On Defenders And Huge Sums...

Massimiliano Allegri; Ibra and Thiago Silva are staying with us 99.9%. It turned out that 0.01% was enough after all.
It seems almost surreal, the stories beginning as little grumbles; first from le Parisien, that most reputable of French dailies, then our very own Gazzetta. Of course I refused to even acknowledge the story for a long while, until confirmation from Milan Channel that negotiations are actually ongoing.






TS33


First, €50m in no joke, it’s a lot of money, particularly for a central defender. It’s the sort of money that if reinvested in the squad, could help us land some of our top targets such as Axel Witsel, Nuri Sahin, or Francesco Acerbi. Honestly, this is where the “positives” end.


Selling Thiago Silva sends the wrong message to the other world class players in the squad, especially when we have the ultimate mercenary in our ranks who could in a second force through a move. I’m talking about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, of course. The entire close season has been filled with stories about the mercurial Swede, and he’s had to come out several times to pledge his future to the side; after taking a dig at management, Zlatan style of course. If Thiago is sold, serious doubts would emerge over Zlatan’s future, I can only imagine how furious he might be right now at ongoing events.






LETHAL PARTNERSHIP


Of course then there’s the defence too. This is a side that this summer has lost the legendary Alessandro Nesta, and the search for someone to replace him is nowhere near fruition. Even with Thiago Silva, this would be a real shaky defence, with the infuriatingly inconsistent Phillipe Mexes, the former flying donkey, old and past his prime Mario Yepes, and the eternally useless Daniele Bonera as his potential partners. Even with Thiago reinforcements are needed, without Thiago it would just be a hopeless cause.


This also sends a very terrible message to the players, that pledging your loyalty to the team means nothing so long as you are commercially viable. It happened with Kaka, who almost got railroaded into joining Manchester City just to raise some cash, with him eventually joining Real Madrid. Silva has been quoted several times saying he wants to stay for a long while and eventually become a Rossoneri legend. Sorry man, unless you are Bonera or Antonini, whom no team would ever dream of taking a punt on, you would never have this privilege.


Of course, there’s also the element of telling the entire world that we are no longer interested in being within the top tier of clubs. We are probably the only traditional great who has the fewest number of world class talent within our ranks, and whilst even Manchester City and Real Madrid are looking at strengthening their ridiculously talented squads, A.C Milan are just looking at offloading the few that we have; watch out for Ibrahimovic to Manchester City and Kevin Prince Boateng to Real Madrid very soon!


I don’t need to talk about the damage a Thiagoless backline would suffer next term. Our season virtually collapsed after his injury against Roma, proving he’s even more indispensable than Ibrahimovic. I don’t know how we got here from just a week ago, when a Sheik was supposedly ready to invest in our squad. The key is in how the money from this sale is going to be utilized, but I advise bracing ourselves for a post 2007 A.C Milan over the next few seasons.






FORZA MILAN!!!!!


You might have noticed, but I’m being entirely pessimistic, which for someone of my disposition is no mean feat. However, hearing that this deal is even being contemplated did this to me, and I’ve entirely lost faith in Milan’s management. It might end up not even going through, but one can now see that in spite of whatever denials to the contrary, the team is really looking to cash in on our assets. It makes for grim reading if you are a Milanista, but I’m sure like me, you would all still be behind the team when we’re in the Europa league two seasons from now.



moonbyte