The Rumour Commode XXXV: Champions Edition

[Master Smurf]

Always trust zlatan

Mascot was in his rightful spot and Mugabe came to power

 

[General]

Leaf you son of a bitch

 

[rossonero1]

Don't agree with that at all. I am not so confident in a top 4 finish as you are because we will continue having the same issues. Our injury crisis will not magically go away because you wish for it, see the last 2 years. When you rely on 35 and 40 year old strikers to lead the attack, injuries tend to get worse not better the deeper you are in the year. But regardless of that, I don't see an invest moderately right now as hindering our summer mercato, I see it as securing a top 4 finish that will allow us to invest even more in the summer. Guaranteeing a top 4 finish now for me is far more crucial than anything, it gives us more options in the summer. Good luck making any kind of move this summer if somehow we don't make top 4.

They don't want to pay for anyone permanently midseason, fine I can see that. The thing that drives me nuts is why can't you at least attempt to get players on loan for the next 6 months? There's plenty of those opportunities out there. But you're right if they lose this weekend they'll have to sweat out fighting for top 4 again.

 

[Curupira]

Define "playing"

Kicking a football with said people

 

[Rhat]

They don't want to pay for anyone permanently midseason, fine I can see that. The thing that drives me nuts is why can't you at least attempt to get players on loan for the next 6 months? There's plenty of those opportunities out there.

Which 6 months CAM and CB could reinforce the team this winter that were lend out to other teams?

 

[La Chupacabra]

Don't get the boner for Sanches, the guy will play less than Redondo if he comes by some twist of fate.

 

[Mario]

Woah yeah Di Maria would be nice for a bit unless we can get a better younger rw on loan & pay for him the following summer

 

[ZBoban]

They don't want to pay for anyone permanently midseason, fine I can see that. The thing that drives me nuts is why can't you at least attempt to get players on loan for the next 6 months? There's plenty of those opportunities out there. But you're right if they lose this weekend they'll have to sweat out fighting for top 4 again.

I really don't see how we won't be in all out dog fight the rest of the year. I know some may not agree, but for me Juve just guaranteed themselves a top 4 finish with Vlahovic. Napoli is getting back an army of players and Atalanta we know they will not go away. Any kind of addition to our squad to strengthen a weak position would have benefited us.

 

[Swagotelli]

Mbappe will reportedly earn 50m euros per year at Real Madrid

Real Madrid and Kylian Mbappe have reportedly reached an agreement which would see the France international join Los Blancos next summer on a free transfer. Mbappe's contract with

www.marca.com

50m/year contract…

 

[Curupira]

One small detail. He is not playing.

I see people call him a professional, that Valencia is a small club etc.

It is still a place with one of highest revenues in Spain, their most coveted clubs, still trying for 5th Europa League spot.

Samu just wants money for light work. His career is over, guy could just retire now.

Man if salaries in football were performance based.
The game's gotten insane. Samu is now making more being out of squad that top players were making 20 years ago.

Except he’s still training and if he was called up he would go in and give it his all even though he knows he has no future at the club (like he did early this season

You can say he isn’t good or up to our standard, but to make up random things to attack his character is just

 

[OVUNQUE CON TE]

If we try for the Lille 3 it's a positive that we've identified them early, give Lille plenty of time to plan for their replacements.

Would 90-100M get Renato, Botman and David?

 

[Staamdorf]

Don't get the boner for Sanches, the guy will play less than Redondo if he comes by some twist of fate.

Player that was talented, then was down a bit, now looking to prove himself.

Somebody already made a comparison to Seedorf. He does seem to have same quads

 

[Swagotelli]

Di Marzio: "Elliott has never created problems for the budget. In the summer Milan will be able to go to Botman and Sanches"

Di Marzio is full of shit

 

[jawz10]

Vlahovic IMO is an operation that doesn't make me too envious. Between card and salary that's a damn huge risk they are taking there and Vlahovic has still everything to prove. It's as if they didn't learn anything from Higuain or Ronaldo, even if Vlahovic is much younger obviously - which paradoxically could make it an even bigger risk when carrying already so much pressure at his first big club.

The one operation that really leaves me buthurt is Zakaria. That's the business I admire someone for, not the one where someone just throws money at until it succeeds. In Zakarias case however they got a young, potentially world-class player with a current MV of 30M for only 7M (because of an expiring contract) and on top of that on reasonable wages too. Low risk, high reward. Damn. In that case I wished that were us.

Agreed on Vlahovic. The jury is still out, and that’s the type of investment you make to ensure you’re a scudetto contender, not just making the CL, which is still not certain either. Vlahovic is an excellent signing in an area that I don’t think they actually need if they’d fix their midfield.

The same goes for Zakaria, whom I think is an excellent player, but is more of what they already have in central defensive midfielders with McKennie, Locatelli, and previously Bentacur. He’s not the player they needed, so its not really all that impressive to me.

Juventus’s issues are in their management and planning. They think that by going backward they’ll go forward. Allegri is a relic of the past. Winning matches 1-0 is far more difficult in 2021/22 than it was just 3-4 years ago by virtue of how Serie A and football have changed. Pirlo was actually more prescient in this regard, but had no idea how to implement a attacking/pressing strategy combined with the “problem” of Ronaldo. Parametri zero, di nuovo. Juventus are where we were in 2009ish. Still relying on older players, not addressing the glaring issues (midfield), splashing cash on the next big thing hoping to be rescued. There is no “rescue” to be found, the only way to do it is to change mentality.

In Serie A, Milan are far in front of everyone else tactically, strategically, and mentality-wise. If our physical department was as advanced we’d be crushing Serie A.

 

[Curupira]

Exactly

The posters who criticize the plan also trust the plan. I know I do....It's gotten us pretty far from the banter era.
But no plan is perfect and with time some adjustments are good or even necessary.

The ppl making projecting hypotheticals about "What if we reinforced and didn't win the scudetto" also need to answer:

"What if Adli came and we got worse in June?" That could happen. What is far less certain is where we'll be in the table come this time next year.

If that happened we didn’t overpay in January for a player that we will be stuck with and unable to get off our books like Samu.

 

[stevan]

Vlahovic scored 21 goals last year and is at 17 and joint top scorer this year and "the jury is still out"?

Jesus what are you guys smoking...

 

[Curupira]

Which is more likely....to miss out on top 4 with this squad as we are or to miss out on top 4 with Faivre and Botman?

Also I have no idea what you mean by the bold. Spend your money once? WTF does that mean
We only have error prone defenders Kalulu, Gabbia and Romagnoli with Tomori and Kjaer injured
Tomori will take time to get back in the groove. Kjaer is out for the season.

Rebic has been injured a lot this season. iBra as well. Then there's covid.
If Leao gets injured you'll see just how much we'll struggle
If you think our present attack is enough to make it over the finish line, I really hope you are right.

I honestly don’t think Faivre or Botman would make a difference this season.

I agree our attack isn’t scudetto worthy

 

[Massaro94]

I've been saying it for a while

You could also add up Adli and Kalulu, switch to 4-4-2 and we're only missing a young CF... maybe Lazetic?

Anyway, we've got a very solid core that is built for long-term. After 2-3 years we'll need to buy just 1 player per year and those are gonna be big time upgrades of 50m+. This is why I trust "da plan", because I clearly see the steps and am looking forward to it.

See i dont trust da plan for 2 reasons

1. They werw ready to sack padre if ucl was not achieved last season.

2. Our attackera are Ibra and Giroud.

Both have done well. But a serious project does not have a forward line as old as ours. Thats for clubs like empoli.

 

[Staamdorf]

If we try for the Lille 3 it's a positive that we've identified them early, give Lille plenty of time to plan for their replacements.

Would 90-100M get Renato, Botman and David?

Makes you think, if elliot for some reason wamted to go into sports management, LOSC would be a much better choice.

Also. We must be a villain for them. If Renato and Botman go through, we have effectively raided a potential CL contender out of their core.

 

[Curupira]

I dunno who thought this season wouldn't be great....certainly not me.
Inter lost Conte, Hakimi and Lukaku...I thought we'd be cruising (no homo) to 1st place.

Unfortunatley we aren't and this also proves my point that there are no guarantees no matter how well your squad is built.
The "success is not linear" thing is and has always been my point...you are the one acting like the incremental improvements would be seen proportionally to the plan.
The Hakan sale ended up hurting us more than we thought because Diaz actually started off so well.

If there are no guarantees how well your squad is build, better to do our best and reassess in the summer when we don’t have to overpay for players

 

[Staamdorf]

Re: Juve, remember they are welcoming Rovella into the squad next season. Imho could be their answer to Tonali.

Italy talents moved from defence into midfield. Still have a great gk

 

[Rossonero81]

See below:

You actually explained what you meant by spend your money once...my bad.
But you didn't address the first question

It's a false equation. Adding two young players to the roster doesn't necessarily mean that we'll have an increased chance of securing a top four finish this season. It only means that we would have more talented players in the squad to build upon. If Maldini thinks he can strike a better deal in the summer, whether he will go after Botman or another player, is money saved now.

You can't replace an experienced Viking leader like Kjaer with an upcoming defender like Botman. The latter would come to replace Kjaer eventually. I don't know if Botman is a bigger talent than Kalulu, but right now I trust Kalulu to do the fucking job. He has proven that he deserves a chance.

We are a bit thin in defence until Tomori returns, but once he returns we'll have four options. Even though I'm not a big fan of Romagnoli, I trust him in Tomori's absence. I'm not so sure that a young player would place him on the bench instantly anyway. We might as well make use of him while he's under contract.

Team growth is another important aspect that you seem to ignore. Messias ain't a world beater, but he's been punching under his weight for a long time. I expect him to grow and to show us more in the second half of the season.

I'm not afraid to finish outside the top four, when our players have proven again and again that they have the quality and the will to make it.

 

[Rossonero81]

Its too late. Hes stuck now

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

[CapitanoMaldini]

 

[Ronin]

See i dont trust da plan for 2 reasons

1. They werw ready to sack padre if ucl was not achieved last season.

2. Our attackera are Ibra and Giroud.

Both have done well. But a serious project does not have a forward line as old as ours. Thats for clubs like empoli.

Depends on what they do in the summer. Logical next step would be to drop Ibra and have Belotti / Giroud / Lazetic - that's not so bad. They might indulge him with 6 more months if he wants to go to WC, but idk, dude should just retire already and go enjoy himself.

 

[ZBoban]

I swear the way players talk about Milan these days is like women who talk about the cute guy with no money. Sure he's nice and sweet but how's he gonna support me lolol. We are now playing second fiddle to Newcastle for fuck sakes. Make this nightmare end please.

 

[Ryo]

Vlahovic scored 21 goals last year and is at 17 and joint top scorer this year and "the jury is still out"?

Jesus what are you guys smoking...

Scoring freely for Free-flowing attack Fiorentina is one thing.
Scoring for weak midfield, lack of chance making, sit back on one goal Juve is an entirely different prospect.

Don't forget that we fielded our 3rd and 4th choice CBs against them and limited them to all of 0 shots on target.

 

[ROSSONERI7]

this is a bit of what i was saying.
a lot of these journos make it like since we were close, in the summer we go back in the front of the line ... "yo! remember me? yea i came to close now"
no. everybody starts from the beginning again...and everybody from the beginning pretty much means we're out of the race since the value will be higher and there will be more competition.

 

[ROSSONERI7]

Scoring freely for Free-flowing attack Fiorentina is one thing.
Scoring for weak midfield, lack of chance making, sit back on one goal Juve is an entirely different prospect.

with Dybala taking half of the shots you used to take.

 

[Curupira]

I swear the way players talk about Milan these days is like women who talk about the cute guy with no money. Sure he's nice and sweet but how's he gonna support me lolol. We are now playing second fiddle to Newcastle for fuck sakes. Make this nightmare end please.

Yea if you want to feel like the baller at the club throwing money and pouring Champagne, that’s not going to be us for awhile

Newcastle got oil money now, why you acting like we got more money than them