[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.

[han2503]

Who was better back in the day? The only rival in that position was Roberto Carlos and he was technically slightly before Jankulovski.

Janku played as a LB for a very limited amount of time (3 seasons I think), he was never really particularly great at it but at the time the FB areas were our most problematic after losing guys like Cafu and Serginho and we spent years trying to replace them. Janku was always a stop gap solution.

He wasn't particularly good defensively, was decent offensively, but chipped in with spectacular goals at times which made him look better than he truly was

I have to say Cole and Evra were a lot better than him at the time. Especially Cole who's always been a great LB, even now, he's still one of the best ones around considering the shortage of talent in that area

[Danny]

Ashley Cole and nobody else was even close to being in his league. I expect you to disagree, but that's my opinion on the matter.

I do, but I'd say the Ashley Cole of the past 3-5 years is a much better player than the one you say was better than Janku - I'd say the one he's been since WC 2010 (he was a titan during Chelsea's CL winning season) is better than Janku at his best (but before then for me Marek had the edge).

Janku played as a LB for a very limited amount of time (3 seasons I think), he was never really particularly great at it but at the time the FB areas were our most problematic after losing guys like Cafu and Serginho and we spent years trying to replace them. Janku was always a stop gap solution.

Can't agree a guy who made around 120 appearances in 6 seasons was a stop-gap. I also have no idea why you're referring to Cafu when he was, as you know, a RB. He's completely separate to this debate. In terms of LB Janku and Serge were basically the 2 players we used - Janku was first choice after a slow first season and Serge appeared less and less.

He wasn't particularly good defensively, was decent offensively, but chipped in with spectacular goals at times which made him look better than he truly was

I have to say Cole and Evra were a lot better than him at the time. Especially Cole who's always been a great LB, even now, he's still one of the best ones around considering the shortage of talent in that area

At the time Cole flattered to deceive - he has gotten so much better in the past 3-5 years and is now debatably the best in his position that England have produced. But he didn't use to be and was widely regarded as over-rated by many.

Evra is a fair shout, but again, his era has followed Marek's.

When Jankulovksi was at his peak around 2007 no one, for me anyway, could touch him. He won the CL with us and then if I'm not mistaken the super cup with a brilliant goal.

I should also point both you and el-Kurto in the direction of my comment which attests 'for a while'. And for me that was about a season and a half. 2007-2008 ish.

However, I will bow out, respectfully, having said my piece, and will leave it at that.