milanhime夜未眠

9/6/2005

 

The time has not yet come to draw up the Paolo Maldini balance sheet, that will arrive when the captain finally calls it a day. No one involved with Milan, from the defender to the fans, is looking ahead to the future and on the contrary, concentration is focused on the present and what history has taught us. When there have been epoch-making changes such as the farewell of a long-standing captain, and in the last 56 years when Paolo stands down there will only have been five, it will be impossible to say which one was the best. There has been no one better than Nils Liedholm, the same goes for Cesare Maldini, Gianni Rivera and Franco Baresi. It will be the same when the current captain retires. Some would say Milan were already a force when Maldini took over but along with Alessandro Costacurta he was the perfect choice to replace Baresi - both of course, were never subject to transfer speculation. There are plenty of top players in the current squad to carry on the great tradition of promoting from within and not from outside.