We have signed Tonali and Tomori permanently. Both are good young players. Maldini has confirmed yesterday that we got Giroud. Excellent move, too. In the next few weeks we should get more reinforcements. Sabitzer or Vlasic for trequartista. Brahim Diaz. Kaio Jorge, young striker from Santos (Brazil). Bakayoko. Another one rumored is Boubacar Kamara. Look them up. These are all very good players. I hope we get all of them or a a significant subset of them.
Even though the loss of Donnarumma is unfortunate, I think too much is made of it. Yeah, he is a great young GK and all and they should have transferred him when they had the opportunity but with all the GK’s in Italy, I’m sure they can find an adequate replacement. There is so many other more important positions in which Milan could invest in that I don’t think it would be worth it for the club to spend it all on a GK. They could buy a defender , a mid and a forward for what he wanted....
You're right. For the wages he was offered (let alone what he demanded), they can replace him and improve the roster in other spots. The value of the difference in performance between Gigio and his replacement are nowhere near the extra millions it would have cost to keep him.
Milan also released Gigio's brother Antonio Donnarumma. Anyone know if he was any good or just a career backup?
He was our 3rd or 4th on the depth chart. Was only with Milan in order to keep Gigio last time he renewed his contract.
It’s weird how one brother is so good and the other one is less than average. Guess it’s like comparing fathers and sons although the Chiesa father-son team are about level. As a matter of fact thinking back , Enrico Chiesa was pretty awesome but played at a time that there were many exceptional Italian #9’s & #10’s…
A replacement has already been found (actually even before Donna left); you didn't know? But he isn't Italian. Maldini has hired French young goalkeeper Mike Maignan, who won their league title with Lille this past season (he was their starting goalkeeper). His stats are not quite as good as Donnarumma's but not by much. He seems to be quite good, and was hired at a fraction of what Dollarumma and his despicable agent were asking.
FYP. Gigio didn't want to be at Milan so good riddance. Contrast that with Thiago Silva and Ibra when they were shipped out to balance the books.
I'm not sure if I entirely follow what you are saying. This is what Ibra said when he was shipped from Milan to PSG: "It is a big step in my career and another dream come true. I am very happy because it is a project that I want to be involved in. I want to be part of the history of the club [meaning, PSG]. I am here to win and nothing else."
Of course he said that at his PSG presentation or whatever, but years later he said he hadn't spoken to Galliani since G told him he was being sold to PSG. I want to say I read somewhere that Thiago Silva cried when he was told he had to leave Milan.
He was part of the gig for keeping Gigio...$1 mill a year to sit on the bench and do nothing. No more Gigio, no more need to keep his useless brother.
Exactly. Although I love Paolo Maldini, I wonder if his son Daniel being there is a similar deal. At least it's a dynasty... with Cesare first, then Paolo, now Daniel. But although Daniel is still young and may still develop, one can't help but noticing that both Cesare and Paolo were at a much higher level of quality. Donnarumma, no dynasty, so they fried and fired his brother as soon as they could.
I hope it's not a matter of nepotism in his case. From what I've seen he has some skills, but he's at that age where he's going to need to prove himself. I think he's still with the U-19 at the moment.
Real Madrid 0-0 AC Milan Best players for us, Maignan, Theo, and Tomori. Tonali was good in defense but neglected the midfield; not exactly his fault; he had to fall back often to rescue Calabria who didn't have a good game. Calabria was responsible for fouling Gale inside the box. Gale took the penalty kick but Maignan stopped it, after having had three other exceptional saves. We won't be missing Donnarumma much! Theo hit the post in a very good offensive action, and played well all over the pitch. Man of the Match in my opinion. Leão sucked; wasted several offensive plays. At minute 60 he was subbed out and Rebic came in, and didn't have a good game either. I'm worried about Ante. He seems off; imprecise, losing the ball in one-on-ones... what's wrong with him? Had a terrible Euro. Is he suffering from sort of cognitive sequela of Covid-19? He doesn't seem to be the same player. Without much of a midfield, missing Kessié and Bennacer and with Tonali falling back, the offense didn't stand much of a chance... Giroud moved well but our offense didn't seem to understand his fast moves - might be a question of getting more used to playing with him - so he couldn't do much. Brahim had our best opportunity other than Theo's post hit. He curled a ball from outside the box just like Insigne... the ball went perfectly to the upper right corner of the goal, and was a powerful shot too. Should have been a goal in any regular circumstance, but Real's substitute goalie (Lunin I think he's called) produced a miraculous, spectacular save. Saelemaekers worked hard. Romagnoli actually had a good game until he was subbed out for Kjaer. Krunic was decent but played very isolated. Overall, it is clear that we have a very good defense and we actually have some depth in defense. Our midfield when complete is not bad but we don't have that much depth there; without Kessié and Bennacer, we struggled. And the offense continues to be a problem. Who will score our goals? We've been very anemic in offense, in this series of pre-season friendlies. It's another thing when Ibra is healthy but this is proving to be a rare occasion so we need a solution for when Ibra is not there, which might be most of the season. I hope that Giroud gets more integrated into this offense and gets more balls once Kessié is the one controlling the midfield. The bottom line is, it will be hard to score on us, but it will also be hard for us to score...