The recent news on the official AC Milan website that Giuseppe Rossi had joined Milan only for the news item to be rescinded shortly after tells the story of Milan’s utterly miserable and embarrassing transfer campaign. A transfer campaign that has become a rather comical affair.

The latest comical affair

The transfer campaign for Milan so far has been incredible and for all the wrong reasons. The loss of Kaka and Maldini has been followed by the most unsuccessful off-season campaign I have ever witnessed by Milan. As painful as this has been for us Milan fans, one must always look at the funny side of things.

Milan have been linked to so many players this summer that, well, it is funny. Lets take a glance at some of the players linked to the Rossoneri so far in this most silly season yet have failed to show up in Milan.

Aly Cissokho of Porto was the first player to be lined up by Galliani immediately after the sale of Kaka. The comedy started with this transfer saga.

With the clubs agreeing on price, Cissokho only needed to pass the medical to become a Milan player. Normally a mere formality, however not this time.

Cissokho failed the medical apparently due to problems with his teeth. Following this, Galliani rather comically asked Porto to lower the price. Obviously this was just a ploy by the mastermind Galliani to have the price lowered on the justification that the player comes with problems.

It seems absurd that a player fails a medical for problems with this teeth. For one, how do any such ‘teething’ problems affect the players’ ability to play football. Secondly, surely his ‘teething’ problem whether he has one or not could be fixed by a few visits to the dentist or orthodontist. Surely this would have been the case if Milan wanted him.

Teeth look good from here

It seems that either Galliani and co backtracked on their decision to buy the full back because they realised he was not the player they needed or they realised that they could not afford the transfer price they initially agreed to.

In the end, as with most of Milan’s transfer dealings this European summer, the deal failed.

This fiasco was soon followed by another one.

This time it was the transfer of Dzeko that Galliani managed to completely bungle. The Bosnian scored 24 goals in 32 appearances for Wolfsburg last season and who at 23 is a player of huge potential and surely one with a big future. So with good reason Wolfsburg wanted a good price for their star player.

But like what would happen with Luis Fabiano, Milan, strapped for cash, could not meet the asking price for the Bosnian.

At this point is was clear that Milan did not have the necessary funds to buy a world class striker. Yet, Galliani continued to flirt with the idea of buying a top player.

Adebayor of Arsenal was another player Milan courted. This was a transfer that almost was completed before last season so it was expected that Milan would be linked to this player at some point. The price tag of Adebayor scared Milan off before any serious talks took place. Adebayor was eventually bought by Manchester City for 40 million, a price that Milan could not even come close to.

Following his successful Confederations Cup, Luis Fabiano then was the next target for Milan. Like Dzeko, the Brazilian was eager to join the club so all that seemed required for the transfer to be completed was a price. Again, like Dzeko, the price on the player’s head was somewhere around 25 million euro. Yet, even after the sale of Kaka for 85 million euro, Milan were unable to meet the player’s asking price yet again.

This saga of Luis Fabiano dragged on and as time went on it became less likely that the player would be signed.

As Milan have got desperate in their search for a striker, a host of names have been linked to the club. Recently, Nicklas Bendtner has been linked to the club along with Elano of Manchester City.

The list goes on. Huntelaar of Real Madrid, Trezeguet, Lavezzi, Claudio Pizarro and Samuel Eto’o formerly of Barcelona and now at arch rivals Inter. Even Peter Crouch, formerly of Portsmouth and now at Tottenham, has been linked to the Rossoneri.

The question seems to be not which strikers have been linked to Milan but which strikers have not been linked to Milan.

Giuseppe Rossi had also been linked to Milan earlier on following the Confederations Cup. In the latest and rather comical affair at Milan, the player was declared a Milan player and then the report was taken offline.

Hacker or a mistake by Milan? I guess we will find out when the player is signed or not.

In any case, we can just regard this as the latest event in a comical drama orchestrated by Galliani and the rest of the management at Milan in what is ‘The Comedy of Milan’.