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.

That's the worst case scenario, though at the same time I don't think we will end up much higher than mid-table with this current squad and the way it's working together.

I originally predicted 5th place. I am now optimistically hoping for 7th. If we get top 6 I'll take that.

One match is not enough for me to buy into this "disaster scenario".

But just one reminder:

Then / Now
#2 Cafu / De Sciglio
#4 Bommel / Muntari
#7 Shevchenko / Robinho
#8 Gattuso / Nocerino
#10 Seedorf / Boateng
#11 Ibrahimović / Pazzini
#13 Nesta /Acerbi
#21 Pirlo / Constant

Is that agreement or disagreement Fillipo?

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.

Resentment, depression and melancholy

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

No, they made it clear they wanted to reduce the wage bill.

Can you show me evidence where they say they're 'building for the future' as is the current buzzphrase to defend the dire situation we're in.

then I agree wholeheartedly with it.

Perhaps if you're looking for evidence right from Galliani's mouth then you should know better that sometimes you can't really believe in what he says or said. God knows what's going on in his mind, but I only judge him by his actions not his words. His actions suggest that our previous project with many champions can no longer co-exist with the current economic situation. So how to remedy the situation?

The first obvious thing to do is try to cut the wages which the management tried to do with many of our players and which started the whole mess to begin with. Since these players are people, normal people rarely accept wage-cuts so they go elsewhere where they can find better wages rather than accepting wage-cuts. I mean I would do it, wouldn't you?

Which brings to the second thing to do is selling. Like it or not, the only way to finance our operations, liabilities etc ... is if we have enough money. Since we didn't, we had to sell our prized-possessions.

So the management may not have exactly said that we're building for the future. I'm pretty sure the management does not want to see Milan fall far from grace but what else can they do in this situation? Sometimes you have to cut an arm to save the body, or sometimes downward is the only forward. We may accuse the management by being stingy or cheap, but refusing to accept Kaka's fee of what; 10 or 15 million, is not what we call cheap. It is what we call financial crisis.

All I am saying is that, we have to stick together and endure these difficult times.

Again

That's one way of looking at it. The problem is that the management have not made any declarations about where this club is going. All they seem to care about is reduce expenses as much as possible, but this could be interpreted in various ways. One might bring up the argument of FFP, another might say that we're being cheap this year so we can heavily invest next summer, yet another one might say that Silvio doesn't give a crap about Milan anymore. He's about to enter into politics again, he officially welcomed for the first time foreign investors in the club, Fininvest has no intentions any more to cover our losses every year. It all looks very grim from my perspective. I personally believe that Berlusconi's era at this club is about to reach a conclusion, and that Silvio can't wait to dump us at the first chance. Problem is, nobody's shown interest in purchasing this club, so far.

While I still look at the situation in my own perspective, you're right about this though. The least they can do is be clear to the fans about the direction that they're taking.

The only way I would believe for a second that the current situation points towards the management "building for the future" is if they had shown that they had any sort of plan or strategy as to how to go about that re-building. Instead of a plan they've shown that they have no clue as to how to go about things aside from picking up every mediocre free agent option out there.

Traore, Taiwo, Mesbah. These are all guys who we've gotten for free and will be difficuilt to offload. They've already had a difficuilt time getting rid of Mesbah and the same goes with Traore. I mean how can anyone who has eyes that actually see say that getting Traore is a good idea?? I can't even begin to comprehend what type of player he is from watching him multiple times, all he does is stand around and misplace passes.

This is the grand plan Galliani has.

I think the most damning evidence of our complete lack of direction is the fact that a very good Italian international in Montolivo looked like he didn't know what a ball was on Sunday.

I know he's not Xavi, but he's a good player, and he's been reduced by this club/team to a horror show.

Morale is on the floor and it's spreading among the players like a virus.

I'm a little lost. You seem to be half agreeing with my conclusions that this club is a complete shambles, and half disagreeing stating it's some 'grand plan' concocted by the managers and is all part of a deliberate project of rebuilding.

So I don't know why the other chap agreed with you given you appear to contradict yourself?

Perhaps you misunderstood what I meant by new era. I was just implying that we must accept that our glory days are gone for now because we can no longer compete. I didn't imply anything else.

I do not disagree that our club is a mess because it is a total mess. We've grown accustomed to winning and then suddenly everything goes south, it's not easy to adjust to that. What I'm saying is this situation is forced upon us. So the management is doing whatever they can to make sure that we won't collapse altogether. Either we accept it or we don't. Perhaps I over-elaborated myself a little bit.

Or rather, it'll be the management who will lead to our downfall. I won't be fooled by the FFP insinuations and whatnot. We're in this situation because Fininvest are sick of financing the losses of the club they own, plain and simple.

But this is how Montolivo usually is, the Euro was rather an exemption.

Yup ... Montolivo is Fiorentina midfield level quality at best, and depending on him will render us the exact same result.

I think Montolivo has been the backbone for Fiore for the past few seasons, along with Jovetic. Without these two the club would have fallen much further then it had. I also think that we have only played one real game, and have now signed new players. When his position gets settled out, and his job completely outlined, he will be an extremely valuable addition for us, especially because he arrived for nothing.

Right, so a player who has been capped 37 times for the Italian national side is basically mediocre?

Monto is not mediocre, but he's not a leader either. He's a complementary player that needs others around him who are also great players. Imo he was one of the best players for Italy this summer, but look at who he had around him in midfeld.

That's the definition of mediocre han. Someone who can blend in a great team and do solidly, as well as slump into the darkness of disastrous team.

Then our definitions of mediocre differ 100%. Mediocre is someone who even in a great team is just... well... mediocre!

Montolivo for me is the definition of a good solid player. Nothing more, nothing less.

+1

This is what my thesaurus said: lacking exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair health"; "the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average"; "the performance was middling at best"

But anyhow, yes - Montolivo can do good. Nothing more.

The title of this thread is mis-leading. the club will always be proud no matter what. yes the team is now average but i'm sure if you ask the players they're proud to be a Milan player. I'm proud to be a Milan fan we're all proud just the quality of the team is ****

Nice to hear from you As usual, you're right

nice to be back and thank you