Adriano G is brilliant! He always says the right thing at the right time. And of course he is very loyal to his boss Silvio, but really, he is a master at communication. If he taught a college course in communication I'd sign up right away. Adriano G is also the best Milan fan--have you ever seen him in the stands--so passionate, when I go to the San Siro and see my first game, I'd like to sit near Adriano G!

Unfortunately I didn't give a damn about the CWC, I couldn't care less who wins that competition. So whether I forget quickly or not, it doesn't hide the fact that it's been a very poor season.

if i could give you an award i would

more like a master of deception and lies

likewise

Whilst I'm pretty annoyed at the frustrating season we've had, what he says is true. We've still won two trophy's this season - sometimes when you see some of the comments on here it's like we haven't won anything for ages.

Still, here's hoping we can steal 4th from Fio.

^^^^
+1 ( a very very big +1...in fact it's bigger than all the -1s that are gonna come after my post )

I really don't like the players being booed business and the whistles, when the match is going on. Oddo raised a very valid point. I mean it's called a home ground for a reason. And then these dumb @ss fans wonder why we're doing so poorly at home.

And as for CWC...I would love to have seen how we would have reacted if we'd been dumped by Urawa Reds.

Like it or not, being the club with the most number of international trophies counts for a lot.

I do agree with you to a degree there, Jack. Mainly about our home support. Now I would say I'm probably one of the more critical members on here, but what's the point of booing your own players at a game, that's the worst thing you can do in my opinion. The whole point of going is to support the damn team!

^^

Hrmmm...you're still not smooth talking your way back into my good books. I don't like people who have obscene pictures as part of their signature. I thought there was rule against this...

i'm not trying to take anything away from the 2 trophies we won, but:

1) one trophy won at the beginning of the season before our age truly began to show
2) the CWC was a great game...but again, our age began showing once we won this tropiy

i would never take away from what this team has done...last year was absolutely magical...but every team has a time when a generation needs to hang up their boots so another generation can take the torch and continue the great tradition we have. we NEED a new generation of players to come in and take our team back to where they were. this team is too old and too tired to continue being as great as they use to be.

Yet again mr nonsense engages his mouth while leaving his brain in neutral

You can look at this in two ways 1) yes we have won a lot in the last five years and 2) this mess could have been avoided had we had a strong bench and Milan quality players. I notice baldy ignores no.2 because that is his responsibility, yet is quick enough to have a go at the fans who pay good money to watch their team play. If I was one of those paying fans I'd be outraged at his ridiculous comments, the fans pay their money and have the right to boo as well as cheer.

With a home record like ours it's no wonder there's booing! Let's be serious now, Milan are a big club and rightly have high expectations. Now when we're 2-0 to Atalanta(or Samp) at half time in a game we really have to win and playing as badly as I can remember then I can't see how the fans can do anything but boo - it would happen to every 'big' club in every league.

I remeber last night, when Roma were 2 goals down with 2 minutes to go, and the Roma fans started singing "Roma, Roma, Roma"...my point is that you are sometimes giving up too easy!

I think there's a mistake made here! I believe no Milan fan is angry at the Milan players. I'm quite sure that 99% (there's Kaladze there) of the fans actually love Milan's players and feel them close cause they've been there for quite a while. And the fans also know that the players are not able to play a whole season with no rotation! Even if it eventually hurts the team more than it hurts the club officials, the constant booing is aimed at the board! That's my opinion anyway.

Those Roma fans must believe they can qualify for the SFs then..

And I agree with dst. I think the anger is aimed more towards the board then the players.

There's always hope... it's pretty much impossible now but you never give up hope...

The problems are not that there are low times, its that we all saw this coming two years ago without replacements. It was obvious that this was going to happen. Critics have been saying this for some time. I have been saying this. Its what happens. I think these clubs should be run like Corporations, if the President fails to do well they get thrown out.

We got promises of replacements in defense and we end up with Digao and frickin Favalli. We got Pato but its not enough.

The second problem is the mediocre display in serie A. Last season we won the Champions League but overall I wouldn't say we were the best team in the World. We had an easy schedule up to Man United and we were completely out of Serie A, so it was easy to focus on Europe while teams like Celtic and Man U were focused on winning both.

The other point is that people pay alot of money to see these home games. Italians are not the richest people. In Milan its the biggest gap between rich and poor in the whole of Italy. People expect to get their money's worth. Galliani's making millions, Bertlcni is a billionare, and they get free tickets so whats it to them.

Fair...then it should be done during half time. Not when a bunch of human beings who are beyond exhaustion are sweating their hearts out trying to stay in the game, and all they hear is 'Boo!' and 'You suck!'. If I were in their place I'd question my commitment too.

Why the hell should I play for fair-weather fans? So the moment I don't win for one season I'am a liability who should be shipped out, regardless of how much I contributed?? If that is what being a Milanfan means...then I think I'm supporting the wrong club. I'll go cheer for Albinoleffe or Napoli.

Besides if they're that pissed, they can always send more bullets in envelopes.

But these poor players are earning more in a week than I do in a year! If they don't like it then get back in the real world like the rest of us and get a 9-5 job and put up with all the sh1t that involves. And let's not forget that those 'horrible fair weather' fans are the same ones paying these poor players wages!

The management should bear the full brunt though as they are the ones who got us into this mess trying to be cheap. Quality costs

That said...it does make me wonder..what would a Villa fan tell about a season were they are "still in the game" for CL qual. and won 2 trophies? I don't think they would mind.

So you see, what we consider as a very poor season one would consider a historical. The truth is somewere in the middle.

But we're not Villa and we're talking about Milan having one of their worst seasons in a long time. You're starting to sound like galliani

If we finish 4th, it won't be. 99/00 and 00/01 - seasons without a trophy.

We're Milan, a very special club. But also, we got used to the success. Well, we got history, and this history includes 1982, 1995, etc.

If is a big word...if we could win Lo Scudetto, but we have no chance and the chances of fourth are very slim indeed. Unless we drastically improve we haven't got a chance IMO

Exactly...it includes 1982 and 1995. Find me a club who's never had a low point ever...and 2 years??? You're going to judge a 108 year old team on the basis of two years?? Wow...

And as for the argument about the 9-5 job....I don't quite follow.

1. Either you're saying for the amount of effort they put in, they're being overpaid. I would quite humbly laugh at it, since I've seen a documentary about the kind of training they do. They are not playing a 'game' like we do on Sundays. I'm afraid that is quite a moot point.

2.Horrible fair weather fans paying for the team?? As much as I'd like to agree...that would be a long time ago. Now it's the corporate sponsors who pay for the team...esp in Italy where the viewership is reaching all time lows. Secondly, suppose I pose the argument...Would they be 'fans' if it weren't for the team winning cups?? Ask that argument and you'd find there'll be a sizable reduction in that number of 'fans'. Suppose in the end AC Milan were just a team like Napoli. Once great now fallen. Would there be a milanfan.com?? How many napolifans.com do you know of? Next, we all know there is a sizable number of members here post Zach era. That is people who have seriously followed Milan since Carlo. In such a case, I don't blame them for expecting stuff, but most of the times football isn't this easy.

There is NO WAY in hell we could have gone through the ignominy of the Zach era. Esp considering, we'd won the scudetto the previous season. There is no way Chelsea could have gone wrong with Sheva now either. But they did. And while Chelsea can laugh at the face of a 30 mill loss, Milan can't. Because it's a difference in management philosophy. If Abramovich were to be jailed tomorrow for some offence...Chelsea would collapse. If Silvio were to have something happen to him..Milan might take a hit, but wouldn't have to sell a million players or anything.

Can any of your 'idol' superclubs in the EPL say the same?

Milan, Barca, Real and perhaps Arsenal....are the only big clubs which look like they can last another 100 years. Though knowing Barca they might screw it up again.



In Hindi we have an expression- 'Lambi Race ka ghoda' roughly translated a marathon runner. That's what these clubs are. And they didn't reach where they are by staking their future on transfer revolutions any time one season went bad.



It will be considered historical. No question. Everyone will remember that in 2007 Milan were European champions. No one will remember that they finished fourth and that their hated rivals Inter did a double on them. All this angst is just for a moment.

I might sound really pacifist. But I went through the hair pulling out phase about 8 years ago. We could finish 7th and I'd still be unfazed about the future of this team, or it's greatness. Nor would I doubt that we wouldn't get to the top again.

If this team were winning season in and season out...there's really no point in calling yourself a supporter. The same what I said to those 'Ferrari fans' post 2000 in the F1 season. I asked them where the F wre you in 97 at Jerez.

I agree Jack, with what you say overall, but there are so many counter arguments to what you said that I won't bother right now. But for example, the money we spent on Oli and the manner in which we did it... Could have been avoided. The money could have been used more wisely.

But yes, I can look past these days and see that it's going to be alright in the future. But we have to live through these emotions right now and for each person, it comes out differently. I say what I say, you say what you say, but at the end of the day we both love Milan and hate dst...

i dont think you really get it.

we can deal with the losses, the poor form from all the players.

we can even accept the lack moves in the past 2 years

but to continue to hear the same sh1t after every game that we dont need any real changes, that it's the ref fault, that our squad is fine. thats were the problem lies.

it's the fact that crap has no end in sight, at least for another season, thats if galliani follows thru with his words..

I've already reached my conclusion about Oli. He was the Ky jelly for the big lay that was R20.

Except in this case the pimp De Assis screwed us.

Of course I could be completely off. Wait the above sounds very dirty...all children below 13 forget what u read. Pana...you'll have to wiki what Ky means. I can't teach you everything online..

But even if it were not true. In a team like Real Betis, if you knew Oli from before you wouldn't call it a pathetic transfer.

I was once discussing with some fans in orkut about Oli...and these guys were Real Madrid supporters...so they might have been biased..but they did rate Oli higher than Torres!! Since Oli earned less, was less of a prima donna, and was just as effective in a 'weaker' team than Atletico was at that time.

Just goes to show we can't predict it. On hindsight...suppose Pato had been a flop...another Oli/Yoann...are you in any doubt what the outburst in this forum would be??

Serves us right...crashing 15 mill on an unproven kid from somewhere...

Max...I perfectly respect the rights of people to blow out emotions...but I just wish it weren't based on hindsight and claiming for a surety that whatever's not been tried will work.


Oh and we should definitely open a Zen thread. With a koan for people to meditate on before every match....Pana tried something with the shoutbox. But problem is us milanfans are way too creative to yell our mindlessly. We are pissed off sociopaths...but very articulate ones.

Well, it depends what 2 trophies. But we won the equivelent of the Charity Shield, twice, in my opinion. Would I celebrate winning the Charity Shield? Well, I wouldn't be disappointed we won it, but I wouldn't care if we lost either.

Of course I'd be delighted with being in a fight for the CL. But Villa have to fight Liverpool for the 4th spot, Milan have Fiorentina. Now you tell me which has the tougher task?

I have certain expectations for Villa and Milan, obviously my Villa ones are alot lower. I can't just say "Oh, Milan finished 5th, since I'd be happy for Villa to do that in makes it a good season" because it doesn't work like that. Milan have got the money, the players and everything else which means they should be in the CL, while Villa have never even spent £10m on a single player before.



Yep, we are clearly struggling. And with all due respect to my team, when you start comparing Milans season with Villa, you know it's bad.

ahhh the famous Villa...still had my favorite player of all time tho so ain't all bad

And who would that be? McGrath, Withe.. or the mighty David Platt?

which Italian side did he sign for and you have a clue to my families roots

Nice!

I remember reading we bought him for £500k and sold him for £5.5m which was a load at the time, but I was too young to ever see him play for us. As for selling him.. either Bari or Sampdoria? I can never remember.

Bari and also had a young Boban on loan that season to (still got relegated tho! )

from the crewe i see. i have a friend from Cheshire, he's a united fan tho although i belive it's pretty close to manchester.

Yeah it is close to Manchester, they recently had the longest serving manager in the World in Dario Gradi, he took charge in 1983 and finished as manager at the end of last season. Think he's the technical director or something now, but 24 years!?

Obviously you don't read anything I write, I have said many times that this situation could have been avoided. The subs we have are just not good enough and the first team players are playing too much to the detriment of the team.



If you don't think these 'poor' players are overpayed then you're living in cloud cuckoo land . As an example we have Favalli who is one of our lowest paid bench players. He is on a £2m a year contract which equates to nearly £40k a week! Now if I was to work at least 12 hours a day seven days per week I wouldn't earn that in a year! So please do not insult me or any other worker by giving me this bullsh1t that players are underpaid. And as for the quote 'they are not playing a 'game' like we do on Sundays' well in the past few games I've watched I don't think they'd be good enough to play



I must laugh at the contempt you show towards the fans who turn up week in week out, even though you probably have never even been to Milan. I find this sort of attitude rather patronising and rather pious. Perhaps in all your glory you ought to wonder why these fans are booing etc rather than just condemn them from your computer chair. Is it a case that because their views are different to yours that they are wrong? I also think you'll find that we still had plenty of fans when we went to Serie B, so we do have a sizable fanbase - even if they (shock, horror) show some displeasure in what they see!

I would also like to ask you how long you have been a fan? Did you start supporting from just after the Zach era? or Terim, Tabarez or even Don Fabio? Because from reading your posts it seems that you like to think of yourself as some sort of super fan who has supported Milan all his life and supports Milan more than anyone else! Funny thing is that there seems to be a few here with the same attitude. As far as I'm concerned I support Milan and want the best for them, if that means speaking out then so be it. If you or anyone else don't like it well thats just tough and I really don't care



My superclubs in the EPL? with this quote you are either very ignorant or just very naive as I cannot stand any EPL teams(Newcastle are ok), and Kurt can back that up . I will respect teams doing well though, and at the moment Manu are probably the best club in Europe, if that means I support them well you have a very narrow mind indeed

As for money losses, well didn't our super transfer guru spend €18m+Vogel on LOLiveira? and what now...we will be lucky to even get €10m for him!! Yet another masterstroke from galliani



This is just speculation though and you have no evidence to back this up. As it happens though Real are in serious debt as are Barca and Arsenal are in debt as well after building their new stadium. I'm sure Liverpool, Manu, Juve, merde etc will still be going in a 100 years debt or no debt so I really don't understand your point.



There is also a saying that goes 'getting to the top is easy, it's staying there thats the hard part' To stay at the top we need players that are fresh and motivated, thanks to our wonderful management we have players who are out of shape without quality subs.



Then why have you been supporting us? Surely you'd be better supporting a lower placed team like Siena etc?

Hi! I'm probably one of the people you refer to here:



As for myself, I've supported Milan since Sacchi was coach, so it's been a long time. I've seen the ups and the downs and support Milan even if it's a bad season like this one. I don't think of myself as a superfan. I think of myself as an OLD fan (well, older than most here. I'm in my 30s) who perhaps has more experience watching Milan not at their best than some.



Fair enough. I don't necessarily agree with you but I also don't necessarily expect you to agree with me (or care if you do).



While I do go to a couple of Milan games a year, I'm not a season ticket holder. I know some though, including a guy who started going as a kid who now takes HIS kids to games (and has plenty to say about sitting in the 1st green ring where the kids sit at home games). From the season ticket holders who do go to games, I've gathered that they're not happy with the team's performance this year - and I think it's quite understandable. I also don't have a problem with them booing the team when they play as sucktastically as they did during the first half last weekend. One season ticket holder was none too pleased at Maldini - someone he normally only has good things to say about - for his sarcastic applause to the booing tifosi. (It seems we agree here, I Rossoneri!)



In this, we're in complete agreement. The situation absolutely could've been avoided and management have only themselves to blame for this. I suspect the main difference between us is that I have faith that the situation will come round and Milan will come back to its very successful ways while it appears to me that your view of management's ability to fix things is..not so optimistic.

great post Tennie and like you i'm in my 30s so can remember bad times and worse than the current situation we are in but things go in cycles and to become strong you have to become weak and thats were we are weak!
we will regroup and reform and hopefully become the once dominant force we were and for once i'd like to become Italian champions rather than champions league winners it's been to damn long!!!

That was a very good post indeed, it seems that we're not too different after all!

Like you I am in my 30's(wrong side I'm afraid ) and I have supported/been a fan since 88/89 - TBH Van Basten was my favourite player and it went from there . I have seen the bad times and the good ones as well and I did have the utmost respect for the management(especially Don Sivio). But I could see problems arising a couple of years ago when we started buying the cheap fix players. I kept the faith to begin with because I hoped that come the mercato we would strengthen accordingly, but that was when the excuses started. From then on all we have heard is excuse after excuse even if some top class players have said we turned them down(Buffon anyone?). I realise that Galliani has to balance the books etc and it that respect he has done an excellent job, but in doing that the team has suffered. We have been an aging team for too long, our short term fixes have run out and because we haven't got any decent quality subs our first team players are burned out - right at the most crucial time of the season. Now I would have some hope if Don Silvio would say something along the lines of "I've put aside £70m for transfers this summer as the team needs rebuilding" rather than "I've put away £70m for R10" perhaps we wil spend in the summer, but some of the names mentioned don't really inspire me with confidence. Zambrotta would be an ideal sub right now, but because of his age would just be another short term fix. If we did buy R10 I think it would cause plenty of unrest in the dressing room. We have been linked with Frey, but IMO he isn't in Buffon or Cech's league.

My fear is that we need quite a few players to regain our status as one of the worlds best, but bringing in so many players will take time. This is why I said we should have bought one WC player in per season, that way we would have covered a few positions and some key players would still be fresh.

I'll retain my optimism until I see some positive moves by the management...

Sorry for the rambling post, but I hope I have made my opinions clear

Forza Milan

TBH Mishie I think we've been weak for too long. IMO league position is a good indicator of team strength and ours has been poor for too long, ok we had calciopoli but Juve went down and look where they are? We need Milan quality players and no more quick fixes

thats they key part

when i hear about extending the conracts of old player should be retired Ei favalli, serginho, etc that upsets me because it's only going to delay things.

This isn't directly adding to the arguement above, but something I'd like to add.

I feel that we are lucky this season. Serie A is a weak league at the moment, in my opinion, and I feel that it has made our position 'false'. Yes, we're 5th so that's where we deserve to be, but we're only that high because it's a weak league.

We are currently on 49 points, and sit in 5th. In Spain, 49 points from 31 games will put you 6th - but everyone will have a game in hand on you. In the Premier League, 49 points will put you joint with the 8th/9th placed teams. We should feel very lucky that the top half/mid-table teams in Serie A are very average at the moment, otherwise we could be worrying about not qualifying for Europe at all.

^^ I think it's wrong to compare things like that. If Milan were playing in another league things would be different... not necessarily better or worse but certainly different.

One of the reasons Milan is far from a complete squad is because Serie A is not so strong. The management thought that this squad should be enough to reach 4th place. In a stronger Serie A Milan would be stronger too I believe.

Yeah, fair point.

Yes but you also have to consider the fact that both Inter and Roma are strong teams, especially Inter. Compared to Inter's squad even Roma's ours is not good enough. And I know you're saying 4th spot and I agree with you there, but at the beginning of the season the players and management were all adamant that Milan were fighting for the title, they only changed their objectives once they realised thay there was no chance in hell that we could ever catch up.

So your theory could be right if we were in fact going for 4th to begin with but if we are to believe what was said before the season started then the theory has no bases since everyone knew that we didn't have a squad good enough to compete with Roma and Inter

galliani should stfu.

I'm afraid he can't