The legendary captain and the Rossoneri midfielder, has spoke today about several of matters touching AC Milan, as Mathieu Flamini and Franco Baresi believe Milan are still competitive in all stages
Commercial Center Carrefour of Carugate saw Mathieu Flamini and super defender Franco Baresi today as part of AC Milan 2nd edition of the Milan Tour. Flamini represented the first team, while the unforgettable no. 6, Baresi, now a testimonial of the club.
The first addition of the Milan tour took place at the USA, when the whole team visited at the local Adidas store. But today, the first stop at Italy was made by Milan midfielder Mathieu Flamini and former Milan captain and defender Franco Baresi.
Franco is the man who gave Paolo Maldini the armband. Baresi, like Maldini, was a truly Milan player who has never left for any club. Some would say he’s better than Maldini, in both captaincy and defender skills matters, but most believes they wrong.
Meanwhile, Flamini arrived to Milan last summer from Arsenal. Flamini didn’t have such a good adapt season with the Rossoneri despite played most of matches. The Frenchman was the first to speak this morning to the press, the people, and the else. Mathieu Flamini told:
"It's a pleasure for me to be here today, especially because there are many people, in particular many children, and I came for them."
"The derby? It was a very difficult match for everyone, both for the players and the fans. Now I think it's important to reflect on our mistakes and work toward the next match. We start this weekend at Livorno, then we have the Champions League right after that.
"The important thing is to go forward doing things properly because the league is still long and it's important to win 'the war', not a battle."
Milan have now three points, the humiliating defeat against Inter wasn’t in the place, but the international break gave Milan more time to get organized ahead of Livorno clash near Saturday.
"We worked well last week despite the many absences of players who were gone with their national teams, but the important thing is to be concentrated for this match and do well, like we did against Siena.
"The matches we have coming up now are important. It's true that against Inter we had a bad game, but against Siena we did well, and we want to restart just as well the coming weekend against Livorno, to show everyone that against Inter it was just an accident
"Then we'll go to Marseille, returning to the Champions League is important for everyone and we are happy because we'll have a chance to do well already on Saturday."
Flamini has been suggested to play on the left-back position despite normally playing as a midfielder. Marek Jankulovski has not been doing so well during this spell and Milan need a replacement until January.
"I've already talked about this: I play as a midfielder and on my possible use as a full back I haven't been told anything by Leonardo.
"He is our coach and we all have a lot of respect for him, we are all with him to follow his project. It's true that we've lost a match badly, we have to work to improve things, but there are no trust issues towards the coach."
The climax in Mathieu’s words was when he got to the objectives part, where he said he believes Milan have the qualities win everything, including Scudetto and CL this year.
"I have a lot of faith in this club because it has a lot of quality. We have high objectives, we play to win every game, because when Milan play they want to win everything. We play to win the Scudetto, and to go far in the Champions League because the team has the right qualities to do it."
Then to speak was legend Franco Baresi, who played for AC Milan during a spell of 20 years, less that Maldini. However, he’s still considered an AC Milan one of greatest. He said:
"We are here for this new initiative, Milan are always very careful to please their fans so it's very important for us to be here in these commercial centers to give them the opportunity to wear the Rossoneri colors, to get closer to our world.
"I've seen there's a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of participation so it's a good start. The fans are our real strength and we always have to care about their needs and give them a chance to be close to us."
"I think it's important that they also understand the club's period and then the club itself will be careful to reinforce the squad where it's necessary to be competitive. It's true that some champions have left us, but others will arrive and Milan will always be competitive.
"It's happened also in the past, for example when I quit. Milan have to give faith to the players who are here now, also inserting the youngsters who can bring their enthusiasm. Today's Milan have a clear project, a renewal so there's a bit of patience needed from everyone.
"It's normal that there is discouragement after a defeat, but these things happen. There's an important group here, we've lost Kaká, Maldini and Beckham who were starters, certainly we'll have to do well to remain united.
"In any case, we have some new youngsters now and Milan are rebuilding, some patience is needed. I believe Milan can also be competitive this year, they still have self-esteem."
"Livorno? It will be an important match because it comes after the derby we lost, we need a positive result because then there's also the Champions League, so it will be fundamental to get a result at Livorno and go to Marseille with confidence."
Milan have a pretty tough draw in the Champions League this year, it might be not so easy to pass through it, but Milan do their best always.
"The players in the squad should be integrated and given responsibility. When a player is at Milan he has to think big, and have important objectives. Oddo can be useful like all the others," Baresi said.
"So we are preparing for the away match in Marseille, on an always difficult pitch, and also French teams are difficult to face because they are fast and physically strong. We'll need the best Milan and all the players will be useful."
"We hope everyone comes back without injuries [from the international matches], this is the fundamental thing. Then there will be few days to recover when they come back, but if they win it's a positive thing because results always help so they will return less tired.
"The Italian national team won, let's hope they will do well again on Wednesday so everyone comes back without problems.
"Seedorf-Gattuso episode during the derby? We have to forget about it, we shouldn’t talk about it anymore because it was a moment of distraction on everyone’s part, but now let’s look forward and hope it will teach us something.”
Reports suggested during last week that Silvio Berlusconi is set to sell Milan, many don’t believe this news, including Franco himself, who was at the club also before the Berlusconi era, which started on 1985, when Paolo Maldini got up the senior team when was 16.
"I don't believe this news. I hope the President remains at Milan for many years, I think it's hard to repeat what Silvio Berlusconi did, I think he will make Milan competitive for a long time."
Milan will face Real Madrid in two stages, in two levels of age. Once at the Champions League, with the regular team, and then for a friendly match: AC Milan veterans vs. Real Madrid veterans. A match that Baresi will take place at.
"I think it's always difficult to face Real Madrid, we have faced them in the past so we can do so again. They remain one of the best teams in the world, they have won everything, they had a great transfer campaign, but if Milan play like Milan they can give problems to Real.
"It's certainly different compared to the one I played against in the past, they also had many champions. It remains an interesting match."
As for the veterans clash, Franco added:
"I hope Milan responds to this initiative: it will be a fun night, we'll find back many champions after a long time, and we'll re-evoke this match against Real Madrid which in the past has often been exciting.
"It's also a chance to show our affection to Stefano, it's a very important objective because it's to defeat this disease and to assist the people who are ill from SLA."
By Meytar Zeevi, Rossoneri Blog
