Coach Berlusconi is Back!

By: Martha | February 15th, 2007

Wor Silvio. For a while there — back when he was Prime Minister and, apparently, less busy than he is now — Silvio Berlusconi was a regular in the Milan dressing room, and frequently offered his management tips in the press, telling his manager which formations were best, and which players simply had to play. While there was no actual threat in any of his statements, since the man doing to talking was both the president of the club and something of a manic, his recommendations were often put into effect (though whether it was because of his genius or the fact that his ideas were obvious and were going to happen anyway has never been established).

Over the last few years, however, Berlusconi has kept his mouth shut regarding how the team plays — a situation which, given Milan’s recent struggles, is fairly shocking. (One can only assume he’s been busy trying to stay out of jail, or something.) But now, finally, the Silvio we know and love is back: He wants Ronaldo, Ricardo Oliveira and Kaka to play together, and he wants it now! And, since poor Carlo Ancelotti casually mentioned to the club’s website yesterday that he expects El Gordo to start against Siena, Berlusconi may just see him dream team on the pitch together at some point Saturday. It’s shocking, I know.

If you ask the President, Ancelotti could do worse than listen to him: You may not have heard, but it was because of Berlusconi’s advice that Milan won the title in 1999. I know! I had no idea either, but listen to this: “We have to change our way of playing. It’s like in 1999, when we won the Scudetto with Coach Alberto Zaccheroni. We spoke before the last three matches and we changed the system.” Man, I bet Zaccheroni was SO relieved to have someone telling what to do. I mean, all that winning and Udienese and the turnaround at Milan were clearly just blind luck, right? He’d spent his whole career praying for help from some rich guy with no football background. Just like Ancelotti has. Poor, poor Carlo.