This will no doubt be a Quixotic attempt to focus the discussion of all things Italian football in a single thread (and to try to make the prediction league thread a bit more manageable), yet I've decided to try it any way.

To kick things off (so to speak), take a look at Prandelli's side for the upcoming Euro qualfiers against Estonia and the Faroes:

Goalkeepers: Antonio Mirante (Parma), Salvatore Sirigu (Palermo), Emiliano Viviano (Bologna)

Defenders: Luca Antonelli (Parma), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Cesare Bovo (Palermo), Mattia Cassani (Palermo), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Lorenzo De Silvestri (Fiorentina), Daniele Gastaldello (Sampdoria), Cristian Molinaro (Stuttgart)

Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Andrea Lazzari (Cagliari), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), Simone Pepe (Juventus)

Attackers: Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria), Fabio Quagliarella (Juventus), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal/ESP)

Buffon and Marchetti are both injured, Balotelli appears to be hurt, and Marchisio, who has a knock, has now been replaced by Cigari (Sevilla/ESP), but the other changes (especially in defence) are a genuine attempt at rebuilding the team against weak opposition.

The squad makes the games much more interesting than they were a week ago, and has given a lot of people with Azzurri tendancies a positive feeling about Prandelli's approach.

Anyone know why Ranocchia isn't in the squad? I'm at a loss to explain his absence now he's fit again, and he was excellent against Udinese at the weekend.

According to the Gazzetta, Milan are offloading Marco Borriello to Roma, and are more or less saying that it's a done deal. I'm not quite sure whether it's a loan deal or transfer as yet.

...having just signed Robin Ho, you meant to add.

Commenter #2 under the Yahoo UK article reporting this news best captures my own sentiments:

this sezon will be great for milan goo milan::D:D:DD:D:

there's not a lot of those lads playing in the champions league this season is there?

I think Milan are basically saying they have no chance in the Champions League this year, instead they are putting together a team that might sneak up and win Serie A when all the better teams are bogged down in Europe.

Ronaldinho, Pato, Ibrahimovic and Robinho will have some great afternoons when they balance on balls, catch fish in their mouths and clap their fins together in a show of mutual admiration for each other's delicate skills. It's a bold move really, if 2 or 3 of them can perform then they should be able to break down most of the massed Serie A defences of the smaller sides and keep the attacking onus enough that the shaky looking defence and midfield are not highlighted too much. Then when they play Inter or Juventus or Roma they cross their fingers and hope for the best as their seals stand static with their flippers on their hips watching their opponents play as a team and run all over the top of them.

Remember when Robinho was like the most expensive player ever? The shame about him is that he really is a seriously good player for such a spoiled little wanker.

Things certainly are looking a lot more interesting than they did in June. Much will come down to Nesta and Pirlo. Milan's defense was at its shakiest when Zambrotta and Jankulovski (and Oddo) were toiling up and down getting burned. They're not going to be factors this season. Antonini seems to have turned out quite well and will probably be a full international before too long. The midfield was at its shakiest when Pirlo and Seedorf were off form; when they're on, as Pirlo was Sunday, they can rip you to shreds.

The worry of course is that Ibra and Binho will show up and take a big showtime dump on everything. Ronaldinho, who was sparkling, nay, poetic against Lecce, possibly the best I've seen him look since Barcelona (i.e. not factoring in the quality of the opposition, just the positiveness of his play), is all the showtime needed. They looked a good cohesive team, and that could easily go out the window when the primadonnas arrive.

And then there's Prince. The wild card. The X factor. The fly in the ointment. The...

Actually I can sort of see 'em winning the league this year, why not. Rafa will fuck everything up, and the other two will be patchy. I wonder dalliance why you're sure Silvio has given up on the Champions League in favor of Serie A; it seems just as plausible that he thinks this squad has what it takes for European glory.

after shipping 7 goals to man utd last season? Milan are signing these players so silvio still looks like a big strong multi-billionaire, and prince of his people, before the upcoming general election. If there wasn't one, mario yepes would be the sum total of milan's ambition in this transfer window. Don't expect there to be a plan at the back of this, there isn't, all that matters is that people are going around saying silvio is still mr Big-time.

Because they resemble a low rent version of the Real Madrid galacticos post Claude Makelele.

Teams with pretensions towards the European Cup need to have forwards who contribute to the defensive good when needed. Milan could end up playing a 4231 with the three Brazilians behind Ibrahimovic all of whom basically pack it in when not in possession.

Teams with massively better defences and midfields than Milan would struggle to contain the best in Europe like this, Milan's continual lack of willingness to spend decent money on prosaic players (like the original galacticos) is simply baffling.

Then the attacking players themselves, well with the exception of Pato it is an attack stuffed with players with careers heading very much on the wrong trajectory and who have the hearts and determinations of gnats. The Real Madrid version was flawed but you had truly world class players like Raul, figo and Zidane in their prime, players who were considerably more reliable than this Milan version and had considerably more pride in themselves and their team than players like Ronaldinho and Robinho will.

As I said, I can see you handing out some lovely spankings to the Brescia's of this world and everyone being dazzled by the flicks and tricks and ole's, I can also see you steamrollered by teams who are set up as proper teams and won't stand back and admire your fading Brazilian beauty.

I don't fancy Roma for the title this year, I have to say, despite some decent signings (and burgerhead). I watched the Supercoppa and they still look capable of giving away stupid goals through schoolboy errors (thanks to that dopey hothead Mexes, mostly), regardless of the good positions they put themselves in.

dalliance you seem to have missed my point, which is that one learns not to attribute such rational thought processes to Berlusconi.

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote:
after shipping 7 goals to man utd last season? Milan are signing these players so silvio still looks like a big strong multi-billionaire, and prince of his people, before the upcoming general election. If there wasn't one, mario yepes would be the sum total of milan's ambition in this transfer window.

Hey! You forgot Sokratis.

It's interesting though, his shrewdness. No sane person thinks Ibra is the answer to what's specifically ailing Milan, but any way you slice it it's a coup, for a season at least. As much as I can't stand the guy I'd take him on loan over Marco 'Look at my long tongue' Borriello.

He also managed to sell Kaka at his peak price. In retrospect I don't think Kaka would have been any more valuable a player than Ronaldinho has been, even though the latter has never been as valuable as Kaka was.

It's not shrewdness in the conventional sense, it's "look at the shiny distraction that I'm holding in this hand." Berlusconi shifted himself from being another crook in business, to being a renaissance prince of milan by virtue of owning a football club. It's a move that caesar pulled off by becoming the guy in charge of Rome's games.

By signing these players he gives the impression of still being the great magnate, dispersing largesse to his people, and looking as strong and potent as when he was signing van basten and gullit.

He's a great man for the big gesture.

Every year with Berlusconi it's Emperor's New Clothes. You can get away with that for a couple of years but when you fail season after season then your attempted sleight of hand is exposed for the sham that it is.

you'd think that wouldn't you... but there he is, still emperor of italy. It doesn't matter that it doesn't work out, what matters is that he retains the trappings of the big man.

and immunity from prosecution . . .

Berlusconi took over Milan eight years before he entered politics, and I think that the link is not quite as clear as aiatl asserts. I think that he was motivated more by wanting to do a favour for Craxi and by the possibility of having a ready source of "content" for his television channels and, perhaps, a chance at developing the Meazza and the surrounding area (which is still strikingly unexploited).

There is definitely a political element in all of that, but for me it was very much secondary to his economic interests (of course, his primary motivation for entering politics at all was to stay out of jail and promote those interests). Milan are popular, but it's worth noting that at least 3/4 of the country doesn't support them, and that a number of the most prominent Milanisti in politics are in the opposition.

oh yeah, I don't know if he ever really saw himself as an actual politician. it took the total collapse of the old political order for that to happen. But owning a big football club in italy makes you the local prince, putting on bread and circusses and the like. it doesn't matter that you don't follow the team, it's important that you recognize silvio as some latterday medici.

I expect at least 90% of Italy realizes he's a sham as far as running a football club with championship pretensions goes. Not sure what that has to do with their perception of his Big Man status. He's a 'big man' by virtue of being a billionaire media magnate, not by virtue of signing Ibrahimovic.

Bread and circusses though is the quickest way of showing that you are the big man. He would have looked weak after selling kaka, the great industrialist unable to keep putting his hand into his own pocket to support milan. But here he is showing the elan, the dash, the vision to pull one over barcelona to sign one of the all-time greats of italian football.*

(*the voter has a very short memory and can't be expected to remember even the early part of the last decade)