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Milan – A city divided

Published by DSAdmin on September 27, 2008

One of the worlds truly great cities, two of the finest football teams in the world and a marked contrast in fortunes that finally has Inter fans smiling.

Last summer, as Inter fans basked in the glory of their third scudetto in three years, their joy was further heightened by the appointment of Jose Mourinho as manager. The self-styled “Chosen One” has a proven track record of bringing success wherever he has been and he inherited a team, superbly marshalled by his predecessor Roberto Mancini into the dominant side in Italian football. Inter were deserving Champions of Serie A last season and boast a dynamic and vibrant young squad, packed with quality players and further enhanced by the return from loan of Brazilian striker Adriano, who returned to the Inter fold simply because of Mourinho’s outstanding reputation as a coach.

The contrast across the city could not have been more marked. Milan limped into a hugely disappointing fifth place in the scudetto last season, missing out on the lucrative Champions League places, a competition in which their hugely experienced team were humbled by Arsene Wenger’s dynamic young Arsenal side at the San Siro in the same season. Despite their dismal season, manager Carlo Ancelotti was given the support of the Milan board of directors during the summer, with a brief to improve upon what was a desperately poor show for the Rossonieri, for whom the disappointment is magnified tenfold by the success of their neighbours from across the city.

During the summer, Mourinho was relatively muted in the transfer market. Inheriting such a large and talented squad from Mancini, Mourinho chose to only add three players to the squad, Alessandro Amantino, Sulley Ali Muntari and Ricardo Quaresma. Ancelotti on the other hand brought in the likes of Mathieu Flamini, Ronaldinho, Andrei Shevchenko, Gianluca Zambrotta, Philippe Senderos, Marco Borriello and Christian Abbiati in the hope of sowing the seeds of revival.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way.

While Mourinho’s Inter were moving to the top of the table with two wins from their first two games,, Milan were ignominiously in the relegation zone, after two defeats from their opening two fixtures. A 4-1 home victory over Lazio bought Ancelotti and his team a little respite, but with major signings Ronaldinho and Shevchenko struggling for form and fitness, Senderos and Flamini struggling to maintain a regular place in the side, and perhaps most importantly, the same tired old tactical approach from Ancelotti, many critics feel that he is already on borrowed time.

This makes Sunday’s clash at the San Siro between the two all the more intriguing. A chance for Mourinho to prove his talismanic managerial qualities by inflicting a defeat on their fiercest rivals which not only will, in all likelihood, ensure that Inter remain top of Serie A, but would be another nail in the coffin of Ancelotti’s tenure at Milan, and increase the growing calls for Frank Rikjaard to be appointed as the manager of the club he once so gracefully played for.

For Inter fans, this is not about proving who is the best team in Italy. They have already achieved that accolade over the past three years. Sunday is their chance to prove, for the time being at least, that they firmly hold the balance of power in the soccer mad city of Milan.

For many Inter fans, brought up on years of Milan success domestically and in Europe, to finally lay those ghosts to rest, is worth more than the Scudetto itself.

** Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsalvador/**

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