Wednesday Milan Musings: I need to Ramble

By: Gianfranco | August 6th, 2008

There is a ton of press coming out of Milan with all kinds’ news, rumors, and rumblings. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed myself with all those banter, but I think as always it is important we talk about it and work it out together as we always do.

-Abbiati is ready to fight for his place in the squad and his morale is high because he is playing well. Mix this in with the incompetency of Kalac and the impending doom of Dida against Man City this weekend, and things are looking up for the once and future Milan GK. There is a slim chance that Dida plays the game of his life, but if Carletto has any sanity left in him he will watch Dida closely before even considering moving him up the depth chart. Abbiati is playing with swagger and confidence and I think this is a key for any GK and especially at Milan. I am all for playing the hot hands, but if this guy wants it, and he proves it, let him have it. Plain and simple.

-Carletto is safe after his closed door summit with Fester. Last post I talked about how this convo may have went and we all know it is a lot of smoke being blown around, but much as we expected no real good has from it. The brass has once again stated that Milan’s transfer window is closed despite Carletto saying that defensively we can be better. The way I see it the window is not closed until August 31 and until then everything and everyone should still be an option. Defense is a must and it doesn’t matter if it comes from the youth team, from Italy, or abroad, any help is welcome.

-In the same meeting Carletto was quick to say that the offense can not be judged against Chelsea because there wasn’t any. This is a cop out statement. This is a team of professional players and regardless when and where they get on the pitch they should have the ability to score and the ability to win or at least keep the game close. What happened Sunday was not a travesty and can be quickly forgotten, but by no means is it excusable. The job of Carletto is to prepare and motivate the eleven players on the field to play at the highest level they can, and if he can’t do that than his seat should be getting hotter as the season progresses. I am not saying fire Carletto, not now, but if this team does not respond how long can we flounder?

-Ronaldinho keeps talking, and it makes me anxious. I can’t help but watch videos of the man when he was on top of the world and hope and pray for him to find that again, but what if he doesn’t where does that leave us. Mediocre defense, and make shift attack, we can kiss any aspirations of a big season goodbye. I hope he surprises all of us and makes every single player around him that much better, forget hope, we need him to do this, but are we asking to much? I want to be optimistic and I want to believe, but I have been a fan for to long and remember the days of Milan in the middle of the table and the feelings in the offseason where much akin to the feelings I see and hear now, uncertainty.

-Outside of Milan for a minute, well still in Milan, but outside of the Rossoneri camp. Inter backup GK, Toldo, has said that it will take Jose Mourinho three years to win the CL at Inter. This is fine by me, but what on Earth is this guy thinking, does he want to get canned? Mourinho will fix his goose, and he is slowly starting to stir the press as he did at Chelsea. Let us not mince words here, I do not like Inter, and I do like Mourinho, but the last thing we need is an Inter with a purpose and a fire that is purely media frenzy. Milan needs this fire and it frustrates me that the only thing we can muster now as a squad is bambling and excuses.

If you cant tell by my aimless ranting I am frustrated and just when we thought things were taking shape our injury list is a mess, two of players are in China, our GK’s have issues, and our coach and sporting director are trying to make nice. Not the calm I like to see before the Serie A storm…