[Danny]

Every club has this, but as we know, Milan are not every club.

Basically the most illustrious teams in any club's history are usually what fans would describe as a class befitting the club's name. The standard they expect.

For Barca they will always expect Messi/Iniesta/Xavi/Ronaldinho/Eto'o type quality. Won't settle for less now. Man Utd expect Giggs, Van Persie, Ferdinand etc.

For us it's clearly the quality of Maldini, Baresi, Boban, Pirlo, old Kaka, Gullit, MVB etc etc.

Question is will we ever see 'Milan class' again?

Right now we have debatably one player who comes close to being uttered in that kind of breath, Balotelli. And truth is he isn't the finished article, his attitude is often disgraceful and that's now 5 matches we've lost him for through poor conduct.

We have very good players like De Jong (imo arguably one of the top 5 DM's around), Monto (out of form at the moment admittedly) and Kaka (nowhere near convincing anyone he's back to the old Kaka) but other than Balo we basically have no 'Milan class' players at all.

Right now this Milan is a new breed, a team we're not familiar with. We're having to be content with Abate, Mexes, Zapata and DS when it used to be Cafu, Maldini, Nesta and Jankulovski.

Times have changed and it may be decades before the true Milan class returns.

[Danny]

I'm half convinced by this 'project' theory and half utterly dubious.

IMO last summer Silvio and Uncle Ad decided our outlay on wages was quite simply too much. Milan were getting a well-earned reputation as an old-folks' home with so many players over 30 on wages which were astronomical.

We could kill 2 birds with one stone by quite simply getting rid of as many as possible if not all, massively slashing the wage bill while bringing in more economically viable alternatives and reducing the age of the team.

Gone were the likes of Jankulovski, and in was Constant.

This was to be a new spell at Milan where we wouldn't expect to be challenging for every tournament we were in, where the wage outlay was much less and where we would no longer make regular heavyweight signings like Pirlo, Gilardino, Shevchenko, Pato, Kaka et al.

However, I don't believe strictly that we formulated a 'project'. I believe that's a spin doctoring way of justifying this new Milan, which has from being an excuse become the only option we now have.

The lack of ambition when Ancelotti left in bringing in Leonardo as an easy option replacement summed up, for me, the club's decision to no longer be the Milan our supporters expect and to instead go through a period of thrifty, borderline frugal fiscal policy which would one day lead us either to simply become Liverpool (massive club clinging onto its history which it won't emulate for a long time if ever) or to re-emerge Arsenal style with a marquee signing or two.

Arsenal have gone 8 years without any silverware, following a period where they were not only a CL finalist but were endowed with a completely world class team like Viera, Adams, Keown, Henry, Wright etc. They now hope Ozil plus their current consistency (bar that opening day loss) can see them push for the title.

We will either go the Liverpool route or the Arsenal one.