Give Alexandre Pato credit. He has said all the right things, he has impressed all the right people and tomorrow he’ll be introducing himself to the rossoneri faithful after almost 5 months in the shadows. The kid, likened to a young Ronaldo when he was at Cruzeiro (listen to our interviews, you’ll hear the most interesting comments), one who will score 30 goals by this June.Let’s take a step back folks. The kid is no saviour. Yet. Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva from Pato Branco (that’s why he’s got the nickname) has played 26 times for Brazilian club Internacional of Porto Alegre.

Inter. . . how ironic and, yes as usual, like that broken toy that talks aloud when nobody even touched him, Inter honcho Massimo Moratti said yet again, “Pato? We could’ve had him too!” Well, Pato scored 5 goals at the South American Youth Championships to help qualify Brazil for the Olympics. He helped Inter to the Brazilian Sub-20 Championship, the Recopa Sudamericana, and led them to the 2006 Fifa Club World Cup title beating the European champs Barcelona: a game that he was taken off in if memory serves me correct, and one that he had little to measure himself by.

Still, the kid can play. He’s a phenomenal talent and the sort of player that the Milanistas have been craving for, dying for as they’ve seen one talented South American player after another travel across the courtyard to the nerazzurri side of town.Calm down folks. He just barely turned 18. Kaka was two years older than Ducky when he reached Milano in 2003, and didn’t crack the starting lineup until a month later. Ricky started off slow, playing comfortably in a five man midfield just behind Shevchenko as a trequartista and alongside Pirlo, Gattusso and the like. Alex won’t have that luxury.

Sure, he’ll have Kaka and whatever the club can squeeze out of O Fenomeno, but this isn’t your older brother’s Milan (let alone your dad’s). He’ll do well. He might even score that brace that he predicted against Napoli tomorrow, but he can’t do it alone. There is no midseason Brazilian miracle for Milan this year, unless it also come with the names Lucio, Ronaldinho, Amauri and Dida attached.Well, maybe not Dida.

If you ask me how silly it really is, then I’ll tell you that January is rarely as silly as it gets. There are always players in these European leagues that are unsettled, with new management, new coaching, and new “directions” because the carousel keeps moving and a FIFA World Player of the Year candidate one year, can be an injured, unhappy grump the next: surplus to the needs of the club, country and curva. (exhibit: Didier Drogba).

Still, those huge transfers never get resolved until the Summer usually. Teams are wary of over-spending on a player, they rarely let great players leave that early and clubs are always getting gouged on good players that are valued as great during just that time of the year. Therefore, this really isn’t about what’ll happen to the Ronaldinhos, Drogbas, Lampards, Essiens or Eto’os of the world. What this will be is where it looks like some of the best young talent in the world will end up. Call this a companion piece to the last two posts, the one about Kaka and the one about Boca.

We’ll start with my list of up and coming starlets, those that haven’t made the big money transfer yet (so, don’t get on me because I didn’t mention Alexandre Pato, Anderson or some other young talent that’s been scooped up by the G-14 or whatever they’re calling themselves today).

In no particular order:

Ever Banega: Valencia have the upper hand, in that they’ve made the largest bid, but Real Madrid apparently have rights of refusal over him. Spain is obviously the right choice for a player that would find it difficult to play as rumoured in Juventus. More than likely Valencia, but mainly because he’ll get a better opportunity to play. At Madrid, he’ll have the man he replaced at Boca (Fernando Gago) right in front of him. It would be interesting though to see him at a place like Milan so that he cold learn the position from a guy like Pirlo, though.

Karim Benzema: While it may have been unlikely that a player of his caliber would have made the switch during the January window in the past, there are certain storylines that are increasing demand. Chelsea are losing two of their top strikers to either injury, ineffectiveness of their summer transfers, the Africa Cup of Nations or a combination of the three. Manchester United have never replaced Ruud van Nistelrooj and Arsenal are always a likely destination if you’re talented and French, but it seems to me that AC Milan would be the perfect place for the player some are calling the next Fenomeno, especially if he plays as expected alongside Kaka and Alexandre Pato.

Giovanni Dos Santos: There are some who are saying that this kid is letting the attention get to his head, that he’s becoming more and more like the player he most resembles (Ronaldinho) in more ways than just how he handles the ball at his feet, but it seems unlikely that Barcelona would cash in on the Mexican international, despite how well regarded his teammate Bojan Krkic has become. The stories of his diva-like behavior smack of AS or Marca propaganda. In the end, the Barca cantera may yet save a side that have strayed into the path of Galacticism for too long.

Hedwiges Maduro: The Ajax midfielder is set to leave the club after contract talks stalled, it’s clear by his own hand, so the signs are that he’ll be looking towards a big payday. If the signs are correct that Sven City are interested and are lining up a bid, I’d still be wary of Chelsea in England as they have what teams usually need to buy in January (desperation), and they have what most teams lack (money) to finance the 20-30% markup that players usually get in the January transfer window.

Luka Modric: The Dinamo Zagreb playmaker is thought to be headed to Manchester City or Chelsea but his club want to hld onto him for another year. In the past, players like Modric (Alex Hleb) take awhile to adjust to the physical nature of the league, so it may be best for the player to stay in the East.

Diego: After starring for Santos, along with his strike partner Robinho, Diego made his move to FC Porto and failed, only to turn his career around at Bremen. Real Madrid have been looking for his type of creative force in the midfield for awhile, but it seems that Guti has emerged as that player, and he may have to look elsewhere. Roma and Fiorentina have also been rumored, but it looks to me that Diego might be the kind of player that Claudio Ranieri needs. Tiago, and Almiron have both been unimpressive lightweights and the club would be perfect for little Diego who is clearly made of stronger stuff.

This is just a small list, more than likely nothing of the sort will happen as I’ve set it, but it’s a neat little exercise that I do for myself everytime the transfer window opens in Europe. Thanks for putting up with it.

Diego Armando Maradona is mad. Yes, he wants to meet the President of Iraq and plans on getting a tattoo of Venezuelan supremo Hugo Chavez, but that’s not the form of the word I’m talking about. He’s angry because the guy he helped bring in to coach his beloved Buenos Aires club, Boca Juniors, Miguel Angel Russo, stepped down recently, when just days after losing the FIFA World Club Cup, Russo walked out of a meeting with Boca chief Pedro Pompilio refusing to fire his top two assistants.

The first names bandied around as his replacement were Gabriel Batistuta and Guillermo Barros Scheloto, who had both talked about getting into club management, but Boca have apparently settled on Carlos Ischia of Rosario Central, a former assistant to Carlos Bianchi when he coached at Boca Juniors. When asked about Ischia, by the Argentinean news agency Telam, Maradona responded, “I don’t like Ischia as coach. I don’t believe he would be the ideal choice for the team.” Why the problem? Both Ischia and Bianchi are close associates of Guillermo Coppolla, who was an advisor to Diego’s during his playing days and are both still bitter about their acrimonious split. Some in the Argentinian media are forecasting this as the first of many changes to the xeineixes, which may mean selling players, replacing the entire coaching staff, trainers, shifting tactics, and will more than likely signal the end of Diego Maradona’s influence at the club; but the key maybe the changing of the guard on the pitch.

Before the appointment there was some talk of Clemente Rodriguez of Espanyol coming back from Spain to help Riquelme, but it looks like a return to three at the back like Ricardo LaVolpe, and it might mean some of the problems that LaVolpe had with (amongst others) captain Martin Palermo in the dressing room. The experienced players have had a relaxed time at the club under Russo, Riquelme returning was a notch on their belt, but this is not what the player leadership expected or wanted. But the board believe that someone needs to pay for the loss to AC Milan, and if Russo wouldn’t fire his assistants, regardless of his winning the Copa Libertadores, then everyone under him and around him would be blamed.

All I can think of, if this marks a new turn to Boca Juniors, with the return of Bianchi as the kingmaker and the departure of Diego, will this lead to the selling of young players like Ever Banega and what of the field generals like Martin Palermo? Defender Juan Angel Krupoviesa has already been sold to Marseilles, the board has already mandated the selling of experienced players, and what then of temperamental genius Riquelme? A return to Spain, a move to Italy or England?

Mando from FF 

I’m sorry if it offends anyone, I was going to say Happy Holidays but I’ve always felt odd saying it, as if I was an outsider, but you know what, too bad. Last week was Hanukkah and next week will be Kwanzaa and the next time you know it’ll be Ramadan or Easter 0r Passover and I’m always conscious of my friend’s celebrations, and sometimes I’ll be honest that I’m going through the motions with my own, but this year I’m holding on for dear life. I’d tell you what my life is like, but it’d sound too much like a telenovela and you wouldn’t believe me. Needless to say if I had a truck and/or a dog, I’d sound like a Country and Western song.

But, even so I’m a spiritual person, a Catholic if you want to get me to open up some, my grandparents were from Salamanca, my allegiances are in Barcelona if you want a football context. RCD Espanyol yes, but if you look at our neighbors Barca : there’s a red and white cross on their badge. There’s a cross on the AC Milan badge, and the Parma shirt and there are at least 11 clubs in the top flight of Italy who have some sort of Christian symbolism to their heritage. No matter where you look, you are going to find a badge, a kit, or a flag that offends someone.

I’m aware of history, and the Crusades that split the world in two more than a thousand years ago, but the symbols that our football clubs are using, are cheap imitations, just shadows of their original meaning. Does anyone but a Milanista know that the cross on Milan’s badge and Inter’s shirt is NOT the St. George’s cross on the England shirt, but the crest of St. Ambrose who was the patron saint and first bishop of Milan? Does it matter that the same cross is on the royal seal of the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain that once ruled over parts of Spain and Italy?

Nah, I don’t care either. Frankly, what happened 500 to 1,000 or more years ago has little to do with what is happening today. These ancient images that people toss around have developed new contexts, new meanings, and in this case have more to do with the fact that Inter Milan beat a Turkish football team on the field, than what happened on a battlefield in Palestine in the 12th century. The Nerazzurri wore a slightly modified emblem of the city crest, one large red cross on a white background, and one particularly irate fan, a lawyer in fact, is suing the club for damages and one thousand years of social distress leading back to the Crusades. What he’s really angry with is the loss on the field, or else he wouldn’t be suing to get the result overturned.

I’m no fan of the past history of my Church, let alone the recent history, but no terrestrial institution is without fault. We could look at the socio-political and religious significance of the Fenerbahce crest, the Besiktas slogan, or the Galatasaray colors, and how they would be offensive to a Christian or a Jew, and yes I did research them, but it’s not important.

The cross, the crescent, the shield, the badge: all of these symbols have a Christian or Muslim or Jewish origin. Actually they were all symbols of pagan religions from centuries before monotheism, they were adapted to suit the needs of the new religion, and they have all changed over time. They will ALL offend someone at sometime or another. No one said this life would be freely inoffensive. Deal with it.
Merry Christmas.