Bow to the red and black Devil! Or should we?

The fans of Serie A's AC Milan use the phrase "Inchinati al Diavolo" ("Bow to the Devil", the devil being the nickname for the Milan-based team) to put on banners and flags that they bring to the San Siro stadium on gameday. In the past few seasons, Italian soccer fans have had to bow down to the Rossoneri for their splendid play, but this year, please remain upright when in their presence. With Juventus relegated to the second division (Serie B), everyone expected a three-horse race this season in Serie A for the championship (called the "Scudetto", or 'shield', because the champions of Italy get to wear an Italian flag shield on their jerseys the following season) between Inter FC of Milan, AS Roma, and AC Milan. Even though Milan were handed a -8 point defecit to begin the season for their part in the whole Italian scandal, with their squad everyone expected them to quickly wipe away the defecit and jump into the Scudetto chase. This has not been the case. Milan's squad consists of very successful players, boasting 8 players who have won the World Cup (Brazilians Dida, Cafu, and Kaka won in 2002, and Nesta, Gattuso, Pirlo, Gilardino, and Inzaghi in 2006). Other than those players, the only players who do not play for their respective national teams are Costacurta, Maldini (those two are retired from international play), Favalli (too old), Serginho (too old), Seedorf (out of favor with the Dutch coach), Brocchi (never called up, but it might be too late), and Borriello (not an outstanding player). The squad is loaded with experienced players with talent. But where do they sit in the 2006/2007 Serie A table? Fourteenth place, with only 4 points, 3 wins, 3 ties, and 1 loss. Last season they scored 85 goals in 38 games, and this season they only have 6 goals in 7 games. Not to mention, superstar Ukranian striker Andriiy Shevchenko, who had been with the club 7 years and was one of the leading scorers in European play and 2nd alltime on the list of Milan goalscorers, jumped ship to Chelsea of the English Premier Leage for 50 million euros. He claims his American wife forced him to go there so their kids could grow up with English in their environment. A likely story. And what did Milan do with the 50 million euro they received? God only knows. They spent 17 million of it plus Swiss midfielder Johann Vogel on unproven Brazilian striker Ricardo Oliviera, who has never played in the Serie A before and is just coming back from a serious inury. That's it. The fans were expecting a replacement for Shevchenko of equal or greater value, like a Carlos Tevez, or a Fernando Torres. Instead, we got Oliviera, who is a above average striker at best. For those of you who aren't familiar with Milan, they are owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who hasn't been quiet about his admiration for Ronaldinho and the Brazilian style of play (there are 5 Brazilians on the squad already). The vice-president of the club is Adriano Galliani, a bald, ugly man who is quite the character himself and is famous for going to the stadium every Sunday and making hilarious facial expressions when Milan miss a goal or make a good chance. Why did I bring up the management? Because they are stubborn. The squad is old. Unlike other teams that have promising youngsters on the bench and in their ranks, Milan has old players rotting on the bench. Their is only one defender born after 1980, Daniele Bonera, bought this summer. The defense has been leaking goals ever since the start of last season, and it's no longer Milan's strong point. This past weekend against Palermo you could see the defense was weak, leaking 2 goals that shouldn't have been scored. In the midfield, there is one young 20 year old talent named Yoann Gourcuff; he's been dubbed the "New Zidane" in his native France. Let's hope that refers to skill and not heatbutting ability. Of course there are big names like Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, and Brazilian star Kaka'. But besides Gourcuff there is no young midfielder coming up. Milan had 23 year old Pasquale Foggia come back from a loan from Ascoli this summer, but they loaned him out to Lazio for this season. Foggia is an exciting winger with flashy skills that could've been a good option to come off the bench and provide a spark. Upfront, Milan has Filippo Inzaghi, the famous forward who can't seem to stop scoring goals, young talent Alberto Gilardino, the aforementioned Oliviera, and 4th striker Marco Borriello, who is just there as a squad player. The main problem upfront is the 20+ million euro spent on Gilardino has not been worth it, yet. At Parma he showed such superstar quality, scoring goals like this - (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GCkP6TeZtU) - but he hasn't scored a goal like that since arriving in Milan. If he could replicate his Parma form at Milan, the Rossoneri wouldn't have a problem scoring. I also forgot to mention that Berlusconi demanded that coach Carlo Ancelotti always plays with two strikers up front every game or else he may be fired. So if two strikers are off form (like in the present time), they won't get anything done playing together. And Milan has always played best using a 4-3-2-1 formation, with two creative players supporting a lone target man striker (one of Gilardino or Inzaghi). Back to the original point, the duo of Berlusconi and Galliani are stubborn and never seem to want to rejuvenate the squad. They never go buy a promising youngster and if they do, they send him on loan for a couple seasons and he dies out (Borriello is an example). The team is currently 11 points behind Serie A leaders Inter and Palermo, and it doesn't look like anyone will be bowing to the devil anytime soon. This summer Milan needs a major makeover, and one buy won't fix it (Berlusconi is planning on swooping for Ronaldinho this summer). Milan is sort of like a house that needs to be fixed in many areas, the owners are complaining the carpenters are too slow, and Berlusconi (the carpenter) is trying to buy a 70 inch plasma screen TV to keep the people quiet for a while. It won't work that way, and maybe Milan fans (like myself) will have to wait until summer 2008 for something drastic to finally happen.