The Great Pretenders

After watching the various matches across Europe last night in the Champions' League I have come to two conclusions. Firstly, AC Milan has neither the strength, nor depth to compete at this high level of competition anymore; and secondly Real need to reassess their current returns on their $250m.

Ac Milan has been in sparkling form in the Serie A. They have been my reason for watching that league this season, with a resurgent Ronaldinho and an unforgiving Boriello in their ranks who would bet against them. Sadly, it was all a farce. AC Milan does not have the skill required to compete with the European heavy weights. During the first knockout stage in Champions’ League is when teams shine. Even in defeat some teams fight till the last whistle and you still see the class shining through a la Chelsea last season versus Barcelona. Milan’s performance in this the first knockout round, was deplorable. Their defence, one that is usually so airtight (except against Inter) continually conceded headers to Rooney (who traditionally has never been a threat in the air). Their attack was nonexistent, apart from Ronaldinho in the first leg, they were absent. For a team that currently sits in second place in the Serie A and fighting for the Scudetto, this doesn’t say much for the league.

The case of Real Madrid is a rather peculiar one. After spending a record $250 million over the past summer to accumulate a team of superstars everyone thought that this would be the year of the new Galacticos. The lack of time to gel was blamed for their stumble against AD Alcorcon. Which to me is bollocks, $250m should buy professionals that can hit the ground running. This time, after their second major stumble in as many cup competitions, Real Madrid should be left reeling. After a much improved performance against Olympic Lyon, with a rather wasteful frontline, they were punished, by a resilient French team that clearly has their eyes on the prize. In an ideal world, that kind of money should buy you success. You should be at the top of the league, you should be the team to beat in all competitions, yet after all of that Real are as ordinary as plain white paper.

So to recap, AC Milan are a waste of time and should be relegated to playing in the Europa League from now on; and Real Madrid were unlucky, but I’m sure Perez is looking for his receipt to make some refunds.