AC Milan: Now the Most Exciting Football Team in the World

By: Daryl | September 1st, 2010

Quite the 24 hours for Milan fans, with the club first signing the high-kicking Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Barcelona on a one year loan deal (with the option to make it permanent for €24m next summer) and then paying &euro:21 to 25m to permanently relieve Manchester City of Robinho’s lollipops just before yesterday’s transfer deadline. So the flair players wearing Milan jerseys next season will include Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho, Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato.

That’s an insane amount of flicks, tricks, backheels, stepovers and other highlight worthy maneuvers. I imagine the YouTube people have been put on high alert, and are doubling their bandwidth as we speak in preparation for the inevitable onslaught of fresh highlight reels set to music. I’m not even going to take a guess at how coach Massimiliano Allegri will fit all that unpredictability into one team, or whether it’s even wise to do so. Gianfranco over at the Milan blog has his reservations. But I will make the argument that Milan are suddenly THE team to watch this season.

Not necessarily the best team. But definitely the most exciting team. The like of Real Madrid, Barcelona and even Inter may prove to be better prepared and more effective. But in terms of potential for the unexpected and unorthodox, and the possibility to make us all go “Who! Did you see that move?”, even the like of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo can’t hold a candle to the trio of Zlatan, Robinho and Ronaldinho.

Club football is taking a break this week to make room for international football and the start of Euro 2012 qualifying, but I’ve already checked the Serie A schedule for Milan’s next game and will be watching them away to Cesena on September 12th.

Some Related Stories:

Category: Serie A

« Daily Dose: August 31st, 2010. | Home | Chile Combats Whining With Ex-Con Referees »

The Offside RSS Feeds

the gun

Ibrahimovic is one of the best strikers in the world, and for me the most complete. He is tall, strong, fast, skillful, confident, intelligent, composed and aggressive. He was simply not suited for Barcelona and Pep failed to use him to the max. But 21 goals and 9 assists is really not that terrible i believe if he stayed he would have improved on his tally. With Inter hiring a rubbish coach in Benitez whose only win was a flux win against Milan in the champions league i feel Milan has a great chance to win this season
A

I love how Barcelona fans are blaming Ibra for their failures.

Where was Messi when Inter Milan humiliated Barcelona in front of the world? The truth of the matter is in La Liga the only 2 competitors that have a real chance of winning the league are Barcelona and Real Madrid. Real Madrid spent a long time fading away to obscurity till they started splashing a lot of money to make a dent.

Real Madrids season was a failure simply because they didn't have a manager who knew how to get them to play as a team. If Mourinho can dominate Barcelona with Inter Milan then what could he do with a team like Real Madrid?

The truth of the matter is Inter Milan completely outclassed Barcelona simply because they had a manager who knew what he was doing. It is going to take a while for Real Madrid to settle so I think Barcelona will win La Liga again this season due to Real Madrid likely having a bad start but it is obvious Real Madrid under the management of Mourinho is the future of Spanish football.
Kxevin

I don't think anyone is blaming Ibrahimovic. It was a homegrown player who pushed a wide-open header wide of the post. There was also an incorrectly judged hand ball on Toure Yaya. But those are the breaks of the game. Mourinho had a game plan in place, but it took errors on our part for it to be successful. At the San Siro we were crap, no question.

Ibrahimovic did very well for us, with 21 goals and 9 assists. But he isn't Messi, and he shouldn't roll like Messi. Show some humility, and fit in with the club. He didn't do that, and now he's at Milan, taking verbal potshots at a coach who has moved on. Are we a better club without him? Time will tell, but I think that we are. We certainly have less ego in the locker room. As for the rest, we'll know soon enough, when Champions League starts.

I was one of his staunchest defenders over at our blog (barcelonafootballblog.com) but no more.
AC Milano

Another mister know all about what went on behind closed doors. Man Ibra is intitled to walk around with his head high he is a great player but one suited for Serie A and with dominate. you dont need to be messi to be a great footballer but people need to remember the greatest player to ever grace this game is Ronaldinho messi doesnt even come close to dinho let alone the god of goal scoring Ronaldo (brazilian)
chaddodadz

Mourinho humiliated us not Inter. Hell, Inter couldn't even beat Atleti.
Kxevin

Word is that Ibrahimovic rolled in, thinking he was Messi. Whatever, dude. 21 goals and 9 assists is most emphatically NOT 46 goals and 11 assists. When he rolls with those numbers, he can think of himself as Messi. We got what we could, now it's someone else's problem. It's one fiscal loss we are, apparently, more than happy to take. We aren't the first, and won't be the last team to make a bad call on a player. The difference is we had the courage to cut bait quickly. That's life. We're still the best team in Europe, even after having dumped Ibrahimovic. I'm okay with that.
agiamba

I think Zlatan is a genius signing. Not convinced at all by the Robinho one, which seems like Berlusconi signing him mostly for his name. He's going to cause problems (tactically if not personally) and Allegri will have his work cut out for him, as he's a very inexperienced coach. Cannot lose the locker room.

However, just like Juve's mercato last year, the fundamental problem with the team was defense, and that has not really been fixed.
Jaime Rubio

Ibra. He is just horse shit. It was a mistake with us selling Eto'oooooooo! Good riddence to Ibra. Waste of money. He is called "Ibra-cadabra" for a reason... because he goes missing in the big games!!! I expect us to rule europe again...Villa, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi...the list is endless. what i dont understand is our boards financial department. even i could have done a better job. first of all... swapping Eto'o for Ibra - impossible. I would just about take the swap and hoped that inter game us €10m on top... but WE gave Inter €40m + Eto'o for that heap of shit?? UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE. i dont have a financial degree but even i know that aint gonna work! and now AC Milan have fucked us over aswell! 4 the flop that Ibra is, i would have taken €40m for Ibra.. thats what AC offered us... now hes on loan and they have the option to buy him next season for only €24m??? something is seriously wrong internally in our club. Morratti and Galliani have raped us and spunked in our asses. I hope Juve win Serie A and Roma 2nd. I hope Inter and AC come 5th and 6th!

Barca 4 the treble again! SOM UN. visca barca i visca catalunya!
agiamba

Juve won't win Serie A. It's going to be Inter, Milan, then Roma.
fsun

mann you guys got hustled~

you gotta admit that was some genius negotiation on Galliani's part.

the beauty of it is that there was no way we could've gotten Ibra for 24 mill from inter...thankfully barcelona stepped in and took one for the team.....visca barca! hahaha