Arsenal: the Italian view
Wednesday 05 March 2008 10:53
There was little lost in translation in the Italian press the morning after Milan’s exit from the Champions League.
‘Milan The End’, was the banner headline on the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
‘Nothing Ancelotti’s men could do, the English were too strong,’ read the sub-headline.
Arsenal’s young bucks had finally ended an era and just like Paolo Maldini’s dodgy hair-cut so the Rossoneri needs to be shorn to a neat and tidy short, back and sides.
The Pink’un pointed to the fact that the average age of the Milan team was 30.2 years while the Gunners was a mere 24.5.
The clear-out at Milanello in the summer will be swift and brutal and the paper confidently predicted that the club’s management would be on the first flight to London to sign Chelsea’s Didier Drogba.
Gianluca Zambrotta would also be enticed back home from Barcelona along with Serie A’s current top goalscorer Macro Borriello who is half-loaned by Genoa.
The goalkeeping situation needs a major shake-up although replacements for the inept Zeljko Kalac and the apparently doolally Nelson Dida were thin on the ground.
The names of Hugh Lloris of Nice and Diego Alves from Spanish club Almenia must be making Maldini thankful that his son Christian has not been earmarked to make his debut at left-back until around 2014.
The paper got all dewy-eyed about the veteran’s last-ever game in Europe and voted him Milan man-of-the-match.
Corriere dello Sport instead went straight for Carlo Ancelotti’s throat, running the headline: ‘Milan, Lippi now!’.
The apple-cheeked coach has definitely hit the end of the line and the whiff of Marcello Lippi’s cigar would soon be floating around the San Siro.
In fact, according to the paper Italy’s World Cup-winning boss has already asked president Silvio Berlusconi to have the scorer of the second goal last night, Emmanuel Adebayor, present and correct for pre-season training.
We have become used to Turin-based Tuttosport maintaining a level-headed approach to affairs outside the sphere of the world of Juventus.
Therefore it was little surprise that a short, sharp ‘Finito’ would suffice for Milan before they returned to listing all the players who would be joining the Old Lady in the summer.
And unsurprisingly, under the headline, ‘Stars of Juve’, were most of the Arsenal team.
or
to add your comments
About Richard Whittle
Despite the name,
Richard Whittle is so at home in Italy that some call him Riccardo Rossi. He has lived and worked in Italy for the last 15 years as a football journalist and works as Italian soccer commentator for the English-speaking world covering Serie A, Champions League, Europa League and Italian Cup matches as well as Italy internationals. With Paul Visca, Richard concocts the regular
Calcio & Coffee podcast.