A perfect young man

By: Penny | May 28th, 2008

Alberto Gilardino has left, with an affectionate and charming but rather honest farewell from the AC Milan website. “something, perhaps, was nevertheless missing” it says rather wistfully. So, that’s another forward gone, following Oliviera’s transfer to Zaragoza.

At the beginning of the 2005/6 season I don’t suppose that anyone thought that Inzaghi would be the last man standing from Milan’s possible front line, which also included Vieri and Shevchenko. Gilardino was the Serie A sweetheart, runner up for the capocannoniere in the previous season, Vieri was for insurance and Sheva, well, Zio Silvio was never going to let him go. Inzaghi on the other hand was due for retirement before he was sent to Belgium for one final desperate attempt to regain his fitness.

I’ve never really been able to grasp exactly what it is that went wrong with Gilardino at Milan. Perhaps his style is too similar to Inzaghi’s. They certainly seemed to get in each other’s way, the Setanta commentator used to call them the Trouble Brothers. Ancelotti kept trying to get them to play nice, but it just wouldn’t work.

Gilardino was perhaps just a little bit too sure of himself when he went to Milan, Galliani hinted rather unsubtly that he might find it useful to learn from older players, and held up Inzaghi’s enthusiasm as an example, not really what Gilardino wanted to hear, I should imagine. There’s been lots of mutual love and respect between the two players in the press, but the reality is, with the emergence of Pato, and Kaka moving farther forward Milan simply don’t need them both.

Perhaps what is interesting is that Milan are in the market for another forward, but they are looking at Drogba or Ronaldinho. There are those who say that the day of the predatory striker is coming to an end, and you have to wonder if Milan see it that way. Inzaghi’s goals, even at 35, are too important for them to drop him, but they certainly don’t seem to be looking for a replacement in the same style.