Klaas-Jan Huntelaar zu Milan

[MILANISTA]

Meinungen zum KJH-Deal:

Goal.com Worldview: Klaas Jan Huntelaar To Milan – Top Or Flop?

Finally Milan fans have something to smile about. Or do they? After a summer of doom and gloom, during which the Italian giants sold star man Kaka to Real Madrid, lost eternal legend and captain Paolo Maldini to retirement, and saw long-term coach Carlo Ancelotti move to Chelsea and replaced by rookie Leonardo – not to mention the collapse of Aly Cissokho’s transfer from Porto – Milan finally made their move on the transfer market with the signing of Real Madrid striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar for a reported €15 million.

Milan have been written off in many quarters, but will the purchase of Huntelaar help them challenge this season for major honours? A selection of Goal.com editors from around the world have their say on whether the 25-year-old will be a Top or Flop…

Ewan Macdonald (Goal.com International): It's good for Huntelaar, who will always be a decent enough poacher, but is it good for Milan? He is clearly and abundantly a distant third choice after Dzeko and Fabiano, they've spent €15m on him, and he's also a guy who was rejected by Real Madrid after just six months. He is in every sense a cast-off.

When I was growing up Milan wouldn't have been seen dead signing another team's nobody. Now it's expected of them. Very sad.

Francois Duchateau (Goal.com France): I saw ‘The Hunter’ a lot at Ajax, and I'm sure he will be the next Marco van Basten at Milan. Mark my words. Now he has a club that counts on him. I'm happy he didn’t go to Stutgart. He will be the next star in Italy, after the exit of Ibrahimovic.

Sergio Stanco (Goal.com Italy): He is not the forward that Milan are looking for. For years Ancelotti said that Milan needed a big player, who will be able to hold the attack, to open the defence and so on. Leonardo asked the same, and Dzeko, Luis Fabiano and even Claudio Pizarro are these kind of players.

Is Huntelaar the same? Not in my opinion, he's just a goalscorer, a younger Pippo Inzaghi. My impression? Leonardo said: “I need a forward”, Berlusconi answered “You have €15m”, and Adriano Galliani took the only good striker on the market at that price. We'll see if he's the right player.

Tommy Vaneldik (Goal.com Netherlands): Huntelaar is one of the best finishers in football at this moment. He's definitely a good addition to the Milan squad. He showed that at Ajax, and also in the Dutch national team and the youths that won the European Championship in Portugal in 2006. The fact that Real Madrid don't want him anymore is not the fault of Huntelaar, but of Real. The way this club is governed is a joke. They buy a striker for a huge bag of euros and six months later this guy isn't even good enough to get a squad number? Unbelievable!

His statistics at Real weren't that bad last season (20 games, 8 goals in La Liga) and if they would have given him a chance he could have become a good player at Real. But instead they throw players and coaches away like garbage and just buy new ones. And if they have a couple of bad games the same thing starts again and this will happen over and over again. Is it just a coincidence that the last European successes of Real Madrid were during the era of Vicente del Bosque, a coach who was allowed to stay for more than year and had the opportunity to build something up? And what about the way he was sacked?

Milan can be happy about their new striker. In addition, this could be very good for the image of the Serie A in the Netherlands. Finally a Dutch player with a big name is going to play in Italy (with the exception of Clarence Seedorf, which is a very different and complicated story...) and that's very important. The way Dutch football lovers look at the Serie A at this moment is not very positive. They all prefer the Premier League and La Liga over here and even the Bundesliga is more popular. So, a good Dutch role model is very good for the perception of the Italian League in the Netherlands. And the way Real Madrid treat Huntelaar (and the other players like Rafael van der Vaart and Michel Salgado) is a total disgrace!

Carlo Garganese (Goal.com International): Huntelaar reminds me very much of a young David Trezeguet, and if the supply is good you would expect him to score a lot of goals. If the supply is bad, he may be anonymous. Whether he will prove to be the "world class" striker that Berlusconi promised remains to be seen. Although he scored goals galore in Holland, he is still relatively unproven in a big league after his short term experience in Spain, so we won't know for sure until Serie A kicks off.

What I do believe though is that the blend between Huntelaar and Pato in attack is good. As ‘types’ they will compliment each other very well. Much will depend on how Ronaldinho does, and if he can feed Klaas. Whatever the outcome, the signing of Huntelaar is not enough - Milan still need a midfielder and a full back, and if they don't buy them this season could still be very rough.

It is a good first step, but Milan still need more.

André Baibich (Goal.com Brazil): I think Huntelaar is a good signing for the €15m that Milan wanted to spend on a new centre forward. He has the talent to blossom with the opportunity of playing frequently, something he didn't have at Madrid. For me, it's a step down in quality if you compare him to Luis Fabiano, but he still is a fine player. Nevertheless, I agree with Carlo when he says it's not enough. A creative midfielder is urgent to replace Kaka. Milan can't rely on an improbable Ronaldinho recovery.

goal.com

[Wuifal]

Mein Wunschstürmer schon den ganzen Sommer über - der Angriff kann sich jetzt sehen lassen, vor allem wenn man noch Pippo in der Hinterhand hat. Jetzt freu ich mich umso mehr auf die SerieA und das Derby gleich zu Beginn - wenn man jetzt wirklich noch einen Snejder bzw einen ähnlichen Typen an Land ziehen könnte, bin ich zufrieden.

[MILANISTA]

A.C. MILAN OFFICIAL NOTE

8/7/2009

After successfully undergoing the medical visits, Klaas Jan Huntelaar is officially a Milan player. The Dutch striker has signed a contract that will keep him at the club until 30 June 2013. All of the Milan family give Huntelaar a warm welcome. Klaas is Dutch, as are some of the sweetest memories of the entire Milan history of the last 23 years.

Weitere Transfers sollen folgen!...

[ringhio]

mir ist er auf alle fälle lieber als luis fabiano. nicht nur wegen des alters.

l. fabiano hat nur beim confed cup richtig aufgezeigt, er macht zwar auch recht viele tore, aber die quote von huntelaar beeindruckt mich einfach mehr. zuerst zwar "nur" in holland aber 8 tore in 20 spielen, teilweise von der bank, in der primera div sind auch nicht schlecht.

er ist in holland über fast 3 jahre wirklich der beste goalgetter gewesen, ibra hat der schritt nach italien zu einem der besten der welt gemacht. wenn huntelaar sich an den italienischen fußball anpassen kann, glaube ich, dass er auch zur weltspitze vorstoßen kann!

eigentlich ist er mir auch lieber als dzeko. der muss für mich erst noch mal so eine saison hinlegen, dass er die kolportierten 30mio wirklich wert ist!

bearbeitet 7. August 2009 von ringhio