Milan Fans: Be Bitter Now But in Two Years You Can Thank Silvio

Puneet Singh

Whether the Rossonieri faithful want to believe it or not; selling Kaka today is best for both Kaka and even more so for Milan.

By not selling Kaka to Manchester City as a slave or mercenary for the 100 million or 110 million fee that was being passed around, Milan and all of football should be proud of what has been done by treating him as a human, not a commodity.

With Carlos Ancelloti going to Chelsea and Leonardo now being appointed as coach of Milan, it signals the end of one era, and the beginning of a new one.

That being said, Kaka has to go to better Milan and himself.

With injuries niggling him over the past few years some say he's lost a step. Others believe it's a change of scenery that's needed considering he's won everything during his time.

More than anything, Kaka is settled in very well at Milan. That's why he's stuck around despite the poor 2007-2008 campaign.

But here's a thought...

With rumors of Kaka going to Real Madrid, is there a bigger challenge than Madrid for a player wanting to cement his legacy as one of the greatest? Outside of promoting Leeds United back to the Premier League, I don't think so.

Kaka is following the footsteps of Zidane. Are you gonna fault him for being the next Bernabeau savior wearing #5? Don't. Let's all see if Kaka is certainly destined for greatness.

With the 65 million euro sale of Kaka to Real Madrid 99.9% complete, its time Milan start using that money wisely.

Take the 65 million from the Kaka sale, and add it with the 15 million from Galliani's mistake sale of Gourcouff and Milan are now sitting pretty on an 80 million euro transfer kitty for this summer.

Kaka's replacement is already in place at Milan so there is no worry for it. It's just time to wake him and remind Ronaldinho who he is and was, and give him the reigns to the Milan offense.

I doubt that Ronaldinho has fallen off THAT far. With the offense flowing through and around R80, don't be surprised to see Ronaldinho replicate his from for Barcelona circa 2005. Leonardo will push him to get back to optimal fitness and playing ability.

With the playmaker in place, what should the 80 million be used for? The backline and forwards are the most pressing needs that come to mind.

Kakha Kaladze, Alessandro Nesta, Gianluca Zambrotta, Giuseppe Favalli, Marek Jankulovski, Daniel Bonera, Luca Antonini and Thaigo Silva are currently the defenders at Milan with Massimo Oddo coming back from his loan spell at Bayern Munich.

Outside of Thiago, Antonini and Bonera, everyone is at least 30 years old. Age certainly isn't on their side. Favalli is nearing retirement unless he can pull a Maldini and magically play into his 40's at a high level, while Nesta has the reoccurring back problem that may send him into a retirement.

Backline is clearly their need. With the 80 million, Milan can easily buy three young new defenders. Names that come to mind are, Fabiano Santacroce from Napoli, Simon Kjaer from Palermo and Phillipe Mexes from Roma; all players who are Serie A battle tested and relatively young.

The midfield with the loss of Kaka is still one with depth, but again age is the issue. Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo, Massimo Ambrosini, and Matteu Flamini are all they have right now with Ronaldinho occupying a CF/CAM type of role.

Outside of Flamini who is 25 and Ronaldinho who's 29, the afforementioned group is another sector of the 30 and over club. Pirlo and Gattuso are injury prone and missed significant time last year with various injuries.

This needs to change with at least one new face coming in. Names coming to mind are Michael Essien to share the role of Gattuso and eventually replace him long term.

A Pirlo for Essien swap is rumored to be in the works, but you have to believe that it will not happen. No offense to Andrea Pirlo, but Michael Essien is THE COMPLETE midfielder in the world.

The final spot is the strike force. Pippo Inzaghi continues his magnificent run with il Diavolo, so until he fails miserably he shall still have a spot on the squad. Joining him in as forwards is the young Brazilain starlet Alexandre Pato and Marco Borriello.

Borriello missed 3/4 of the season last year due to a severe knee injury, but has recovered nicely and deserves a spot due to his goal prowess as proved during his time at Genoa.

Pato is on the rise to stardom. He scored 14 goals in 33 games last year during Serie A play, in his 1st full season as a Rossonieri player at the tender age of 19.

With Borriello and Pato young and best years in front of them, Milan have a good core but their depth is thin.

Names that have been linked to Milan before are Karim Benzema of Lyon, Edin Dzeko of Vfl Wolfsburg and Emmanuel Adeybayour of Arsenal. All have yet to hit their primes and have a knack for scoring goals.

Now lets look at it from an economic perspective. By selling two players and receiving a combined 80 million, if Silvio and Adriano could manage to bring in say Simon Kjaer, Fabiano Santacroce, a midfielder and Edin Dzeko, would this be better long term?

Absolutely.

Face it, with the squad Milan have next year it would have been a repeat of this year. Put up a fight for the Scudetto but ultimately come up short.

New blood needs to be injected into the Milan lineup. With the additions of the four players mentioned before, Milan instantly becomes a favourite to challenge for Serie A not only next year, but for the next 3-4 years with a solid young core finally being established.

At the end of the day, Milan diehards must understand; you can live without Kaka. This is the same team that sold Andrei Shevchenko and many believed they were doomed. What ensued that season? Champions League glory.

While I'm not saying that something drastic of that nature will happen again, I am saying this; worse things can happen, but the sun sets and it rises. It's time for a new era and a fresh change at the San Siro.

Is Florentino Headed Down A Familiar Road?

by Puneet Singh


Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Antonio Cassano, Michael Owen.

In case you didn't catch the trend, these all were players of Real Madrid at one point during their famed "Galacticos" era, which was Florentino Perez's theory of buying ONE megastar player each season to go along with promoting players from their youth academy.

While the Galacticos provided beautiful and entertaining football, the trophies and results were limited. Outside of the La Liga title in 02-03 and the Supercup De Espana in 2003, Madrid went trophy less from 2003-2006.

In addition to the trophy drought, there was a coaching carousel every year. Vincente Del Bosque, Carlos Queiroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano Garcia Remon, Vanderlei Luxemburgo and Juan Ramon Lopez Caro all managed Madrid from 2002 to 2006 whether it was on an interim or permanent basis.

It wasn't til the end of the 2007 campaign when Madrid finally had one new piece of silverware by winning La Liga.

Ironically by then the Galacticos era had come to an end, with the last two of the Galacticos, David Beckham and Roberto Carlos playing their last games for the storied club, whilst Ronaldo was sold in that January 2007 transfer window to AC Milan.

At that moment on June 17th, 2007 every last piece of the Galacticos monster had officially be finished. Perez had been removed a few years prior with Ramon Calderon being the man credited and responsible for dethroning Barcelona's reign as Spain's kings and champions.

Real would go on to win La Liga again for the 2007-2008 campaign. Bernd Schuster was in his 1st year as coach of Madrid, and along with the big signings Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, and Pepe, Madrid was able to coast to the Liga title, in part to the falling apart of Barca, but also through semi attractive football that Schuster could conjure.

But again failure came about that year, with Madrid being unable to get to the round of 16 in Champions League play falling to Roma 2 - 1 both legs and 4 - 2 overall on aggregate.

Last year however was a MAJOR step back for Real.

During the summer 2008 transfer window Calderon had signed Ezequiel Garay, the young Argentine defender from Racing Santander to address the thin backline, but immediately loaned him back to Racing.

But most of the summer was surrounded by the saga of Cristiano Ronaldo.

And because of this, Madrid also lost Robinho, who broke all ties away from Real and was trying to manufacture a transfer to Chelsea.

In the end as we all know, Robinho was sold to Manchester City.

When failing to sign Ronaldo, it seems as if Calderon had panicked and signed Rafael Van Der Vaart, who in the first few coming weeks proved to be a steal of a signing at 12 million.

All the while, all Schuster has asked for was a CB to play and help right away and a big name forward. NOT another MF.

Injuries began to hit Real and hard. Van Nistelrooy was done for the year as was Mamadou Diarra, both lost to knee injuries. Wesley Sneijder had injured his knee as well but it would cost him to miss only half the season.

When it was all said and done, Schuster stepped down as Real Madrid manager on December 9th, 2008, leaving Madrid in a state of shambles; partly his fault, mainly managements.

Upon his departure, Juande Ramos was appointed in charge of Real on an interm basis. During the January window he purchased Lassana Diarra and Klaas Jan-Huntelaar and acquired Julian Faubert on loan.

During the January window it was confirmed that Ramon Calderon, the president of Madrid that time, would be sacked. His replacement would be Vicente Boulda for the rest of the 08-09 season.

While Ramos and Boulda did the best they could to right the ship, Madrid lost La Liga to Barcelona once again, and get demolished in Champions League again, this time losing to Liverpool 5-0 on aggregate.

Although an embarrassing defeat, the worst would come on May 2nd, 2009 when Madrid lost to Barca 6-2 during the "El Classico" derby AT THEIR HOME.

Ultimately, this would be the Barca victory that led to Barca winning La Liga, deflating the sliver of hope Madrid hung onto.


So here were stand today on June 7th, 2009.

Madrid have entered a new regime yet again but this time with a familiar face: Florentino Perez.

On June 1st, Florentino was once again appointed the president of Real Madrid. Perez wasted no time making his presence felt, bringing a new coach with him in Manuel Pellegrini formerly of Villareal, within 24 hours of his appointment.

Perez has once again promised a clean house and big names.

He has already said, big players such as Robben, Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder, Van Der Vaart, Saviola, Gago, and Mamadou Diarra all could be headed for the exit, so Perez can continue to build his new Dream Team.

And if the rumours are true, Perez may have already delivered.

Reports from all over are claiming that Kaka has agreed to join Madrid and that Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani have agreed with Perez on a fee to acquire him.

But are Madrid doing the right thing? Is buying marquee players the correct philosophy for Madrid?

The answer is Yes and No.

The No comes from the fact that Madrid should just address the backline of theirs and buy a forward and they should be right on track. No need to clean house and break down an entire squad.

The Yes wins though. And here's why:

Madrid need a new image. They need to bring the flair of Figo, Ronaldo, Beckham and Zidane back into their lineup.

Now while Madrid have many great players, do they have WORLD CLASS Players? In short: no. Outside of Robben, Sergio Ramos and the emerging Gonzalo Higuain, there is no one else who is considered a World Class talent. Very good, but not world class.

While Madrid have won a few things here and there over the past 2-3 seasons, have they advanced further in CL play? This is where big game experience kicks in.

This is why the signing of Kaka is so big. He is a professional. A professional athlete and human being. This is what Florentino bought when he bought Zidane from Juventus.

He can build the type of legacy that Zidane had built while plying his trade at the Bernabeau. That is partly why Zidane wants him to don his old number 5 should he arrive to Madrid; almost as if to follow in Zidane's footprints.

Along with Kaka, Franck Ribery, David Villa, Karim Benzema, David Silva, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrihimovic and Maicon are all being wooed to play for the Blancos. Florentino has stated on numberous occasions that out of this bunch, there will be one more to arrive at the Bernabeau this summer.

All have played in the Champions League over the years and have featured heavily for their respective countries during International Tournaments.

Given Perez's track record and ability to sign any player like it is FIFA or Football manager, I would not put anything past him.

In the end we will have to see for ourselves. Can Galacticos 2.0 do what the original Galacticos couldn't do; Conquer Spain and all of Europe and give Madrid the glory that Barcelona is receiving this year for their accomplishments.

Is it possible? Only time will tell if Florentino can finally put the right pieces to the Madrid puzzle this time around.