We see a lot of teams with revolutions every year that yields no tangible results for them in what they are pursuing, but we are no Real Madrid neither are we Genoa. This team needs to be built from new in a lot of ways. From new players, to new medical staff and new managerial infrastructure (under the supervision of Galliani and co unless Berlu is planing to sell). The time has come. No more Ronaldinho's or Cassano's. We need real character, real determination and a real squad.

I have to be honest, I have enjoyed watching Milan win league games this season, but I have not truly enjoyed this team in a long while. At the moment, we are a paper tiger. It is a shame that Ibra dictates the attitude on the pitch. He should shut the **** up and be the great forward that he is and shove all of the rest of his ****y attitude up his *** and be happy that a team like Milan will have him. We are so desperate to win that we are willing to suck this guys **** and let him be a role model for other players. When he obviously is not. Even when he scores and we win, I am happy that Milan win, and can admire Ibra's magic football, but other than that, he has nothing over any other player we have. I truly feel bad for Pato here. He is a kid and I bet he is a bit confused as to how he should act and conduct himself right now. Why the rant about Ibra in this thread? You might think I'm losing train of thought, but no, this is exactly why we need a revolution in this team. Patching up this team with mediocre players and relying on Ibra magic is a weak approach. My point is that by us failing to deal with our needs as a club head-on we find ourselves in a situation that I never thought I would see Milan in. Look at the players running the show now: Gattuso (Maldini used to put him in his place like no other), Ibra, Boatang, Flamini, Cassano, Van Bommel.... These players are running around like loose canons acting like big shots in our team right now and trust me Cassano's time will come and I think we ALL know that. If it is like this then I will slowly reconsider Milan. Yes, this is that serious. Either we revolutionize this team according to our objectives and principles, or Milan will lose the prestige it once held, not just as a club with a tremendous past and silverware cabinet, but the actual show of sport and grit and character of its players, their integrity to a greater human cause or at least their understanding and respect to this notion.

We are losing the integrity of our club out of desperation to win with a make shift squad and this is a first for me to witness as a Milan fan. At least when we lost before, it was that, a loss, usually heavy and bitter. But never to the point of ridicule and at the cost of our very identity. A revolution of all sorts should be under way if we are to rediscover what we stand for and even go beyond.

So not only should this revolution reinforce the team in many areas we lack, it should also reaffirm us as a club and shine a light on our path. The path of a great team with great leaders. A team that not only managed to win a lot and bring in the fans, but a team that also gained the respect of others. A team that acted with class in Puerta's tragic case and showed great pride in the way they took to the field. Because such is the way of Red and Black and it is why I am a Milan fan.

Yes and No. When they came in, the famous Dutch trio weren't exactly meek lambs either. And they fit in perfectly alright.

So Ibra, Cassano and Robinho I think are being judged and sentenced before any actual incident. I have no problems with Ibra shouting at Zee. That incident was already explained away by Ibra. And if you saw the Parma match, you cannot in all honesty say that we were relying on Ibra magic.

By that yardstick, we've in previous seasons depended on Maldini magic, Nesta magic, Sheva magic and Kaka magic...depending on whoever was our most important and in-form player.

I don't have a problem with the team composition as such, but last night's performance was not only only bad, it was disgusting. I can take losing the match, what I cannot take is us acting like a bunch of cvnts...which is what we did. We've played far worse than yesterday before. I could even accept the loss considering we had no mid-field. But what about playing with respect?

Rino Gattuso must not only be banned by the UEFA, but also by the team management. He can no longer be captain, he's dishnonoured that band worn with a lot of pride and integrity by players far greater than he can aspire to be.

I cannot imagine in a million years Ambrosini acting like that. Or the players who have worn the armband before acting like that.

Rino can apologise all he wants, it doesn't make the wrong right. He musn't play again for Milan in the CL or the League this year. He shouldn't even be called up. If this upsets him, he can rescind and leave.

If he truly wants to show he's Milanista and a fan, let him show up every match to support the team for the rest of the season from the stands while taking the punishment 'like a man', a term he likes to use a lot.

If Allegri doesn't have the balls, then Silvio and Galliani must take a stand. I will be very disappointed if we push the scuffle off as 'nothing'.

This is AC Milan, we are a winning club. Yes. But we stand for a lot more than just winning.

I think what has happened this season is the closest we've come to a 'revelation' in years. Sure it didn't work out last night but we are certainly on the right track with what we are trying to do. No doubt we are going to get a few quality players in, in the summer that will strengthen us up again. Last night we were missing players due to injury and ineligibility which obviously didn't help.

The problem is we can't afford the top, top players and believe it or not they wouldn't want to come to us anyway. We might believe they do, but no they'd rather go to England or Spain. The best way is to get youngsters but then actually play them, not just sit them on the bench 24/7, then loan them out for us to never see them again. Barca always give their youngsters a chance and look at them now.

I think the obvious should happen in the summer and that's to get rid of 4/5 of our mid 30 year olds, to a| reduce the wage bill and b| mean we have to start playing some of our youngsters. Yes, I know this is Milan and there are different values the family club etc, but we won't win things in this day and age by playing 4/5 35 year olds, certainly not Europe.

This above all. I remember thinking in the first half, how we could have prison-f@cked them with Van Bommel and Cassano in, instead of Flamini and Seedorf.

Well said. Saved me a lot of typing, LOL. And really, I think we will be seeing what you are talking about starting next season. I mean, Pirlo is the highest paid Italian in the league (I think), and one of the most important players for the team. The fact that the club is opening negotiations with him means they have woken up.

Let's just hope we shake hands with a lot of our over-the-hill players and get the new generation up and running!

I'd love it too, but what new generation?

We're not going to challenge much with Strasser and Merkel starting, assuming we get rid of Rino, Seedorf, Pirlo and Ambro.

Who's coming instead of Nesta? Papa? Or Mexes? Is Abate truly ready to step into Zambrotta's shoes?

We have nothing...and until we do, we must stick with a few.

For me: Ambro, Pirlo, Zee and Nesta are must renews. I'd let Zee leave, if we can find a prime mid-fielder like Sahin or something.

Similarly a left back is a priority.

I don't mean all of them, by all means work something out and renew with Ambro, Pirlo and Nesta at least. Gattuso too if he fits in (and Flamini leaves somehow). And the young players, Jack, Jack, we will never know what they are capable of if we don't play them. Or throw them in the pan. Be brave, be bold, little pirate.

They can't be much worse than this older generation, who will be one year to the worse next season.

Oh I disagree...they can be quite a lot worse...and every game they 'improve' costs us. Remember what happened to Merkel against Catania?

this


and this

it's as simple as this really, I can take losing as long as I lose with dignity and I can't fully enjoy winning unless it's done while showing character and ethics.


how did he explain that, what did he say? I did not read about it.

True, but still I'd rather take my chances with a youngster who makes (and learns) from his mistakes than a senior veteran who stands in the middle of the pitch un-linking the attack and defense. It is about time Seedorf takes a permanent bench spot (if he renews for another year that is) and Merkel/Strasser or anyone else starts. If not now, then when?

In a perfect world we would have lined up replacements for all our first XI players. But not to be, it seems, so we have got to make the best of what we can. Otherwise it can get much more ugly.

one difference is, Barcelona seem to have an amazing youth system and youth scouting personnel while we don't and even if we magically created one instantly it'd still take a few years before we saw the results.

the big difference with Barcelona though is that their senior youth team play in Spain's Segunda División, just one level below Barcelona... that experience cannot be given to them by Milan or any other team for that matter.

He said Zee did say something annoying on purpose to piss Ibra off. Because Zee realised that Ibra wasn't being determined enough and that he plays better when he's pissed. He called Zee a very clever motivator or something like that.

something like "didn't you see me all alone there, was your nose blocking your view?"?

BS, we just buy young players and don't give them a chance bar Pato in recent years and even him we've turned against.

Remember giving away Gourcuff?! He'd be in our team now. Paloschi, there's loads we've had and done nothing with because there's too many people believing in this family, Milan are a different club philosophy.

Sure, it might have worked before but in this climate of football when you have Barca, Madrid, all the English teams. They are leaps and bounds above us. I've always defended Milan when people have said we are too old but the time has come where we need to clear out some of the deadweight from this team and start blooding some youngsters, some energy. If it weren't Spurs last night we would have been out of the tie by half-time, no doubt.

Barca went through the stage of not winning stuff and Madrid won everything. They gave the chance to younger players to shine, a lot of whom did, some didn't (Saviola etc). Barca didn't just suddenly turn great one year without years of previous effort.

You're right, I was talking about players coming through the ranks in our system. I agree that we're not giving youngsters chances, there's not even a doubt about that.

I abandoned this thread like Allegri is abandoning Sokratis Papastathopoukhoouloopoolookoollomoooloojooloohulutulous!

You missed an o.

LMAO well played

Totally agree with KillerMax.

Who is the best option we have to be our captain right now?

Do we honestly have that one person that can carry the armband like Baresi and then Maldini did... at least during the past 20 years?

I don´t think so.

Please bring Paolo Maldini to the bench... just to have him there!!!

We need somebody that can step up and shout: THIS IS AC MILAN, THIS IS MY TEAM... and then kick the guy into the hole............

I just realised that in another 3-5 years, when the mainstays of the old Carlo team retire our Nesta, Ambro, Rino, Zee, Pirlo...then our next captain is gonna be Pato. Keeping in mind, our standard rules for captaincy.

I don't think he's ready. I don't even think he's right.

If he stays he will be like 25/26 by then I'm sure he would have matured considerably.

Stop reading Giancarlo's blog and the comments therein. I'm sure you got the drift.


Silva's the man. Unless of course, we get a high-quality Azzuri NT player in.

Gianfranco you idiot. And I do go there a lot, though I don't agree with the man's ideas 50% of the time.

If people posted news updates here more often, I wouldn't have to do that.

Yeah, that too. I stand corrected. I had a funny feeling something was not right after I hit the button. And then it hit me, it was the name.


Yeah, he is a weird little fella, quite rigid in his ideas. But the man puts up good stuff on his blog most of the time (not that I agree with all of it), and has tactical knowledge to boot. Besides, I've learned to never argue with someone who has "Brazilian Banter" as one his blog categories.


Agreed. I go there one a day at least. For the news. And articles.

There will be a revolution this summer. A lot of (unnecessary) players will leave and a few quality signings will be made. The goal of this season has been winning the league from the very start, but coming next season our main objective will be the Champions League. Mark my words fellas, the great Milan will be soon coming back.

I'm not discounting your optimism, or really questioning you. I'm just going to ask who can we sign (afford/attract) who are going to make us drastically better?

Don't worry about attraction, my friend. Milan is one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. I can assure you that any player would choose us over the likes of Chelsea or Arsenal any day.

How can we afford them? Milan is one of the richest clubs in the world, owned by one of the richest and most powerful men in Italy. Money has never been an issue. We're not like Juventus, who don't have a single penny to spend at the moment. Instead, it's always been about Berlusconi's desire to spend. A desire that finally clicked last summer, and that will proceed in the following one as well. Besides, will the elections around the corner, it's a very effective tool to gain some followers here and there.

You may ask how am I so sure about this. Well, I read news and rumors about Milan all day long, and the general perception is that we are going to be very active in the summer transfer window. Even Ibra said it himself, after the Tottenham game: "Let's concentrate on the league. We'll fight for the Champions League next season, when we'll have a competitive enough squad". It looks like Galliani has promised him a super-team for next season.

In all honesty I don't think we do. Sure we are prestigious and our history is immense etc. In the 90's early 00's I'd say players would come to us. Though I genuinely believe players are more inclined to go to the La Liga or EPL nowadays than they are Serie A. When has a player who has been firing really well been labelled real 'World Class' in either EPL/La Liga and linked with lots of clubs (whilst playing outside of Italy) moved to the Serie A in recent years, I just can't remember many. Obviously there was Eto'o but we all know that was linked to Ibra. Again, with Robinho he wasn't really that great of a player at City. I'm talking signing someone like Tevez or Aguero etc.

It's all good being generic but for actual players out there that we can get I don't know. Mexes? Yes. Who else though, we don't need forwards we have depth there plenty. We need midfielders and full-backs it's probably about time we finally try and play with some width or at least have some wingers for a 'plan b' as well. Signing young Brazilians like these names I hear 'Ganso' etc I wouldn't say are guaranteed to make us better either, at least not straight away. There's a lot of adapting to do before that, even Kaka took a few years before he really took off. I just can't think of top-class names who we would get, like individually rather than just saying it generically.

I never doubted us being active in the transfer market but there is a difference between being active and signing real, top-quality that are going to strongly improve us (to CL contenders). We're just so far behind at the moment, Spurs weren't exactly really fortunate to beat us, and I think if we played a top, top side in the CL we'd have a bit of a similar outcome to last year with United.

Tevez and Aguero would cost us millions, and we've never been known for spending huge amounts on certain players. It's easy to pinpoint a quality player and flush away the money in order to sign him, like Madrid, Chelsea or City do. The real manager's ability lies in pinpointing "hidden" opportunities and catching them whilst nobody is looking. Galliani and Braida are masters at doing that. That's how we built a superb team in the last decade, by spending very little compared to the major European powerhouses. And I'm certain Galliani has by now individuated those players that will make us competitive in Europe again. After all, we already have a quality team. We just need to get rid of some deadweight and strengthen our weak spots.

Well we have spent big. Rui Costa comes to mind. As does Nesta. The difference is they were awesome for us.

Exactly what I was about to write. Then look at Zlatan/Robinho/Inzaghi, Sheva was big money back then. Of course we spend money.

Yes, we found players like Kaka but we spend just like most others, I'm not sure I agree with that point.

Of course we spend cash, but compared to what the other European clubs spend, well, it's insignificant. I mean, we've spent +30 million for one player only twice in our history, for Nesta and Rui Costa. That should tell you something.

Maybe, United are the same though only done it twice, with Rio & Berbatov. (Rooney didn't cost more than £30m).

Obviously comparing any team to Chelsea/Man City will make them look like they don't spend. Just look at Arsenal I don't think they've ever spent £30m.

I'm not talking about history, you can't talk about history if you mention Chelsea/Man City!

Just hope we get a few decent players in, Mexes being my #1 hope really.

I don't know what the fuss is about Mexes. He, to me is a inconsistent and shaky defender with flashes of brilliance. I definitely don't like that in a defender.

Nah, he's pretty good.

I don't see many alternatives, and it would be for free right? I don't think it would be a bad signing at all.

IIRC Rui was £27m(our biggest ever spend) and Nesta £20m, the only other to come close was Pippo at £22m while we got Sheva for around £16m and Kaka was £8m. Considering Chelsea payed £50m for Torres, then you're right we don't spend big.

I thought Nesta cost us €31 million.

£ and €, guys, Pounds and Euros. There is a difference. Nesta I recall cost 30m Euros and Rui Costa 35m.

What you said perfectly describes him. And I'd rather have a solid but just good defender than one that's hot and cold. But Mexes would come for free and he would not be a starter - if Nesta stays that is, isn't he going to be out of contract this summer? So if that's the case I'd welcome his transfer.


I doubt comparisons with Chelsea or Manchester are not going to lead you to secure conclusions.

I know that, smart aleck. But £20m is still less than €31m. That's what I was getting at.

calm down guys, here is your friend!

Funny, I reckoned I_R was talking in 2002 values, where it would be round abouts the same. Here in my local currency I remember Euros being ~75 and British Pound floating in at ~120 at that time, US $ stayed at the ~60 mark. Now, of course it's closer.

Anyway, the two highest transfers remain Rui Costa, €35m and Nesta €30m.

Emerson is the highest transfer ever... I mean, what was Galliani on when he was signing?

Actually this here is the true friend. The 2002 historical rates at the URL below. Now if we go in at the average for the month of August 2002 (I reckon this is when the Nesta deal was finalized), the figure is €1 = £0.636341. Which translates to £20m = €31.429m. So yeah, it's slightly higher than the 30 figure that is thrown around. Here is the link:

Monthly Exchange Rate Average (British Pound, Euro) 2002

Ah, that makes sense.

Nice. That was actually Carlo's favored deal, Galliani would probably never have bought him. The Puma was out of air by that time, and Carlo still thought of him as being the same player he was in his Roma and Juventus days.

Yeah, so we're both proven wrong. Nesta's a million extra. By the same logic Rui Costa came in at even higher if we are to believe the £ amounts. Anyway, if we factor in the rates at that time and the inflation of today, I doubt we'll be seeing such numbers again in the near future. The figure record may break, but I feel gone are the days of such lavish spending here at Milan.

Unless of course, EPL goes down, and Serie A becomes a highly commercial and over-priced league.

But I said Nesta cost us €31m, and I was right.

Fair enough. I read the figures €30 and €35 million thrown around in various articles at that time, so that is what was in my head. By the way Rui Costa's accurate fee is £28m in 2001 rates. Boy, was that guy worth it.