Shocker/Milan fans

Discussion in 'Soccer Board' started by soulfly, Oct 24, 2009.

  1. soulfly

    soulfly Well-Known Member
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    No flame, but I'm curious as to the outlook of your team in the future. Outside of Pato your starting lineup is pretty old. The average starter is just under 31 years old. Are there plans to use the Kaka money on some young guys? Do you have some people to look out for in your youth ranks?
     
  2. RoyalShocker

    RoyalShocker But I don't wanna be a Nazi
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    Well, fuck. I was about to go to bed, but I'll give you some quick insight.

    The Kaka money was used to cover Milan's debt, which was right around that amount. For whatever reason, Berlusconi has decided that the club must become financially sustainable and has slowly withdrawn from personally buying players like he used to do. So, we sold Kaka for 60 million Euros or so and Gourcuff for 15 million. The Gourcuff money was used to buy Huntelaar, so he never really invested in the team over summer. Now, that's where things get complicated. Berlusconi has been God's gift to Milan fans, but he is getting old and has a lot of problems. He's Italy's Prime Minister for starters, which makes it difficult to spend money on your favorite team when the country you lead is in recession... He is going through a ugly divorce at the moment... His company (Fininvest), which is the holding company of Milan, was just slapped with a 800 million Euro fine... And his kids have little to no interest in the club... That leaves the club sort of in limbo at the moment as Berlusconi balances his duties as P.M. along with his senility and family issues. Frankly, the club has been in a slow decline since 2005. We were able to still produce some results, because of the fact that we had compiled such unbelievable talent in the beginning of the decade, but we've been trending down for some time. I think the CL triumph in 2007 sort of fooled Berlusconi and Galliani (our V.P.) into thinking that older players can still contribute. Unfortunately, injuries struck the next year and prevented us from having any chance of repeating. Then, we failed to qualify for the CL, and that hammered us financially.

    Looking ahead is sort of hard to do. I've been hoping for some sort of rebuilding project for several years, but that hasn't happened, so I won't even entertain the idea of allowing myself to get excited for any transfer period. There have been a lot of rumors lately about the club being up for sale, but Berlusconi has denied them time and time again. The only really good thing about the club at the moment is its financial situation. I'm not sure whether or not the club will run in the black this year, but the club basically covered its debt by selling Kaka, and hopefully we'll find a way to qualify for the CL next year. If that happens and the club turns a profit, then I would expect to see that invested in new players, but I'm not counting on getting anything from Berlusconi himself.

    As for young players: Pato, Flamini, Silva, and Abate are pretty much the only young players on the squad that are highly regarded. We purchased several young Italian players for our youth system during the summer, but no one that looks at all likely to contribute in the near future. Paloschi is someone that we have really high hopes for, but he is out on loan at the moment. He's a young Italian forward, who has basically modeled his game after Pippo Inzaghi. Not too much else besides him within the club's ranks... There's a LB named Albertazzi (18) and a kid named Di Gennaro that are supposed to be good, but they are unlikely to contribute anytime soon. If Milan makes it into the Knockout Round, then there's a good chance that we'll bring in a couple of players in January, IMO. Still, I won't hold my breath.

    The club desperately needs an overhaul, but it won't happen rapidly. Fortunately, all of the old fucks are nearing the end of their respective contracts, so hopefully we'll see new blood brought in as they exit. Dida Roma Pippo and Favalli all have expiring contracts. The year after that, all of these players will be in their final season on contract: Ambrosini, Gattuso, Dinho, Kalazde, Seedorf, Jankulowski, Zambrotta, Oddo. If I had my way, then I'd love to see us get rid of every single one of them. I think most of them will leave and Milan will then begin the rebuilding process. At the end of the day, it'll be a rough 4 or 5 years that really could have been avoided, but I can never bring myself to complain too much about our current woes. Milan has been the best team in Europe over the course of most of my life, so I'll always appreciate that. I'm also comforted in knowing now that this Madrid team is not good enough to extend their lead in CL trophies.
     
  3. soulfly

    soulfly Well-Known Member
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    Thanks for the insight, much more than I was expecting. But yeah, watching the game the other day it was incredible to see the age on the field. You guys are a full 4 years older than Barca on average. Everybody always makes fun of Puyol's age, but Puyol is actually the same age as the average Milan player, which I found staggering.

    At any rate, best of luck to you guys in the future. I know I made fun of you guys with the whole Kaka saga early on, but I have nothing against Milan.
     
  4. RoyalShocker

    RoyalShocker But I don't wanna be a Nazi
    Donor TMB OG

    Milan is an example of what often happens to successful teams. They signed long term contracts to players that were around 28-30, because they were still highly effective and getting Milan deep into the CL every year. They didn't want to risk losing key players, so they signed them to long high paying contracts. It worked up until 2007, but now we are saddled with old players that are earning ridiculous wages, so it's impossible to sell them and difficult to add talented younger players with so many people already being paid by the club. I think we'll see Milan's average age fall dramatically in the next three years as they can finally replace our older players.

    As for Kaka, it really hurt to see him go for so many reasons; however, we basically swindled dumb fuck Perez and Real Madrid in that deal. Basically, we charged them 60 million for a player that has been injured for two years and no where near what he once was. He may have been worth 60 million to us for sentimental reasons, but he wasn't worth near that much as a player anymore. It's kind of the same thing we did to Chelsea with Sheva. We sold them a player that we all watched begin to decline in his final season at the San Siro, so we robbed them by selling him for 30 million.

    We'll end up being just fine whether it's under Berlusconi or someone else. Just going to have to remain patient for a few years, and I think we'll return to the elite in a few years. FWIW, I've always liked Barcelona if for no other reason they are Madrid's biggest rival in Spain. Only thing I don't like about Barca is Puyol, who took one of the gayest dives I've ever seen at Camp Nou against Milan in 2005/2006. Ref called a foul on Milan, which took away a goal, and the rest is history.