My road to being a Milan fan has been a very gradual and solid process. When Channel 4 in the UK used to broadcast Football Italia thanks to Gazza moving to Lazio, I found myself fighting with my sister every Sunday - she wanted the Eastenders omnibus, I wanted the Italian football. When I got my way, one match stood out, and that was the quite beautiful and passionate Milan derby. Despite my Glaswegian blue Rangers allegiances, it was the red and black AC I found myself siding with, an AC endowed with Van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard, Bierhoff, Baresi etc. Some of the all time great footballers, never mind just of their own generation.

I lost touch with Italian football a little in my later teen years, but came back with a vengeance when Shevchenko came along, and that was it for me - AC Milan were firmly my second team only to Rangers, and I started watching every match I could on whatever dodgy Internet stream I had to if no tv channel had it.

Those two periods saw players like Shevchenko, Bierhoff, Kaka, Seedorf, Baresi, Maldini, Costacurta, Boban etc - yet nowadays we simply cannot attract the truly elite players like these that the club deserves.

AC Milan, imho, is one of the top 4 clubs of all time - Barcelona, Man Utd and Real Madrid are the other 3. Yet while they can bring in C Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and David Villa, Milan have to make do with a surplus to requirements Ronaldinho. Now, don't get me wrong, I've supported and loved Ron from day one, while many of you did not till this season, but there can be no doubt that it wasn't a signing we made because we're so massive and can attract the top stars. And don't even get me started on our inability to sign Fabiano...

Finally, I get to my point: if we struggle to bring in top brass players who are befitting of the club, do we really have any hope of getting the best quality manager to replace Leonardo?

Leo did a great job for a rookie boss with an average squad, but if we are to improve as a club and become an Italian and European juggernaut as we're supposed to be, it starts by bringing in a world class manager who truly inspires the fans and the club.

But my fear is we simply don't appeal to anyone like we used to.

The only reason Dzeko is seemingly still interested is he personally supports Milan, and it was the same for Fabiano. Take a passionate reason out of the equation and you're left with a club, once a giant, now quite ordinary and struggling to get anything like the same status it once proudly boasted.

Am I wrong?

I don't get where this come from. I don't remember us spending what we ought to for any big names and them refusing the offer...

I think you've missed the point. We don't even TRY to attract the elite players and managers any more. We go for the surplus stuff like KVH and Ronaldinho.

Examples of what I mean are these:

Man Utd - they wanted Rooney and Berbatov - and paid almost 60M for them but got them.

Barcelona - they wanted Ibrahimovic, Alves and Villa and paid close to 100M for them. And got them.

Real Madrid - went nuts and bought everyone.

But we're nowhere near competing with this. And even on the occasions when a highly rated player IS interested, our club manages to ruin the deal itself.

This is why I compare us to Arsenal - they get in some quality now and then (for Silva see Vermaelen, for Ronaldinho see Arshavin) but they seem to lack the attraction and clout to bring in the kind of guys who would make an actual difference.

And I can't say I'm thrilled about us bringing in Allegri. Milan need more ambition than they have.

But we have a problem called Berlusconi that means = No money !
No money = No big names

But the problem I have with this is that in years gone by we spent fortunes on Gilardino, Kaka, Jankulovski, Oliveira.

Promising world class players who might not always work out at Milan, but the kind of player we in theory used to attract.

Case in point is Gilardino - ok, he didn't work out too well, but he was a small club's (Parma) prize asset and was not going to come cheap. We were able to attract him.

Nowadays it's INTER who attract that sort of player - for Gilardino in our case, see Milito in theirs.

Are we saying the money is no longer there, or that Berlusconi is just not interested in parting with it any more?

If we want to improve, we need a better (world class) calibre of player and manager coming in, not just 'decent' players and a 'decent' manager.

If we go on as we currently are, we'll stay in the top 4 but never challenge. We'll be good enough for the CL, but it will be a new hollow and unfeared Milan rather than what we deserve to be.

Like it or not, Inter's success is a result of years of Moratti throwing every penny he had at the club (if I am honest, I was actually pleased for him - he's invested so much in them and finally reaped his reward) - I'm not saying go that far, but it's clear huge investment in players and managers is needed, and if our bosses refuse to accommodate this, we'll just limp along for all eternity.

for me attracting big names comes down to having a management that has clearly defined a purpose for itself, i.e man city(champions league qualification) real madrid(regain spanish&european dominance) barca(rule the world) chelsea(win everything possible to please the billionaire owner) mourinho says he was much too determined to win the champions league for morratti (so he could take a picture holding the trophy just like his father did 45yrs ago)
it really annoys me to see berlusconi&galliani run this club like amateurs despite having over 2decades experience.. .. .. they need to come out and define the season's objectives not gamble with a rookie manager(who imo did great), fail to address the weaknesses of the team..then sack the rookie when he should be getting praises and a healthy transfer fund to carry on with the rebuilding project

honestly i'm really not crazy about big name signings, i however do wanna know that we can get them if ever they're needed.
our transfer policy really needs to be changed, why oh why do we get all the rejects, why do we sign all these stupid co-ownership deals only to end up buying back what we already owned. imo young players are either good enough or they're not you'll not find barca sending all their kids out on loans but rather they're integrated into the set up (messi,bojan,pedro,busquets,jeffrem,jonathan)
in our case we had borriello out at several clubs,purchased gilardino for about 18m euros, sold him after 1 bad season for 15m euros then purchased 50% of borriello's contract for 10m euros, that's just insane. i wonder how much parma will eventually get for paloschi's 50%contract. we should have had antonini and abate understudy the likes of cafu,serginho&maldini at the club.. ..otherwise they'll return with (small club mentality) abate was with torino, antonini with empoli (teams that ended up relegated) they've managed to give a good account of themselves but they'll have fared better with(championship mentality)

I would say I disagree. Like most said, the only reason we aren't able to bring in the players you mentioned is money. I'm sure most of you remember the highest transfer we ever paid for a player was Rui Costa and that was almost a decade ago. Barcelona recently forked out more than 30 mil for Ibra and Villa. Manchester United paid 30 mil for Berbatov, Liverpool paid 26 mil for Torres, and don't need to mention Real Madrid. I'm sure if we have the financial resource and little bit more aggressive in the market, everybody wants to play for us. Because one thing Milan can do is that Milan can guarantee success with the right signings.

Milan has the oldest squad if I'm not mistaken, and almost all players are over their prime. Yet, we still finished third managed to win something three years ago. We're not far behind the others, with 3-4 right signings, we'll be there again competing till the very end.

Unless I'm mistaken, this is my point. For me the 'right' signings would be 3 or 4 world class players, plus a top class manager to keep us completely smooth. We don't, however, seem to be able to capture the ones who'd make a difference to us.

As for boss, I'd kill to have Hiddink, I hear Sneijder wants him at Inter.

I think Hiddink is overrated.

+1

I'm putting your bowl in a freezer.

Excellent! I could do with some chill on a day like today (supposed to be above 30 most of the day) and, well, whisky doesn't exactly FREEZE.

Nah, Hiddink is great.

Eh. He's good. But not ZOMG GREAT THE BEST EVER.

Only current coach I'd put in that category is Capello.

Why do you put things in an overstated manner like this these days? You started doing it when Blue was going on about how much he likes Mourinho, and now you're doing it here when I dare to rate Hiddink very highly.



Well to quote you: 'Eh. He's good. But not ZOMG GREAT THE BEST EVER'

Yes he is. Rather than him being 'over rated' he seems to be very under rated.

What, I can't disagree with you? I really don't think Hiddink is all that as a coach, sorry.

You didn't disagree. You condescendingly mocked him as the best ever as if that was my view. Which it isn't.

I rate him highly, as one of the best 3 in the world. But not the bezzzzzzzzzzzzzzt EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Point taken. Didn't mean to cause offense. Have an irn bru on me.

Had a couple today actually

I for one was very sad to see Leo go, i have the utmost respect for him as the player he was and the man he is. I had hoped that with his appointment that the management were looking at a long term solution, a coach who knows Milan and was part of a lot of enterprises with the club in his time. I hoped that he would be given the time, especially since the lack of FINANCES (berlu), that Leo would have been given time to bring through youth. I dont know what the ending was, i do know that Leo has hardly been home in 13 years and time away from family IS hard so best wishes to Leo and his family.

As to spending big, i dont recall us spending massive amounts (compared to other teams...ever) and i guess that was down to our "draw" as one of the top three clubs worldwide. I remember when we were selling on players to barca. Reiziger, Davids, Kluivert! (Who should all have stayed in my opinion ). Before that i think our biggest transfer was Lentini, who was on top of his game, had a bad bad car crash and was never the same, physically or mentally. I dont recall what the fees were for Weah/Bierhoff and Sheva was a deal tied up before his contract at Keiv ended. So i cant remember us ever breaking transfer records, someone might be able to refresh my memory.

We bought potential stars and made them stars. Boban, Savecivic, Desailly or we cultivated home grown (maybe poached a few) i dont remember ever being excited by the amount we spent but rather the players we had identified and invested in. Not like Real.

As far back as i can remember we have been a team built on a strong italian basis with a few "other" class players mixed in, these "foreign" players were identified early and bought before their stock went stellar. We are not Inter we are Milan. Check Inters team sheet for the champions league final......how many italians started???


Forza Milan

Bring on the next chapter.

In one sentence you've made a quite incriminating point against Italian football and the state of Milan, without realising it.

One (or two) of our Dutch players in the late 80s/early 90s broke the record. We spent an awful lot of money back then, certainly outspent the competition.

Gullit broke the record when he came in.

Lentini broke the record at the time when he transferred in in the early 90s (several million lire, don't recall how much) to the point that the Pope commented that nobody was worth that much.

The club's record signing is still Rui Costa (35 million euro), with Alessandro Nesta coming in #2 at 30 million.

It's not about breaking records, certainly not for the sake of it, it's competing with our supposed fellow 3 peer clubs I quoted in the OP for the same calibre of player and manager they can attract. They all bring in C Ron, Rooney, Villa, Ibrahimovic - Mourinho, Pellegrini etc.

We don't seem to operate within the same means as they do. The best we've managed in recent seasons have been unwanted excess, in KJH and Ron. Pato was still fairly unknown in Europe despite his fee when we got him.

We're Milan - we should be operating as one of the top 4 or 5 clubs in the world, but we're some way off that. We're struggling to be one of the top 4 or 5 clubs in Italy right now...

What exactly does that mean!?!?!? "We're Milan" yes we have a history and yes at 1 point money was no object but things change and so have we so history is in the past it doesn't give us a right to be able to do anything now other than be proud of what we've achieved but its not a passport to anything i could do a list of teams that were great in the past and nothing now so move on from this "we're Milan" thing and deal with the here and now!

I refuse to move on from my pride in what I believe Milan stand for.

If you're content with a new, hollow, weaker, and feebler Milan, by all means knock yourself out.

I aspire to more than that, and so should the club.

Didn't say i was content, i just realize were the club are at this moment in time and of course hope they reach the heights of the early/mid 90's etc.

What ever the position of the club in the league their principals are the same they stand for the same thing now as they did then just maybe aren't able to realise them in the same successfull way as before.

IIRC Lentini was £13m and I thought Pippo(27m) was second with sandro(20m?) third?

I thought Pippo was under 25 million, IRoss, but am not sure.

For what it's worth I agree with you on this. I don't think anyone expects record breaking transfers, but what they do expect is players that are worthy of our shirt. And we're constantly told there is no money yet we sign players like LOliveira and Hunter without thinking! IIRC LOliveira was 18m and Hunter 13m - that's 31m of wasted money. IMO we could have spent that money far more wisely.

Once again good shout, but i'm maybe in the few here that think Huntelaar will be a assett to us his season he will grow and become the player he was at Ajax

You could be right but the fact remains that he was another panic buy and panic buys are not what we need. What we need is a proper transfer strategy and to focus on targets that will take us forward and not just appease the fans.

I agree but its hard to devolp a transfer plan when the owner keeps telling mis-truths. hopefully the right appointment with a coach with a long term plan perhaps Silvio will actually back him with some funds and we can begin to rebuild properly

And there lies our problem. Because we haven't strengthened properly in years it is going to cost more now to make us competitive. Now had we have had a correct transfer strategy in place back a few years ago we would probably need maybe one or two players now and it wouldn't have cost us that much. I expect we will huff and puff until august when the great galliani will panic buy some unknown and state 'we have all the players we need to be competitive' only for him to panic buy again in january:rolleyes:

I think more and more Milan is in danger of becoming a parade club, a club used just as a footnote to someone's career. "Everyone wants to play for Milan" but it's a difference if we sign him at 24 or 34.

I think it's changing. I think there's a major revolution happening in the back end courtesy Galliani. The official site has never talked about the youth so much as they are doing now. Massive money on the primavera as well. I think 3 years of rebuilding and we'll be stronger than before.

Couldn't this have been done before? Yes. Why didn't they? That's the mistake they made.

If we win the scudetto and aim high , Milan will attract.
Real does but we cames as far as them in Champions Leuge and came third but I hope this season changes it.

I think no matter how much we win, unless we put cash on the table no one will come.

Milan does attrack big names. How many players aren't wanting to play for Milan? A LOT !!!!!

We just don't to buy them... we're cheap bastards

Oh and Hiddink is a great football coach/trainer, one of the best

bastards? yeah we can call berlosconi that

I believe Galliani is our biggest problem. He just makes wrong decision after wrong decision. Not so much how much money we use but how (we waste it).

Like players we need is to expensive..
and then to buy players that can't do the work better