the check came through!!! #makemilangreatagain http://www.football-italia.net/91043/official-chinese-pay-milan-€85m http://www.football-italia.net/91047/‘milan-back-world’s-best’
I'm not sure Roma have produced any Italian rejects for you to waste money on next window... Florenzi maybe? DDR?
some interesting quotes here: http://www.football-italia.net/96039/sino-europe-‘we-have-plan-b’ "In general, Chinese financial institutions are actively supporting Chinese investment abroad and it’s worth remembering that SES is an investment fund."
They're interested in Pato. First SES and now Pato. With them going after our rejects, it's only a matter of time before Montolivo becomes a Romanista, lol. @Midfield General
this is turning into a nightmare scenario. here's some actual reporting on the deal by reuters: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-china-ac-milan-analysis-idUKKBN16T24J and a graphic of the different entities that are involved: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/SOCCER-MILAN/0100405D0C9/milan-org-chart.jpg
so now a hedge fund is involved. greeeeeat. this is not going to end well. if it's a loan, there will be interest to be repaid. if they're actually buying shares, they're in it to make money when they sell. this sucks. we need a sugar daddy not investors.
This is so sad I always thought of AC Milan as an italian club and great at raising italian players and investigating in youth. I was really hoping they would stay italian. Berlusconi has done a great job with this club historically, and saved them from bankruptcy many years ago. I also heard that a few rumors that many board members might leave, and Montella's position could be in doubt. Montella has been doing a great job so far, and you were the hardest team for us to play in Serie A. I am starting to miss Berlusconi already. It breaks my heart to see foreign investors take over an italian club that was so successful. What are your thoughts? I haven't been following daily what has been going on, but I checked on rumors regarding this from time to time, and was hoping it wouldn't happen. Even a few former players of the club said that Milan should stay italian. Any thoughts?
i am not italian personally, but i have always appreciated milan having an italian core. i hope they continue to focus on the academy and bringing the youth through. on the other hand, if the goal is to compete for scudetti and CL trophies, we have to accept that we cannot focus only on italians or give preference to italians. it's a business, and you have to find the best players for the job. i'd like to see a blend of the two approaches. i think i would rather see milan be competitive in europe but not win with a mixed team than win with a team of mercenaries while our youth prospects get sent out on loan ala chelsea. the whole situation has me feeling conflicted. i know berlu wasn't going to spend the money to Make Milan Great Again, and i think it's clear that there was no italian who wanted to buy the club. a change needed to happen if the club is going to move forward. there is a lot that needs to change. will that happen with the new owners? who knows? nobody seems to know who these guys are, or what their real plan is. getting in bed with a hedge fund with the reputation this fund has is not comforting. i hope it's a lot less like torhir's inter takeover and a lot more like suning's inter takeover (from what we've seen so far).
I think there are plenty of people especially Italians who have this view, but the reality is if you want to compete at the level we want to be at you have to have money. The President's full support was not behind Milan and so with that in mind I feel like it was something that needed to be done. A positive fact for Italian players is that we have an academy which is producing quality players and domestic quotas will make sure that Milan has an Italian presence. Plus Milan is still Milan and young Italians still will want to wear the Red and Black. Unless it is an active club policy to get only foreigners I think there will be a heavy Italian presence. I want to watch my team in Finals not calculating the number of points we need to take for us to get in the Europa league. For better or worse when the money dries up you can't consistently win.
Yeah I kind of see your point. Are you sure Berlusconi would never spend the money to make the club great again? I just have a hard time seeing that if Milan were great once, why can't they come back. In fact what exactly destroyed the club in the first place? I am not sure. But do we have any idea who these new owners are? Are they reliable?
yes. in his letter today he stated that one family cannot finance a team that wants to compete at a high level. whether he could or not is not the question. he was not willing to do it even if he could. we can start at overpaying the players who won the CL in 2007. then add in the global financial crisis in 2008-9-10. after that, or as a result, or whatever, belusconi decided he could not or would not continue to eat the losses that the team generated in order to keep them competitive in europe. galliani had to stick to a budget (sell if you want to buy), and the team ended up where we are now. we don't know who they are or what they plan or whether they can be trusted.
I have no comment until there is something to comment on. Where the money comes from doesn't concern me. Who is running the day to day operations does. Who they bring in will be the deciding factor, as far as I go, as to whether I believe they're serious at making Milan competitive again in Serie A and Europe, or if they just all wanted a shiny toy.
Why would anyone spend this money for a shiny toy? I'm positively optimistic. I think we will at least now have positive investment, and reinforce the squad. But nothing crazy like PSG/City. We honestly aren't missing many pieces to push for a CL spot.
i just the quotes from fassone's introduction and then a little bit more about his background. he was in charge of putting juve's stadium plan together, and then he worked at napoli and inter. before he got into soccer, he worked at a few big italian companies. he said the things that fans want to hear at the news conference: investment in the first team, expanding revenue, building a stadium, etc. i didn't know whether this guy knows what he's doing or not, but the more i read, the more confidence i have in him. it sounds like li is going to keep pumping money into the club. it sounds like fassone knows how to spend it on the business side. i hope he knows what he's doing (or hires a competent sporting director) on the soccer side. i read a quote from ambrosini yesterday that used the word curious about the new project. i think that's how i feel now too, curious and cautiously optimistic.
My concern is the Milan youth system which is probably the best in the league, my other concern is going to be foreign players, is this goodbye Italian players?
you can't have it both ways. if you want to compete for european cups, you can't afford to play a young squad like we have this year. we could still run a great academy though. we'd just see fewer academy prospects come through to the first team. again, look at chelsea. they have the best youth system in england, but ruben loftus-cheek, the best academy player they've produced since john terry, can't get a game. chelsea is an extreme example with their loan army, but that's the way to use the academy if you're trying to win in europe. buy low, develop, and sell high or promote to the squad. i don't know that the chelsea approach would work in italy with the silly co-ownership practice that seems to be prevalent for young talent.