however, hauled him off after 67 minutes. This morning's La Gazzetta dello Sport remarked on the absence of a high-five or a pat on the back to say "well done."

There's a temptation to read too much into it, and Allegri, when drawn on the subject in his postmatch press conference, said: "I was consumed by the game. There isn't any problem also because I am very happy with Pato's performance. … I decided to take him off because we needed someone fresher."

While Serie A's winter break may be over and the Derby della Madonnina against Inter is approaching on the horizon, the sensation remains that all is not right and Pato, with only one goal in Serie A this season, is a striker yet to come in from the cold.

[San Paolo]

i still think selling Pato would be a big mistake, people keep saying Tevez coming would replace Pato but what about if Pippo goes and El Shaarawy goes on loan? that would put us down to Ibra, Pato and Binho for the CL and just the 4 for Serie A, now i know we can only play 2 at a time but if one gets injured 3 strikers is not much really.