Indeed. To this day, I still admire/dread the "take no prisoners" approach of pre-10's AC Milan. Only Bayern in 2013 and 2020 can compare.
Absolutely. I also grew up watching those Milan sides with Baresi, Rijkaard, Gullit, and Van Basten. Remembering how they had Papin too but couldn’t always play him because of the three foreigner rule.
I remember like yesterday them demolishing Cryuff’s great Barca side that had Stoichkov and Romario up front, with Desailly and Savecevic absolutely imperious.
They were so good, that I spent much of my youth rooting for their cross city rivals Inter, as they underdogs. Inter always used to sign these dark horse type players, that were hugely talented and came from enigmatic backgrounds, I.e. leagues that had little or no TV coverage in England. I loved the side that contained Recoba and Pancev up front, with Bergkamp coming from deep. They weren’t successful at all, but I loved the magic of the players. And then they went and signed Ronaldo, which was huge; and I watched them every week. Roberto Carlos too. It felt fitting when Ince moved there.
Point was, the league was brilliant. Players like Baggio, Batistuta, Balbo, Zola, Asprilla, Signori, Vialli - world class players - spread across a host of top clubs. There was so much depth. Milan, Inter, Juventus, Roma, Lazio, Parma, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, all having world class players. Somewhere along the line it just all went to shit.
Maybe it was the match fixing, or the lack of progressive thinking or an aggressive marketing strategy to secure high value TV deals. But it turned into a procession for one club - a club publicly convicted of cheating. Italy stopped producing world class players, and top players stopped going there, with a few isolated exceptions. Crowds dried up, and stadiums got knackered. I would love to see Serie A born again. The rich history that league has, the many great clubs. But it needs major investment.
All great journey’s start with a single step though, and what’s needed right now is someone like Milan to get back to the top and challenge for the title again. Properly. In fact, the league needs them to win it, because Juve’s endless wins have become meaningless. It’s just killing the league.