AC Milan boss joins the bandwagon.

Dan Brown — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:16:49 +0000

AC Milan president, Silvio Berlusconi, has joined the bandwagon in launching an attack on the transfer policies of Spanish club Real Madrid. Berlusconi, also the Italian Prime Minister, believes that the figures being spent would mirror the expenditure of a small government and making for shocking reading on the outside.

It was from this very club that Madrid broke the transfer record to take Kaka to the Spanish capital. Only days after they then smashed the record they had just set in order to poach Cristiano Ronaldo away from Old Trafford meaning that they had spent an immense amount of money on the services of just two players.

Berlusconi is not alone in his views as a lot of people have already vented their frustration at the way Madrid have started to act this summer. Furthermore there will be a lot of organisations around the world e.g. health charities that will be furious that they are struggling to make ends meet and deal with the real problems in the world while a football club can spend a life changing amount of money on one player.

Berlusconi said: “These are figures in football that are pure madness. They bear no relation to the normal economy and it is beyond common sense and decency. (Kaka) I was the first to say he should stay, but we must consider our accounts.”

“Milan are a great team. We could even have won the title this year, but we played in the wrong way at times. I was the first to say that we conceded too many goals in the last few minutes.”

The only way for other football clubs to be able to compete with the financial muscle of Madrid is to spend big themselves. This is what has caused many pundits and other professionals in the game to call on FIFA to take action against the over spending. A budget system has been talked about before in the last couple of seasons but it takes spending like this to prompt these views to be noticed.

If a system was brought in then it would make it a lot fairer for other clubs trying to buy players that simply can’t compete with the financial power that bigger sides have. This power also increases the gap between the top sides and everyone else, making football less competitive and more stale in the respect that it becomes harder for clubs in other leagues to get into the best leagues and compete against the best sides and players.

Berlusconi is not the first person to come out and have a stab at Real Madrid and there will probably be a few more before the summer has finished. It is a sad situation when a club has to accept a transfer fee rather than stick with their morals and doubtless this spending will stick in the mind of the powers that currently control football. They have to do something smart and they have to do it very soon.

Milan playmaker plays down Chelsea link.

Dan Brown — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:52:50 +0000

AC Milan playmaker, Andrea Pirlo, has played down the links that have said he is about to join Carlo Ancelotti in moving to Chelsea. Pirlo was said to be upset at the way that Ancelotti left the Italian giants and was rumoured to have already negotiated a deal that would take him to West London.

However, the player insists that although it would be nice to sign for Chelsea, the quotes that originally linked him to the club were complete fabrication. This may come as a shock to many Chelsea fans that would have been hoping that Pirlo could come in and stabilise the midfield, doing the job that Deco was not up to.

Pirlo said: “Perhaps it’s possible that I could join Ancelotti in London. He is a great coach, perhaps I could play with him again. I have never spoken to the Irish Independent [one of the newspapers which carried the quote]. I have not made any of the comments that have been attributed to my name.”

Pirlo could be the exact sort of player that Chelsea are looking for. At 30 he still has a couple of good years ahead of him and he is the sort of player that mirrors Andres Iniesta of Barcelona in the respect that he does not ever give a pass of longer than ten yards because he is that good at being able to position himself.

However, the problem that Ancelotti is faced with is that he probably has more funds available at Chelsea than he ever did in the time that he was AC Milan manager. He also does not have the ability to rely on Kaka any more who went to Real Madrid in a huge financial package.

It could be unlikely that Ancelotti would be willing to buy players that he had worked with before unless he was certain that they could match the technical ability and talent of any player that he can effectively now buy. His options have been opened wide up because of the funds he has available and he may choose to sign a number of other, less mainstream players who can use youth and talent to make Chelsea great again.

Pirlo obviously would not fit into this category but what he would take to Chelsea would be a lot of experience and he could pass this onto the youths at Chelsea who are struggling to break into the first team. Chelsea are maybe outside the top four football academies in the country and the more experience that you can get in through the door the better as the chances of helping younger players progress would be better.

The story comes just days after Ancelotti was rumoured to be trying to get Paolo Maldini to move to England and take up a coaching role and it shows that he does have some faith in old experience and ability. The likes of Frank Lampard are not getting any younger and the arrival of Pirlo could create a new enthusiasm within the team.

Football » AC Milan

AC Milan boss joins the bandwagon.

Milan playmaker plays down Chelsea link.