A summer of decimation and restructuring for Milan

The new Serie A season is nearly upon us, but as a Milan fan I am not too sure I want it to start, following the upheaval and dismantling of the first team squad it doesn't feel like this side is anywhere near ready to compete this season.

We had the departures of the old players, the likes of Seedorf, Nesta, Gattuso and Inzaghi, all of these departures are perfectly understandable and some of them were on considerable wages. With the financial predicament that the Berlusconi family has fallen into it is no surprise that cut backs have been made, but the cut backs have been deep and severe.

I fully understand the need to make savings and the sale of Zlatan was no big loss or surprise to me, he was a guy earning over 200,000 euros a week and as he is now over 30 to receive an offer of over 20m for him was like a dream come true. The real blow to me was the saga of Thiago Silva, first he was off, then he would not leave and in fact signed a longer contract before a month later he had left for a fee believed to be around 45m, this is alot of money for a central defender but I was gutted, he is, for me, the best in the world in his position and the money received for him is slightly irrelevant as you cannot sign a replacement that even slightly compares to his ability.

And so far this window around 4m has been spent on players, some good signings have come in Montolivo and Pazzini stand out for me as good players, but there is a massive lack of quality throughout the squad. The starting eleven will be good enough to challenge for the title and get into the champions league spots, but the back up players just don't appear up to the task and as such we appear only one or two injuries/suspensions away from fielding a mid table side.

Sampdoria are first up against Milan at the San Siro this Sunday..the starting line up I would like to see is this:

Abbiati
Abate Mexes Zapata Antonini
Montolivo Nocerino Emmanuelson
Boateng Pazzini Robinho

No way near as strong as last seasons side but it has enough quality to be near the top. Pato will also return to the side soon after his Olympics break, I just hope his injury problems of last season are history as he will need to be a key player this season as we honestly don't have many options.