MILAN SIGNED three players (plus one who will join in the summer) and waved goodbye to eight men.
The Italian mercato is over: Italian teams can no longer buy players and only can only sell players abroad. It was surely a very interesting and entertaining January market for Serie A teams and for Milan particularly.
Milan picked themselves up in the league and they are in the race for the third place which leads to the Champions League and with the new January signings the tough mission could become a little bit easier.
Official: Salamon joins Milan from Brescia
Video: The rise of the Milan cresta trio
Benvenuto Supermario!!! twitter.com/OfficialEl92/s…
— Stephan El Shaarawy (@OfficialEl92) January 31, 2013
This mercato started with a very emotional departure as Alexandre Pato waved goodbye to Milan in favor of a move to Brazilian side Corinthians where he hopes to revive his career. Milan also came close to selling Robinho this month but the move fell through after Santos couldn’t meet Milan’s Binho demands.
Then were the Ignazio Abate to Zenit transfer stories, a move that could’ve been possible had Zenit raised their offer. Later on, Milan announced the capture of Riccardo Saponara, the Empoli attacking midfielder / winger who will join Milan in the summer. There was also a big saga that – again – involved Kaka. Milan tried to bring the Real Madrid man for weeks but just couldn’t agree a deal for Kaka, who wanted to return.
The market really started for Milan on January 25th when they announced the signing of Cristian Zaccardo (swapped for Djamel Mesbah) and a day later they sold Francesco Acerbi to Genoa (Milan owned half of him) in exchange for 50% of Kevin Constant who has been impressive this year.
Then the big signing arrived, as promised by Silvio Berlusconi. Milan negotiated with Manchester City for the troublemaking striker Mario Balotelli. City wanted €37 million for him at the start of the window but Milan managed to sign him for €20 million plus €3 million in performances-related bonuses. Balotelli made the fans go nuts; Balo is the most expensive signing Milan have ever made in January.
Milan signed Bartosz Salamon, another talented Serie B player, from Brescia today to close their mercato. In this months, Milan also loaned out Mattia Valoti, Rodney Strasser and Adria Carmona who did not get playing time under Massimiliano Allegri this season and sold 4th choice goalkeeper Ferdinando Coppola.
The market is always a fun time for the fans but now the competition continues and it’s getting harder for Milan who still have to face Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League quarter final in about 20 days.
| Signings | Departures |
|---|---|
| Cristian Zaccardo (31, defender, Parma, swapped) | Alexandre Pato (23, forward, Corinthians, €15m) |
| Riccardo Saponara (21, midfielder, Empoli, €4m) | Djamel Mesbah (28, defender, Parma, swapped) |
| Mario Balotelli (22, forward, Manchester City €20 million) | Rodney Strasser (22, midfielder, Parma, loan) |
| Bartosz Salamon (21, defender, Brescia, €3.5m) | Mattia Valoti (19, midfielder, Albinoleffe, loan) |
| Francesco Acerbi (24, defender, Genoa, swapped) | |
| Ferdinando Coppola (34, goalkeeper, Torino, undisclosed) | |
| Urby Emanuelson (26, midfielder, Fulham, loan) | |
| Adria Carmona (20, midfielder, Real Zaragoza, loan) |
Notes:
* Riccardo Saponara will join Milan in the summer.
* Real Zaragoza have an option to buy Adria Carmona out for €1 million.
* Francesco Acerbi moved to Chievo but Milan originally gave him to Genoa.
Great transfer. No 3 is possible target. Scudetto for next season.
Cool n interesting transfer macheto for @Milan.. Sorry guys,i’ve bn bc lately..
great work by galiani this time compared to summer 2012.
I don’t know what happened to galiani that made him sign good players, maybe he read our comments lol.
It’s sad to see Carmona leave us. I preferred that we didn’t allow the option to buy.
Good mercato on paper,now let’s see how it translate to a brilliant one on the pitch.
Sweet thank jah super mario joins at last hope he Ȋ̝̊̅§ in †ђξ G̶̲̥̅Ơ̴̴̴̴͡.̮Ơ̴̴̴͡D̶̲̥̅ tym ☺ƒ his life cox Ȋ̝̊̅§ like a dream comes tru
NOOO CARMONA OPTION TO BUYYYYY !!??? why -.-
Very average mercato. Once again Milan were cheap & didn’t spend a penny. Balotelli cost 20m but the sacrifice was Pato 15m. Salamon is totally unproven. If he was so great he would’ve gone for a higher price with far more competition. We didn’t clear enough of the deadwood e.g. Traore, Antonini, Flamini etc. Traore will earn 1m+ this year for playing 5 mins of football LOL. No decent CB prospect arrived. How come we let Newcastle get Yanga Mbiwa for 7m despite being obsessed with him over summer? We didn’t need Balotelli. We have 2 of Serie A’s topscorers… Read more »
I couldn’t agree with you more. We also need to get a top class keeper. Our backups, I feel, just wont do that well on a regular basis. Shame about the Yanga Mbiwa deal to Newcastle, he would’ve done great in Italy. Could have played Champions League football too.
You seem to be the few people on here with a brain.
Yes we definitely need a new keeper. Even Perin is better than our 2 clowns.
We won’t make it to third place mark my words.
you carnt make a team in january,
salamon is a great talent, thats why zenit,barcelona and dortmund wanted him, balotelli is world class,zaccardo is ok
@Danrondo,i agree with u..lets see how it happens on the pitch anyway gud mercato..forza milan
Hw i wish kaka join makin 5
Kaka can only make the change on the pitch not Balo
People: Kaka CANNOT come to Milan this January because the market has already ended in Italy. In England it ends in like three hours but Milan cannot, I repeat, cannot make further signings.
Happy with the mercato overall.
A couple of years ago Milan started to buy the most promising youngsters at the age of 15-17 and brought them to Milan. These players were Carmona of Barcelona, Hottor, Zigoni, Strasser, Merkel,Valoti and 2-3 years later these players are leaving Milan as “Not good enough” and Milan buys the most promising youngsters at the age around 20. Conclusion Players stop coming to Milan Primareva `cause you are most likely going to STOP impoving and you`ll be swapped and sold to a Seria B team! Milan should hire QUALITY PEOPLE to Junior level as unlike Barca and Ajax and Dortmund,… Read more »
Cristante? Petagna? Have you forgotten De Sciglio?
It’s not the managements fault if they can’t replicate what they did at their junior level with the first team.
De Sciglio’s generation, two-three seasons ago won the Coppa Italia, for the first time since 25 years back by then, now it’s 27-28 years ago.
That was when Maldini was just being integrated into the squad with Costacurta, Albertini and Baresi already playing.
Cristante, Petagna are not getting any first team play. De Sciglio does and he is good no question about that but Carmona used to be one of the best in Barca Junior and his talent seems wasted. It is Managements fault that they cannot improve the same way as other youngsters in smaller teams. look at Icardi. He plays regularly while Ganz never! Or look at Rooney, C Ronaldo, Messi, Zlatan, Fabregas. They all got the chance to shine and they grew to be great players while in Milan it is ruther Traore, Ambrosini and Yepes are the ones that… Read more »
Great mercato 4 january . An anchor n some1 to support pazzini . We didnt clear out evri1 but i wil wait til summer
Dude it is evriwhere not only milan . Inter juve n napoli are worse dan we are . Look at madrid chelsea even arsenal . They hardly have homegrowns . Barca n to an extent bayern are d exception not d rule .
well in general its only their job to provide the club with the neccesary players. but the fact that i was expecting the usual garbage out-garbage inn.. i have to say A SUCESSFULL WINTER. well u have to be pleased when mesbah and acerbi are gone who where very threatening in that team. thank you managent and yes keep it up. forzaa milan!!
Forza Ragazzi!
Ajax is a sellin club . Not all hyped players make it n big teams have to win . So they buy ready mades
kaka kaka kaka is there no other mildfielder- lampard, ozil swastegar.new players coming means more playing time b4 much understanding be4 winning.so dont expect good games for 2 to 3 matches.
interesting window, Pato was my favourite player but I understand with all the injuries I just wish they’d loaned him. I’m also an Emanuelson fan and easily prefer him to Flamini, Nocerino or Boateng so sorry to see him go too. Obviously love the Balotelli signing though and Saponara. Acerbi and Mesbah leaving are basically singings too! But we shouldn’t be led to believe Milan have made this huge investment when we’ve only spent about 5m net
Good mercato.
Whoever doesn’t appreciate the management’s effort in this transfer window should go to court. I’ve said it before that some people will never get over their never satisfied attitude. Milan have made the best signings OBTAINABLE. Should Galiani kill himself for you? Kaka or no Kaka, Milan have tried and Madrid have said NO and Milan have spent so wisely. Go support Inter if you are not satisfied
We didn’t get that creative Midfielder that we so desperately need, or that stud CB to help that (Average-mediocre) defensive line. We will suffer a lot vs Barza.
plz guy let us b satisfy wit wat d management has done,kaka or no kaka shud nt cause prob.d management knw beta dan us,infact d caoch knws beta.forza G nd B nd lastly forza d trio nd milan
U are a lier just 4get dat.
Now milan are in an interesting season the main target now is to have a champions league spot and i believe we can with the likes of el shaarawy,m’niang,balo,montolivo,de scilio robinho,boateng,de jong,abate,mexes,and the all other players
U guys will never be satisfy, why?!!! I think this is absurd
Forza! What we needed,was what we purchase. Please,learn how to appreciate and wish them succes7
Pretty good transfer market. I don’t think we are at the level of Juve or Napoli though. Yes we have a good attack, but we have nobody to replace Montolivo. Defense and high balls are still our weakest points. I still don’t know how ready Salamon is for the first team or if he’s someone that will need the next 6 months to get used to the team and how we play. It’s a shame Nesta left, Salamon would have learned a lot. Theoretically, we are much stronger than earlier and we should be able to fight for 3rd place…… Read more »
I think this was a very good mercato, got rid of some deadweight. Even though I would’ve prefered to see Didac leave as well, as he’ll probably not get playing time, even though he’s injured now…and seeing Traoré leave more than Urby…I don’t mean to be rude towards him but…i don’t know, maybe he’ll come good.
Good news with Salamon, that he’ll play as a defender, I checked him out a little, and his physique is definitely more suited to play as a centre back than a central midfielder.
Dissapointed that Kaka never came, although I am sure he will return in the summer this time for sure as the world cup is next year so he will defo want first team football. Overall this mercato was GOOD but could have been one of the best ever if Kaka came back! But yeh pleased overall 🙂
Well done Galliani (and Raiola) No player who can play in the UCL could make a difference against Barcelona (Kaka, M’biwa, Balotelli can’t play in UCL this season as they have already represented Madrid, Montpellier and City respectively in the UCl) Finally Mesbah is not a Milanista, Acerbi didn’t convince, anyways his contract is with Genoa so we can buy in the future easily if he rediscovers his form, he was just too slow for Milan. Balotelli will score. Zaccardo is a proven Serie A player and will surprise a lot (don’t expect anything against Barca). Saponara and Salomon are… Read more »
gallianisux wat of if we make it ar u goin 2 leave dis blog 4 us,y do pple nt knw hw 2 apreciate sumtin.let luk at barca,amelia is beta dan valdes nd pinto nd u luk at dia defend i do nt c different 4rm our.wat dey beliv is d best way 2 defend is to attack nd dat wat our management ar doin.so go sleep buh
I concur with @Milanista121 on the Urby issue. Traore obviously won’t get much playin time, He should have been loaned instead of Urby but anyways let’s hope he’ll cone out good too.
@Gallianisux If we don’t make it to the third place, You’ll be the MOST HAPPIEST MAN on earth, Yea? And then you’ll throw a big party to celebrate it as a “Milanista” that you are.
You don’t deserve to be here.
yes oooo,maybe a nerazurro!hahaha
In Summer,we must bring Ogbohna,Santon,Perin and one of Bellomo/Jorginho/Obiang/Benasi.
I d prefer bellomo or jorginho…forza milan
does of u who blame b&g for not signing kaka should use ur own personel money and sign him urself and those people dat say milan will not qualify in ucl u beta go hug transformer.
Isaiah just made it clear. Galianisux pls go 2 d nearest transformer b/c soon dis season we wil b in 3rd and even contest 4 d title
milan we gualify.gr8t signin 4za milan
Gianmarco comi(8goals) impressive. Our future forward. Berreta(8goals) also, but we already sold him to genoa if I don’t mistaken. I searching for they performance statistic also for other youngster from our primavera and of course saponara, and I found empoli try saponara in d 3 position its rm, lm, am. In AM position he owns it and empoli start d good run.
good effort made by two idol B/G in dis january but wy are u forget about goal keeper so let wait nd see barcer down us by ten goal to two.nd then wait to three year to see our team back on top.
More than 5000 official Milan shirts with Balotelli have been sold.
Goal keeping position is not a priority for now. We aleady have three GK which include the young gabriel. What the priority is has been solved by the club. A CF and a towering CB/DM. As for AM position, Borjan can be played there if the need be. Even GDS rated our transfer activity as the best and no one should exect that we will just get there within a twinkle of an eye. Mastour and Sanporana will join next summer and that will bring a lot of creativity to our midfield. The only thing that this team needs now… Read more »
dat question is for allegri not d mgt i tink allegri has some explanation for dat