by Adam Bate

In 1999 the No.6 shirt of AC Milan's Franco Baresi was retired. That same
year, he was named Milan's best player of the twentieth century. More recently,
he was officially named as Italy's player of the century too. These are
extraordinary accolades to be given to a defender.

Phil Jones is good, but please Fabio, he's no Baresi

While those of us who have covered England for longer than we care to remember are trying to manfully manage expectations, up steps Fabio Capello. Phil Jones after his cavalier start with Manchester United (his rick against Basel and poor performance of Anfield have already been airbrushed from popular perception) can, according to Capello, be braketed with Franco Baresi and Fernando Hierro.

Capello: Phil Jones is my new Franco Baresi

United youngster compared to AC Milan legend by England boss

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-11-16 22:31:20 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Sir Alex Ferguson has defended the touchline antics of Jose Mourinho.
The Real Madrid manager hit the headlines once more after appearing to poke Barcelona assistant Tito Vilanova in the eye following a recent Spanish Supercopa clash. Many feel such incidents could cost Mourinho any chance of succeeding Ferguson as Manchester United boss when the Scot eventually calls time on his stellar career.

By Chris Wright

The AC Milan 'Glories' (i.e, club legends) were in Indonesia on their 'Asia Disaster Relief' charity tour last night for a friendly game that saw such former Rossoneri luminaries as Jean-Pierre Papin, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Gianluigi Lentini whoop an Indonesian 'Legends' side 5-1, with Serginho grabbing four and Brazilian 'keeper Dida even adding one for good measure.

All week we will be unveiling the winners of our Team of the Year voting with a mixture of regular and guest writers. Good things tend to come in two: Bert and Ernie, pairs of socks, Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini. Following in the footsteps of the later this season have been two outstanding centerbacks for AC Milan, Thiago Silva and Alessandro Nesta.

Sir Alex Ferguson is lucky that Eric Assadourian doesn't like Arsene Wenger or his former flunkey Damian Comolli. Assadourian is the youth coach at S.C. Lens. Clearly, something unpleasant happened years back between Lens and these two vacuum-cleaners of young French talent, and Monseuir Assadourian has a long memory.

Game Intelligence brings you five things that happened whilst your back was turned... Robbie Savage makes surprise appearance Now that he has finally hung up his boots we can expect to see a lot more of Robbie Savage, as he ... Continue reading →

Perhaps the two classiest teams of the past 20 years are Barcelona of today and AC Milan of the early 90's.
What if they played today? Jonathan Wilson breaks down the hypothetical match-up.

Should Barcelona win the Champions League this year, though, it would have good claim to be the best side since Sacchi's.

But what would happen if the teams played each other? Both probably produced their greatest displays in beating Real Madrid 5-0, Barcelona earlier this season; AC Milan in the European Cup semifinal in 1989 (both, oddly, also drew 1-1 in the Bernabeu the same season). So let's take the lineups from those two games and pit them against each other.

Another month, another superb edition of Calcio Italia.

The usual columns by Gabriele Marcotti, James Richardson and Tor-Kristian Karlsen are all there. In addition, there are also features by James Horncastle and Dan Ross.

I have contributed to the magazine writing a They Retired The Shirt feature on Franco Baresi which I hope readers will enjoy.

By Chris Wright

A week or so after proclaiming him to be the future of English football, the best young player in the known universe, the new (but slower) Claude Makelele and the saviour of everything that is good and holy, England manager Fabio Capello has ladled yet more crushing expectation onto Jack Wilshere's young shoulders by directly comparing him to some of the greatest players to have ever graced the game.

Here we go again.
With the class of 2010 ruthlessly chewed up and spat out by the media; labelled spoilt over-paid, over-rated wasters, the press hordes have moved onto their next target.
That person is Jack Wilshire, a young player of extreme talent yes, but one who is already been placed on a pedestal he is not yet qualified to fill.

Adam Digby writes a superb blog about Juventus and tweets on all manner of subjects @Adz77 ... this is his favourite goal.

Of course he has scored better goals. Of course he has scored more important goals. The current Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero has netted vital strikes at the World Cup, in a Champions League Final, in the World Club Cup Final and has won so many top trophies and titles that his list of personal honours is longer than that of most clubs.