AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[The MAN]

OFFICIAL AC MILAN ANNOUNCEMENT

MILAN - Andrea Pirlo, accompanied by Doctor Maurizio Gevi, went for a test on his injury which revealed a muscle strain to his right thigh. The midfielder is set to be sidelined for around a month but will join up with the squad for warm-weather training in Dubai



Only silver lining there is that the holidays will eat up a good chunk of his rehab period.

[The MAN]

To the Romanisti...what's the deal with Mexes, is his deal expiring this summer? I gather that Milan officials discussed his status with Roma last night...are Roma keeping him or what?

[maro]

Who knows? He's been our best defender this season. It'd be insane for us to let him go - which, presumably, means we will. Ranieri doesn't really rate him, it seems, but Mexes is certainly giving him no little cause to reconsider. I think all of us hope he ends up signing an extension, but it's certainly not a done deal.

[The MAN]

I know you guys like Boriello and all, but I've also read on several occasions these past few months that part of the deal to give Boriello 'on a discount' Roma on the last minute of the transfer window was some sort of preferential option on Mexes...don't shoot the messanger, I'm just saying that as it's been popping up frequently lately but it may not be true at all...if his deal expires this summer then Milan or any club can directly negotiate with him for a pre-contract starting January 1st but it looks like Milan want's to keep friendly ties with Roma and go through them.

[maro]

It's possible, for sure. I certainly think there was some verbal agreement to keep Milan in the loop were Mexes to become truly available. He has said he'd prefer to go and play overseas out of loyalty to Roma, but we shall see. I don't actually like Borriello all that much - or, at least, didn't, though he's been very effective for us. I'm just taking issue with sp's reading of Borriello's role in events yesterday and with your (however sincere) complacent and arrogant attitude towards him. He's certainly got a much bigger heart than Ibra or Robinho and he contributes in ways neither of them do. I find it hard to accept that he was central to Milan's failings last season. For me, he's an excellent workmanlike player and Milan had and have a lot of players of exactly that type last season and this. Personally I think there are a lot of ordinary players in this Milan team. Allegri's doing well for you guys but in most other seasons this Milan side would have the same number of points and be comfortably third, say, in the table. That's the sort of level in which a player of Borriello's quality would fit pretty comfortably.

[The MAN]

Boriello's workrate is very good, I've never said otherwise. I just don't see him having the quality and goal-scoring instinct which obviously separates successful striker from average ones..of course my opinion of him is highly subjective, but, seeing him shine for the million clubs we've loaned him out to over the years only to fail at Milan, only supports that. For the record, this has nothing to do with yesterday's game, or his move to Roma. I was saying these very same things even when he was in the Milan team so it's been going on for a few years. I've just had it with him.

[maro]

His goal-scoring instinct is incomparably superior to Ibra's, of course.

[vtec]

[vtec]

[San Paolo]

Antonio Cassano has had a career marred by controversy, however of late he appeared to had settled down and was finding a new maturity at Sampdoria. He was recently married and there is a child on the way, performing well for the club and then a moment of madness appears to have scuppered all of that. A move to Milan now looks very likely, but whether or not this is a good move for both parties is another question.

Riccardo Garrone, Sampdoria chairman, took Cassano to the arbitration courts over a 30 minute outburst in October where the striker allegedly threw countless obscenities at the chairman. Garrone asked the courts to rescind the player’s contract due to the indecent comments made towards him.

This week the case finally reached a conclusion, however the decision was a complete formality. It had been apparent for some time that Cassano would be leaving Sampdoria very soon, one way or another. He had stopped pleading with the Genova club to let play and had even begun to take legal action for damage done to his image and loss of national team status. The courts ruled in favour of Cassano, insisting that the player would be suspended without pay until 1 February and then see out the rest of his contract being paid 50% of his current wage. It seems very likely though that Cassano will not play for Sampdoria again.

Prior to the verdict, and indeed as soon as he was excluded from the squad, the press went wild publishing articles speculating over his next destination. Every owner and manager had been asked in press conferences in interviews whether or not they would be willing to take Cassano on board, and if they were planning to bid for the ‘soon to be homeless’ striker.

Numerous of those asked were very quick to distance themselves from the problematic Cassano. Even managers at clubs who had no chance of seeing Cassano grace them with his presence; Zdenek Zeman at Foggia was very forthright saying that he would “never want him [Cassano] in my squad”.

The front runners to pick up the Bari born striker’s signature were Genoa, Milan and Inter. Cassano had professed his desire to remain in Genova, which would have made the city’s other club a good fit but this move didn’t even get off the ground. It now appears that Milan CEO Adriano Galliani has pushed the right buttons and will be signing the player for ‘free’ until 2014. Galliani hopes to have Cassano at Milan before the turn of the year.

Galliani has pulled some fine deals out of the hat in the last few months and it looks like yesterday evening’s dinner with Cassano’s agent will produce yet another fine acquisition, or will it? There are a number of issues which still need to be cleared up before the transfer can go through.

First of all, it won’t be a free transfer. Even if Riccardo Garrone is prepared to let his star striker go for free as a matter of principle – he may be cutting his nose to spite his face – there is a sell on clause in the contract with Real Madrid. The Spanish side have asked for a fee in the region of €4-5 million euros, though Milan may be able to do a deal and knock the payment off of the instalments Real are paying for Kaka. Milan may even argue that the clause is null and void because the player’s contract was rescinded.

It also looks like this is the end of the road at Milan for one of Pippo Inzaghi or Ronaldinho. This would have almost certainly been Inzaghi’s final season had he not finished his season by injuring himself, it appears that Milan will give him one more season to say his good byes and possibly break Raul’s European goal record. Ronaldinho has been out of favour since Allegri decided on his new system with 3 mediani and 2 strikers. The Brazilian has been very heavily linked with a move to either the MLS or back to Palmeiras in Brazil, but Milan continue to deny that he will be leaving soon.

It is difficult to see where in Allegri’s formation Cassano will be able to slot in seamlessly at the moment. Allegri started the season pandering to the wants of Berlusconi and tried to play a 4-3-3 with Ibrahimovic, Pato and one of Ronaldinho or Robinho. The experiment failed and he has been able to implement a more robust 4-3-1-2 with 3 box-to-box players behind a trequartista providing the energy that Milan had lacked previously. A front 2 of Ibrahimovic and Robinho have been able to take Milan 6 points clear at the top of the table and they look like the strongest contenders for this season’s scudetto.

The most logical place for Cassano to play would be as a direct replacement for Robinho, but the Brazilian is in a fine vein of form and it seems very unlikely that he will start ahead of him. Thus with a change of system out of the picture and a better player ahead of you in the starting line up, it would appear that Antonio will have to make himself happy with a place on the bench. I hope he’s still got his gameboy.

There may be the possibility of a rotation policy allowing the player to get some time on the pitch in Serie A and the Coppa Italia. Cassano is cup-tied for the latter stages of the Champions League owing to the fact that he played in the play off round against Werder Bremen.

Many suspected that his career may have followed a path similar to Roberto Baggio, whom after his glory years at Fiorentina and Juventus signed for the smaller provincial sides of Bologna and Brescia. While it may turn out to be a magic partnership between 2 of the game’s most precotious and ostentatious players, it looks like next time we do see Cassano he’ll be rooted to the bench of the San Siro in mid-January with a blanket over his knees and huddled up close to the grizzly Gennaro Gattuso trying to keep warm. Perhaps Cassano would be happier at a club where he was the star attraction, somewhere where he would inspire the fans to dream rather than a club that has little need for him allowing him to regress into a past where he was the butt of many cake based jokes, and where people spoke more often about the number of women he’d bedded than the goals he’d banged in. I hope I’m wrong.

[maro]

Which bit of it do you disagree with? That Allegri's doing well? I don't know about the points thing - I'd be interested to see how many points the top two teams have had after 17 games over the past three or four seasons. My sense is that as leaders Milan have fewer than normal, but that may be wrong.

[vtec]

i think the league is a bit more balanced this year not just on account of the top teams being weak but because the mid-level teams have quality too

[San Paolo]

Antonio Cassano will pay Real Madrid the €5 million buy-out clause in his Sampdoria contract as he works out a deal to leave Liguria for Milan.

Madrid president Florentino Perez won't be convinced into waiving the clause, and Milan have made it clear they will not be paying for it, and thus Cassano is forcibly showing his hand.

La Gazzetta dello Sport claims the 28-year-old ace is waging a relentless campaign to break free from the struggles at Marassi and move to San Siro. And he will do it by paying the Spanish giants the €5m clause currently stopping him from joining the Rossoneri.

Milan CEO Adriano Galliani said the club would not be put through grand-scale expenses to land the 28-year-old, but did admit dialogue for a transfer has been progressing ever since the Lega's arbitration panel returned its verdict on Doria's rescission case.

Cassano's deal was not terminated, but rather the order was to reinstate him in the Samp squad, and his wages were to be slashed by half.

Agent Giuseppe Bozzo is now ready to step into talks between all three clubs in an attempt to bring them closer and reach a settlement for January.

On Friday Cassano was filmed being handed the Milan shirt by an Italian TV show and he said: "It suits me. Who wouldn't want to play for Milan?"

[vtec]

sp, i am afraid that your avatar is slowing down the page.

anyway, i want to take this moment to bitch about these saturday night games that we've been having so much of? i mean, what's the deal? i'm pretty sure no other team has anywhere near as many as us. i am pretty sure galliani is behind this as it's probably a good way to keep the brazilians from being all partied out for sunday afternoon games. i bet the fucker's trying to get the games on friday nights for the future.

[Italiamia]

Milan lose Pirlo for a month

AC Milan playmaker Andrea Pirlo will be out for a month with a thigh strain.

The Italy international suffered the injury in the first half of Saturday's 1-0 Serie A defeat to Roma at San Siro, and was replaced by Clarence Seedorf.

A statement from AC Milan read: "Pirlo underwent tests on his injury which revealed a muscle strain to his right thigh. The midfielder is set to be sidelined for around four weeks but will join up with the squad for warm-weather training in Dubai."

Pirlo is set to miss the first three league games of 2011 but could return to action when AC Milan host Cesena on January 23.

The deep-lying playmaker has been instrumental in recent seasons but has seen his role change under Massimiliano Allegri as he has been moved into more of an offensive role.

[RomaShield27]

Can't believe Milan are actually going to sign Cassano. I don't which I'm more surprised with; that fact that Samp are actually going to let him go or that it is Milan who will sign him. Surely it means the end for Ronaldinho at Milan?

[San Paolo]

'Tec, i'm afraid its not slowing the page down, its just your piss poor internet connection.

[p_maldini_3]

crazy weekend for me, decided at the last minute to join a road trip to toronto for the weekend, missed the second half of the game and very much disappointed with the result. borriello might not be world class, but he'll give 100% effort wherever he is. and while he isn't a fine goalscorer, he is a scorer of fine goals. what a fucking fluke of a goal though, but that's just how it is. we also shouldn't forget that borriello has 7 goals in 9 games so far for roma, that is really damn impressive. and he is playing in a team that is catering to him, rather than ronaldinho and pato. good for him, i always admired him and wish him the best. i don't blame him for celebrating, he's in a new team and he's gonna give it his best shot. he's a professional, period.

it's alarming that allegri doesn't know how to change a game with his substitutions, maybe it's because we don't have any game-changing players. ancelotti had serginho, who did a decent enough job, but allegri is very much a reactive coach and remains clueless when things are going bad. he also made a bad decision of playing seedorf wide left, he should've made seedorf play as a trequartista and let boateng play as the mezzala. it's also disappointing that both juve and roma have walked off with points in the san siro. allegri needs to start showing some intelligence against the big teams, he's taken us to different levels, but he shouldn't let arrogance cloud his judgment.

ambrosini also had his worst game of the season, i don't know what went up his ass. i also think the game changed dramatically once pirlo left, he was making shit happen, and we all know he's a one of a kind player.

not only are we gonna bag cassano, other reports are saying we're gonna sign the swiss left-back ziegler from sampdoria. his contract is ending in the summer, so he'll be cheap too. shield, dinho is done at milan. silvio said it himself.

tec, the funny thing about our saturday night games is that we didn't have our first saturday game until the 11th or 12th week of the season. there were even banners in the curva hoping for a saturday game. and now we've had like 5 straight or something.

[vtec]

i don't know shinpin, although i haven't watched the second half either, i don't think i can blame allegri for this as i am not under impression that things were going bad when roma scored. sure, they were bad afterwards as we were trailing, but you can't score everytime that you want to.

[tonykart]

Im very jealous of Milan for signing Cassano. They aren't afraid to sign world class players.