Carlo Ancelotti has come out this week and stated that his Milan team are favourites for the Scudetto in the coming season. He told Corriere dello Sport “Milan are favourites to win the Scudetto. If we are well with no injuries, I believe we are the team to beat.”
He sounds fairly confident for a man who has on his hands a team with the majority of players over 30. Surely the season passed should have been a wakeup call for the Italian. Failure to win the Scudetto for yet another season was bad enough, but Milan also suffered the indignity of failing to qualify for the Champions League. Now for any other manager, you might have worried, but Carlo “Houdini” Ancelotti slipped through the net again and has been allowed to carry on for another season.
Granted, last season Milan were not without their woes. Ronaldo was out for much of the first half of the season, only to come back and severely injure his healthy knee and was given around 9 months on the sidelines. Kaka had injuries also and the general team failed to find form consistently. But perhaps the most telling chapter of the season was the second leg against Arsenal in the Champions League at the San Siro. A classic portrayal of the lions against the cubs, Arsenals youngsters ended up humiliating the veterans of Milan. Outplayed on their own turf, it was surely a signal that the end of an era was needed.
Movement in the transfer window has taken place. Milan has let veteran Brazilians Cafu and Serginho leave. But it has been the players coming in which leave the Rosseneri fans room for optimism. Marco Borriello has been bought back from Genoa, after netting 19 goals in an impressive season. He will surely have a role to play, after he recovers from injury. Mathieu Flamini, who was Arsenal’s revelation of the season, joined in a free transfer which is probably been the best bit of business in the transfer window so far.
But the talk of the San Siro is the transfer of Brazilian megastar Ronaldinho. Although the Milan squad seem to be enthused by his arrival, it is a huge gamble in all honesty. What Milan have purchased is a potential genius on his day, but a man who has struggled a lot for form and fitness in the past 18 months. It is telling that Barca were willing to let go the man who hauled them from 8th place in La Liga when he arrived, to back-to-back Spanish champions and Champions League winners. Whether the flamboyant Brazilian can recreate his form to become as important as Pirlo or Kaka remains to be seen, but if Ancelotti can steer him back to somewhere similar to the old Ronaldinho, then Milan will definitely be one of the favourites to lift the Scudetto.
