Galliani: 'No Honda unless...'

By Football Italia staff

Milan chief Adriano Galliani asks for help from sponsors over Keisuke Honda and tells Robinho he "is a new signing.”

The Vice-President spoke to Sky Sport Italia on the beach at Forte dei Marmi, where he is continuing to do business for the club.

It has been widely reported that the Rossoneri sent a delegation for talks with CSKA Moscow in order to bring Honda over immediately rather than wait until he becomes a free agent in January.

“Unless there is an external intervention, such as from one of his sponsors, Honda will only arrive in January,” declared Galliani.

“The player’s entourage, including his brother, are in Moscow to discuss the move to Milan, but only because he is out of contract on December 31. CSKA are a rich club who asked for a lot of money to release him early, so it seems difficult for us to meet their demands unless a sponsor contributes.”

The Rossoneri transfer guru also stated there will be no new strikers this season. Robinho has signed a contract extension with Milan after his move to Santos faltered.

“Robinho agreed to cut his wages and extended the contract. I told him ‘you didn’t do much last season, so you are basically a new signing and have to prove what you can do.’

“It’s not that Robinho wanted to leave Milan, he just wanted a return to his ‘home’ Santos, but as it wasn’t possible we all decided to begin again.

“I think we have a squad that is very competitive and covered in all positions. If someone were to leave, then we would bring in a replacement, but we believe this team is able to finish on the Serie A podium.”

Galliani also suggested reports of Napoli’s interest in Zlatan Ibrahimovic are “impossible,” while does not regret losing Carlos Tevez to Juventus. “If we’d had Tevez, then we would not now have Mario Balotelli.”

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