Gennaro Gattuso spoke about the new signings, said that the squad is 90% complete right now, and that he is fascinated by Barcelona’s mentality.
The first match of the Milan season is on August 19 against Genoa at Stadio San Siro, but at the moment they are still in the United States, and on the night between Saturday and Sunday, they face Barcelona at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara (02:05 CEST / Italian time kickoff).
Gennaro Gattuso will be without new signings Mattia Caldara, 24-year-old defender, and Gonzalo Higuain, 30-year-old striker, for this match, but will still look to finally get a win on the USA Tour after losing to Manchester United on penalties (after 1-1 in 90 minutes) and losing to Tottenham 1-0.
“The arrivals of Caldara and Higuain? I’m happy, important players have arrived,” the Rossoneri boss told reporters at Levi’s Stadium. “Mattia is an interesting young man, while we all know Gonzalo, but we are a team. We have to make them feel at home and make them understand how we are in this group. Then, I’m sure they’ll give us a hand to do an important season.
“Higuain? He doesn’t push me to change the formation. The base will be 4-3-3 but it is not excluded that you can go looking for something else. I was expecting the club to do something. I talked a lot with Higuain as I did with other players in recent months. For us, it must be a reason for pride.
“I saw the charm of Milan first hand: when you talk to players, nobody tells you that he doesn’t want to come. It’s a club with great history and organization. We passed through 4-5 years where there was no continuity, but I think with this team and these young players, and players like Higuain and Caldara, we can do well. This is a team that wants to work and doesn’t give up anything.
“Pipita can make us jump in quality. The market? Let’s see… the mercato ends on August 17. We are 90% complete, we are starting to be many and the club’s task is also to thin out the squad. We’ll see what happens in the last days. Perhaps the only role where we need a reinforcement is the midfield.
“If the level objectives can be raised? When you wear the Milan shirt, the objectives are always important. I know the difficulties we can have, we must not forget what we did last year. We had two good matches here [in the USA] and the condition seems good, but we must not be content with the performance. I saw it first-hand last year. I prefer to play in a less tidy way and get the result.
“Against Tottenham we had 5-6 clear chances and then we lost the game [due to an individual mistake from Davide Calabria]. The regret is that in the last two friendly matches we weren’t able to give the final blow to win the games. It’s an aspect that we certainly must improve.
“The game against Barcelona? I’m very fascinated by their mentality. Seeing boys of 16, 17 and 18 years of age, who immediately put forward their method of play, is beautiful. We understand why we can’t copy it, you can’t copy and paste, there is work behind it. The men who interpret it change, but the type of game remains the same and it is great to see young boys from 1997 to 2000 playing in that way. I expect a very difficult game and that the line of defense will have a lot to work on. It will be a challenging test and I want to see a team that is not afraid to play. It will be difficult to get out of their pressure, I want to see greet personality when we play the ball.
“Arturo Vidal’s arrival at Barcelona? Who doesn’t like Vidal? When I played against him, he was a car, he never gave up. He combines quality and quantity. If Barcelona signed him, then these are the reasons. In modern football, you need quantity, it’s not enough to know how to play football. We had thought about him, but we have the stakes of the FFP, we can’t afford him.
“Ronaldo at Juventus? After the many problems that Calcio has had, his purchase has been something incredible and it is not coincidence that now they’re also talking about Luka Modrić [linked with Inter]. For our system, it was a very important signing that can make us [Calcio] jump in quality.”
After the match against Barcelona, Milan will head back to Italy. Before the Serie A opener, the Rossoneri will also face Real Madrid for the Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu on August 11.
Although the addition in the Mid is important, a Winger is just as important, this team still lacks pace and if we have Suso on one side then we definitely need a speedster on the other, it will change our dynamic. Bernard is obviously a good option, he is free and so without any risk, in mid we have already missed out on Max Meyer to crystal palace, i dont want the same to happen to bernard, ive read that West Ham are interested in him.
Are you even listening what you are saying? We lost out on Meyer to Crystal Palace?!
How can you as Milan even loose out on such mediocre player who joins an almost relegated team?! Man…. Pffff…. Your the same level of Mirabelli. Maybe we lost also out on Zaza…. Pfff….
Maybe Meyer wasn’t even considered by Milan and Rino?
Modric to Inter? Please God no
I’d give my left nut to have him with us he’s the best playmaker and dictator of games since Pirlo and arguably even better
Leonardo please sell who ever is needed to raise funds and get involved in signing him
Can you imagine how much better he’d make us??
Meyer was an option due to our ffp issues, kudos to Leo for pulling off the Higuain-Caldara miracle but i doubt the same kind of thing can happen again in this transfer window, i hear the SMS rumors but i dont believe much in them since Gattuso already said that Vidal was considered but wasnt affordable, so all things considered the players we get are probably going to be on Meyer’s or perhaps slightly better, in any case the tight budget doesnt leave too many options.
The thing is, if Elliott want him, they can get him and if anybody can exploit some loophole in the ffp rules, it’s them. At this point SMS is just a dream though but maybe there really is some interest on our part. Afterall most big transfers in the league this season started as a silly rumour. Ronaldo, Higuain/Caldara, Modric (I know he hasn’t signed but what a surprise it was reading that rumour, before the interest was confirmed). I am optimistically pessimistic lol.
@Demogorgon
We didnt loose out on meyer. I am from germany and i follow the Bundesliga very closely. And i can say that meyer is absolutely overrated. He was never a regular in Schalke plus he earns 10 mil per season. I dont understand People who are bitching around because of not gettin that guy
lol I never talked about Meyer, not once. & I agree with you.
Meyer was option when Mirabelli was director. However with Leonardo, he wants to make statement that Milan is still great club. He pulled off with Caldara and Higuain. Now he even wants to pull something bigger, Milinkovic-Savic. Same way as he did with Higuain, only in this case Bonaventura would go to Lazio. Thats how champions do. Then there is Kovacic and Rabiot as options.
Exactly. I read that online and he can pull that off I am 100% confident that we can do well this season if we get Milinkovic-Savic whose value has fallen due to his sub-par World Cup performance.
Let’s be honest, to everyone else in the world SMS’s value has dropped. But one man who doesn’t except that is lotito lol and that will always be the problem with that madman as president.
Haha yeah that guy is a stubborn sob. But he would rather SMS join us than Juve, no doubt.
You know what the most beautiful thing about that is? Not that we’re just linked to SMS, but that the alternatives are KOVACIC and RABIOT. It’s not like in the past where we look for Mr X and end up with Aquilani (even though I rated him pretty high before he joined, but not at their level). We’ll see if any of them will join though. I read something that Bona might go in exchange + money for SMS, but I think that would be a mistake. Or, of course it would be nice to have SMS, but if SMS… Read more »
Agreed bro. But I think it will still be worth it if we send Bonaventura. Definitely we will not have as much depth but this is SMS!! The jump up in quality more than makes up for it, if there was a way to have both it would be awesome but unfortunately there is the financial aspect to consider. Most people think ffp takes the entire transfer fee into consideration for a year but that’s not the case. They take the amortisation value. Like say we buy SMS for initial loan 40m + 80m option next season. We will be… Read more »
But remember when we were searching for Mr X the names of Verratti, Nainggolan, Fellaini, Hamsik and Witsel were mentioned
A winger (on the left) is the most important position we need to fill, assuming we stick with 4-3-3. Hakan can play more centrally as he should (although it’s a big challenge for him to really shine there), and with a proper LW we will have good triplet in LW-Hakan-Suso behind pepita, with Jack and to a lesser degree Halilovich as sub.
Bernard is a decent option, I also would try again for Delafeou at a cheap price if available. But if we have the cash, or can strike a loan+maybe-buy-later deal, then Memphis should be our #1 target.
We need another competent attacker to complement Higuain. We shouldn’t pressure Higuain with the task to getting to the next level.
God forbid he gets injured.
I would love to see Carlos Bacca play this complementary role but he wants to leave
I like to see Bacca stay, but unfortunately it’s gonna mean Kalinic and one of either Silva or Cutrone leaves too
I definitely think that Cutro is untouchable, at least for this window. But the rest are in the danger zone.
Rhino try and give chance to the young stars especially Mauri an Halilovic let see what they offer + Strinic… Actually don’t know why he isn’t giving Silva a start don’t pray fall bad things if Cutrone gets injure won’t he use Silva, remember this guy full senior international treating him like that is uncall for, hope Silva find a team who believe in him cause his not appreciated here, how i wish Klopp or PEP is our coach.
albeit off topic, i just read Leonardo wants lazio midfielder for $120mil , if milan has that kind of cash, milan should not spend it on one player, milan should get depay, rabiot, Bernard, etc
I think we should give Silva 1 more season to prove himself, he can be used in europa as a starter n in series A from bench, I believe he will shine if we use him this way this season…….sell bacca, kalinic,monto, berto, immediately……..bring Bernard ASAP…….. if we play 4 3 3 then we need Rabiot/Kovacic, it would be superb if Leo can make an exchange of Berto + Monto for N.Barella of cagliari………………. go ahead dear Leonardo….. Forza Milan
Oh my, I’m loving this Leo by the day, he seems to know how to dribble around deals considering our FFP predicament, if the Milinkovic-Savic deal materialise I’m gonna pull my hats off for this man. However like @guy said above, Milinkovic-Savic, Depay and Bernard, and I tell you we are good, I don’t really think Rabiot deal real, I don’t see him leaving PSG for us now. I’m so loving this marceto. I think Juventus signing CR7 made raised the bar, I can see good response from Serie A top teams. I think this management is going all in… Read more »
I agree 100%.
Good comment mate! My ranking of the players linked would be:
1. SMS
2. Kovacic
3. Rabiot.
Benefit with Kovacic and Rabiot is that we might be able to afford a winger like Depay as you mentioned. But I think the priority should be to improve the midfield, and if we have a chance to sign SMS we should take it. Just imagine facing a midfield of SMS and Kessie, with the elegance of Loca/Biglia. A wet dream I tell ya!
@Milanista121
That midfield would be awesome I tell you.
We hope for the best
What a coincidence!!!
Years ago, our set back started after our coach Allegri sold our best defender/attacker that is T. Silva/Ibrahimovic to psg through intervention of Leonardo wen he was sporting director to psg, now same Allegri sold both Higuain/caldera to us through intervention of Leonardo, hope diz just a sign of victory n new era
@Milanista121
That midfield would be awesome I tell you.
We hope for the best