Mercato Team (Ausilio, Marotta, & Co.) and Strategies

NimAraya said:

I keep Correa as the 5th forward. If we can't find him a suitor, better keep him and let him runs out his contract. He might be useful on few occasions.

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YoramG said:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788189615997743279

Ausilio saying that if he had known ahead of time what Lukaku was planning, he would have kept Dzeko on and Thuram would have arrived regardless.

Makes me feel sick that if Lukaku hadn’t been his usual twat self and just communicated honestly we would have avoided Arnautovic and kept Dzeko with appropriate cover so he doesn’t die on the pitch by February.

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ADRossi said:

I'm also positive that Inzaghi would have started Dzeko over Thuram for most of the season. Lukaku screwed us, but management didn't need to panic buy Arnautovic.

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YoramG said:

A definite possibility. Inzaghi has made big improvements in many areas, but him playing favourites deffo remains an issue.

I would like to think that with Thuram’s devastating form at the start of the season he would basically have been forced to drop Dzeko.

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CafeCordoba said:

Are there a coach who isn't using their favourites? That's literally the definition of favourite, someone who is preferred, who one likes over the others. So obviously the favourites play, for every coach.

Dzeko in this team on top of Lautaro and Thuram would have been massive. Thuram would have got his fare share of playing time as he would have shown his capabilities anyway.

Even with the current team, it didn't go too bad (almost 20p lead to the 2nd, Scudetto in the bag after round 32).

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brehme1989 said:

Need to go:
Correa (ffs)
Sanchez (his speech suggests he's out in the summer)
Agoume (no spot for him)
Sensi (constantly unfit)
Cuadrado (no comment)
Audero (no reason to redeem him)
Klaassen (never made sense)
Radu (Bournemouth won't exercise the option)

Expendables
Dumfries (mostly to finance other moves, otherwise I'm okay with him staying, mostly because we'd need to buy two players in that position)
Arnautovic (would be hard to get a deal that doesn't fuck our books, wouldn't mind him staying as 5th option)
Asllani (loan or used as a piece for an upgrade, ie Colpani or another attempt to land Samardzic)
Buchanan (needs to go on loan to a Serie A team to get adjusted to the league. And find his position)
Bisseck (only for a loan move, would want to see him play more next season)
De Vrij (only if he truly wants out, otherwise I'd keep him around)
S. Esposito (loan or sell somewhere)
F. Esposito (another loan is warranted)
V. Carboni (I want to keep him and use him next season, but he's expendable unfortunately and could help us finance the summer budget)
F. Carboni (definitely out for a loan as there's no spot for him here with Dimarco and Carlos Augusto, but if we don't sign a backup LCB maybe we can use him as a last resort option to field Augusto as LCB more permanently)
Fontanarosa (needs to be loaned again, not doing great at Cosenza)


Assuming we can offload Correa (lol), Asllani (12m?), Agoume (8m?) and De Vrij (5m?) and we loan out Buchanan plus we let everyone else go, we're going to receive ~30m in transfer revenues to play with in the market and save ~30m in salaries [excluding Correa who's not included in this season's budget]
Then if we manage to offload Radu, sell Esposito, Salcedo, Satriano, Oristanio and Vanheusden, we can genuinely add another 25m, since at least Satriano and Oristanio can fetch us 8m each iirc.

We'd basically need a backup RWB, where we can actually recall Zanotti who should be able to be useful in a rotation with Dumfries and Darmian there, so exposure will be limited and controlled.
For backup GK, if Bento is not coming - and even if he is, I assume we'll loan him to some midtable Serie A team - I'd give Filip Stankovic a promotion to 2nd spot. He's good enough to play in some Coppa games, but the problem is that it's too early to tell if he can step up if Sommer gets injured for a run of few games.
There are a few decent GKs with expiring deals that we can consider. Outside Meret of course who I've no idea where he's going.
Ospina for one would probably like to be part of a great club in Europe before retiring. There's Matthew Ryan who I believe we tried to get in the past as backup. Keylor Navas may be another option for this role. There's Muslera and Consigli from other veterans and of course Diletta's boyfriend, Karius, should be open to a move to Serie A.
As long as Sommer is fit, we won't need anyone special backing him up, but at least someone serviceable that is better than Audero is required. And unfortunately, everyone I mention above is.

On the new midfielder, Colpani and Samardzic are sound options. I'd go for Colpani though, first of all because the toxicity that Samardzic's entourage brought might come around and bite us within the next 24 months if he's our player, and I think Colpani is a better Mkhitaryan replacement. Samardzic shares a lot of traits with Colpani, but also with Zielinski. I think Zielinski will be used a lot more in Hakan's role as well.
If they want something like 25m for him, Id' give them 15m + Asllani. I fear it'll be a lot more once the mercato opens and they see the crazy prices going around.
If we cannot land Colpani, I'd recall Fabbian.

Then we have a potential De Vrij sale, that'd open up a new CCB spot. We are onto Buongiorno, who's a solid option, but the demands are excessive. Perhaps we could throw in Carboni and get Fabbian back with our clause and add him there as well, to lower the transaction costs, whilst keeping return clauses open. But if Juric leaves, I'm not so sure it'd be a great idea to send the kids there. Bologna without Thiago Motta is also a question mark. And I wouldn't use Carboni for Colpani. I'd send Carboni to a higher pressure environment to "man up" and be ready for a Scudetto fighting attitude. Whether that's in a top 3 Portuguese side or top 3 Dutch side where he can showcase his offensive talent, or just a bigger Serie A side with demanding fans (Fiorentina, Lazio, Roma etc) is up to the management. I just don't want to see him waste another season in a club settled for mediocrity.

Then Sanchez is leaving, and we've already concluded the deal with Taremi. The club sees something in him, I don't know. He's talented for sure, he can score and create, but moving to a new league that's not typically carved open like the Portuguese league, or the low quality of most of the Asian national teams, is something risky. He has a good record in Europe, so that's at least a good sign. Not sure what to expect from him, but we're paying good money to have him over, so he better deliver.

I wouldn't consider Arnautovic leaving us. He loves it here, has no reason to leave, has already left Europe for money and came back so he got that out of his system and there's no Saudi clubs giving him money he cannot refuse lined up, so we're stuck with him next season as well and hopefully he has something to say at Piazza Duomo ~360 days from now.

So with ~50m to spend based on sales plus some assets to transfer, I reckon we can get both Colpani and Buongiorno. Not sure if that means no Bento, though. I'd honestly like to see him here, but we may use a Julio Cesar formula and get another club to have him while we settle for a year with a veteran we sign on a free.
If we also sell Dumfries, then that figure goes much higher, but I have no idea who we're looking at for the starting RWB spot.


So team could look like this:
GK
Sommer
veteran GK or Bento
Di Gennaro [club trained]

DF
Pavard
Bastoni [FIGC trained]
Acerbi [FIGC trained]
Buongiorno [FIGC trained]
Bisseck
Darmian [FIGC trained]
Carlos Augusto

WB
Dimarco [club trained]
Dumfries
Carlos Augusto
Zanotti [club trained]
Darmian

MC
Barella [FIGC trained]
Calhanoglu
Mkhitaryan
Zielinski [FIGC trained]
Frattesi [FIGC trained]
Colpani [FIGC trained]

FW
Lautaro Martinez
Thuram
Taremi
Arnautovic


so we won't have issues with the UEFA list either. And there's space for at least one more player, two if it's a club trained one like Valentin Carboni or Fabbian. Or Esposito maybe as 5th choice striker since I doubt we'll be pushing for another.

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vex said:

Ausilio doesn't seem too optimistic about buongiorno judging by that interview.

Here's the quote: No, no immediate exits are planned in defensive department because no one asked us to leave. We're in a good place like this, we have strong players, if the old players are like Acerbi and Darmian I'll keep them for life. They are crazy professionals, an example for everyone else. Then as sports director I can't say that I don't like Buongiorno, I like him a lot. But I can't take them all."

He had similar feelings of content about the upcoming mercato as well, which is understandable given the team we have. But I also don't want us to be in the situation like in 2010 when we won everything and then did fuck all during the summer thinking the team is good enough.

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