Nope...initially he was a mercenary. But then I agreed to support Villa for the season,and got myself a recruit.

Aha, that figures. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) Besides mercenaries are sexy!

Not true IMO. it was Kaka who became our key player after Sheva left.

Yeah, but that wasn't the plan. Kaka was to replace Rui, and Gila to take on Sheva's scoring duties, till they could bring in a Sheva replacement.

Yes but it was Gila that would become our new goal-scorer.

Both arguments have their strengths, but in my opinion not many people looked up as Gila to be our savior, or the best player in the team (as Sheva was). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) How can a 20 something lead an attack of a club like Milan? We should have brought in another established striker like in the mold of Drogba, RVN, etc to partner him upfront.

Sheva was 30 something, while Gila just turned 20 a couple of years back, and to have expected him to be our attack leader was too much to as of the lad, irrespective of what he's done at his previous club. Kaka was a natural successor to Sheva. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Replacement for Rui Costa and all. He just had to become the face of the club after Sheva. Gila was just another striker. We expected too much of him. And it didn't help things he couldn't deliver even half of it.

Difference between goal-scorer and attack leader. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) Our new goal-scorer is Pato, while in no way is he our attack leader, someone who takes things by the neck when the going gets tough. Sheva was both. So was Ronaldo, pity it had to end the way it did for them both.

Yes it's different, that's not what I'm saying... Gila was the man that was supposed take over the goal-scoring duties when Sheva left... the thing is, our midfield was all crap and they could not create a single chance for him plus our defense was in bad shape and we were always under pressure... but it was Gila who always got the blame, even when he was not playing...

What!? Are you coming onto me!? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

We did bring in a Sheva replacement: that Oliviera guy.

He was a "supposed" replacement. We all knew he could never dream to match Sheva's ability.

Gila was made a scapegoat for our failures in the last two seasons. Some of the criticism was deserved but quite a bit wasnt, for example Inzaghi and Olivera had appalling goal droughts but no one ever said anything of Inzaghi (Olivera was rightly crucified by many people here, me especially)

Tennie is right to an extent, i feel that Gila couldnt handle the pressure, but some blame must be attributed to Ancelotti, after Sheva left he made no attempt to modify his tactics slightly to accomodate Gila. Gila was expected to do everything himself like Sheva which he was not capable of, he mostly had to feed of scraps till Ronaldo came, when he did his scoring ratio improved significantly. Gila needed plenty of support from a Trequartista and SS, but that rarely happened, mostly he recieved poor service from the Xmas tree formation

True as true could be. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif) It will be a new season for Gila too, so I'll be keeping an eye on him to see how he has changed, if any. Milan was too big for him. Just as Napoli was too small for Maradonna.

Are you serious? how can you forget so many sitters he missed in his last two seasons? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

There was no doubting that he missed alot of chances, and since his job is to score, he did a bad job. But I would find it very, very difficult to find somebody who did a good job last season. You could argue a case for Ambro, but he was the best of a very poor group of players.

That was one in three matches... in most matches our creativity was zero!