Greetings! A few questions about AC Milan for some real Milan fans

Hello there!

I'm from the UK, and my team is Liverpool. However AC Milan has always been my 2nd team since I became a football fan, watching them on "Football Italia" in the mid 90s when I was about 7 or 8 years old. Since then I have always followed them, with the exception of our two finals obviously!

I am beginning to write a football blog with my ambition in mind to one day become a football writer. I would like to write a piece about AC Milan, but first I would like some opinions from some fans with true passion for the club.

I'm sure you realise from my approach that I come with all the good will and respect in the world for your club, which became even more important to me once I had seen the very moving video of the match against Real Madrid in 1989 and the incredible gesture from your fans:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZrVfMRyoE0


It honestly brings a tear to my eye as I write this.

My first question is, what is it about Milan that brought this gesture about?
Up until that point, to my knowledge there had been no particular history between the two sides, and to my knowledge no other team from outside of England displayed similar commiserations.

Going on from that, what would you say is the most unique thing about AC Milan?


Who is seen as the greatest hero of Milan's history? (I will attempt to elaborate on this player when I write)

Also, what is the greatest era or year for a Milan team, and who would you have in your all time Milan XI?


What are your thoughts on being in the Uefa Cup this year?

Milan has still been able to attract players of fantastic quality this summer, despite no Champions League, why do you think this is?

Last year, if you look at the example of another club who would expect to be in the Champions League, FC Bayern, some might say they used the reduced pressure of the Uefa Cup to their advantage, bringing home the league title. How do you see Milan's season going based on this idea?

That is all the questions I have for now, I appreciate there has been alot but if each person just answered one or two things, there would be an amazing amount of material for me to use for my piece. I hope I can do your team justice.

Many thanks

Tom (LFC)

I have one more question which occured to me today:

When I first started paying attention to Milan, soon after you brought in a number of "big name" players. I forget the majority but I remember there was Kluivert and Davids. I remember this season Milan did very badly. This summer you have invested in some players who are well known but may be past their best (some might say!), Ronaldinho, Zambrotta and now Shevchenko.
How big is the risk would you say that buying big names will come back to bite Milan this time around?

Originally Posted by Tomaldinho

what is it about Milan that brought this gesture about?

what would you say is the most unique thing about AC Milan?


Who is seen as the greatest hero of Milan's history? (I will attempt to elaborate on this player when I write)

Also, what is the greatest era or year for a Milan team, and who would you have in your all time Milan XI?


What are your thoughts on being in the Uefa Cup this year?

Milan has still been able to attract players of fantastic quality this summer, despite no Champions League, why do you think this is?

Last year, if you look at the example of another club who would expect to be in the Champions League, FC Bayern, some might say they used the reduced pressure of the Uefa Cup to their advantage, bringing home the league title. How do you see Milan's season going based on this idea?

That is all the questions I have for now, I appreciate there has been alot but if each person just answered one or two things, there would be an amazing amount of material for me to use for my piece. I hope I can do your team justice.

Many thanks

Tom (LFC)

1) Sportsmanship, grace, and style.

2) All of the above + familial environment. Milan never sells for the money, and buy players who will be dumped a few years later.

3) Many: maldini, baresi etc.

4) Too difficult to pick for the best 11. We have/had so many exceptaionl players.

5) UEFA is not priority.

6) It's Milan.

7) Milan is up for Scudetto this year. UEFA a welcome but not the most important trophy.

Originally Posted by Tomaldinho

This summer you have invested in some players who are well known but may be past their best (some might say!), Ronaldinho, Zambrotta and now Shevchenko.
How big is the risk would you say that buying big names will come back to bite Milan this time around?

You are making a big assumption here that youth player is the key and old players should fake.

If you write with this in mind you are not going to produce any high quality articles.

Risk is always there but so does the reward. Some turns out well like Pirlo and Seedorf; some not so like Rivaldo and R99.

Remember risk and reward correlates with a linear relationship.

Good luck with your endeavor.

1) agree with jeff (don't forget Milan has an English origin, it's Milan not Milano and there is a clear reference to the english flag in our shield).

2) Again Jeff said it as it is

3) Jeff again is right there are somany names out there but if you want to elaborate on one name you should go for the name Maldini. Why?
Well since he truely embodys what jeff so clearly said. Cesare was with us for a very long time and so will Paolo be when he retires next year. There were numerous occasions when he could have left yet he never felt the desire to leave, he could have retired ages ago because of injury problems yet he fought back and still is an example for every player out there.

4) I don't know not by a long shot if you want to make such a list good luck to you

5) As jeff said Uefa is not a priority but if we reach the quarter finals I doubt well give it away.
Milan should and most likely focus on the scudetto this year. Milan always tends to be very good when the final stage of these cups.

6) Milan is a world famous club who since last year holds most international trophies. Players realize that last year was a slip up.

7) Italy has more first rated clubs than Germany has, ask any football fan and ask about the best team in England, and Italy and I think 3 or 4 clubs will get mentioned if you ask the same question about the German League allmost everybody will pick Bayern. At this moment in Italy you have Inter, Roma, while Juventus and Fiorentina are back where they belong on top, right under milan I hope .
All our competitors will have to play more games what could be fatal against smaller teams. We had the same problem before the WC for clubs. We didn't lost our CL place against the big teams but we lost to many points against the small teams.

I don't agree with your comparison with the Kluivert and Davids era they weren't stars when they came to us kluivert they were still very youg. As were Ba, Dugarry, Bogarde and Reiziger who also came in that time. They simply weren't up to it. Kluivert had to mature and made some serious mistakes. He wasn't impressing during that year and becoz of those personal problems he chose to leave and join his mentor Van Gaal at Barca, as I recall milan signed him as a free agent.
The players that are here now have much more experience but I agree Zambrotta and Sheva are over their peak an Ronaldhino is a gamble. Yet we hope that Milan brings up the best in them.
There is a risk of course but isn't that risk always there? That period you said. I would like to have some names because as I recall it Milan signed young guns such as Kluivert, Davids, Bogarde, Reiziger, Dugarry, Ba yet they failed to.

1....The European Semi-Final between AC & Real was played a few days after the Hillsborough Diaster (the following Wednesday). The referee blew the whistle 6 minutes into the game to hold a minutes silence for all the Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough, but about 20 seconds into the silence the milanisti in the Curva Sud began to sing You'll Never Walk Alone as a tribute.

2....The fact that the club is run like one big family...

3....Without question....Paolo Maldini

4....The greatest era for the club would have been the late 80's & early 90's- the era of The Invincibles, the nickname for the Milan team of Baresi,Costacurta,Maldini.Riijkaard,Donadoni,Ancelotti,Van Basten et al.....

My All Time Milan XI;


Lorenzo Buffon

Cafu Nesta Baresi P.Maldini

G.Trapatonni Riijkaard Nils Liedholm

Kaka

A.Shevchenko M.Van Basten


Subs; S.Rossi George Weah
A.Costacurta J.Altafini
M.Tassotti Leonardo
A.Pirlo Gunnar Nordahl
M.Desailly
D.Albertini
G.Rivera
Donadoni
Z.Boban
D.Savicevic

5....I don't treat the Uefa Cup as being a priority; the scudetto is more important...in just 8 seasons in charge, Ancelotti has won the scudetto once....still it's the only honour we haven't won, so it would be nice, just coz we r 1 of the seeded teams, if not the biggest, doesn't make it easy though, there are still some great teams in the mix.....

6....The reputation, history & the prestige of playing for milan speaks for itself.......whether we are in the UEFA Cup or not....

7....we can't win a game for love or money at the moment, it'll take a while for the team to gel I suppose.....the title challenge is the most important thing....