Milan out to prove they’re still the best
In the league, Inter are set to fall just short of the mythical 100-point mark, Roma have now claimed second place, 18 points behind, and the rest really might as well be in a different division in terms of results.
Milan, now more or less assured of fourth spot, are fully 30 points adrift of their great rivals, and for all their recovery in the second half of the season they have made no impact whatsoever on the title-race (for ‘race’ read ‘leisurely stroll’).
Yet Milan are of course in the final of the Champions League after a performance against Manchester United that had the whole country purring, even if some of them were purring through gritted teeth.
It was more than just a good win, it was a restatement of Italian football virtues after the shock of being rejected as hosts for the 2012 European Championships.
For many it confirmed that Carlo Ancelotti’s side are the best team in Italy. On Saturday a poll of pundits, including respected figures such as Marcello Lippi and Gianfranco Zola, produced a convincing majority that favoured Milan in a head-to-head.
Yet for all the brilliance of Kaka and Clarence Seedorf and the tigerish performances of Rino Gattuso in the Champions League, Milan still have their doubters.
Czech-born coach Zdenek Zeman points out that Inter haven’t just won the title, they’ve set records on the way — including a 17-match winning streak which is the best ever achieved in any of the major European leagues.
Inter’s lack of Italians — just Marco Materazzi in the team that lifted the scudetto — has been held against them. “They’re the best Argentinian side in Europe” is one jibe. Zeman argues, on the contrary, that winning the title with such a disparate group shows the quality of Roberto Mancini’s management. Moreover Milan are an ageing team who’ve been showing signs of decline for several years.
Liverpool fans will remember some of this from the time they won the Champions League two years ago, after finishing 37 points behind Chelsea.
This season has yet again proven how hard it is to compete on several fronts at the same time (Inter incidentally meet Roma in the first leg of the Italian cup final tomorrow).
Domestic league schedules are taxing, but if anything it is the Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals which cause the most strain. With just a week between the two legs it is hard for players to overcome injury and keep their mental focus if they are fighting for the league title at the same time.
Both Milan and Liverpool were the beneficiaries this season. But Milan have also had the benefit of bringing back key players, notably Seedorf and Alessandro Nesta, in the nick of time.
That isn’t just a matter of luck.
Every top club is investing in technology and expertise to bring the best out of their players, but Milan have probably taken it further than anyone.
This week we had an insight into the secrets of the so-called MilanLab, otherwise known as the High Technology Scientific Research Centre, where the club’s medical team has been putting players under the microscope for the past five years. Along with monitoring procedures aimed at preventing possible strain, tears and fractures there is the alarmingly-named Mind Room where Professor Bruno de Michelis and his team employ computer programmes to probe the players’ state of mind and advise them how to combat stress.
All a bit namby-pamby for Maurizio Zamparini, a man given more to the short sharp shock than the psychologist’s couch, at least when it comes to his managers.
In a season of records, the 65-year-old Palermo president set one all of his own by sacking his 23rd coach. This puts him ahead even of serial sacker Massimo Moratti, the Inter owner, in a career that stretches back nearly 20 years, most of them with Venezia.
Venice is of course a city known for its secrets and intrigues, but even Venetians were taken aback in 1992-93 when Zamparini managed to appoint and then sack the same man four times in the space of two years.
His victim was Alberto Zaccheroni, later to lead Milan to the title, and the only man with the distinction of being sacked by both Zamparini and Moratti.
This time it was Francesco Guidolin who got the bullet, after a home defeat by Parma that left Palermo with only an outside chance of that coveted Champions League qualifying spot.
At least Guidolin can comfort himself that he lasted longer than all but one of Zamparini’s previous appointments, fully 34 matches.
“I should have sacked him sooner” was Mr Z’s parting shot.
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