You know, I'm really not that excited about all this hype around Pato. He is getting too much praise for so little he has done. And we have allegedly paid 22m Euros form him. That's a lot of money for someone who could well turn out to be just an average player at Milan. Just the way our official website is hyping this signing like it's the greatest thing that has ever happened in the World of football gets me all bored. We bought a 17 year old kid with braces and we call our summer signings over?

First of all that's too much unnecessary pressure on the kid.

Second of all, look at Barca's squad for god sake. They have the best young player in the World in Messi. And then they have Krkic and Dos Santos. I haven't seen much from Santos, but Krkic is easily a bigger talent than Pato. Pato is getting all this hype because he is Brazilian. Krkic on the other hand looks twice as promising as this guy. And Barca haven't paid a dime for any of these kids...

I'm not saying Pato is crap, but he is just another talented kid who is being dangerously hyped. And it's not like we have the jewel of young talents. IMO Barca have better ones. Looking at our team and its lack of pace and all those old players, we really needed some quality signings this season. And I keep hearing this thing about the team that just won the Champions League. You know, technically, saving your energy and players to only play good in the latter stages of CL and playing like crap with no energy and desire in other games doesn't count as success to me. We need a deep and healthy squad with determination and desire to win every single game. Whether it's Serie A or Champions League.

Now Pato is not even available to us until January and he is too young to really make a big difference. Because it's really not about how much technique you have. Look at Gourcuff, he is technically superior to most of our players but he is finding it hard to establish himself in the first team.

All in all, with the squad we have, it's only a matter of time until we run into serious problems and midway through the season we will find it hard to keep up and eventually will have to sacrifice competition after competition to help us recharge.


Please share your two cents.

It's a brief two cents, but I agree with your basic argument, Max: the squad is lacking in depth. We need to be able to rotate players more to avoid overtiredness or injury and much as I love some of the bench players, they're just not up to playing high-tension games. We can't play the first team starters for every game - though I hope I'm wrong, I fear that something is going to give somewhere.

In my opinion the sole reason they're hyping Pato up the way they are is because this transfer window has been, and will continue to be, a complete failure. We have not made one single worthwhile transfer.

People get the wrong idea about young kids, they hear they have all this talent and automatically think they're really World great players. Messi, who is a whole lot better than Pato, only really played his first full season this past year and he's now 21. Pato still has many years before he should even play a meaningful game in my opinion. He's been hyped up so much so the fans don't feel as disappointed in what we've done this season.

As I said, Pato is for the future, not for now, so this transfer window has been unproductive and a waste of time, we've not improved our team at all. We're the same old team that finished 4th, while the other mega-powers in Europe have been adding to their already great squads to tae our European title away from us.

Prediction for next season: 2 trophies. European Super Cup & World Club Championship. 4th in the league, QF in the Champions League.

Well, I'm not that sad TBH.

I was expecting a Summer like this. Or a big-name or nobody (Pato is for the future). Silvio Berlusconi is confident on the team and would only splash a huge sum in Ronaldinho. We all know that.

But I totally agree we would need 3-4 top signings: FW, CB, CM and possibly a LB to compete for the 5 trophies.

We've a top-class 11 and some good subs:

---------------Dida--------------
Oddo--Nesta--Kaladze--Janku.
---------------Pirlo--------------
-------Gattuso---Seedorf------
---------------Kaka'------------
------Gilardino-----Ronaldo---

+ Favalli, Bonera, Serginho, Gourcuff, Ambrosini, Inzaghi. Until December.

Sorry but I did not put Maldini up there because after what I saw in the Inter-Milan... I hope he only plays the CWC in Tokyo and then retires. It's just too much for Il Capitano to play vs. world-class fowards nowadays. It's hard but it's the truth.

But as you can see, our first 11 is as good as any other top-team.

About squad-depth, we're nowhere near Inter, Chelsea, Barcelona, Liverpool or Madrid.

Predictions for the new season? I'll tell you on the 1st of September.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Talking about Krkic and Dos Santos? Well, Krkic is 1 year younger than Pato and Dos Santos and I can say that those 2 are probably the best born 89 (both hyped by their Nike-contrats). At least at the moment.

And I don't see Krkic a bigger talent than Pato or Giovani dos Santos.

Messi as the best young player? Young = Until 20? If so I agree.

But that's because Barcelona have the best youth system in the world. Milan, Juventus, ManUtd, Liverpool, etc are nowhere near that or even the Arsenal one.

There has never been a young player that conviced me more than Pato.

I dont wanna overrate him. But he has everything. Look at his goals for Internacionale and Brazil he has an incredible powerfull shot, great ball control, and is very fast.

I dunno why some people dont like him as much as the others.

About the transfer campaing in general I'm not very upset. Milan has that kind of strategy; they dont buy a lot of great players in 1 season coz they know they'll find it difficult to adapt. They try to introduce 1 or 2 players at a time.

And that has worked these last years.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

oh how quickly people forget where we were this time last year

imo, we are much better off than we were this time last year...so no, i'm not sad one bit

I do agree with Maxs points about ppl hyping up Pato to be another one of Milan's stars, and he is too young to handle such pressures.

When Gilardino came, ppl were expecting 30+ goals/ season ... Especially with players like Rui, Kaka', Shevchenko, Pirlo, and Seedorf supporting him. In the end, it is football, it is the difference in the type of football that you play at a high level club like Milan or a mediocre club like Parma.

I hope Pato gets off on the right foot and that he doesn't have to carry so much pressure with him when he wears the Milan shirt I hope he sets the CL and Serie A on fire with his quality. Still, technically he has to adapt .. Which is not so easy .. Gila and Gourcuff are suffering from this. They don't have the tactical ability of players like Ronaldo, Shevchenko, etc .. Again experience comes into play here ... Thus, Pato needs time to adapt.

Next season, I truly believe we have a good team set to challenge for the Scudetto and CL. Not forgetting the CWC and ESC .. Milan is a big club, mere transfers don't influence Milan's season, it never has and never will. If Milan is to invest it is for top players like Zambrotta, Buffon, Ronaldinho, etc .. But mediocre players rarely get a chance to take part, even though we lack depth. We have a coach who knows exactly what he needs to reach his targets and has set his course along time ago, .. With that said, Ancelotti is confident of his team and I am all for the coach.

Sure we as fans might have preferences and reservations about who we want and who should play where etc ... But at the end of the day, this is AC Milan the reigning European Champions. What more do you want from a team that demolished United at the San Siro in the semis .. Milan really proved it's pedigree on that night

I hope Silvio does get his man in the end, which will be enough to win a double this season, IMO

last year was considered a failure but there was a reason behind it yet we did sign bonera, gourcuff, oli (which seemed good at the time) and brocchi came back. but so far they've managed to sign no one who can actually play for us.

this time around we are a in a much better situation financially with the ticket sales and no calciopoli yet they've managed to sign no one, so no i dont see how it's the same situation as last year. this year is worse.

so please example to me how we are in a much better situation?

i believe calciopli will hurt our team for a few more years. i think there were 3-4 players, who went to other teams, who would've come to our team last year if we hadn't gone through that scandal...i also believe that sheva would still be here.

we also have oddo and ronaldo in our squad this year as well...which i believe will greatly increase our chances domestically and internationally.

I have to agree with Max, that it'll be another Scudettoless season for us, as Inters squad (not their first 11) is way ahead of us. As Galliani said we're obciously stronger than last season, as we now have Oddo and Ronaldo. Of course I'm not as confident as R7 is (who can be ?), but I think qualfying for the Cl should be achieved without big problems this season. I can't see Juve anwhere near us, they lack the quality they had in 2005/2006. Nedved, Del Pierro an Trez...they're all over their prime.

For the transfer window...of course I'm dissapointed, but as Porty said: This wasn't unexpected. On the other hand: Other Top Clubs such as Real haven't finished spectacular transfers as well, and Barcas offensive may be impressive but they still don't have a good DM, and the Messi, Ronaldinho,Henry, Eto'o attack won't work for long I believe. As for us, I just just can't see us winning the CL again. Last year ways impressive, especially the victory over ManU in the SS but we can't expect Kaká to score another 10 goals in this seasons CL. And I won't even think of Ricky being injured for longer than a weak. Without him we don't stand a chance against the "big" teams.

That's what bothers me. If Ronaldinho gets injured, there is Messi and Henry to take his place. But if Kaka gets injured, we are forced to play with 3 defensive midfielders and Seedorf as AM since giving Gourcuff a chance to play is beyond Ancelotti. So without Kaka, it looks like this:

Gattuso Ambrosini Brocchi
---------Seedorf------------


And we all know that line up is as bad as it looks.

I dunno Max. As I heard, the primary reason, why we dumped Cassano(besides the Real spat) was coz Carlo said, he wanted to give Yoann more space on the field. And Seedorf is really good as a trquartista.

FWIW I think our first team and our first line of subs are really good. On paper our subs are not heavy weights but they know their job, they've been doing it for a long time and they can do it well. The ONLY way the sh!t would hit the fan would be to have a 'atypical' injury ravaged season. You know the sort. 2 frontline strikers injured,2 frontline defenders injured, 2 midfielders out all AT the same time.

Nope we've spent more cash than any other club on medical and training facilities. I don't see this happening.

I am in agreement of the assessment that Milan are hyping the bejesus out of Pato as if he's the LeBron James of world football in hopes that it'll take our minds off of yet another lousy transfer season, the highlight of which was paying some peachfuzzed kid the moon and putting the world on his shoulders, while we continue our ridiculous Brazilian love affair. And we can't even play the guy until next year!

So, in the meantime, we've got another Scudetto-less and almost certainly injury-ravaged season to look forward to. We'll suck in the first few months and forget how to score again (Galliani might want to start looking in the Yellow Pages under "strikers"), and during the January transfer market we'll consequently make some panic buy that won't contribute a dime in a bucket. And Pato sure as hell isn't going to make an impact right away, because it takes time to learn the team system. I think only the Hiroshima bomb crashed with a louder thud. The management is going to cause a revolt among the Milan fans if this nonsense keeps up.

It's BS like this that are going to make our CL success look more like an act of God than the fruit of our hard work.

ya i know those 2 will help alot but i think theres just too many factors against us. to do anything great this season we will need all the luck we can get and NO major injuries

Agreed. Pato is most definetly not a one-man team. I don't want to see him in a Milan shirt until he's 20. If he is playing games before then, it shows how little we have up front.

You will regret these words very sooner than that my friend...

I don't think we lack anything up front. Ronaldo/Gilardino/Inzaghi/Willy/Pato and in emergencies Kaka.

Adding Cassano to that list wouldn't be a bad idea though.

IMO guys are just complaining and being emotional. Last season who thought we could win the CL and finish top 4 in Serie A????

PATO is definitely a good signing and until we see how he adapts, we cannot pass any judgements. We all thought Oliveira would be brilliant, the same for Gila and we all complained that R99 was fat and bogus. What happened???

Young players should be exposed in order to build their confidence. Someone like Gorcuff is brilliant but the confidence still lacks coz exposure is minimal. This season the management said they'll give him more time and if that happens i'm sure we'll experience his quality.

Pato might be young in terms of age but he's a matured player in terms of soccer. He gave Puyol a difficult time last season in the Club championship. He's also physically strong and I hope he gets more time to prove his worth.

The main problem we are having is in defence where age has really caught up with our players. They can't run for full 90 mins!

A very nice post

FWIW? What's that supposed to mean ?
IMO our subs, besides in the attack are cr@p. Brocchi is a joke....that ManU managed to win against us in Old Trafford was his fault. Favalli is nothing special, Kaladze will be playing in the first 11 next year, and we all know that Simic has his moments but not more. Bonera is a misscalculation IMO, he's not very talented and already 26...we can't expect much more from him IMO. Gourcuff is a promising player but he can't compete with Seedorf when the Dutch plays like in the end of last season.

@LaPalma .. We do have these average players, yes, but don't forget these players are the European champions

Bonera, Broochi, Simic etc etc .. These are our second string players ... They play with heart for Milan .. More than any other bench player at inter or anywhere else.

It is natural that we (as fans) want the best for our team .. And we would not expect anything, but a strong bench to aid an already strong first XI ..

Leaving all this speculation aside, about how the team will cope with the new season .. Milan have a very VERY strong team ! Our midfield (IMO) is the best in Europe, the defense (well Nesta and Maldini ) is renowned worldwide for it's strength, we have the best goalkeeper in the world ! And we have Ronaldo leading our attack ... With that said, we have reliable subs that can take the field at anytime and under any condition, and still present a Milan standard performance.

p.s. Don't want to go into the speculation of if this or that happens we will loose (.. or whichever speculation u would like to examine..) cuz no one imagined Milan would reach a 4th place finish and take home the CL after looking at our performance in the first half of the season. In fact, this very team has been bred to win.

Not win the CL but yeah with an 8 point deduction I would have still expected us to be in the top 4 when other teams have been deducted more and Juve relegated...

We all thought Oliveira would be brilliant! Haha yeah right, there were loads myself included last season that were very skepticul about him, we ended up believing some of the people on here that he was any good, what a mistake... Gilar's still nearly got a goal every other game ratio in the league so it isn't exactly the worst, it's just that it seems he can't do it in the CL, at least for the moment.

These avergae players are only European champions on the paper. I don't want to say anything bad about them as you're right: They play with a lot of heart for Milan, but the "true" european champions are Seedorf, Pippo, Pirlo....and above all Kaká.
We have a very strong team...I agree. But Dida the best goalie in the world? Come on...you're heavily heavily biased. You have to agree that at least Gigi is better than Dida. The Brazilian is a very good keeper, but IMO his class is declining year by year.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want stars like Diego and others on our bench. That'd be nuts. But how about a player like Maresca? And how about some promising young players? We really need a good CB as Maldini won't play too many matches next year I believe.
And I'm not saying we can't win anything next season. Last summer I was one of the few people thinking of winning the CL. We can do that again of course...and we can even win the Scudetto, but Inter has much better chances to win the league (as they have more quality players) as other teams have much better chances to win the CL.

People seem to think being European Champions solves all of our problems and means we are the best.

Get real! Serie A and The Premier League are much harder to win than the Champions League. Look at the finalists in recent years. Milan, Liverpool, Arsenal, Monaco. No disrespect to any of them, but they're not even the top teams domestically.

Now consider this. Chelsea won both domestic cups, finished in the top 2 the previous 3 years, made 2 Champions League semi Finals - They compete in 4 competitions and still do well. Now look at Milan. We don't even think of the Coppa, we don't compete in Serie A so the CL is the only thing we have left. So yes, we should do well in it. Even Liverpool do well in more than just one competition.

Start looking at things realistically as opposed to thinking Pato is the next coming that will save all our problems, he won't.

Harsh, but fair

I think Rossoneri7 is more of a Dida freak than I am.


Word. We won't achieve anything domestically by recycling last season's lineup. Besides Pato, who was our other big acquisition? Digao? Give me a break.

Listen to what he just said people! This is the problem with Milan!!!

that sums up everything very nicely, i'm 100% with you on this one.

kurt just convinced me. I'm gonna go off and support Fiorentina....till Milan win the double that is.

If Man U could win the league last season,and make it to the semis with the kind of depth they had, Milan with MilanLab is in with a really good chance.

well man u doesnt have to deal with inter, chelsea dint have much depth at all last year especially in def and cech is a huge piece for that team.

We do have young players on our bench; Gila, Gourcuff, Pato ..

I think the club is working on finding a replacement for our aging defense (which proved once again that it is the best in the world) ... So that shouldn't be an issue of concern

Dida .. Yeah, I'm very biased. But u got to hand it to him, he was the better goalkeeper in 03 (Old Trafford)




Who said being European Champion solves all of our problems ?! The men on the field solve our problems .. But we are the best In fact we are ranked #1 in Europe. We are the most decorated club on the international front.

Then who said that Milan don't compete on several fronts .. You probably missed Milan's last 3 seasons before this one

Pato is a kid !! 17 yr old kid ! There is nothing more to it.

Chelsea ?! Since when did Chelsea become a reference point when comparing top European teams Madrid, Barca, Milan, Juve .. These are the clubs u should compare

Liverpool ?! The last time they won the league was in the 90s

Look Kurt ... I think AC Milan is the top club in Europe, period. Therefor I am convinced that no matter what team we have, we will always prevail! As we saw in Athena. So, don't get the wrong idea

Barca have only won it once still they are a comparible club, Chelsea have been since Abramovich came in simple as. Liverpool haven't won the league since 89/90 but have attained a Champions League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, 3 League Cups, 3 FA Cups and only us and Madrid better them in the Champions League in terms of winning of course they are a comparible team

People seem to be going on about history, I don't care what they did 50 years ago. Recently is what matters!

Since 2000 Milan have won 5 trophies compared to Liverpools 10. With Milan only finishing in the top 2 in the league twice in this time, Liverpool once. So neither are really competing for the league title in all honesty. But Liverpool still manage to win so many trophies. Milan do not. In the same period Chelsea have 7 trophies (2 League titles). Last season Chelsea showed what a real team does.

FA Cup - Winners
League Cup - Winners
Charity Sheild - Runners Up
Premier Legaue - Runners Up
Champions League - Semi Finals

And don't say it's all Abramovic either - From '97-2000 they won 5 more trophies.

That is going on all fronts, being there, or there abouts, in all the competitions you enter. Milan on the other hand only really compete in one competition per year. We only make the latter stages in one event, while Chelsea and Liverpool are making finals/semi finals/etc. In everything they enter.

P.S. The reason I pick Liverpool and Chelsea is because I know alot about them, don't pull the whole 'Why didn't you pick real European teams like Barca, Real, etc. because I don't know enough about them to comment. But if Chelsea and Liverpool aren't Europes elite, and are still more succesful than us in the 21st century. We should be really worried about our Milan.

Does this mean we don't have to pay attention to constant harping reminders in the English press about 1966, then?

To be serious for a moment, my personal take on the whole issue is somewhere between R7's rosy view of things and Kurt's rather harsh view.

Milan ARE, over the last 20 years, the best team in Europe. That said, the old armor is creaking, the bench is dangerously thin, and I suspect that in the next couple of years Milan may go through a crash-and-burn-followed-by-expensive-rebuilding of the sort that Bayern just got through.

Just be thankful we haven't won anything recently.

But do you actually have to read English press It makes no sense you must go out of your way to read it from our sources, then complain, why bother...

If the EPL is your reference point to football .. Then you should know that the CL trophy is worth 20 FA cups and 1000 League cups. It is a merit of recognition amongst the elite of the footballing world. It is an achievement Milan have accomplished 7 times now. I think Milan is a very respectable club. A prestigious club that always has this aura of victory around it. Something all three of the EPL clubs, whom finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the EPL respectively, all didn't have the chance to match the class of AC Milan And keep in mind, those 3 teams were hyped up so much .. because of the quality and depth they have in their teams.

AC Milan played with this very squad and look what it accomplished.


@Brilliant .. I meant that the EPL teams are hyped up too much. With all do respect to Liverpool, I don't think that 5th CL trophy that they won was theirs, it was ours (the whole world knows it !). So to be honest; comparing our 7 trophies and Madrid's 9 trophies .. Well, Liverpool with 4 ... And in general, I am no fan of things that are hyped up .. So the EPL in particular I don't like.

To a foreigner? Yes. To me? The FA Cup is the most prestigious trophy in the football World, by a long distance. As a player, I'd have that over the Champions League any day. It existed long before the Champions League, or any none-English club for that matter.

The reason I caompare to EPL teams is because I'm English, what do you think I watch th most? What do you think I know more about?


As I mentioned before. Milan were in one competition. Chelsea, Liverpool and United were in 3/4. Their squad was tired.



And the 7th that we won wasn't ours, it was theirs.

@Kurt: You're not really saying ********* have been competitive on all fronts are you? And they have won 10 titles? They cannot top 3 AAA titles (2 CL's and a Scudetto) with stupid third-rate cups... not in my book at least. They have not been more successful than we've been if that's what you were trying to say... certainly not!


It's stupid to award a title based on a final... Istanbul is the worst day of my life but Milan maybe did not deserve a place in that final... Last year, we hammered the English champions 3-0 at San Siro... it's not really fair to administer justice this way...

I know ur English mate

All I'm saying is, you should be the one who knows the difference between the FA/League cup and the Champions League cup ... And since you follow the EPL, then you should know that the teams in the League cup and FA cup always have teams from the 2nd or 3rd divisions .. So what kind of competition is that .. No offense, I mean English football is very rich in history and all .. But I am a Milan fan and don't see any team that can match my Milan ...

ohh United and Liverpool were too busy with other trophies to win huh Well, you certainly give so little recognition to a team that was being harassed by the tabloids and the commentators of the whole world for the past season .. Like 'Milan is an aging team', 'that Maldini can't kick it anymore', etc etc .. Maldini lifted that cup on top of United and Liverpool, as Milan outclassed them!


P.S. .. Milan had more injuries and fatigue throughout the season than all 3 EPL teams combined last season. And Milan was crowned above the top EPL teams, in a competition every EPL team drools at. As SAF, he'll tell you

Liverpool HAVE been more competetive than us, at least. Neither Liverpool or Milan are competetive for the title. Both do well in the Champions Legaue. Milan do not even think of the Coppa, while Liverpool do very well in the FA Cup, the biggest domestic Cup there is. The League Cup, while not very prestigious is still big nowadays. Look at the last three winners: United - Chelsea - Chelsea. Hardly small squads, look at the lineups they've put out as well. The competetiveness of our league has forced the big 4 to go for every competition they're in, so they don't end a season trophyless.

@R7 - The reason the FA Cup is the most prestigious trophy in the history of sport is because so many teams enter it. There's about 30 rounds of the competition before it gets to the 'First round proper'. By the QF stage, the EPL teams are the only ones left, so it ultimately ends up with an EPL winner every year. But it helps our lower teams survive. Last year United played Exeter, who were in administration, the gate receipts alone will pay their wages until 2020. Italy should look into something like this.

I'm not taking anything away from Milan winning it, I'm just saying it's easier when it's the only competition you have to look at.

I don't see the point in playing against Exeter tbh kurt .. In competitions, groups stages (then) knock-outs .. It is always the more challenging to play against well prepared clubs, clubs with history and the strong team is the victor in the end (i.e. WC, etc). The CL is the top trophy, right alongside the Scudetto for Milan. Milan doesn't play in the coppa cuz it has more important things to win; i.e. Scudetto and CL ... Whilst United play Exeter and Chelsea play Ringadong FC, just in case they don't win the league title or the CL, they have something to lean their backs onto .. A cup based in the UK and the majority of it's participants are of lower division teams .. In that sense, they should have been smarter and put more effort into landing the CL than those cups, cuz the CL for the best of the best ONLY.

Why is it that it is difficult for people to comprehend what Milan has been through last season ... Milan didn't have it easy !! Milan were thrown dirt in their faces all through the season Inter were already comfortable Serie A leaders, they lost to Valencia in the CL. Milan were crawling from the 18th place in October to a 14 place in December, then 3rd place in May, end of season 4th place finish .. Plus the European crown. I mean, APPLAUSE ! This is a Grand Milan side ! It fought with all the will that it had for that 4th place finish, when Lazio, Fiorentina, and Palermo were breathing down our necks the whole season ! In that sense, Milan had obligations in the league too

So please, don't say "..it's easier when it's the only competition you have to look at..", cuz Milan proved it by landing in 4th place, a CL seat

In my view Chelsea, United and even Sevilla have had a better season than us... but I can't see how ********* have been more consistent than us in the past seasons...

Come on, don't start with that.

Just because a team is small, it deserves no chance? How can a small team ever get noticed if they never get to play anything worthwhile. That's why the FA Cup is so special. And just so you know, Exeter drew 0-0 at Old Trafford.

They are HUGE memories for an Exeter fan, they'd never play a team of note, than they draw at Old Trafford. Possibly the greatest accomplishment of that clubs history.

You can make a mockery of almost any club in that sense. In 1900 Milan had nothing, compared to Villa's 5 League titles and 3 FA Cups. Does that mean you don't deserve to play us? Not at all, every team deserves a chance, the smaller clubs moreso than the bigger ones, they're already worth millions, the small ones just want to survive. That's why the FA Cup is so special. It's for everybody, not just the best.

Every great club starts from nothing at all.

Well....as you didn't say anything else I assume you agree with me, that our subs don't have much quality. Plus, Gila is not a young player anymore....he's 25!

About that "Exeter thing". In Germany we Have the DFB Pokal which is very similar to the FA Cup, which teams of the 4th or sometimes even 5th League entering the main round. I think it's a great thing as football as a sport needs more than top teams. The base for the popularity of this sport is not the big stars, but the many players in the lower leagues who do the best PR for football. Without this leagues there would be no top team as well. These clubs deserve the chance to play against the big german teams like Bayern Bremen, Schalke etc. And don't know a person that didn't cheer for St.Pauli in 2006 (third league team, still a very popular club in Germany) when they made it to the semis and almost won against Bayern? That's one of the great storys in football. Sometimes it's harder to play against such a highly motivated team which players play the game of their life than to play against some team in the CL.

Once again on our squad. Yes, we won the CL last season which really shows the passion of our players, and this triumphwas surely no accident as we totally deserved it. But this is a new season, and if we're honest with our selves we don't have the best squad. In the first half of the last season we've seen what our team looks like without the injured Rhino and an out-of form Pirlo.
And, yes you're right R7: Milan IS the most succesfull club of the last two decades, and of course more succesfull than Chelsea has been in the last 5 years. My only concern is, that this is about to change...

@kurt ... All I am saying is, u cant bring a team as big as United and say 'this is their achievement, the Carling cup..' to a team like Milan.


It is good for local competition to give the other teams a chance, yes .. But the BIG teams in England should go for something rather bigger than the FA/Carling cup; no offense to those small clubs .. But it isn't a top tier championship (if u get what I mean .. I'm sure u do .. ) ..


@LaPalma .. I assume, u read what I wrote to kurt ...

Don't think I am naive and overlook certain things just cuz I'm stubborn .. Yes, the team looks shaky when considering injuries to key players and there is not enough depth. And as a fan, I would love for Milan to sign several players 'X,Y,Z' ..

But when I think about what this team did last season ... I mean TBH, I don't think there is any team that can do what this Milan team did under such tough occasions. This makes the choices to replace our European champions very difficult. I mean, believe it or not, Broochi and Ambrosini really are They have as much right to be a part of the success as Nesta or Oddo ..

The age issue is definitely a problem .. Still experience has shown on several occasions to be the true force within Milan

But in time, things will change, Berlusconi has the club at heart He is the reason behind Milan's success

brocchi was **** and will always be ****. he came on to replace gattuso and handed man u the momemtum and allowed them in the game which resulted in 2 goals and he 50% at fault for the 3rd.

The League Cup may not be the most prestigious thing in the World. But the FA Cup?

It has over double the history of the European Cup, and way more history than the World Cup, it's existed longer than League football. There's no way any team in England will overlook it, teams like Liverpool even sacrifice league title chances to win it. It's huge.

People outside of England have no idea how big the FA Cup is. The 3rd round draw (When all the EPL and Championship teams enter) Was one of the most viewed things on television last year. Not even a game, just the draw.

No, I have a very clear idea about it ... But my point is to the contrary .. Leaving aside it's importance and history within England, it is a local cup. In general, this is what I meant ..

It's not just a local cup though, it's nothing like Italy's cup who no one seems to care that much about!

The League Cup is the local Cup the FA Cup is the national one, it is huge, so much history etc. Only in recent years have the English clubs been a real force in Europe again, yes I know United won it in 99 but we seemed to have a real dry patch and it almost seemed like the impossible dream, now it's far from it.

The FA Cup is extremelly big though, I don't mean to be the typical English but this national cup, there is nothing like it around the world...