https://sempremilan.com/lessons-fro...-an-analysis-of-ac-milans-financial-situation ETA: It looks like I missed @SwissRamble's breakdown of Milan's financials back in January. I guess that's what happens when you're not on Twitter. Here's that thread for those interested in the data: #Milan 2019/20 accounts cover a season when they finished 6th in Serie A and reached the semi-final of the Coppa Italia, but were excluded from Europe for FFP issues. Second season under the ownership of American hedge fund, Elliott Management Corporation. Some thoughts follow.— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) January 11, 2021
AC Milan seems to have a young team…. These three guys though are getting old! Alessandro Florenzi = 30 Zlatan Ibrahimović = 40 Olivier Giroud = 35 Their average age is 35!
Are you trying to say they're old? Don't you know that Ibra was king of MLS on a few years back and Giroud's name starts with a G?
My take on today's game, AC Milan 1-0 Sampdoria. Whew, we got the 3 points. That was intense. No Kessié is a problem as we tend to lose the ball in midfield and have trouble connecting with the offense, and our defense gets more pressure and eventually makes mistakes. But given that we didn't have Kessié, had Bennacer for just a few minutes, and didn't have Ibra, all things considered I think we did well. Certainly lots of fighting spirit and some very fast attacks in first half and in the last minutes of the second half. Best thing: Maignan is phenomenal! Not impossible that he's actually better than Donnarumma!!! Other good things: Rafael Leão played better than his usual. Tonali is growing into his role, good game. Tomori solid and impressive. Krunic did well too. Brahim Diaz tried hard and scored. Calabria was much better than in the pre-season games when he looked lost and leaving spaces behind him. Negatives: Theo surprisingly had a bad game, and almost allowed Sampdoria to equalize. Saelemakers worked hard but was mediocre. Giroud moved a lot but was always a little off, too late or too early on the ball, wasting opportunities. Rebic continues to look slow and off balance (is he fat? Or impaired post-Covid??) but at least he almost scored in the one play when he looked like his old self. Anyway, overall I'm encouraged. We shall improve a lot when Kessié is back. More players had a good game than the players who didn't. The thing is, our offense has struggled lately, but if Maignan continues to be this impenetrable wall, we only need one goal per game to get the win, LOL ------------ Opponents watch: Juve looked vulnerable. They are the team to beat, but managed only a draw against Udinese and were in trouble in parts of the game (like Udinese almost scored the winner, twice, around minutes 88-89). Atalanta looked terrible. They won 2-1 but it was incredibly undeserved. They basically had only 2 opportunities the whole game... scored in both. Did nothing else. Torino pounded and pounded and completely dominated the game, but they were so unlucky, with crossbar hits, post hits, balls saved off the line... Torino should have won this game 4-2. inter impressive in offense but actually their defense looked suspicious. Genoa was terrible in offense and still created several near-scoring opportunity which they'd have converted if only they weren't so bad at finishing. Napoli had an easier time against Serie A beginners Venezia, got 2-0 but suffered some pressure from a lowly adversary in last quarter of the game, so they did look a bit vulnerable too. A team like Venezia should not be putting pressure on Napoli. Lazio had an easy time and looked better than the other big dogs, but it was against lowly Empoli. Roma looked very good against Fiorentina. Probably the best performance of the top tier of Serie A teams.
Well I'd have granted him a score of at least 9, not 7. He was rather perfect yesterday. Did you see his impossible saves? Without him, I'm not sure we'd have collected all three points. I think it's not excluded that he is at least as good, if not better than Donnarumma. Maybe that's too much to say after what Donna did for all Italians at the Euro 2020, but I think Maignan will be the next goalkeeping starter for the French National Team, so, equivalent level of quality. And one thing is for sure: he distributes the ball with his feet better than what Donnarumma did.
Gianluigi Donnarumma is the best GK in the world. With all due respect to him though, even though the position is very important , Milan was correct in not giving him all the money he was asking. What Milan should have done was sell while they could have profited from him. I think Buffon was the last GK to play 15+ players witht he same team. Times have changed and that just won't happen anymore.
I think you're both a little bit over the top. I didn't see anything from Maignan yesterday that Gigio couldn't have matched on a good day, but I didn't see him make many mistakes either. He did have an adventure in the first half where he got bailed out with a foul. He also appeared to lose his footing a couple times early on like he was on skates. He won the league with Lille, and he looks to be very good. Hopefully he proves his worth over his debut season. As far as Gigio being the best in the world, I don't agree with that. Most valuable on a 5 year contract? Probably. Most potential? Probably. Would I chose him over every other GK in the world to win me a game? Doubtful. He has won a title now so that's a feather in his cap, but there are others who are more experienced, more consistent, or more talented.
OK, maybe I'm a bit over-the-top about Maignan. Please assign this to my passion for AC Milan and my wish to dream and see the team do as well with him as we did with Donna. He did seem a bit tentative with his feet in the beginning of first half, maybe nerves for the sake of the Serie A start. He rapidly got over it and was solid with his feet for the duration; a fundamental Gigio is not particularly good at.
Either way, paying Gigi or any GK for that matter, all that money just wasnt in the cards and will never have happened.
That is correct. When we think that Kessie, arguably our best player (at least when Ibra is not healthy because when he is healthy, Ibra is our best player, but Kessie is second best at least), makes 4 million Euros per year, so the 10 million Donnarumma wanted plus the 20 million for his agent would be enough to pay more than 7 Kessies; when put it like this we know that we couldn't afford what Donna wanted. Paolo Maldini was right, and he got an excellent replacement in Maignan, for a much smaller price tag. I'm pretty satisfied with the whole thing now that the transaction is complete and Maignan is playing, and playing well.
We're being linked to a great player but I find it to be impossible lol. So I won't even bother following it. The commode!
Are you possibly talking about Kane? I think there is no chance in hell that he is coming to Milan. If not him, who? If there is a rumor, I'd like to know and look it up. I just looked at Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport and saw no rumors of any high profile transfer to Milan. Kessié is injured until game 3. I think Maldini should give him whatever he is asking. We can't afford to lose Kessié. The team is one with him on the pitch, and another one without him. He is often the most valuable player in a match. He is relentless and plays everywhere, defense, midfield, and offense. He is all over the pitch, participating in decisive defensive plays, linking the defense to the offense in the midfield, and getting some dangerous incursions in offense too. Kessié is a phenomenal player with incredible stamina and incredible presence everywhere, and solid ball skills. Sometimes Ibra is playing and is even better when fully healthy, but more often than not, Kessié is the MVP of our matches. He scored 13 goals last season; a lot for a central midfielder. He also saved us from many goals we could have been scored on. Given his enormous talent and importance for the team, Kessié is underpaid. 4 million Euros per year is not enough for a guy this good. Maldini should just pay him whatever he wants, and move on, otherwise some other team will offer more money to Kessié and we'll lose him, which would be a grave, grave mistake.
Tottenham offered to Kessié the equivalent of 8.2 million Euros. Maldini is offering him 6.5 million Euros. Maldini must bump up his offer. Kessie is worth 9 or 10 million Euros. He is currently grossly underpaid at 4 million Euros.
No. He must work within the financial parameters the club can afford. If that means we can't get Kessie to sign a long term deal, ship him out for what we can get for him before his contract expires. No single player is worth putting the club back under water financially. Hopefully Elliott find a buyer who is willing to invest cash and grow income so we can afford to pay the Kessies of the world what rich clubs can, but if that doesn't happen, they need to keep working within the budget.
Everything seems to come to the last minute. With donnarumma, kessie.... probably romagnoli as well. We could lose all of them for nothing.
The defense has been improved, and the midfield too, to a degree. Tomori and Tonali are good. Maignan too. I look at the other Serie A teams and see vulnerabilities too. I think the Scudetto is wide open. Sure, we probably won't be very successful in the Champions League. I'll be happy if we have an excellent Serie A season.