[Danny]

It's difficult to know where to begin.

I know we have not dominated Serie A in the past decade, but we always had a team which was there or there abouts in the top 3 or better. Many second place finishes, a couple of Scudettos, and 2 CL finals including one victory.

It may not have been Sacchi's Milan, but it was respected and feared and had taken out Man Utd more than once.

Legends like Kaka, Shevchenko, Nesta, Maldini, Dida, Cafu, Seedorf - integral parts over the years of making Milan great. Maybe not a total European dominating powerhouse, but great.

Now look at us.

A summer of selling off the prized assets following previous summers of similar behaviour, and we're left with a squad which isn't even an average quality Serie A squad.

Our best player, in the right circumstances, is Kevin Prince Boateng - but with this makeshift squad around him he's lost. Pato's as fragile as glass and hopes are low he can ever achieve a sustained run - but that's the best we've got.

Midfield is chock a block full of average players - the generally decent Montolivo has clearly caught 'Milanitis' and he too was woeful on his debut. Just like the rest of the team.

But the issue is not that these players are underperforming - THIS is the quality of the squad. You get what you pay for, and we got Monto for free. There's Zapata, ignored, there's Pazzini, barely used, there's Constant - why was he brought on?

We have a decent Dutchman in Emanuelson but he is no Seedorf and never will be.

We're left with poor to average to decent as the whole squad - and the manager has no idea what to do with them.

Yepes was our best performer yesterday - that gives some idea of where this team is.

Unless the chequebook is brought out between now and the 31st, and we buy at least 6 high quality players, this team will crash and burn into utter oblivion.

Morale is on the floor, and I am almost fearing we might end up in a relegation battle this year.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this, articulating one's thoughts is not easy.

[Rossoneri7]

I think the management made it clear that this is the start of a new era. There's no point of getting our hopes up because obviously we won't be competitive this season.

This I have to agree with. There is a lot of resentment around and I don't blame anyone one bit.

Sometimes, in the back of my head, I believe that come August 31st and we will have a competitive team again. And that would probably coincide with the belief of every Milan fan. As if it is impossible to have a team of such poor quality, as we do now.

Then again, we have posts like yours that keep our feet on the ground and accepting an inevitable, hoping only for a more competitive Milan in two or three seasons down the line when this new era you talk about starts to gel and become a team of its own.


That said, and with Fillipo's post on the 'Then/Now' ... Looking at this team, after the marvels that played in this stadium, almost like watching Siena vs Messina nowadays (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif)