Football Forums

Caio Milanistas,

First couple of questions then. Roanldinho and Sheva, yes or no? Anchelotti, stay or go and if go, who with? Fourth place, yes or no?

No to Ronaldinho - too old and can't play with Kaka.

No to Sheva - too old and we need to look to the future. And as Carletto has pointed out, he's too similar to Pato.

Ancelotti must stay. It's not his fault that we've been poor, it's the poor performances of the players. We spent ages looking for a decent coach after Sacchi left, and now we've found one we must keep him. The playing staff need replacing, not the coach.

No to fourth place. Too far behind Fiorentina. We need them to completely mess it up. In a way it might be a good thing, because we can look at Bayern Munich who suffered a similar fate last year. They spent lots of money on top notch players and are now likely to win their league and should win the UEFA Cup.

Interesting thoughts.

Ronaldinho - mixed thoughts on this. Can he regain his form and can he fit in the team. I think he could be a good signing but there is the risk that he might turn out to be the same kind of signing at Rivaldo was. It would be a good energy boost for the club and rejuvenate things.

Sheva - Agree, I think he would score goals again if he returned and his goal scoring record at the club was exemplary. But as you say we need to look to the future.

Anchelotti should stay but he needs sucsess domestically. We haven't seriously challenged for the title since 2005, when we threw is away to the thieves at home. I think in the league we need to adopt a different formation. We're not attacking enough in the league and as a result we don't often score a lot of goals (Napoli (h) and Lazio, Samp (a)) as the execptions. The formation is good for Europe and is tried and tested, but we need to change this as teams can figure us out now.

Yes to fourth place. I think the viola will slip up and we're more than capable of winning our last games. I strongly fancy us to beat the thieves and move on from there.

Who should we sign in the summer?

Loads of different opinions on which players we should sign. On some of the Milan forums I go on, you see all kinds of names mentioned. What's clear is that we need the signings to be a maximum age of around 25 (perhaps a bit of leeway for defenders, who can go on longer at their peak). The players also need to be high quality, capable of performing in the Champions League. Therefore, it may take a couple of summers to completely rebuild the squad - as it's best to buy fewer players for lots of money, than dividing the funds among loads of players who just aren't good enough.

2 defenders, 2 midfielders and a striker are priorities. Whether they can all be of the quality I mentioned in the one summer is a different matter. There's also a problem with our 'keeper, but the other 5 players are such high priority that we may have to take a chance on Dida/Kalac again next year.

For the defenders, I wouldn't mind seeing Barzagli come. He deserves the chance to step up, and it would benefit our national team too! The other defender should probably be a full-back of some sort. 2 midfielders need to be an attacking midfielder and a deep-lying playmaker type so we can rest Pirlo. We have Gattuso and Ambrosini as holding players (and when we're desperate, Brocchi), but no replacement for Pirlo. The attacking midfielder would be pushing Seedorf for his place in the side (or pushing him out of it). We only have him and Kaka going forward, which isn't good enough. I suggest van der Vaart for that role. Samir Nasri is another who will easily be tempted, out of France.

The striker is obvious as Ronaldo is injured every day, and Inzaghi too old to play every game. Benzema is the obvious choice, but he would blow a huge hole in the budget. Nevertheless, that shouldn't cross Galliani's mind when buying players this summer - we need quality.

I've heard that they may be lining up a bid for Drogba in the summer. I hate the guy with a passion but I think we need a centre-forward like him as we don't really have a bully up front. I don't want Berba to come for obvious reasons and I think he would struggle in Serie A. I do think strongly that this is the type of centre-forward we need. If this Ronaldinho deal goes through it will be interesting to see how Anchelotti fits him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7344207.stm

According to that they've agreed with Ronaldinho to come to Milan, just need to agree a fee with Barca. Not really the news I wanted to hear. Hasn't got too many years left, and the compatibility issue I mentioned in my previous post.

I agree with regards to a big centre-forward. But Drogba is too old. We need younger players. As good and as useful as he'd be, he just isn't the right age for rebuilding a squad for the long term. Which is a shame, that we have to disregard some palyers because of their age, but that's the situation we find ourselves in.

ooks like we might have to put up with the Uefa Cup, which is not good for 2 reasons, which I'm sure you can work out. Bloody Juve, hate them, the dirty thieves. Grrrrrrr...

We're running out of games to close the gap. If Fiorentina lose tonight, then we've been extremely lucky again. There's been a few games now where we've dropped points, only to see Fiorentina do the same. Our run-in is far harder than theirs too. The only saving grace is that they're still involved in the UEFA Cup, which may tire the squad out.

Saving Grace part II! The Inter scumbags did us a favour!

With only five games we need to start buckling down and we need the Viola to slip up, twice. I've heard today that Inter have declared their interest in Ronaldinho. I want to sign him now, if only to annoy the old enemy.

Palermo (H), Sampdoria (H), Cagliari (A), Parma (H) and Torino (A). That's their run-in. Palermo and Sampdoria will be tough games. The Sampdoria and Cagliari games are after their UEFA Cup ties against Rangers, so a possibility of dropped points, but they can afford to.

Reggina (H), Livorno (A), Inter (H), Napoli (A), Udinese (H) is our run-in. Reggina and Livorno should be 6 points, especially as both are near the bottom and Reggina haven't won an away game all season. Inter will, more than likely, be a defeat. Napoli will probably be a draw, and I reckon the same for Udinese too. That's 8 points from 15. Leaving us on 60 points. Fiorentina will therefore (assuming the Milan results go as suggested) only need 5 points from 15 to take 4th spot.

Think we'll do Inter. We usually do well against them and I fancy it. I think we'll get 13 points from the next 15. I am optimistic :)

13!! Who do you think we will drop points against then, if it isn't to be Inter?

We used to do quite well against them, but recently they've had the upper hand. You can clearly see the difference at only playing one game a week. Performances have improved hugely, even Ancelotti has acknowledged that. Nevertheless, I'm not sure it will be enough to beat Inter.

I'm worried about Livorno away. Its the sort of game where Milan could trip up. I think we'll win at the Sao Pablo (remember when Van Basten smashed four there) as we have a good record there.

Well if we can't beat Livorno, we don't deserve to finsh 4th. Bottom of the table team, they shouldn't be getting anything against us.