I'm more worried about who we are going to sign, than sell.
Selling is pretty straightforward. We know Giampaolo is a 4-3-1-2 man, so we need to sell Suso. He's a good one to move considering the amount we paid for him and the likely price he will fetch will make a decent profit.
Castillejo is another that we could consider selling, but the profit is likely to be less than Suso. Plus it may be that Giampaolo could find him a useful player, as unlike Suso he can play in more central positions (and has done so to good effect on occasion).
But when it comes to maximising profit we all know the key player: Donnarumma. If the club can manage its finances without selling him, then obviously keep him. But if money is that tight then it's an easy decision: he has to go. Easily the most valuable player we have in terms of market value, then you factor in his salary on top of that.
Everybody sells. Liverpool lost Coutinho and Suarez and won the CL. Barcelona lost Neymar and won the league. We lost Shevchenko and won the CL. Juve have lost players from Zidane to Pogba and Vidal, and invariably still do well.
Chelsea just sold Hazard but they have Hudson-Odoi and Pulisic lined-up and more than 100 million Euros to spend (if they let them). May work or not, but they clearly prepared.
It’s quite different to when we sold everybody just because Berlusconi was jumping ship.
It’s about finding the right time, the right amounts, and having smart replacements and a good operation in place.
Selling Donna last summer, when we seemed to have crazy money and his contract was running out, seemed like a very bad idea. Selling him now if there’s a crazy offer and when Plizzari starts to look more promising, with Reina in the squad, and when we need money... not necessarily so bad. Same with Suso — our best creative player, but less of a big deal if we don’t play wingers obviously.
What would likely be an unmitigated disaster would be losing Romagnoli right now.
The ones that seem to be heating up are Suso (Atletico) and Kessié (Spurs). The first seems to me more likely, in part just because Spurs haven't bought anyone in a while so it seems unreal. I'd imagine they'll actually on a shopping spree after all the money they must have made this season, not buying anyone, and likely losing a key player or two on top of that.
I would sell Kessie, Samu, and even Suso (potential 100m) BUT not Donnaruma as he is bringing us points with his saves. Plizzari should be loaned out to a Serie A team and play regularly before making the decision to cash in on Donna.
If possible we should get rid of Borini, RR, Laxalt, Strinic ... saving a lot of salary space and getting few millions in transfers.
We will need a starter as right mezzala and a sub, starter before Biglia who hasnt shown anything to prove he deserves to start, starter and sub for left back as RR is one of the worst we have had, and a sub for Paqueta at AMC.
Roul Bellanova gets praised for his games at the u20, does anyone know if he can be useful?
Interesting to read some of the criticism RR gets. I don't see it. First season yes, he was too often a liability. This season just finished he's been a better player, pretty solid and consistent IMO. Having said that, if a good offer was received and he was keen on leaving it's a different story. With smart scouting we could sign a good replacement. But if he wants to stay I'd rather keep him.
zoo, van pretty much covered it with regards to selling players. And we're really not in a position to turn down big offers. Latest figures of the losses we've been running at says it all.
Does anyone know if Zapata is definitely leaving? I don't see why he isn't given another season. He's still a reliable option, sometimes he is great when called upon. Unless he wants to leave and have more regular game time, give him an extension.
Hopefully we get a few other mids in that mold. It seems like Barella is gone and Tonali won't be easy to sign this season. The rumor about the Sampdoria Belgian mid was particularly exciting.
I saw where we offered cutrone +20m for barella. inter tried to lowball with their offer. milan may be in the lead because they focused on the clubs demands immediately.
we should sell suso, and buy barella, sensi, and maybe ronaldo vieira.
if we somehow sell kessie as well, then replace him with tonali.
if we actually do get barella and that means we have to say farewell to cutrone, then that means we may end up keeping andre silva, depending on if the manager thinks he fits.
Same here. We'd definitely need to do something with the forward line though. If the manager likes to play two forwards regularly, we need three capable starters and a decent sub, and at least one should be a very different kind of forward, either a fast mofo or more of a trequartista type.
And yet, I'd think our best chance to get Barella would be if we get Cagliari to say "only Milan," and perhaps Cutrone is the key for that.
Otherwise, it's hard to believe he'd join Milan if he has the chance to join Inter. sad as that sounds today. Unless he was a Milan fan (he is supposed to be an Inter fan) and also hates Conte's face as much as I do and we offered him a considerably higher salary... He'd have the chance to play in the Champions League for Conte vs Europa League (maybe) for Giampaolo, and Inter simply have been doing things better for a while, the institution looks more stable and promising.
- We seem to be on the verge of signing Frederic Massara as Sporing Director. No idea who he is.
- Barella seems to have chosen Inter. Reports source Di Marzio as saying he called Conte to tell him that, but I can't find the original Di Marzio
- Maldini just met with agente Giuseppe Riso, who represents Caldara but also Sensi, Gianluca Mancini, and a few other potential targets. That's not really a rumor, there are pictures of him leaving the club and all that. This is a list of the players he represents: https://www.transfermarkt.com/gr-sports/beraterfirma/berater/3733
Also, talk of Milan signing Dejan Lovren now by Di Marzio. He gets a lot of shit and when he's bad he is terrible, but when he is good he is rock solid. And at any rate he is a massive improvement over Zapata and quite better than Musacchio too.