AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic move was magic, but Robinho is result of popularity going to Silvio Berlusconi's head

COMMENT

The San Siro was quite the place to be on Sunday evening. The sense of anticipation and expectation was sweeping through football's La Scala as the buzz surrounding Zlatan Ibrahimovic's loan move enveloped everybody present.

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Suddenly Milan had becoming a realistic contender once more, and the fans were revelling in it. But their capture of Manchester City's Robinho suggests that president Silvio Berlusconi might just have got a little too carried away.

In so many ways, Ibrahimovic's arrival is the perfect way to cover some of the cracks on show in recent times. There have been defensive problems galore – specifically when the outstanding Alessandro Nesta has been struck down by the latest in his catalogue of medical issues – and the ageing midfield has begun to look more and more in need of a young Gennaro Gattuso. Or at least a first-team Mathieu Flamini.

Ibra's inclusion in the squad has so many positives. Taking the berth at the spearhead of Masssimiliano Allegri's 4-3-3, he is likely to free up more space – and mean less attention from defences – for Alexandre Pato, who suffered from being Milan's only real outlet at times last season.

With a greater emphasis on attack, he will surely also force opposition defences further back and lighten the load on the less convincing defensive and midfield sectors as a result. It looks like a superb move.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic | A genius signing

But what will the introduction of Robinho bring to the side? And to the club?

Not since a marvellous La Liga-winning season with Real Madrid has the 26-year-old truly hit his straps. A publicity-seeking spell at Manchester City predictably hit the buffers before he spent a reasonably successful loan period with Santos.

In that time he has at least proven he can do it consistently at international level, but that has been in a Brazil side employing two defensive midfielders in order to give their creative players more freedom.

The difficulty with Robinho's arrival at San Siro comes in terms of the decision whether to include Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, Robinho and Pato in the same team week in-week out.

Because that might prove to be taking it one step too far. Yes, there are undoubtedly goals in such a line-up, but can Andrea Pirlo and Massimo Ambrosini seriously be expected to do all of the midfield grafting alone?

And just how exposed will Luca Antonini and Gianluca Zambrotta/Sokratis Papastathopoulos become if they don't get the required cover from the likes of Pato and Robinho?

There is also a question mark over who will play centrally behind Ibrahimovic, given that both Ronaldinho and Robinho are more averse to coming in from a position on the left.

Robinho | A misplaced addition?

The alternative, of course, is to choose a pecking order and/or spell players as the season develops. But surely all four attackers are at an age, and in a frame of mind, that suggests they won't want to spend too much time picking splinters from Allegri's bench when they could be out entertaining the Milanisti.

Besides, their partying is much more likely to be amicable if they're all enjoying their football... you'd much rather they were living the high life in the fashion capital's pubs and clubs than being at each other's throats.

The necessity is really the difference between the signing of Ibrahimovic and the move for the little Brazilian. Surely Berlusconi has taken this one step too far.

There had been talk regarding the deal to take Ibra from Barcelona for most of the summer, and it wasn't really until Zlatan talked his way out of Camp Nou that Milan got their man. It seemed that Berlusconi had fought long and hard to ensure that he got his superstar centre-forward of choice.

And when he got him, he received nothing but praise for it. “Welcome back President, Thank you Society” read the messages from the Ultras in the Curva Sud on Sunday as a 4-0 thrashing of Lecce ensued.

Back in their good books all of a sudden, the prime minister has decided to chuck an extra Ferrero Rocher into the box of Costcutter chocolates with the signing of Robinho.

Could that money have been better spent on a new full-back? Or a defensive midfielder maybe? Possibly even a truly top goalkeeper?

After all, it's not like Milan have endless supplies of cash. But the bottom line is, they're just not the kinds of signings that make headlines, and that's exactly what Berlusconi needed after a long, hard summer.

Massimiliano Allegri now has a job on to juggle his team in such a way that his employer can be lauded for his transfer market magic, rather than be remembered as a wannabe Florentino Perez.

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